Dear John,

One year ago today Judge Liam O'Grady handed down the sentence for whistleblower Daniel Hale. He received a 45 month sentence for exposing the truth about the deadly U.S. drone program. Daniel will serve the rest of his time in the federal prison in Marion, Illinois. 

Help Daniel get out sooner by writing to your members of Congress!

Before his sentencing he wrote a letter to Judge O'Grady where he discussed his own experience with PTSD, but spent a lot of the time discussing the barbarity of drone warfare that he witnessed in Afghanistan. In his letter he said, "Your Honor, the truest truism that I’ve come to understand about the nature of war is that war is trauma....The answer came to me, that to stop the cycle of violence, I ought to sacrifice my own life and not that of another person. So, I contacted an investigative reporter, with whom I had had an established prior relationship, and told him that I had something the American people needed to know." 

You can help Daniel get back to his loved ones sooner. Write to your member of Congress and call on them to pressure President Biden to grant Daniel's commutation.

Another way you can help Daniel is to write to him. He loves receiving letters from people and would love to hear from you. Please write on plain white paper with black ink and send your letter to this address: 

Daniel Everette Hale 26069-075
USP Marion
U.S. Penitentiary 
P.O. Box 1000
Marion, IL 62959

Please make sure to follow the instructions so the prison does not reject your letter. He will try his best to write back, but he is incarcerated in a Communications Management Unit that makes any and all communications between Daniel and the outside world more difficult than it would be otherwise. 

Daniel ended his statement to his judge one year ago by saying:

"Forgive me, your honor, for the taking of papers as opposed to the lives of others. I could not, god so help me, have done otherwise." 

Today I am riddled with sadness thinking that a person as brave and as honest as Daniel will spend even a day longer in prison for telling people in the U.S. what was being done in our name. I am hopeful though, that there are people like him out there. 

In Solidarity,
Danaka and the whole CODEPINK Team