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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

News Bradley Manning and Julian Assange Both Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize nominees for 2011 recognize a number of activists, among them Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Wael Ghonim, Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni, and Egyptian Israa Abdel Fattah together with the April 6 Youth Movement.

Thus the Arab Spring, as it has been termed, is well-represented in the Nobel Peace Prize nominees this year, and with good reason: It was a remarkable grassroots revolution that is still changing the North African and Middle East dynamic and, indeed, the world.

Much of this, however, might not have been possible but for the actions of Bradley Manning and Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks.

Manning allegedly leaked diplomatic cables and video (of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack) to WikiLeaks. Manning had access to SIPRNet and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System from his workstation in Iraq. His reason for leaking the documents? Manning wrote to former hacker Adrian Lamo, “I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are … because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.”

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Nobel Peace Prize has turned into a bad joke...lol

Anonymous said...

The joke is that this is news every year, and people always fail to remember that you can nominate just about anyone. Every single year there's a news story about the ridiculous controversial picks for the Nobel. And in some cases, like when Obama got it, they actually make it.

Anonymous said...

One is a traitor - the other is a spy! But then, this is the same group that gave the same prize to our spender in chief.....putting them all in the same category

Rick said...

It just doesn't seem right that the Nobel Peace Prize is funded from the estate of the man who invented dynamite.

Anonymous said...

hooray for julian! freedom of information act was design for EVERYONE. the government was not meant to be excluded!