Rael Names Bradley Manning "Honorary Guide," Citing his Courage in Leaking Documents

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Dec 21, 2011, 10:00 ET

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rael, founder and leader of the International Raelian Movement (www.rael.org), has bestowed the rare title "Honorary Guide for Humanity" upon Bradley Manning.

Manning, 24, was arrested for leaking sensitive government documents to Wikileaks while serving as an American soldier in Iraq in 2010. He is currently facing a court martial and possible death sentence for, among other charges, aiding the enemy.

According to a statement released today by the IRM, Rael conferred the Honorary Guide of Humanity title upon Manning "for his courage in revealing to humanity the dirty secrets of governments" and said he hopes that Manning's example "will push all military personnel in the world to do the same thing, so that no government or military leader can illegally kill, torture or do anything else that violates human rights."

In 2010, Rael similarly conferred the Honorary Guide title upon Julian Assange for his efforts in publishing these and many other classified documents.

"The title of Honorary Guide of Humanity is bestowed only upon those people whom, without concern for their own well being, do all they can to help humanity," said U.S. Raelian spokesperson Ricky Roehr. "We fully stand by Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and anyone else who exposes lying governments – and they all lie. Bradley Manning may pay the highest price for his loyalty to humanity because the government may kill him."

Roehr said Raelian philosophy is clearly against all violence.

"It says that all military forces should be banned because they are currently in place only for the duplicitous ends of politicians who themselves are controlled by whoever has the most money," Roehr explained. "And Raelian philosophy also says we should refuse to obey any order, no matter from whom, that would inflict pain or death on another person."

Those who join military forces voluntarily are misguided, according to Roehr.

"Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from all over the world join their nation's military organizations because they believe they're serving a higher cause," he said. "They believe their country is good and just. But what Manning did transcends to a much higher cause, that of humanity. Every year, we read belated leaked documents revealing yesterday's truths – for example, about the U.S. government experimenting on innocent people and giving them syphilis, LSD or other terrible things. Manning's info is news about wrongs our government is actually committing today. This information has to be made known in the hope of having those wrongs corrected. So we are grateful to Honorary Guide Manning for his courage in revealing the truth!"

SOURCE Raelian Movement