Vivienne Westwood at "WikiLeaks: The Bradley Manning Story," London, May 8, 2013

On Wednesday May 8, 2013, Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer, made a guest appearance at a panel discussion in the Century Club, on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End, entitled, "WikiLeaks: The Bradley Manning Story," the day after she had turned up at the Met Ball in New York carrying the photo of Manning seen here. The event was taking place because the trial by court-martial of Pfc. Manning, who allegedly leaked hundreds of thousands of pages of classified US documents to WikiLeaks, while serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, begins on June 3, 2013, almost three years after he was first arrested.

I was part of the panel discussion, along with Chase Madar, a US attorney and the author of "The Passion of Bradley Manning," and Ben Griffin, a former SAS soldier and conscientious objector, who is now a spokesperson for Veterans for Peace UK. I was invited to take part because, in April 2011, I was a media partner for WikiLeaks' release of classified military files relating to the Guantanamo prisoners. The packed-out event also featured Julian Assange speaking by video link from the Ecuadorian Embassy, and two guest speakers -- Peter Tatchell as well as Vivienne Westwood. The moderator was Jolyon Rubinstein, of BBC 3's "The Revolution Will Be Televised."

For Vivienne's defense of Bradley Manning at the Met Ball, see: www.activeresistance.co.uk/ar/?p=3244

For "The Passion of Bradley Manning," see: www.orbooks.com/catalog/bradley-manning/

For Veterans for Peace UK, see: veteransforpeace.org.uk/

For WikiLeaks' Guantanamo Files, see: wikileaks.org/gitmo/

For my series of articles analysing the files, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/category/2002-2011-the-complete...

For my archive of articles about Bradley Manning, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/category/bradley-manning/

For the Bradley Manning Support Network, see: www.bradleymanning.org/

For the international day of protest for Bradley Manning on June 1, see: www.bradleymanning.org/featured/rally-for-bradley-manning...

For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/

For my most interesting photos, see: www.flickriver.com/photos/andyworthington/popular-interes...

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