On Twitter last night, Crowley renewed his campaign against the Pentagon’s torture of Manning. In two tweets, Crowley contrasted the State Department’s push for human rights for an American held by North Korea with the Pentagon’s decision to “play by its own rules” in denying the UN Special Rappoteur on Torture an official visit with Bradley Manning.

The US Government appears to be sweating from the heat brought on by the United Nations after the international organization’s lead torture investigator publicly criticized the United States’ decision to deny official visits to Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. Sign our letter to Quantico and Pentagon leaders: follow your own rules and allow official visits to PFC. Bradley Manning. Click here to add your name.

Government officials and Quantico Marine base have blocked official visits to PFC. Bradley Manning by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Amnesty International, and the UN Special Rappateur on torture.

It was one year ago today – April 5, 2010 – that Wikileaks released a video it titled “Collateral Murder,” that the organization described as “shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers,” and the injury of two children. None of us had heard the name Bradley Manning one year ago. Indeed, 365 days ago, PFC. Manning was in Baghdad, serving as an Army intelligence specialist. Today, Manning sits in almost total solitary confinement at the Quantico Marine Brig, having been charged with allegedly leaking the Collateral Murder video and other documents currently in Wikileaks’ possession.

The director of operations at Quantico Marine Base issued a “threat advisory” last weekend in advance of tomorrow’s rally in support of accused WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. Hundreds of people are scheduled for a peaceful protest at the base, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. Here is the text of the advisory: Subject: Possible threat [...]

Drop “Aiding the Enemy” Charges Against Manning Add your name to our letter urging Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to drop the “aiding the enemy” charges against Bradley Manning. » Read the whole letter and add your name. Now that three of the nation’s largest newspapers–the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and New York Times–have [...]

For the second night in a row, Pfc. Bradley Manning has been forced to strip naked in his cell and spent the night in humiliation in his cell at Quantico. Manning’s lawyer writes on his blog that Quantico’s new brig commander, CWO-2 Denise Barnes, directly made the decision to strip Manning without consulting the brig’s mental health specialists.

David House: “Through WikiLeaks we have been given direct evidence that the White House openly lies to congress and the American people in order to achieve political ends. Richard Nixon, in an attempt to stifle government transparency, once called Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America” and accused him of “providing aid and comfort to the enemy.” Today we see the Obama administration continuing the legacy Nixon started by declaring whistleblowers as enemies of the state. It is a sad and dangerous day for transparency advocates everywhere.”

This kind of harassment by the federal government is probably an extremely effective way to intimidate journalists and news organizations while really scare future potential whistleblowers. From Politico: Federal investigators trying to find out who leaked information about a CIA attempt to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program obtained a New York Times reporter’s three private credit [...]

Just hours after it was revealed that PayPal had frozen the account of the Bradley Manning Support Network, a group raising funds for alleged Wikileaker Pfc. Bradley Manning, the payment processing giant backed down after public pressure to restore access to the account.

In just 8 hours, more than 15,000 Firedoglake activists signed a letter to PayPal demanding the company “drop its unreasonable demands of the Bradley Manning Support Network and restore access to the group’s PayPal account.”