{"id":58241,"date":"2013-08-12T21:16:46","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T20:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/bradley-mannings-nobel-peace-prize-nomination-backed-by-100k-petition-signing-supporters\/58241\/"},"modified":"2013-08-13T00:36:14","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T23:36:14","slug":"bradley-mannings-nobel-peace-prize-nomination-backed-by-100k-petition-signing-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/bradley-mannings-nobel-peace-prize-nomination-backed-by-100k-petition-signing-supporters\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradley Manning\u2019s Nobel Peace Prize nomination backed by 100k petition-signing supporters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nobel Prize committee has received a petition that endorses awarding the peace prize to US Army Private Bradley Manning, who is convicted of espionage and facing up to 90 years behind bars for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n

US anti-war activist Normon Soloman, one of the organizers of the
\npetition, gave the 5,000-page document to Nobel committee member
\nAsle Toje on Monday.<\/p>\n

However, Toje said the annually awarded US$1 million prize is
\n“not a popularity contest,”<\/i> adding that such campaigns do
\nnot influence the Nobel Committee in its choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemaining in prison and facing relentless prosecution by the
\nUS government, no one is more in need of the Nobel Peace
\nPrize,\u201d<\/i> states the petition, which garnered more than 100,000
\nsignatures.<\/p>\n

“No individual has done more to push back against what Martin
\nLuther King Jr. called ‘the madness of militarism’ than Bradley
\nManning,”<\/i> the petition reads.<\/p>\n

US Army whistleblower Bradley Manning, 25, was found guilty<\/a> on 20 of his 22 charges for sharing thousands
\nof classified US documents with the anti-secrecy website
\nWikiLeaks in late 2009 and early 2010. Among other charges, he
\nwas found guilty of espionage, theft, and embezzlement of
\ngovernment property.<\/p>\n

According to Solomon, awarding the soldier the Nobel Prize would
\nunderline the important role of whistleblowers in promoting peace
\nand democracy.<\/p>\n

“Unless we can speak the truth, then peace-making becomes a
\nhollow exercise of rhetoric rather than reality,”<\/i> Solomon
\ntold reporters before submitting the petition.<\/p>\n

Former Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan-Maguire formally
\nnominated Manning in June, saying, \u201cI can think of no one more
\ndeserving.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

She believes that his leaks \u201chelped end the Iraq War\u201d<\/i> by
\nhastening foreign troop withdrawals and \u201cmay have helped
\nprevent further conflicts elsewhere.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Solomon has also stated that Manning\u2019s revelations on America\u2019s
\nviews of the Iraq War \u201cstiffened the resolve of Iraq’s
\ngovernment to seek jurisdiction over American troops for criminal
\nactions.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

In his article published by USA Today on July 30, Solomon wrote
\nthat \u201cIt’s easy to insist that Bradley Manning must face the
\nconsequences of his actions. But we badly need whistleblowers
\nlike Manning because US government leaders do not face the
\nconsequences of their actions, including perpetual warfare abroad
\nand assaults on civil liberties at home. No government should
\nhave the power to keep waging war while using secrecy to cloak
\npolicies that cannot stand the light of day.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced on October 11,
\n2013 in Oslo.<\/p>\n

Republished from: RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nobel Prize committee has received a petition that endorses awarding the peace prize to US Army Private Bradley Manning, who is convicted of espionage and facing up to 90 years behind bars for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,21,18,1616],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-58241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-human-rights","9":"category-latest-news","10":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}