Posted by CODEPINK Staff
Today Alan Moore, the world-renowned author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen, released a statement in support of Bradley Manning. This isn’t your average nominal celebrity endorsement. Moore keeps a famously low profile and very rarely gives interviews; his words are much more a call to action – and an urgent one at that – than a “statement.”
As Moore sees it, “what is presently on trial here is Western culture itself.” PFC Bradley Manning’s trial is not just about Bradley, the US military, or even Obama’s larger attack on WikiLeaks supporters and whistle-blowers. Bradley’s secretive, punitive, unlawful pre-trial detention is symptomatic of no less than an international crisis.
CODEPINK draws attention to the larger repercussions of silencing the truth, sending the message that 'we are all Bradley Manning' and that his fight is our fight. We have stood in solidarity with Bradley Manning wearing his face, prison jumpsuits, and even – when he was forced to stand naked at attention in prison – nothing at all.
It’s fitting that Moore, a master of words and ideas, would be compelled to speak out against Bradley’s mistreatment and the larger attack on civil liberties it represents. In Moore’s words, “if we do not protest in the strongest terms about what is being done in our name, then we become complicit. There is no third option.”
