Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning nominated for 2014 Nobel Peace Prize

Sweden’s and Iceland’s Pirate Party representatives have jointly nominated whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning for 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. For Snowden, it is the fourth such nomination – his third this year.

“We are nominating Manning and Snowden together because the courage of Manning inspired in Snowden and both of them have inspired thousands of people all over the world to speak truth to power and demand transparency and accountability in their own societies,” said a joint letter by representatives in the EU parliament from the Pirate Party of Sweden and MPs from the Pirate Party of Iceland published Monday.

The ‘Pirates’ filed their joint nomination letter for the American whistleblowers just before the February 1 deadline.

The emotional text says that the two “outstanding candidates… have achieved and exceeded all the qualifications required to be worthy laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize” of 900,000 euro. The prize is awarded annually on December 10 to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies.”

Addressing the Nomination Committee, the Pirate Party members say that the whistleblowers “have inspired change and encouraged public debate and policy changes that contributed to a more stable and peaceful world” by leaking a trove of classified documents.

In the case of Manning, these documents pointed to “a long history of corruption, serious war crimes, and a lack of respect for the sovereignty of other democratic nations by the United States government in international dealings.”

Snowden’s leaks in turn revealed “the horrific scope of the global espionage network of the Anglo-American spy agencies” whose activities “endanger a wide array of civil liberties… such as free speech and the right to privacy,” the letter says.

04.02.2014
SOURCE: RT.COM