2 turned away trying to visit WikiLeaks GI

[Scurrilous]

Source: Associated Press

<snip>

"Two backers of a jailed Army private suspected of passing classified documents to the WikiLeaks website say their car was towed after they arrived at a Marine base to visit him.

David House and blogger Jane Hamsher say in a statement they had not had problems previously driving onto the Quantico base. But they say they were detained and unable to visit Army Pfc. Bradley Manning on Sunday.

Quantico spokesman Col. Thomas V. Johnson says the car was towed after the pair could not provide proof of insurance and guards found the vehicle's license plates had expired. He says both weren't detained."




Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/23/2030525/2-turned-away-trying-to-visit.html

[Renew Deal]

1. No insurance and expired plates?

Whose car was that? :wtf:

[msanthrope]

3. Funny how Hamsher's twitter feed 'forgot' to mention the expired plates. n/t

[pnwmom]

2. Alternate title: "Pair weren't ticketed for driving with expired plates

and no proof of insurance."

[bluedigger]

4. Way to set yourself up to fail, Jane...

I mean, really...:eyes:

[girl gone mad]

6. Huh?

Expired plates is now an offense worthy of being detained for several hours and having your car towed away?

[bluedigger]

8. They were on a military base.

All they needed was a pretext. Let's see how far you get...

[EFerrari]

9. We don't even know if that's right. They also said David and Jane weren't detained

which is a lie.

But the rush of compassion for those Marines threatened by Jane Hamsher's car is very touching.

[bluedigger]

15. I suppose they can always...sue...

I'm not a Jane hater, but you have to be ready for primetime, and this time she looks like an amateur.:shrug:

[EFerrari]

20. So why do you believe this report? At least one of their statements is patently untrue.

Plus, Jane produced evidence of registration but they wouldn't accept an electronic version and they wouldn't allow her to print out a copy for them. It's bullshit. If she had had paper, they would have found something wrong with that.

And it's a distraction anyway, from the ongoing punitive mistreatment of Brad Manning.

[bluedigger]

26. I don't think you get it.

I definitely don't get you. What report? Whose statements are untrue? All I know is that they used some vehicle information to prevent Hamsher and House from seeing Manning. That was probably their intent from the beginning, and they succeeded in it.

I do know that the MP's were under no obligation to cut them a break, and I suspect that if the registration and insurance papers were in order to begin with then the MP's probably would have found some other pretext to prevent the visit.

As for being "detained", any civilian visiting a military installation does so as a guest, and is subject to military authority while there. I've worked on several as a civilian, and even with an invitation and clearance, I have had to endure lengthy delays while going through security to gain access to my work site. Base security are well known for being officious pricks, and when they are actively looking to obstruct you it is ridiculously easy for them to do so.

And you are right that we are are arguing about nothing, a small injustice compared to the mistreatment of Manning.

[pnwmom]

17. How do you know who's lying?

People get stopped for expired plates and no proof of insurance all the time. This isn't something unusual that happened to David and Jane.

[EFerrari]

19. Because they were tweeting while they were detained.

They were detained for about two hours, while the mofos ran out Manning's visitation clock, that's how.

[pnwmom]

38. Being detained implies you aren't free to leave.

How do you know they weren't free to leave? (Seeing or not seeing Manning is a different matter.)

[Renew Deal]

10. I'm pretty sure you can be arrested in NY for driving an unregistered car.

So yes.

[Thor_MN]

27. Not that I have a dog in this fight, but what does NY state law have to do with this situation?

Most, if not all, states require registration for vehicles. Most states will provisionally ticket you, meaning there is no fine if you send in proof, and send you on your way. Unless you give them another reason, arrest or towing is very uncommon.

But beyond all that, Marines are not charged (prohibited actually) with enforcing state laws and Quantico is in Virginia.

[Renew Deal]

28. I answered the question

"Expired plates is now an offense worthy of being detained for several hours and having your car towed away?"

The answer at least in NY is yes. Don't know about Virginia.

[AngryAmish]

31. Happened to me in illinois about eight years ago

had to be bailed out of jail

[Thor_MN]

44. You were arrested by the Marines?

And there were no other reasons other than expired tags and/or proof of insurance?

[pnwmom]

16. There is a dispute about whether they were detained. n/t

[Hissyspit]

23. Jane said she considered herself detained.

I guess if someone thinks they're being detained, they are being detained. :shrug:

[pnwmom]

36. How do you know she wasn't free to leave?

She wasn't allowed to see Manning, but that's a different matter.

[Hissyspit]

40. She tweeted that she was not allowed to leave.

I was not there.

How do you know she was? Were you there?

[NavyDem]

25. Depends on the state...

In California, my vehicle was impounded for expired tags. I had returned from a 9 month deployment, and was literally driving my car to the DMV to renew the tags when I was pulled over. 3 days and almost $1200.00 in registration/ticket/impound fees later, I got my car back.

[pnwmom]

37. $1200 for expired tags? Yikes! n/t

[jmowreader]

39. If you're a civilian on a Marine base, it is

Marine MPs don't play.

[Scurrilous]

5. Awaiting her reply:

Kitt January 23rd, 2011 at 7:00 pm #68

Jane?

I read this from the AP:

Quantico spokesman Col. Thomas V. Johnson says the car was towed after the pair could not provide proof of insurance and guards found the vehicle’s license plates had expired.

Is that last part true?

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/01/23/goal-of-quantico-incident-was-to-abuse-bradley-manning-and-intimidating-david-house/#comments

[msanthrope]

7. I can't wait to hear her reply--I'll bet she didn't expect Quantico to spill about

plates...

[EFerrari]

11. Bradley Manning is rotting in solitary and won't see a friendly face for another week

and all you can do is gloat over Jane Hamsher's license plates?

That's disgusting.

[girl gone mad]

13. Gotta get their two minutes of hate on.

Though lately, two minutes doesn't come anywhere close to satisfying the blood-lust fixation with Hamsher.

[pnwmom]

18. It's Hamsher's fault if that's the case. No one else's. n/t

[EFerrari]

21. Baloney. They weren't going to be let in, regardless.

That was the mission.

[pnwmom]

34. Baloney. n/t

[Hissyspit]

43. And you know that how?

Multiple pressures on military this week from Amnesty International, Manning's lawyer, others on this issue THIS WEEK.

[girl gone mad]

24. Then why was House held, too?

[Renew Deal]

30. Bradley Manning has no one to blame but himself.

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

33. No, Manning is not to blame for his abusive detention

which even Amnesty International is protesting.

Good grief.

[Hissyspit]

42. Innocent until proven guilty?

Remember that shit?

[Scurrilous]

12. Her reply:

Jane Hamsher January 23rd, 2011 at 7:01 pm #69

In response to Kitt @ 67

Yes they had, but that was not why they towed the car. They said it was illegal to drive without proof of insurance.

:o

Expired tags and insufficient proof of insurance and she wonders why her car was towed.

[msanthrope]

14. Completely unsurprising. I love how she forgot to mention the plates in her Twitter

feed..would have been far less dramatic.

[Hissyspit]

22. Why was House not allowed on?

That has nothing to do with the vehicle.

They would not accept electronic proof of insurance. I had expired proof of insurance once. The guard let me pull it up on the computer and then I was allowed on base. And it took about 10 minutes.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/01/23/goal-of-quantico-incident-was-to-abuse-bradley-manning-and-intimidating-david-house/#comment-137835

By: Jane Hamsher Sunday January 23, 2011 6:10 pm

- snip -

I don’t think any of this had anything to do with me, or frankly the 42,000 petition signatures. The only thing I did was provide housing and transportation to David House, because he’s just out of college and Glenn Greenwald told him he could stay with me when he comes to visit Manning. Everyone but David has stopped coming to see Bradley, and it takes a lot of courage to do what David is doing. It’s a very intimidating situation. So I try to support him by giving him a place to stay and driving him to the base when he comes to town. That’s really my only involvement.

There is no doubt in my mind that the primary objective of everything that happened today was to keep Bradley Manning from having the company of his only remaining visitor. The MPs told us they were ordered to do this, the brass showed up to make sure that they did, and they held us until 2:50 by repeatedly asking for information they already had whenever we asked to leave.

- snip -

This was all about detaining David, not me. I would not be surprised to learn they were also punishing him for speaking out about Manning’s conditions. The State Department, the FBI and just about every three-letter government agency has been investigating David and the other Boston hackers since they began organizing support for Bradley Manning last summer, with one witch hunt after another attempting to implicate them in one of Adrian Lamo’s fabulist tales of a physical disk hand-off from Manning to Wikileaks. The New York Times keeps printing that one, over and over again, with the Justice Department whispering in their ear and nothing but the word of the inconsistent Lamo for evidence.

David has been detained at the airport, his computer seized and held for months with no explanation. The McCarthy-esque actions of the security agencies has terrified all of these idealistic young people. It is exceptionally admirable that David and others persist in supporting Bradley Manning despite it all.

MORE

[Renew Deal]

29. Was it her car?

Was the car uninsured or did she not have proof? Doesn't really matter since it was unregistered. But if that was her car and she KNEW it was in that condition, she is a first rate idiot.

[krabigirl]

32. Wow..people here live to hate on this woman,

[pnwmom]

35. It's not hating on her to question why she's making a big deal out of this

when no one with common sense would expect to be able to drive onto a military base with expired plates. And not having insurance isn't fair to other drivers. That's why it's the law.

[Hissyspit]

41. It's a big deal because others are not treated this way to this extent.

A LOT happened during this week with regards to putting spotlight on military and Manning. This is suspicious.