Chelsea Manning Release Celebration contact: Pete Schoonmaker anton@vfp92.org 206 235 3682
Veterans For Peace, co-sponsors Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party will host a celebration on May 17, the day Chelsea Manning is released from prison, her thirty five year sentence commuted by President Obama in his last days in office. The celebration will be at 7 p.m. at New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Avenue South, in Seattle.
Veterans For Peace has marched in the last six Pride Parades in Seattle to raise awareness of Chelsea’s unjust imprisonment for leaking the truth about war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans For Peace believes Ms. Manning is a courageous whistleblower. Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), a transgender soldier, provided Wikileaks with classified documents, hoping to start a worldwide discussion and wanted people “to see the truth”, after going through her chain of command to no avail. Leaked documents, the “Iraq War Logs” and “Afghan War Logs”, and the “Collateral Murder” video, showed human rights violations and war crimes. Ms. Manning pled guilty to ten offenses; the Army found her guilty of twenty.