Manning and Wikileaks- This Is Fascism.. And It’s Nothing New

Yesterday Chelsea Manning was jailed for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigation into Wikileaks. Some people are cheering for this. They think, once again, that this has something to do with Trump and Russia. They are badly misinformed and voluntarily delusional.

This case has nothing to do with Trump and Russia. For Manning, this is double jeopardy because she is being jailed again for her actions for which she already served prison time, was tortured and became suicidal on multiple occasions, then finally pardoned by Obama, the same president who imprisoned her.

Manning refused to answer questions for two reasons. 1- This was referring to her previous testimony from years ago. 2- She is objecting to the grand jury process.

The second one is something which affects all of us in the form of democracy and justice. The grand jury system is held in secret and does not include the defense of the accused. Any person can be indicted without knowing the evidence being presented against them and held without charge. In this case, they are holding Manning in contempt of court.

The other thing that you should be concerned about is that this is a case of an attempt to prosecute a journalist and his source. Manning testified extensively about how she obtained and submitted her information regarding treatment of inmates at Guantanamo and the outright murder of journalists in Iraq by the US military. That is, she testified at her…