From [email protected] Aug, 6, 2010:
On Sunday 8 August 2010 we are expecting members of CODEPINK and possibly other organizations to gather at the waterfront park in Quantico Town in order to protest PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest and confinement at Marine Corps Base, Quantico. Base officials, Prince William County Police, and the Quantico Town Police are working together to ensure this event occurs without incident.
Personnel assigned to MCBQ should avoid the area from 1000-1700 on Sunday, 8 August 2010.
Is Quantico encouraging people to stay away from a public off-base event? Does this cross a line?
Code Pink, the famed femme fanner of fires, descended upon Quantico, Va., to protest the incarceration of alleged Wikileaks secret document machine, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is confined to the Quantico brig.
Code Pink, our gurlz from the San Francisco Bay Area, can be creative. Our last story showed the group holding a kiss-in at a recruiting office parking lot in Berkeley to block access to the recruiters. Impressive.
But recruiting store fronts are on civilian property. As you probably know, one cannot protest on board a military installation, so Code Pink, Veterans for Peace and others obtained a permit to hold their event in Quantico Town. It is a civil municipality surrounded by the base on three sides and the Potomac on the fourth, but it is civilian property.
Despite Manning’s presence in the brig, it is an unlikely place for a protest. But heroes on both sides gathered. A docile Code Pink and Manning supporters numbered a couple of hundred. They had the requisite chant, “Free Bradley Manning,” signs, and speeches. One gentleman announced Manning supporters had raised $60 thousand in his defense, half their goal.
Does he have a defense? If you listen to the pink and righteous, the government wants whistleblowers, aka Manning. But one attendee told me many in the pro-Manning camp did not understand he had allegedly committed a crime with the release of classified material. Such are the doe-eyed and bleating. Manning had options.
Off to the side was a silent and equally cordial group numbering 10 or so for the other team. Their main image is shown above. Concrete Dave, a veteran, knew the protesters by name. They seem to have the Looney Tunes Ralph-and-Sam thing going.
Media was plentiful. According to Quantico public affairs, CNN (whose camera guy tried to take down a cop); DC-based Ch 4, 7, 9; a number of smaller outlets (I think I spoke to a Russian news organization); were all present. And we cannot forget our friends at al Jazeera. (Arabic T-shirts, a must.)
What are your thoughts on Wikileaks and the secret documents? PFC Manning?
Peaceful protests? And that e-mail from Quantico? Unnecessary? Over the line?
(Despite the outrageous Hawaiian attire, my escort was not DIA, as alleged.)
