U.S. Government Harassing & Intimidating Bradley Manning Supporters

In July of this year, U.S. citizen Jacob Appelbaum, a researcher and spokesman for WikiLeaks, was detained for several hours at the Newark airport after returning from a trip to Holland, and had his laptop, cellphones and other electronic products seized — all without a search warrant, without being charged with a crime, and without even being under investigation, at least to his knowledge. That campaign of intimidation is now clearly spreading to supporters of Bradley Manning. Last Wednesday, November 3, David House, a 23-year-old researcher who works at MIT, was returning to the U.S. from a short vacation with his girlfriend in Mexico, and was subjected to similar and even worse treatment. House’s crime: he did work in helping set up the Bradley Manning Support Network, an organization created to raise money for Manning’s legal defense fund, and he has now visited Manning three times in Quantico, Virginia, where the accused WikiLeaks leaker is currently being detained (all those visits are fully monitored by government agents). Last Wednesday, House arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, and his flight was met in the concourse by customs agents, who examined the passports of all deplaning passengers until they saw House’s, at which point they stopped. He was then directed to Customs, where his and his girlfriend’s bags were extensively searched. After the search was complete, two men identifying themselves as Homeland Security officials told House and his girlfriend they were being detained for questioning and would miss their connecting flight. House was told that he was required to relinquish all of his electronic products, and thus gave them his laptop, cellphone, digital camera and UBS flash drive. Like Appelbaum, House has never been accused of any crime, never been advised that he’s under investigation, and was never told by any federal agents that he’s suspected of any wrongdoing at all. The real purpose of this conduct is to intimidate and deter anyone from being involved in any way with WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning. I just want to underscore how abusive this all is. Totally independent of the intimidation aspects — which are the worst part of this — just consider what an absolute mockery this makes of the Constitution.
Glenn Greenwald, Salon

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