Now that Hollywood activist heavyweights like Oliver Stone, Maggie Gyllenhaal and that guy from Clueless and The Princess Bride have found an appropriate catchphrase and suitably serious lighting composition for a viral video, they have come out in support of jailed U.S. military whistleblower Bradley Manning. Thanks to their heroic and untiring efforts to both say words and use permanent markers onscreen, Manning will almost certainly be let out of jail by month’s end.
Manning, the U.S. military member who leaked a huge trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks, has been in jail without trial for 1,100 days and spent several months in solitary confinement. He is facing 21 charges and a possible death sentence (though his prosecutors pinky-promise they won’t ask for it), all for releasing documents that, while they uncovered huge shortcomings and abuses on the part of the U.S. military, are widely understood not to have caused any damage because of their release. His case is a watershed for an administration that has already brought more cases under the Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined. Transparency: it’s what’s for dinner. (It is dead and we are eating it.)
But enough about all that bum-out stuff; celebrities to the rescue! The new celebrity-heavy video will undoubtedly lead the Obama government to accept that aggressively pursuing its case against Manning has the potential to discourage potential whistleblowers and journalists alike.
In the highly unlikely case that the “I am Bradley Manning” campaign fails to secure Manning’s immediate release and a reversal of the U.S. government’s fight against transparency and journalism, the celebrity faces will at least bring some positive exposure to Manning’s case. We all owe Gyllenhaal, Stone, Peter Sarsgaard et. al. — sorry, Manning, Manning, Manning et. Manning — a huge “thanks!” for their ceaseless work. If they don’t solve the problem, at least people will talk about their faces having been near the problem.
via:I am Bradley Manning