Bradley Manning nominated for Peace Prize

Bradley Manning, in jail as a criminal in the US, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

A group of Icelandic MPs and Swedish Members of the European Parliament have called on the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to award its prize for 2013 to Bradley Manning, the gay US soldier that leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks.

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‘Dear Norwegian Nobel Committee, we have the great honor of nominating Private First Class Bradley Manning for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize,’ the MPs wrote. 

‘According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on the foreign and domestic policies of European nations, and most recently contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all US troops from the occupation in Iraq. 

‘The documents made public by WikiLeaks should never have been kept from public scrutiny. The revelations … have helped to fuel a worldwide discussion about the overseas engagements of the United States, civilian casualties of war and rules of engagement. Citizens worldwide owe a great debt to the WikiLeaks whistle-blower for shedding light on these issues, and so we urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize to accused whistle-blower Bradley Manning.’ more  

Whether he gets it or not who knows, but the fact that he's even been nominated says a lot. An enormous illustration of how the US gov views Bradley Manning vs how other countries see him.