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While the media fervor has subsided around Bradley Manning’s conditions at a Marine brig in Quantico, VA, we all need a reminder that nothing has changed for Bradley. He still spends 23 out of 24 hours alone in his cell in severe isolation, with severe restrictions on his social contact, news consumption, freedom to exercise, and ability to sleep.
That’s why it was encouraging to see the LA Times editorialize last week on Bradley Manning’s conditions, calling his imprisonment “inhumane” and “indefensible.”
Pfc. Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst suspected of providing documents to WikiLeaks, can’t reasonably complain that the military has him in custody. But the conditions under which he is being held at the Marine detention center at Quantico, Va., are so harsh as to suggest he is being punished for conduct of which he hasn’t been convicted. [...]
Nevertheless, Manning is in “maximum custody.” Also, under a “Protection of Injury” order, he is confined to his cell for 23 hours a day, even though his lawyer says a psychologist has determined he isn’t a threat to himself. His lawyer also says that Manning is denied sheets and is unable to exercise in his cell, and that he is not allowed to sleep between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. If he attempts to sleep during those hours, he is made to sit up or stand by his guards. [...]
Manning’s status is periodically reviewed. Ideally, the next review will confirm what seems obvious: that he doesn’t pose a threat to himself or others and that his presence at future legal proceedings can be secured with a much more humane confinement. If the review doesn’t lead to a change in Manning’s treatment, the Pentagon should conduct its own inquiry.
Some see Manning as a whistle-blower who deserves leniency for exposing official duplicity; others believe that, like anyone who engages in civil disobedience, Manning, if guilty, should accept punishment for his actions. But regardless of one’s view of his alleged conduct, the conditions under which he is being held are indefensible.
According to Manning’s attorney, there won’t be a look at Manning’s condition until February. Until then, Manning will continue sit isolated in his cell. Please add your name to our letter to the Quantico brig commander urging humane treatment for Bradley Manning.
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When a right wing paper like the LA Times says something is inhumane, it must be inhumane indeed.
Looks like we need to expand our call for an investigation into the Bush War Crimes and add Barak Obama to the list!
Sorry, the rule of law is off the table.
Odd support group.
http://www.queerty.com/does-forcing-23-hours-of-beauty-sleep-upon-bradley-manning-constitute-torture-20101215/
Except in Afghanistan, where it’s put up in a 5-star hotel.
40%-35% unemployment in Afghanistan. Life expectancy at birth is 44 years. Most of the population is young, under 15, the remaining are in the middle, very few older people. Extreme poverty. 119,000 war refugees, read homeless. Nice going America.
Ok two things about this subject:
1. Lots of people in prison are subjected to solitary confinement. For this website (and I love and read this website everyday) to only now make some noise about this practice just screams disingenuous.
2. In the military, any military, but especially ones with long traditions of honor, discipline and a low regard for any traitors, you will find harsh penalties for any soldier who voluntary gives vital information out either to the public or to enemies. Now this info was given to a person who publicized the data, but that ultimately ended up in the hands of everyone including our enemies. Now a harsh penalty for this situation is needed to stop this from happening again by someone else and to set an example to anyone else who might even think about this. In the military there are different rules for discipline than your average work place like google or Burger King. But these different rules are in place to keep the whole army safe, not just one traitor happy.
Remember, it was Benedict Arnold who was the first traitor to our Army and if we would have captured him I dont think he would have gotten off lightly either.
A contracting company writing the law? Sounds like a shock-doctrine dream come true.
oops, that was meant for allan@5
Speaking of disingenuous, you don’t come here every day, or you would know we’re not only “just now” making some noise.
Secondly, the US military swears an oath to protect the Constitution. Punishing someone before they’ve been convicted of a crime is illegal. How about standing up for what’s right?
Thanks for the Republican talking points: anyone who thinks telling the truth about war crimes, and lie telling at the top of our government and State Department is a “traitor” to you folks. Whistleblowing is not a crime. Opposition to war crimes and government lies is not a crime and is the hallmark of a true patriot, unlike the obedient cowardice of folks like you. If Bradley was the leaker, he is a hero on the level with Daniel Ellsberg. Military rules also include an oath to support and protect the Constitution of the United States, and that means doing the morally right thing and not just obeying orders for the sake of obedience and being a ‘good’ and compliant soldier.
First of all, i have been reading about this , but i can mostly only comment in the mornings, if at all, its been pretty busy at work. But there has been no writing about prisoners in prison who are in solitary confinement before this guy. And as I said there are different rules in the military that are in place to keep the whole army safe not just one person.
Also I didnt say this the first time around, I really like the info that has been coming via wikileaks it is very important for an open dialogue. This does not, however, mean that the soldier in question did not place his fellow soldiers in a more dangerous position.
Speaking of keeping our Army safe, how did that work out in Vietnam, when we realized we’d been sold a bill of goods by our commanders? When we realized that the war was pointless and went against everything we believed it, that’s when the Vietnam War started to fall apart. So yeah, I support truth tellers, because they help us to know if what we are doing is right or wrong.
Nothing in the Collateral Murder. org video put American soldiers at risk. Nothing I have read so far in the logs has placed American soldiers at risk. You are just repeating Pentagon nonsense.
Whistleblowing is for the private sector, when you work for a company. What this soldier did was betraying his fellow soldiers in the field and at home.
There was also plenty of evidence, cited by this website about this Administration and the last, of how war crimes were and are being committed. However, even with all of the evidence that we have has anyone been even arrested let alone convicted?? No! So, try again, cuz its not like if it were not for this guy that we would not have any idea that war crimes are being committed.
Torture requires us to look forward, not back.
Exposing torture and misconduct reqires throwing someone in a hole until his mind snaps.
God Bless America.
You are being ridiculous. No one in the Bush or Obomba administrations has been convicted because the justice department works for them (contrary to the division of powers principle upon which the government was founded). There has been no trial. Let’s have one, or two or fifty. By your own argument though, we should just go ahead and put Dick Cheney in chains right now, let him rot for 3/4 of a year and then maybe get around to trying him.
Trust me, if i could get Cheney in solitary confinement i would, right now.
As to the Wars, I never said i was in favor of being in Afghanistan, or Iraq, im not. Im just saying that this soldier crossed the line.
Crossed the line? Really? Based on what evidence? Adrian Lamo’s? You don’t have any proof of that and you’re advocating punishment. That’s the problem. What if the guy is a stooge? What if he’s taking the fall for some effed up operation? Hold your judgement until you’ve seen the evidence AND make sure the evidence isn’t being tampered with (messing with the kid’s head for 7 months to get him to say what someone wants him to say is NOT the caliber of law my country stands for).
Who’s he betrayed? How? You don’t know whats happened. That’s the entire point of not trying him. No evidence has been vetted, no witnesses have been cross examined. If even the worst is true, then he’s guilty of no more than embarrassing the government. You’ve formed an opinion without even trying to get at the truth. You’d rather he was a broken shell and unable to defend him self before trying him, assuming you want a trial. Maybe just a quick execution.. Its your kind of attitude that puts soldiers at risk. Its the kind of attitude that got us into Iraq in the first place.
We don’t know Manning is guilty or innocent, but there are some things we do know. We know our civilian casualty rate over there is about 98%, we know thousands of people were sent to Gitmo who were innocent, we know we invaded a country (several now) on false pretenses, in short we know how concerned the military and this administration are about justice, or even the trappings of justice.
While I wholeheartedly agree that Manning is being held under torturous circumstances, what is amusing, ironically that is, is that the bulk of all the talk on and off line is about Manning and his incarceration and whether it is proper, and Julian Assange and the dangers of him being prosecuted for his work.
More’s the pity.
While important, what is lost is the fact that, even here at FDL, virtually no one is talking about what the leaked material exposes.
Are you one of those people who don’t do what they tell others to do?
Post your article after your research and link the evidence, how about that?
No. Now with wikileaks there is proof of war crimes.
Telling the truth, if that is what Bradley Manning has done can only be a ‘betrayal’ to liars. Standing up for international humanitarian law (which was violated at least three times in collateralmurder.org killings) can only be a betrayal if you are willing to commit crimes in the name of sheepish loyalty to your group.
If we had known the truth about Iraq’s nonexistent WMD, we could have saved the lives of 600,000 Iraqis killed as a result of that war. We could have saved the lives of 5,000 troops in Iraq. We could have prevented the dissolution of an entire Iraqi society.
If the truth of our past support for bin Laden’s people in Afghanistan had been known, we could have prevented the invasion of Afghanistan, which was trying to get rid of bin Laden. But you prefer ‘secrecy’ out of an irrational loyalty to a bunch of liars.
When I think about this further, it is you who have betrayed US and who continue to betray us by villifying truth tellers, whistleblowers and those who stand up for humanitarian laws.
You could get up off yr butt and do what you are demanding others do for you. you could read the cables and put together a post. it is not like there have not been any posts about the material.
The apologists have it SO backwards it’s not even funny. Holding this kid up as a scapegoat has NOTHING to do with protecting military personnel and EVERYTHING to do with trying to protect the image of the US Department of State. It’s Abu Graib all over again except that this time it’s about exposing the seedy truths of how and why we manipulate other governments instead of how our military lets fuckwits like Donald Rumsfeld run it into the mud while mercenaries get rich.
Pallets of $100 bills get shipped into places where they promptly disappear into black markets and then turn up again as Kalishnakovs aimed right back at our own troops. Protecting our soldiers. What a crock.
right back atcha, champ
Broadstreet…
lso I didnt say this the first time around, I really like the info that has been coming via wikileaks it is very important for an open dialogue. This does not, however, mean that the soldier in question did not place his fellow soldiers in a more dangerous position.
Are you deaf dumb and blind?
Manning has not been convicted of any crime. Why are you trying to perpetuate this misinformation?
==modnote: please, disagree without being disagreeable==
fyi – David Swanson, Code Pink, Ray McGovern, and others marched to Quantico in protest yesterday.
link
For all the Obama psychophants out there, keep in mind, this is being done under his administration, not a Republican president’s administration, but a so-called Democratic, constitutional lawyer’s administration. For those of you who haven’t figured out it yet, we are screwed if this is the best we can expect from a Democratic president.
Suggest you use the “Search” feature on FDL, and you’ll see a lot of posts about what is said in the WikiLeaks cables. Not sure how you missed all of that. It’s been a tad quiet on that topic recently bc no new cables have been released.
Otherwise, I agree with another post. If you feel not enough has been said about it, then please post on MyFDL about what you’ve read. I’m sure many here would be interested.
Commenting on Bradley Manning’s unfair imprisonment is important since Manning has been in his current torturous situation for quite a while now. Continuing to advocate for more humane treatment of Manning is very important, imo.
ripped this from spytap
• Hillary Clinton directed U.S. diplomats to gather intelligence on the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and top UN officials, including biometric information, passwords, and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications.
• CIA officers kidnapped and then tortured an innocent German man whose name was similar to a “suspected militant.” Germany was then warned to call off arrest warrants for those CIA officers. Failing that, “the German government” should “weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the U.S.”
• That while Saudi Arabia was asking us to openly engage Iran on a new war front, Saudi Arabian donors are also the chief financiers of Al Qaeda.
• That we traded Guantanamo Bay prisoners for favors.
• That the United States illegally carried out attacks within Yemen, which killed 41 civilians.
• That the United States leaned on Spain to drop both torture and murder investigations because they involved US citizens. At least one of those murders was of a Spanish journalist, whose death was initially listed as an “enemy combatant.”
• That we not only were United State officials and diplomats aware of a PMC (Private Military Company) operating in Afghanistan using United States resources and money to operate a child slavery and prostitution ring – in some cases even doing so on US military bases – but that the State department protected the company and people involved from prosecution, and helped kill at least one international story about the sex ring.
• That the United States habitually and knowingly misclassified the deaths of innocent civilians as “enemy combatants” to deliberately skew the numbers.
Thanks. That is the point of this post is it not? That another one of our brothers, a human being is held in solitary confinement, without a trial, without contact with the outside world, without being charged with a crime, without the usual due process afforded by law. In conditions that are punitive and which we suspect are being used to persuade him to lie about his relationship with Wikileaks so that personnel at Wikileaks can be charged with a crime.Thanks to M.W., cbl, Swanson, Code Pink et al. for keeping us focused. My apologies for letting those antagonistic to Bradley’s dilemma drag us away from Bradley’s immediate problems.
Moderator,
My apologies, I lost it for a moment.
Broadstreetbuddy,
Please accept my apology.
Pups, I also apologize to you all.
Wayne C
This is another case of Obama saying what people want to hear and then doing the opposite. He said he would only outsource torture through extraordinary rendition (that is a crime IMO), but not allow US personnel to do it.
Here is the thing about torture. As soon as you say it is acceptable in some situations, it quickly slides down that slippery slope to being just acceptable. It migrates from alleged terrorists, to criminal suspects in general, to political dissidents and creators of “offensive art.” It is an attack on all liberty. It’s purpose is to create fear of the government. Remember these words from Thomas Jefferson, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
No worries, all in good natured debate and discourse. Sometimes these topics enflame our passions. And if they didnt we wouldnt be reading this website and posing comments and questions.
America is addicted to its prisons, it has nearly a million more prisoners than its nearest rival, the People’s Republic of China. Howzat for a point of comparison. It frequently uses solitary confinement in the way that America’s psychiatric hospitals too often over-sedate rather than treat their patients. It’s to control them, to make life safer for their increasingly private sector guards and wardens, not to rehabilitate them or keep them safe or to keep them from brutalizing each other.
As Glenn Greenwald constantly points out, as bad as such practices may be, they are imposed on people the American system of justice has accused and convicted in a public court of law of heinous crimes. Mr. Manning is not among them. In the old Soviet fashion, however, we claim that the conditions of his confinement are not what they seem and are intended for his own good. No one but his captors would agree.
Mr. Manning may have done what this government claims, but then the government should publicly accuse, try and convict him of specific crimes before it imposes legitimate and reasonable punishment for those crimes. The government, following Mr. Obama’s lead, seems readier to mistreat him without all that palaver pour encourager les autres, as a signal to thousands of other potential whistleblowers that they would be foolish to do what their consciences may tell them is right and a public duty.
General Benedict Arnold came back leading forces for George III. He proceeded to burn towns and kill prisoners, including recommneding slaughtering the whole complement of a fort.
Comparison of that General Arnold to this Pvt. Manning is what’s disingenuous. Or simply ignorant of American history.
Along similar lines, legal definition of “treason” is not reached with a simple breach of security. All crimes are not the worst crime.
Solitary confinement is inhuman. It causes grievous harm. As punishment, it is cruel and unusual. It should only be used for long periods if there is no other way to protect others from harm.
Harsh punishment should be reserved for those convicted of serious crimes, and it should not include torture.