Several hundred activists joined Daniel Ellsberg, Retired Army Colonel Ann Wright, David House, Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace and CodePink in Quantico, Virginia on 20 March, 2011 to rally for Bradley Manning. They gathered to hear speakers discuss the confinement of Bradley Manning, protest his inhumane treatment and the wars the United States is waging in the Middle East and elsewhere, and then march to the base entrance and the Iwo Jima memorial.
The event began at 2 p.m. ET. Protesters who gathered at the straw-filled parking lot in front of the National Marine Corps Museum were wary about how the event would unfold, because organizers had been warned previously that Marine Corps Base Quantico would be closing the Iwo Jima Memorial, normally open to the public year-round, on the day of the scheduled rally. Arriving at the event, protesters witnessed what Michael Whitney of FireDogLake described as “literally hundreds” of civilian police officers from Prince William County, dressed “in full riot gear with submachine guns,” some on horseback and some K-9 (canine) units, surround the rally.
Speakers at the rally included:
- Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg;
- US Army Ret. Col. Ann Wright;
- Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist;
- Zach Choate, Iraq Veterans Against the War;
- and David House, friend of Bradley Manning
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