Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 234

Manning 'Not Guilty' of Aiding Enemy But Guilty of 19 Others

See my piece at The Nation.  I was on Democracy Now! with Jeremy Scahill in the aftermath.  Just-released transcript of judge's full rulings--again,  hat-tip to Press Freedom foundation.   My book on case with Kevin Gosztola, one of very few to cover hearings and trial for over a year, now updated.   NYT collects reactions.    UPDATE:  Gosztola just said on Democracy Now that sentencing arguments may take two to three weeks.  Will be very "contentious" with no "stipulation" of testimony.  As I've noted, more than a dozen witnessed lined up by both sides.   Defense calling more witnesses than in trial. 

Here's statement from Manning family, from an aunt, sent to The Guardian:

While we are obviously disappointed in today’s verdicts, we are happy that Judge Lind agreed with us that Brad never intended to help America’s enemies in any way. Brad loves his country and was proud to wear its uniform.

We want to express our deep thanks to David Coombs, who has dedicated three years of his life to serving as lead counsel in Brad’s case. We also want to thank Brad’s Army defense team, Major Thomas Hurley and Captain Joshua Tooman, for their tireless efforts on Brad’s behalf, and Brad’s first defense counsel, Captain Paul Bouchard, who was so helpful to all of us in those early confusing days and first suggested David Coombs as Brad’s counsel.

Most of all, we would like to thank the thousands of people who rallied to Brad’s cause, providing financial and emotional support throughout this long and difficult time, especially Jeff Paterson and Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network. Their support has allowed a young Army private to defend himself against the full might of not only the US Army but also the US Government.

ACLU statement:

A military court-martial today found Pfc. Bradley Manning guilty of multiple charges under the Espionage Act for giving classified material to WikiLeaks, but not guilty of aiding the enemy.

"While we're relieved that Mr. Manning was acquitted of the most dangerous charge, the ACLU has long held the view that leaks to the press in the public interest should not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act," said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. "Since Manning already pleaded guilty to charges of leaking information – which carry significant punishment – it seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information in the future."

Amnesty International’s Senior Director of International Law and Policy Widney Brown said:

“The government’s priorities are upside down. The US government has refused to investigate credible allegations of torture and other crimes under international law despite overwhelming evidence.

“Yet they decided to prosecute Manning who it seems was trying to do the right thing - reveal credible evidence of unlawful behaviour by the government. You investigate and prosecute those who destroy the credibility of the government by engaging in acts such as torture which are prohibited under the US Constitution and in international law.

“The government’s pursuit of the ‘aiding the enemy’ charge was a serious overreach of the law, not least because there was no credible evidence of Manning’s intent to harm the USA by releasing classified information to WikiLeaks.

“Since the attacks of September 11, we have seen the US government use the issue of national security to defend a whole range of actions that are unlawful under international and domestic law.

“It’s hard not to draw the conclusion that Manning's trial was about sending a message: the US government will come after you, no holds barred, if you're thinking of revealing evidence of its unlawful behaviour.”

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Fox

To no one's surprise, it turns out that religion host Lauren Green, now infamous for that interview with Reza Aslan last Friday in which she demanded to know how he got the nerve, as a Muslim, to write a bestselling book on Christianity--surely, he is biased!--failed to ask the same sort of questions a Southern Baptist author who wrote a book about Islam.   Watch it here.  BTW, reports today that Green was actually Roger Ailes' first hire at Fox... Meanwhile, Aslan's book is #1 on Amazon and #2 at the NYT.

Update:  conservatives and other Fox defenders now goingafter Aslan for allegedly misrepresenting his expert credentials.  See here, one of the more restrained critiques, and check out comments there. 

Hansard, Following Slowly With Bruce

One of my faves, Glen Hansard, got to play with Springsteen in his native Ireland this weekend.  Glen still playing the guitar with the big hole in it.

Countdown to Hiroshima for July 28-29,1945: American POWs in Target Cities?

Each summer I count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945),  marking events from the same day in 1945.  See my daily reports for the previous two weeks here.  And for past two days here.  I've written  three books on the subject:  Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton),  Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military),  and Hollywood Bomb   (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 drama was censored by the military and Truman himself).

July 29, 1945:  Assembling of the first atomic bomb continued at Tinian. It would likely be ready on August 1 and the first use would be dictated by the weather.

--The second bomb—the plutonium device—was still back in the States. The target list, with Hiroshima as #1, remained in place, although it was being studied for the presence of POW camps holding Americans in the target sites (indeed, several American POWs would be slain by the bomb in Hiroshima).

—Japanese sub sinks the U.S.S. Indianapolis, killing over 800 American seamen. If it had happened three days earlier, the atomic bomb the ship was carrying to Tinian would have never made it.

--A Newsweek story observes: “As Allied air and sea attacks hammered the stricken homeland, Japan’s leaders assessed the war situation and found it bordering on the disastrous…. As usual, the nation’s propaganda media spewed out brave double-talk of hope and defiance.” But it adds: “Behind the curtain, Japan had put forward at least one definite offer. Fearing the results of Russian participation in the war, Tokyo transmitted to Generaliissimo Stalin the broad terms on which it professed willingness to settle all scores.

--Secretary of War Stimson began work on the statement on the first use of the bomb that President Truman would record or release in a few days, assuming the bomb worked.  It would portray Hiroshima as simply a "military base," not even a city.

--Truman wrote letter to wife Bess from Potsdam on deals there (but does not mention A-bomb discussions with Soviets): “I like Stalin. He is straightforward, knows what he wants and will compromise when he can’t get it. His Foreign Minister isn’t so forthright."  He had also written kind words about Stalin in his diary in the past ten days.

-- Joseph Davies, the influential former ambassador to the Soviet Union,  in his diary recounts warning Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes today that the new bomb has severe "psychological effects" beyond the physical--particularly on the Russians, and not in the positive ways Byrnes was counting on.    Presciently he writes that using and further developing the bomb with no cooperation with our allies, the Russians, will create "hostility" leading to a "race" in the laboratories threatening "annihiliation" of both countries.

July 28, 1945: Two days after receiving it, the Japanese leadership  rejected the Potsdam declaration calling for their "unconditional" surrender, or seemed to. The official word was that it would ignore the demand mokusatsu, or "with silence." Another translation, however, is "to withhold comment." This not-quite-rejection has led some historians to suggest that the U.S. should have pursued the confusing Japanese peace feelers already circulating, especially with suggestions that unconditional terms were the main, or perhaps only, obstacles.

--Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal had breakfast with Truman at Potsdam.  He had flown there at least partly to press the president to pursue Japanese peace feelers--especially concerning letting them keep their emperor-- before using the bomb and killing countless civilians.

 --Returning to Washington from Potsdam, Secretary of War Henry Stimson consulted with the top people at Los Alamos about the bomb (or "S-1" as it was then known) and wrote in his diary. "Everything seems to be going well."

 --U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Joseph Davies wrote in his diary that Secretary of State James Byrnes was overly excited by the success of the bomb test vis-a-vis future relations with our allies, the Soviets: "Byrnes' attitude that the atomic bomb assured ultimate success in negotiations disturbed me more than his description of its success amazed me. I told him the threat wouldn't work, and might do irreparable harm." Four days earlier, Byrnes aide Walter Brown had written in his diary that Byrnes' view was that "after atomic bomb Japan will surrender and Russia will not get in so much on the kill." The Soviets were scheduled to enter the war on August 7 (which might have prompted a Japanese surrender, even without use of the Bomb), so there was some urgency.

--A U.S. bombing raid on the small Japanese city of Aomori -- which had little military significance beyond being a transportation hub -- dropped 83,000 incendiaries and destroyed almost the entire city, killing at least 2,000 civilians.

Dylan Raises Electric Flag

48 years ago, at Newport.

Countdown to Hiroshima for July 28,1945: Using the Bomb Against Japan--and the Russians?

Each summer I count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945),  marking events from the same day in 1945.  See my daily reports for the previous two weeks here.  And for past two days here.  I've written  three books on the subject:  Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton),  Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military),  and Hollywood Bomb   (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 drama was censored by the military and Truman himself).

--Two days after receiving it, the Japanese leadership  rejected the Potsdam declaration calling for their "unconditional" surrender, or seemed to. The official word was that it would ignore the demand mokusatsu, or "with silence." Another translation, however, is "to withhold comment." This not-quite-rejection has led some historians to suggest that the U.S. should have pursued the confusing Japanese peace feelers already circulating, especially with suggestions that unconditional terms were the main, or perhaps only, obstacles.

--Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal had breakfast with Truman at Potsdam.  He had flown there at least partly to press the president to pursue Japanese peace feelers--especially concerning letting them keep their emperor-- before using the bomb and killing countless civilians.

 --Returning to Washington from Potsdam, Secretary of War Henry Stimson consulted with the top people at Los Alamos about the bomb (or "S-1" as it was then known) and wrote in his diary. "Everything seems to be going well."

 --U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Joseph Davies wrote in his diary that Secretary of State James Byrnes was overly excited by the success of the bomb test vis-a-vis future relations with our allies, the Soviets: "Byrnes' attitude that the atomic bomb assured ultimate success in negotiations disturbed me more than his description of its success amazed me. I told him the threat wouldn't work, and might do irreparable harm." Four days earlier, Byrnes aide Walter Brown had written in his diary that Byrnes' view was that "after atomic bomb Japan will surrender and Russia will not get in so much on the kill." The Soviets were scheduled to enter the war on August 7 (which might have prompted a Japanese surrender, even without use of the Bomb), so there was some urgency.

--A U.S. bombing raid on the small Japanese city of Aomori -- which had little military significance beyond being a transportation hub -- dropped 83,000 incendiaries and destroyed almost the entire city, killing at least 2,000 civilians.

Real-Life 'Fruitvale'

If you have somehow missed real-life incident that inspired Fruitvale Station (which I'll see today).

Today's Tale from Gun Nutty USA

Gunman shoots and kills six neighbors in Hialeah, Fla., including girl, 17, then dies himself, and it hardly causes a ripple.  Had plenty more ammo and could have killed dozens.   Just another mass murder in USA, 2013. 

Countdown to Hiroshima, For July 27, 1945

Each summer I count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945),  marking events from the same day in 1945.  See my daily reports for the previous two weeks here. I've written  three books on the subject:  Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton),  Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military),  and Hollywood Bomb   (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 drama was censored by the military and Truman himself).

July 27, 1945:  Truman continued to meet with Allied leaders in Germany, the Soviets got ready to declare war on Japan (“fini Japs” when that happened, even without the bomb, Truman had written in his diary), and preparations to get the first A-bomb ready for use were finalized. The Japanese government released an edited version of the “unconditonal surrender” Potsdam declaration to their press and citizens, but had not yet rejected it. The Domei news agency had already predicted that the surrender demand “would be ignored.”  The U.S., after use of bomb, would accept conditional surrender--with Japan allowed to keep its emperor.

Eleven days after the first, and quite secret, atomic test at Trinity, which spread wide clouds of radioactive fallout over residents downwind—livestock had been sickened or killed—radiation experts  had become concerned about the exposure for one family, the shape of things to come.

“A Petition to the President of the United States” organized by famed nuclear scientist Leo Szilard, and signed by sixty-eight of his Los Alamos colleagues, urgently urging delay or extreme caution on the use of the new weapon against Japan, continued to be held in  limbo and kept from the President while Truman remained abroad.

July 26, 1945:  Early this day, Chief of Staff Gen.George Marshall cabled to Gen. Leslie Groves, military chief of the Manhattan Project back in Washington, DC, his approval of a directive sent by Groves the night before. It read: “1. The 509th Composite Group, Twentieth Air Force, will deliver its first special bomb as soon as weather will permit visual bombing after about 3 August 1945 on one of the targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Nagasaki…. 2. Additional bombs will be delivered on the above tagets as soon as made ready by the project staff…..”

This assembly-line approach would have tragic consequences for the city of Nagasaki.  In a 1946 letter to Stimson, Truman reminded him that he had ordered the bombs used against cities engaged “exclusively” in war work. Truman would later write in his memoirs, “With this order the the wheels were set in motion for the first use of an atomic weapon against a military target.” As noted yesterday, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were far from being merely "military" targets.

The other major event from this day was equally significant. The Potsdam Declaration was issued in Germany by the United States, Britain and China. (The Soviet Union was still ostensibly not at war with Japan but agreed to enter the conflict around August 7. This has led some to suggest that we used the bombs quickly to try to end the war before the Russians could claim much new territory.)  The declaration ordered Japan to surrender immediately and unconditionally or face a reign of ruin—“prompt and utter destruction”—although the new weapon was not mentioned (such a warning had been considered by Truman but rejected).

Much was made of the importance of the “unconditional” aspect but three weeks later, after the use of the new bombs, we accepted a major condition, allowing the Japanese to keep their emperor, and still called the surrender “unconditonal.” Some historians believe that if we had agreed to that condition earlier Japan might have started the surrender process before the use of the atomic bombs. Others believe an explicit warning to the Japanese, or a demonstration of the new weapon offshore in Japan, would have speeded the surrender process. But the Potsdam Declaration set US policy in stone.

J.J. Cale Dead at 74

UPDATE:   Very early rockabilly cut from the late J.J. Cale recording as "Johnny Cale."  And here's his 1966  demo of "After Midnight" that Eric Clapton came upon four years later and made his career.

Earlier: When I was at Crawdaddy for nearly all of the 1970s, where we favored little-known rootsy writers and musicians, usually to our commercial detriment (and ultimately, doom) he was kind of our ideal.  J.J. Cale's 1972 debut album Naturally was virtually our album of that year, every relaxed but biting cut, with his guitar,  a near-classic, and not just  "Call Me the Breeze" and "After Midnight," a hit for Eric Clapton (see them play live at bottom).  He went to record other great music for decades, but now has died of a heart attack in L.A.  at age 74.  More here.

Eric Clapton is one of many musicians who have noted J.J’s influence on their music. They include Mark Knopfler, Neil Young, Bryan Ferry, and “jam bands” like Widespread Panic. Clapton, when asked by Vanity Fair several years ago "What living person do you most admire?" replied simply "JJ Cale." Neil Young has said, "Of all the players I ever heard, it's gotta be Hendrix and JJ Cale who are the best electric guitar players."