The Bradley Manning Support Network online and taking donations for the legal defense of Private First Class Bradley Manning.T

Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the U.S. military stationed in Iraq, stands accused of leaking a video depicting American troops shooting civilians to Wikileaks. The video can be seen at www.collateralmurder.com among other places online now. It’s been speculated in hte media that Manning may also be involveed in a another leak of  92,000 secret documents posted on Wikileaks, called the Afghanistan War Logs.

Courage to Resist, which supports military objectors, is assiting in the fundraising project for Manning.

What is your government doing to people behind this fence? Your tax dollars are helping keep you in the dark about it. (Press TV photo)

The U.S. has blocked the release of photos showing clear evidence that the United States is responsible for torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. We think someone with access to the photos should simply leak them on the web, saving tax payers a load of cash and letting people know just what it is our twin occupations are really about. We are calling on anyone who has access to the images to leak them and anyone else to copy this message and post it in order to increase the chance of it reaching anyone who might have access. Read the rest of this entry…

Only the dead have seen the end of war. – Plato

U.S. Army Major, and blogger, Andrew Olmsted was the first casualty of the year in Iraq. According to Rocky Mountain News (via KCHBlog) the 38-year-old from Colorado was killed by small arms fire.

Last spring, his commanders asked him to tone down his blog, Andrew Olmsted.com. So, he turned to writing more focused pieces in blog form for the Rocky Mountain News.

His last post, one he wrote to be published in the event of his death and that was published on his own blog, is…something.

What I don’t want this to be is a chance for me, or anyone else, to be maudlin. I’m dead. That sucks, at least for me and my family and friends. But all the tears in the world aren’t going to bring me back, so I would prefer that people remember the good things about me rather than mourning my loss. (If it turns out a specific number of tears will, in fact, bring me back to life, then by all means, break out the onions.) . . . I’m dead, but if you’re reading this, you’re not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact.

Believe it or not, one of the things I will miss most is not being able to blog any longer. The ability to put my thoughts on (virtual) paper and put them where people can read and respond to them has been marvelous, even if most people who have read my writings haven’t agreed with them. If there is any hope for the long term success of democracy, it will be if people agree to listen to and try to understand their political opponents rather than simply seeking to crush them.

I do ask (not that I’m in a position to enforce this) that no one try to use my death to further their political purposes. I went to Iraq and did what I did for my reasons, not yours. My life isn’t a chit to be used to bludgeon people to silence on either side.

AiB gathered $2,500.00 in donations for Ali’s family, who encouraged them to keep going. So here is there new ChipIn widget. The old campaign has ended.

Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi, a correspondent with Alive in Baghdad, was killed yesterday in Habibya. Ali’s brothers were killed several years ago in the Firdos Square bombing and his father was kidnapped and killed after that. His mother and sister are all that remain of the family.

Brian Conley, the editor of Alive in Baghdad, is collecting donations for his funeral and to help his remaining family. You can contribute via the ChipIn widget above.

If you’re unfamiliar with AiB, it is an on-the-ground news gathering service, built up with native Iraqi journalists. They cover things foreign journalists can’t or won’t. They are, in spirit, bloggers. Ali was one of ours. Let’s take care of his family.

Updates below.

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