Army Lt. Dan Choi Pinned to Ground, Thrown Off Base Before Manning Trial
By: David Dayen Monday December 19, 2011 9:00 am
Activist Dan Choi was wrestled to the ground by MPs and thrown off the base at Fort Meade, where he was to attend the trial of Bradley Manning. Choi, who went with Pentagon Papers leader Daniel Ellsberg to the trial, has now been banned from the courtroom, and must stay off the base for at least 24 hours.
Choi, in an interview after the incident, said that he picked up Ellsberg and went to the front gate at Fort Meade, where he was stopped for 10 minutes. The base officials at the front gate apparently had a problem with him wearing his uniform onto the base. “They said, ‘you don’t have the right to wear the uniform,’ and I said I did, I was honorably discharged and I have the legal right to wear this uniform,” said Choi, who was discharged initially under the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy after coming out publicly in 2010.
Eventually, officials let him through, apologizing to Choi, and he and Ellsberg passed security and made it through to the courtroom. Moments before the trial was to resume, Choi spied a military member he identified as Staff Sergeant Leo, who Choi claimed had been giving him dirty looks before. “I said to him, ‘Hello, staff sergeant, how’s your dog.’ He ignored me, and then the marshal told me I was heckling,” Choi said.
The marshal (named John, according to Choi) and a Major Sides told Choi that someone else was tossed from the courtroom for heckling, and that he could not do that. Choi protested that he was not heckling, and that he sat through the entire trial the day before without saying a word.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/12/19/army-lt-dan-choi-pinned-to-ground-thrown-off-base-before-manning-trial/
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