Protests: Free Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange and Bradley Manning!

Protests:
Free Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange and Bradley Manning!
U.S. Troops and Mercenaries Out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan Now!

Private First Class Bradley Manning is facing up to 60 years in prison for allegedly leaking information through WikiLeaks that expose U.S. war crimes. Among these is helicopter gunship video that shows U.S. troops nonchalantly mowing down two journalists, first aid respondents, and children with machine gun fire. The perpetrators of these crimes are not being punished, even with video proof of the cold blooded murders. Instead, the military brass are prosecuting Bradley Manning. We say exposing the truth about war crimes is no crime. Free Bradley Manning Now!

The leaked documents come from the Internet investigative site, Wikileaks. Editor and chief of this site is Julian Assange. WikkiLeaks has released 90,000 documents on the war in Afghanistan and 350,000 on the war in Iraq. These documents detail executions at U.S. checkpoints, the torture of detainees, the sectarian carnage unleashed by the occupation of Iraq, and the U.S. “Task Force 373”, a team of professional assassins responsible for numerous massacres in Afghanistan. These atrocities started under Bush and have continued, without respite, under Barack Obama, including Obama’s “reduced” occupation force in Iraq.

Faced with its war crimes being exposed, the U.S. government and its allies are seeking to discredit the source to make it appear as bad as they are. To do so, they have accused (but not charged) Julian Assange of rape in Sweden. Under Swedish law, consensual sex without a condom is falsely labeled rape and carries up to four years in prison. There is no evidence of any violence or coercion. One of the accusers, Anna Ardin, gushed about what a great guy Julian Assange was on two separate tweets after having consensual sex with him. Later she tried to delete those tweets before accusing Julian Assange of “rape”, but despite that attempt at a cover-up, the tweets were later found in Google caches.

The first Swedish prosecutor who looked at these charges threw them out within 24 hours. Later, when WikiLeaks released more documents, the Swedish government directed another prosecutor to take up the case. Due to public pressure, Assange has been released on $360,000 bail, but this is not over.

Julian Assange’s accuser, Anna Ardin, has connections with the Swedish secret police, the CIA, anti-Cuban terrorists, and the Swedish social democratic government. The Swedish social democratic government has been cooperating with these U.S. wars by sending troops to Afghanistan, allowing CIA rendition flights, and by sending asylum seekers to Egypt where they were imprisoned, beaten, and tortured. The Swedish government, like the U.S., has a stake in trying to silence Julian Assange, but the people of the world deserve freedom of speech.

You are invited to join us in demanding freedom for Julian Assange and Bradley Manning:

Two Protests:
Informational protest:
Clock Tower on Pacific Avenue
Saturday December 18th from 1:00 PM to 2:30.

Protest with speakers and a march starting at the Clock Tower on January 8th at 1:00 PM.
Organized by the Santa Cruz Coalition to free Julian Assange and Bradley Manning