Private First Class Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, stands accused of disclosing classified video depicting American troops in Iraq shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in 2007. Eleven people were killed, including two Reuters employees, and two children were critically injured. No charges have been filed against the soldiers who did the killing. News sources have also speculated about Manning's involvement in the leak of over 90,000 secret documents (collectively known as the Afghanistan "war logs") made public by WikiLeaks on July 25.

“Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime,” says former Marine Corporal Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, a group working with the Bradley Manning Support Network to raise funds for Pfc. Manning's defense.

Other speakers included: Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink; Phyllis Bennis, writer and peace activist; Josh Stieber, Iraq veteran of the ground unit that appears in the leaked "Collateral Murder" video; Matt Southworth, Iraq Veterans Against the War; Ray McGovern, retired CIA officer and officer, founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; Ellen Barfield, Veterans for Peace; Andrew Castro, ANSWER Coalition; Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus

Organizations that mobilized groups of individuals included: CodePink, ANSWER Coalition, Truth 911, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, World Can't Wait, Food Not Bombs, and regional Washington DC activists.