2011-03-20 Daniel Ellsberg arrested twice in two days at Bradley #Manning rally at Quantico #March20

Updates: The World Can't Wait says "Report from Quantico: Police planted provocateurs in the crowd - when that didn't work and people called them out, police shoved protesters using riot shields, then started snatching protesters from between shields one-by-one to arrest them. Much love to the resisters and truth-tellers out in the streets today! Free Bradley Manning!" Reports that "about 30 people", including Daniel Ellsberg, were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly and careless interference with traffic. David House tweets:

• "The rally at Quantico today was amazing -- a strange electricity in the air. Hundreds arrived to demand better conditions for Bradley. ... I believe Daniel Ellsberg was arrested today at Quantico; still trying to confirm ... After the speeches, the crowd of several hundred flooded into the streets outside Quantico and were met with a line of riot police ... Military figures with gas-masks and teargas canisters on their chests joined the police as arrests were made outside the main gates ... Very excited about the turnout at Quantico; never expected so many young people out there in the streets. No doubt: Something's brewing."

More video via @glassbeadcol. Jane Hamsher tweets:

• "80 year-old @DanielEllsberg sitting down at Quantico, refusing to move"
• "Giant "state police" shields, armed vehicles, masked military carrying automatic weapons: Obama's police state ... Mass arrests happening at Quantico. ... Protestors at Quantico facing off against huge line of police shields, per David House @popularch"
• "DanielElsberg at head of very long silent procession to Iwo Jima. Very moving ... Marines only allowing press & 6 veterans on to Iwo Jima memorial. Herding everyone else into the middle of Route 1 "for their own good"... Tapps being played in midst of enormous crowd before Quantico cherrypicks a photo op for press and brownshirts everone else. ... Police siding with Marines, denying access to public to Iwo Jima. Welcome to military rule. ... Right to assembly? Only if Prince William County Police & the Marines say you do. #WhatConstitution? ... Let's be clear about what is happening: Veterans being denied access 2 Iwo Jima memorial to lay flowers. Police force them lay at fence. ... Hard to gauge size of Bradley Manning demonstrators at Quantico, but from video looks to be several thousand:"

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The Bradley Manning rallies today inspired a police crackdown which began yesterday with the arrest of Daniel Ellsberg and others. Today David House tweets:

• "MP5s, horses, bulletproof vests, riot shields -- the State comes out to make a point."
• "Massive police presence in full riot gear at Quantico protest"

"3 county motorcycle officers keep watch of #Manning rally from a hilltop north of the event. http://yfrog.com/h3p69gbj " via @dernemax BBC reports on Welsh protesters who have traveled to London to attend protests. The 23-year-old's mother is Welsh and still lives in Pembrokeshire, where he grew up from 13 and 17. He went to Tasker Milward school in Haverfordwest, where the now retired deputy head teacher, John Broughton remembers him as "a very pleasant lad". Protester Vicky Moller, from Newport, Pembrokeshire, told the BBC: "His mother was allowed to visit him last month. His mother has had several strokes. She was really damaged by what happened to him and so she now speaks through her sister. Her sister went with her to the prison. Her sister was not allowed in so she couldn't speak to her son and she's been very, very upset ever since." Last week Cynon Valley MP Ann Clwyd tabled a Commons' motion on the issue. "I think it is a serious case," she told BBC Wales. "He's being held in solitary confinement, he's kept in his cell for 23 hours a day, not allowed to exercise, he's stripped of all his clothes during the night, he is not permitted to sleep during the day. Jane Hamsher tweets:

• "David House @popularch to crowd: "You all give Bradley strength. It's stuff like this that make his eyes light up."
• "@DanielEllsberg: "Manning's treatment shows that Obama is lying when he claims to have ended torture ... I was facing 115 yrs in prison as Manning is, was also called a traitor. Manning no more a traitor than I was. ... I want Bradley Manning's courage to be contagious."

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