With Julian Assange at the centre of a fierce media debate, a young man - who celebrated his 22nd birthday in a high security prison this December - seems to have been almost forgotten, at least by international media.

Bradley Manning, a US Army PFC, arrested and incarcerated without charge at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait in May 2010, has since been moved to Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia, where he is being held in solitary confinement. Manning, turned in by his colleague Adrian Lamo, is said to be guilty of releasing confidential material about the US’ war in Iraq to WikiLeaks. Starting earlier this year, WikiLeaks made public a cache of military messages which attested to the widespread torture, rape and killings of prisoners by Iraqi security personnel; revealing how private US military contractors, previously Blackwater and now renamed Xe Services, killed civilians and how the US army fudged the civilian death toll. But most dramatic and shocking of all was the release of the video dubbed ‘Collateral Murder’ - footage from 2007 of an Apache helicopter of the US army spraying bullets on obviously unarmed civilians, even those who came to assist the wounded. The attack left twelve dead including two Reuters reporters, and wounded two children. The video unleashed massive outrage, with the Internet exploding with reactions from across the world; the video had in all its graphicness bared the truth of the Empire’s monstrous war. This was the video that Manning leaked out to the world via WikiLeaks.

The parallels between Manning and the legendary Daniel Ellsberg are stark. Ellsberg, a former US military analyst, who while working for the RAND Corporation, in 1971 leaked The Pentagon Papers - exposing the Johnson government’s deceitful decisions about the Vietnam War. The publication of The Pentagon Papers proved to be the turning point in mobilizing public opinion against the War. Like Manning, he was hunted and had to face a trial on charges of espionage, though he was exonerated finally. Ellsberg who had during the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq appealed to insiders to turn up information to counter Bush war hyperbole, termed Manning a “hero”. While whistleblowers and anti-war activists turned up at the White House gates seeking Manning’s release, and were arrested for it, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) called for punishment. "I have no sympathy for the alleged thief in this situation," he said. Poe ridiculed Manning, "He’s no better than a Texas pawn shop dealer that deals in stolen merchandise and sells it to the highest bidder."

However, parts of the chat logs between Manning and Lamo published by Wired magazine - which apparently led to his arrest - clearly show how far Manning was from the petty thief; indeed he was moved by the highest ideals of truth and justice.

“Lamo: what's your endgame plan, then?. . .

“Manning: well, it was forwarded to [WikiLeaks] - and god knows what happens now - hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms - if not, than [sic] we're doomed - as a species - i will officially give up on the society we have if nothing happens - the reaction to the video gave me immense hope; CNN's iReport was overwhelmed; Twitter exploded - people who saw, knew there was something wrong . . . Washington Post sat on the video… David Finkel acquired a copy while embedded out here. . . . - i want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.

“if i knew then, what i knew now - kind of thing, or maybe i’m just young, naive, and stupid . . . i’m hoping for the former - it cant be the latter - because if it is… we’re screwed (as a society) - and i don’t want to believe that we’re screwed.”

Bradley Manning has been held for the last seven months - and counting - in solitary confinement, locked away in his cell for 24 hours of the day, denied exercise, human touch, company and contact, and all access to the outside world bar for television for an hour. He has been subjected to the most inhuman, mind and soul numbing conditions at a time when no charges have been pressed against him, leave alone trial and conviction. He is being fed anti-depressants to ward off the effects of solitary confinement, an act that is decried by psychiatrists as torture equivalent to physical abuse. The US Department of Justice hopes to induce Manning to incriminate Assange - as a co-conspirator in the leak as opposed to his present status as merely the receiver and transmitter of secret military documents - by breaking his will and soul through these extremely repressive conditions.

While the media is largely busy generating hype and hysteria around the merits and demerits of sex offences against Assange, we must not forget the courageous Bradley Manning who put on stake everything - his life and freedom - so that the grim truth about an unjust war could be told.

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Original inhabitants of islands near Mauritius are branded by the US and UK as ‘Tarzans and Man Fridays’ in order to evict them, deny them resettlement and keep the islands safe for a US military base.

Colonial Mindset Alive and Kicking

WikiLeaks exposures of diplomatic cables has exposed the colonialist mindset that still survives and dominates the thinking of US and UK diplomats and politicians. The story of the Chagos Islands, to which some of the WikiLeaks cables refer, is a case in point.

In 1966, the Chagos Islands were purchased by the government of Britain from Seychellois Chagos Agalega Company, with the initial intention of running them as a UK government-owned plantation enterprise. Soon after, both the US and the UK realised the strategic importance of these islands, located as they were in the centre of the Indian Ocean – and the British government subsequently allowed the US to set up a military base ‘Diego Garcia’ in the Chagos Islands. The conversion of these islands into a Cold War strategic military base resulted in the eviction of several islanders. The original inhabitants of Chagos now live in poverty in Mauritius and Britain, and are demanding resettlement rights.

Last year, the Chagosians’ hope to one day return to their homelands received a severe blow when the area surrounding the Chagos Islands (including the military base Diego Garcia) was declared a ‘Marine Protection Zone’ (MPZ). The Chagosians were essentially told that the fragile marine ecology within the MPZ could not accommodate their ‘ecologically damaging’ livelihoods. Interestingly, the creation of an MPZ (within which logically a military base should have absolutely no place) made no difference whatsoever to the continued existence of the Diega Garcia military base! If Chagosians who had been forcibly evicted from their homes could no longer be allowed to live there, how could a military base continue to operate in the very same ‘fragile’ ecosystem denied to the Chagosians?

This reason for these puzzling double standards was recently revealed: Documents released by the WikiLeaks show that this decision to turn Chagos Islands into an MPZ was taken by the US and UK governments in tandem, and was guided not by any concern for the environment, but by the sole motive to deny justice to the Chagosians demanding resettlement! Initially mooted by the British government, this proposal for creation of an MPZ found active support from the US after Britain assured it that it would ensure adequate protection for the US military base.

A cable dated May 13th 2009 reveals that British official Colin Roberts (director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Overseas Territories) informed US diplomat Richard Mills (Political Counselor of the US government) of the strong ‘political support’ of the UK government to the idea of setting up the MPZ. Excerpts of this cable reveal not just shameful racism, but blatant colonial arrogance regarding usurpation of land to serve imperial interests:

“Ministers like the idea [of a marine park in the Chagos Islands]. We need to find a way to get through the various Chagossian lobbies….[Britain is] under pressure from the Chagossians and their advocates to permit resettlement….. establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago's former residents…. UK's environmental lobby is far more powerful than the Chagossians' advocates.” – Colin Roberts, Director of the FCO, as quoted in the cable sent by Richard Mills

Colin Roberts disparages the Chagosians in blatantly colonialist vocabulary as ‘Man Fridays’:

“According to the HMG’s [Her Majesty’s Government] current thinking on a reserve, there would be "no human footprints" or "Man Fridays" on the ….uninhabited islands… …the proposal would have no impact on how Diego Garcia is administered as a base. We do not regret the removal of the population, since removal was necessary ….to fulfill its strategic purpose”

In 1966, Colin Robert’s predecessor Dennis Greenhill had similarly referred to the indigenous Chagosians as ‘a few Tarzans or Man Fridays.’ Back then, the British and Americans were keen to perpetuate the myth that the islands were ‘uninhabited’ – and so any inconvenient human beings had to be branded as less than human.

Sir Paul Gore-Booth, senior official at the Foreign Office, wrote to the then FCO Director Greenhill in 1966: “We must surely be very tough about this. The object of the exercise is to get some rocks which will remain ours... There will be no indigenous population except seagulls...” To which Greenhill replied: “Unfortunately along with the birds go some few Tarzans or Man Fridays whose origins are obscure and who are hopefully being wished on to Mauritius.”

This vocabulary puts us in mind of the British and Israeli politicians who referred to the Arab inhabitants of Palestine as ‘two-legged animals’, ‘lice’ and ‘cockroaches’ to project the land as ‘uninhabited’ and therefore ideal for the Jewish homeland of Israel.

The Chagos Islands episode, highlighted by the WikiLeaks documents, are sordid proof that colonialism is alive and kicking even today!