Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Across the Pond: This week, Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was released on bail from a London prison. Assange will remain under “mansion arrest” at the 600-acre estate of Vaughan Smith, a London restaurateur and former war correspondent. He plans to fight extradition to Sweden where he would face sex crimes allegations.
Back Here at Home: Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U. S. Army intelligence specialist who has been accused of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks, has been held
in solitary confinement at the marine brig in Quantico, Virginia, for five months. Before being transferred to Quantico, Manning was held in a military jail in Kuwait for two months. Manning will face a court martial on charges that he provided Wikileaks with classified information in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Bradley Manning is being kept under constant surveillance and is “under a regimen of authority-administered anti-depressant drugs.” He is reportedly not permitted to have a pillow or sheets—and not permitted to exercise. He is allowed out of his cell for just one hour a day.
According to MSNBC, Manning is being held under harsher conditions than “Bryan Minkyu Martin, the naval intelligence specialist who allegedly tried to sell military secrets to an undercover FBI agent.” Minkyu, who is awaiting trial, is not being held in solitary confinement.
From Glenn Greenwald: “Just by itself, the type of prolonged solitary confinement to which Manning has been subjected for many months is widely viewed around the world as highly injurious, inhumane, punitive, and arguably even a form of torture.”
All this harsh treatment—and Manning hasn’t even been convicted of the crime for which he has been charged.
For further reading on a related topic: DOJ Says Pentagon Isn’t Properly Protecting Whistleblowers (Turley Blawg)
Sources:
The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention by Glenn Greenwald (Salon)
Forgetting Bradley Manning by Laura Flanders (The Notion: The Nation’s Group Blog)
Bradley Manning’s Personal Hell (MSNBC)
Photo of Bradley Manning courtesy of the Bradley Manning Support Network
No wonder wikileaks is not giving Manning money for his defense.
From ABC News (12/17/2010)
Freed and Defiant, Assange Says Sex Charges ‘Tabloid Crap’
Wikileaks Founder Denies Rape Charge, Said He Never Knew Bradley Manning
http://abcnews.go.com/International/assange-speaks-sex-charges-tabloid-crap/story?id=12420465
Speaking to “GMA” (Good Morning America) in front of the sprawling English mansion where he is staying with a friend now that he has been released on bail, Assange is already mounting a defense against possible U.S. charges under the Espionage Act. He claims not to know Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence private who is allegedly behind the leak of the trove of classified diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks.
“I never heard the name Bradley Manning until it was published in the press,” Assange said. According to Assange, WikiLeaks is set up to provide the “leaker” of documents complete anonymity. Assange denied that he encouraged Manning to send the documents and likened his role to that of a reporter who discovers information.
“Security officers have a job to keep things secret, the press has the job to expose the public to the truth. So that is our job. We’re doing it. The fact that state department was not able to do their job is a matter for them,” he said.
About 25+ years ago I read an article about the mental health of American POW’s in Vietnam. They were often kept in solitary confinement also. The article dealt with a study done for the government or by the government, I don’t recall which but it was startling.
Prior to Vietnam most POWS were aggregated into groups and held in group. The classic WWII scenario we picture when we think of POW’s. Prisoner of war camps were the norm. People that were outwardly directed, worked well in groups and drew some measure of their identity from their group affiliation did well in such a situation even under extremely harsh conditions.
The reverse proved to be the case in prisoners in Vietnam under isolated conditions. The ‘outsider’ personality did better that the mentally group-oriented prisoners. Prisoners that weren’t joiners, were inwardly focused and didn’t rely on group identification for some level of personal validation were better able to handle the stress of isolation and suffered fewer mental disorders as a result.
Manning doesn’t look like a ‘lone wolf’ personality to me.
I’m on the Daily Beast e-mail list I got this :
by Denver Nicks Info
Denver Nicks
Denver Nicks is an editorial assistant at The Daily Beast.
*
Bradley Manning, who allegedly leaked hundreds of thousands of secret government documents to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, turns 23 in jail Friday. The Daily Beast’s Denver Nicks, in an exclusive interview with Manning’s attorney, reports on his solitary confinement, what he’s reading (from George W. Bush to Howard Zinn), and his legal strategy.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-12-17/bradley-manning-wikileaks-alleged-sources-life-in-prison/
Keith Olbermann did a segment about Bradley Manning on Countdown earlier this week. His guest was former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD-AMEcRK4g&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]
I have read elsewhere that the type of drugs being administered to Manning are of the same class as drugs administered to some detainees at Guantanamo and Bagram AFB (that are treated in the same manner as Manning) and obviously for the same reason. The people in charge of the incarceration know exactly what the effects of this kind of incarceration is and want to keep their prisoners useful, not insane. In the case of the prisoners that are foreign nationals, calling their treatment a war crime is appropriate.
What do we call it when it is an American, on American soil? Somehow “torture” just doesn’t seem repugnant enough anymore. The very fact that we speak so openly and frequently about our government’s embrace of this method of dealing with people has cheapened the word or desensitized those of us that discuss it.
What about the doctors and medical personnel that oversee the health of these prisoners? Where are their ethics? Keeping people healthy enough to continue being tortured makes them as complicit as the actual torturers. Good Germans, so many good Germans, just following orders…
Sorry about my previous comment. Here’s the correct link:
http://www.grittv.org/2010/12/16/the-f-word-forgetting-bradley-manning/
Elaine,
This is a story that needed telling. It doesn’t get any main stream press. If anyone can be held like this without a conviction or a trial, the mass media bells and whistles should go off. That is not the case here because our journalists are owned by big business!
From Laura Flanders and GRITtv:
[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/gdElgpWHLwI%5DMore GRITtv
Thanks for the link, Elaine.
To All:
There is a Bradley Manning Support Network. Here’s a link to the website:
http://www.bradleymanning.org/
Elaine, great post. Keep us updated.
Mr. Spindell,
Perhaps a good way to understand a particular society is by observing how they treat those who reveal unpleasant realities.
We’re not doing so good from the top of society down. But I feel completely at ease when I observe from the bottom of society up.
I don’t know much about the Wikileaks story, partly due to other distractions, but mostly because in hearing its’ detractors and knowing who they were, I was convinced that Wikileaks was on the side of angels, so the minute details didn’t hold my interest. This whole story including Assange’s ridiculous arrest and Mr. Manning’s illegal incarceration is perhaps the most important of recent memory.
We have a failed, corporatist dominated press that serve as mere propaganda outlets for the loose knit oligarchy that rules us. Were it not made up of such selfish sociopaths things would be even worse and we would discover the true meaning of feudalism.
Wikileaks and other currently unbridled online sources (such as this blog) serve as vehicles to get the true stories out to the public. The hope of all people who dream of a just society rest on their ability to quickly disseminate information. If that becomes blocked than for most of us life will become bleaker than Orwell’s vision of “1984.”
…It’s difficult to make the jump from self-preservation to pursue truth wherever it might take you.
My heart goes out to this guy.
What FFLEO said.
Also we should look to see if the Fascist Government of the United States uses this incident as a rationale for imposing restrictions on the free press – which is what they want to do anyway. They can’t have knowledge of their crimes being made public. Not if they want to avoid prison or getting that Marie Antoinette haircut.
‘The consequences of (Assange’s [and Manning’s]) behavior for the American press could be stark and painful’
The vote on the repeal of DADT is on c-span now. Since the topic is about the military, I thought it might be okay to bring it up. I hope McCain is not able to defeat it but he certainly is trying.
The torture continues! How can he beheld without charges for so long? Does the UCMJ allow for this?
Wikileaks has provided none of the money that they promised Manning for his defense.
Me. EM,
This is an important topic. I stand on the side that what Private Manning did was right.