Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
The nightmare started back in July of 2010. Pvt. Bradley Manning was arrested and detained in the Brig at the Quantico Marine Base on allegations that he stole and then leaked classified documents to Wikileaks. The conditions that Pvt. Manning has been held under have been outrageous from the start. He has suffered shackling, solitary confinement and he has not been allowed normal contact with visitors and the outside world. His visitors have been denied access to him and now the latest humiliating tactic being used by the Department of Defense is to force Pvt. Manning to strip naked in his cell for hours!
“All Americans should be horrified and outraged by yesterday’s revelations that PFC Bradley Manning, already being held under Maximum Security and a Prevention of Injury (POI) order, has now been forced to spend seven hours each night and morning stripped naked: Last night, PFC Manning was inexplicably stripped of all clothing by the Quantico Brig. He remained in his cell, naked, for the next seven hours. At 5:00 a.m., the Brig sounded the wake-up call for the detainees. At this point, PFC Manning was forced to stand naked at the front of his cell. The Duty Brig Supervisor (DBS) arrived shortly after 5:00 a.m. When he arrived, PFC Manning was called to attention. The DBS walked through the facility to conduct his detainee count. Afterwards, PFC Manning was told to sit on his bed. About ten minutes later, a guard came to his cell to return his clothing.” ‘ Firedoglake How can a detainee who has not been convicted of anything and has been an exemplary prisoner be subjected to this kind of treatment? It appears that this latest degrading treatment is in response to a remark made by Manning when his Article 138 request to be removed from the suicide watch was denied. David E. Combs, Esq.
‘“Brig officials notified defense lawyers that mental health providers were not consulted in deciding to strip manning of his clothes. “This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification. It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated,” Coombs said. “No other detainee at the Brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation.”’ RawStory We have a situation where the United State government has been holding a prisoner who has only recently been charged with leaking classified documents and more recently the charges were amended to add in a charge of “aiding the enemy”. This is not some convicted killer that requires some tougher sanctions to keep him under control. This is a soldier who has been a model prisoner who just wants to be treated according to the law and according to normal military procedures.
Didn’t President Obama make it a campaign issue that he considered the Bush interrogation methods as torture and that those methods were illegal and that they would not be continued under his administration? I realize that the claim has been made that those methods have been outlawed at Gitmo, but I wonder why they haven’t been outlawed at Quantico? If Pvt. Manning is guilty of leaking classified documents, then prove it in a trial or court-martial.
Is there another reason why Manning has been the recipient of these harsh measures? Could the Obama Administration and the Department of Defense just be embarrassed that the leaked documents actually showed that they had been lying to the American people by taking official steps to prevent Bush-era torture from being investigated internationally? Anyone who reads about the horrible treatment that Private Manning has been receiving from our government, should be ashamed and outraged. What are we going to do about it?
Additional Sources: Emptywheel
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
Whether one calls the mistreatment of Manning torture or simply maltreatment is a matter of semantics. Look at it this way. If a civilian correctional officer, warden or jailer treated a prisoner this way, it would be an indictable offense and the jailer might find him or herself a guest in their own jail. I am not an expert on international law or war crimes, but would not be the least surprised if this also came under the heading of a war crime if a POW were treated in the same manner.
I do not care one way or the other whether this treatment of Manning is called torture or mistreatment. It is wrong, and the perpetrators themselves would be jailed in a perfect and just world.
From Democracy Now (2/10/2011)
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/10/headlines/cables_torture_linked_egyptian_police_trained_in_us_xw
WikiLeaks Docs: Torture-Linked Egyptian Police Trained in U.S.
Newly released classified U.S. diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks have shed more light on the key U.S. support for human rights abuses under Mubarak’s regime in Egypt. The cables show Egyptian secret police received training at the FBI’s facility in Quantico, Virginia, even as U.S. diplomats in Egypt sent dispatches alleging extensive abuse under their watch. Coincidentally, Quantico also hosts the military base where alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning is being held in solitary confinement. A cable from October 2009 cites allegations from “credible” sources that some prisoners were tortured “with electric shocks and sleep deprivation to reduce them to a ‘zombie state.'” One cable from November 2007 shows then-FBI deputy director John Pistole praised the head of Egypt’s secret police for “excellent and strong” cooperation between the two agencies. Pistole currently heads the Transportation Security Administration in the United States.
From CBS News
February 10, 2011
Why Bradley Manning Is a Patriot
Chase Madar: An Opening Statement for the Defense of Private Manning
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/10/opinion/main20031354.shtml
Excerpt:
Bradley Manning, a 23-year-old from Crescent, Oklahoma, enlisted in the U.S. military in 2007 to give something back to his country and, he hoped, the world.
For the past seven months, Army Private First Class Manning has been held in solitary confinement in the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia. Twenty-five thousand other Americans are also in prolonged solitary confinement, but the conditions of Manning’s pre-trial detention have been sufficiently brutal for the United Nation’ss Special Rapporteur on Torture to announce an investigation.
Pfc. Manning is alleged to have obtained documents, both classified and unclassified, from the Department of Defense and the State Department via the Internet and provided them to WikiLeaks. (That allegedly is important because the federal informant who fingered Manning, Adrian Lamo, is a felon convicted of computer-hacking crimes. He was also involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution in the month before he levelled his accusation. All of this makes him a less than reliable witness.) At any rate, the records allegedly downloaded by Manning revealed clear instances of war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, widespread torture committed by the Iraqi authorities with the full knowledge of the U.S. military, previously unknown estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians killed at U.S. military checkpoints, and the massive Iraqi civilian death toll caused by the American invasion.
For bringing to light this critical but long-suppressed information, Pfc. Manning has been treated not as a whistleblower, but as a criminal and a spy. He is charged with violating not only Army regulations but also the Espionage Act of 1917, making him the fifth American to be charged under the act for leaking classified documents to the media. A court-martial will likely be convened in the spring or summer.
Politicians have called for Manning’s head, sometimes literally. And yet a strong legal defense for Pfc. Manning is not difficult to envision. Despite many remaining questions of fact, a legal defense can already be sketched out. What follows is an “opening statement” for the defense. It does not attempt to argue individual points of law in any exhaustive way. Rather, like any opening statement, it is an overview of the vital legal (and political) issues at stake, intended for an audience of ordinary citizens, not Judge Advocate General lawyers.
After all, it is the court of public opinion that ultimately decides what a government can and cannot get away with, legally or otherwise.
It looks like the DOD is stonewalling Dennis Kucinich’s request to see Pvt. Manning, after 30 days of delay he has received a response that is utter drivel and totally uncooperative.
I did not know that such a thing was possible. What would the legal ramifications be if a Congressperson showed up at a military prison and just said “I’m here to see so and so and remind them that Congresspersons are elected members of the Executive branch? Has the military assumed so much power that it can just say no to such requests or demands and hide behind BS regs?
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/dod-stonewalls-dennis-kucinichs-attem
rafflaw,
Drawing on the rack? Cutting the flesh and breaking the bones? Electrocution? Classic torture.
Shackling in stress positions, simulated drowning, and forced nudity in freezing temperatures? I call that torture. If anyone disagrees (John Yoo), it is likely to be as a matter of degree.
Enforced nudity and and needless isolation from visitors? Wrong, inappropriate, and a violation of his civil rights. However, I don’t think it’s torture. It’s different not only in degree but in kind.
Well said Buddha.
Buckeye, you are a victim of the John Yoo definition of torture. To claim that shackling, solitary confinement and forced nudity is not torture is easy to say. Why don’t you give it a try and see what you think then.
Tootie,
Nullification is a nullity.
I agree that this is inappropriate and should be stopped, but I’d call this mistreatment, not torture. The conduct seems designed to isolate and humiliate Pvt. Manning—which, while inappropriate, is not torture.
There is really such a thing as torture and people are really subjected to it. Calling the mistreatment of Pvt. Manning described above torture cheapens the word. – James M.
I agree. Unless they’ve been doing physical harm or threatening physical harm I don’t see any reason to call the mistreatment torture. They should have followed the rules on court martial, which are codified and stringent, but torture? No; and to call it so does cheapen the word and the concept. Hyperbole, once again, which does more to damage civil rights than to strengthen them.
Raff said, “The wikileak documents didn’t put any soldiers at risk.”
And this is quite true. There was only one net effect of the Wikileaks documents. It embarrassed our incompetent bought off fascist government. And their fascist masters if Assange ever comes off the bank documents.
rafflaw:
You ask: “Where and how do we stop this abuse?
Don’t we have a justice department?
Okay, joking aside.
Nullification? How about some states (like Virginia?) making it illegal for any government official to do what they are doing to Manning? Then arrest them so as to trigger a run at the Supreme court.
How else will we wake up our leaders when they won’t listen to common sense or, worse, when they become uncontrollable despots with toys that can wipe us out? We have to take from them what they crave most: absolute power over others. New Hampshire is going to make it harder for TSA officials to molest citizens. We need more of this sort of thing. Chase the feds. Make them blink. Make them think twice. Hit the Feds with a constant barrage of laws against them when THEY violate the law.
http://www.examiner.com/libertarian-in-national/bill-would-subject-some-tsa-screening-techniques-to-sexual-predation-laws
The revolt in the Middle East is merely a switching of despots. And that is all we would get if we rose up that way without dismantling the centers of despotism. Only things would be worse for us if we tried what they are doing mainly because we are welled armed ourselves and passions would get out of hand. Many more would die here because government would slaughter us.
Jefferson said that our government had to fear us (and not the other way around) in order for our government to be a good one.
I say they do not fear us. Not by a long shot. Nullification appears to be a good means for giving them a good taste of fear. But this cannot be done unless the left joins in on the effort. They just need to overcome their bias against the 10th amendment.
May I suggest the Tenth Amendment center. They have a good article about everyone uniting against the despots in government:
http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/11/10/bridging-the-political-chasm/
I don’t hate government. My Christian faith teaches me to recognize its authority while at the same time to resist it when it is evil and lawless. Our founders and framers have provided a good example of how to do it.
Our leaders have forgotten that absolute power is an evil. And our inability to rein in government abuse after decades of elections proves that absolute power is in full operation.
Nullify. Do it now. Do it often.
And if they buck it: secession would be our last resort. Then we will see what kind of people they really are: will they mow us down or not? Will they murder us because we will not agree to their despotism?
They need to see who THEY are. And we need to see where we stand.
I don’t care: The Collateral Murder video shows the US Military shooting unarmed civilans. When did they change the Rules of Engagement?
Manning has “cojones” and would kick your ass, he’s proven his courage
Hey Mikey, it’s people like you who think this guy is a hero and has courage who make me sick. Were you ever in the military or did you run off to Canada instead. You wouldn’t know courage if it jumped up and bit you in the butt. As for me I’ll hold my piece until the day they put the needle in his arm and he slips off to his special place in hell. Yea I agree the guy hasn’t been convicted yet but how can you overlook the evidence and still call him a hero. That,s just not right.
Gyges,
You beat me to the punch. Torture is not just physical pain.
James,
The UN disagrees.
“Part I
Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
2. This article is without prejudice to any international instrument or national legislation which does or may contain provisions of wider application. ”
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
(In contrast, water boarding and stress positions are about inflicting pain and fear—both characteristic of torture.)
I agree that this is inappropriate and should be stopped, but I’d call this mistreatment, not torture. The conduct seems designed to isolate and humiliate Pvt. Manning—which, while inappropriate, is not torture.
There is really such a thing as torture and people are really subjected to it. Calling the mistreatment of Pvt. Manning described above torture cheapens the word.
Mike S.,
Well said. It always amazes me how tough people can be when someone is “accused” of a crime. Where does it say you throw out the Constitution when someone is accused?
“Why not put him in general population so some nut case can break a broom stick off in his ass so you bleading heart liberal, dope smoking hippies would have something to really cry about. I hope they put him to death after they find him guilty of treason during a war…….’
I Don’t Care is the perfect name for you. Good choice,
since you obviously don’t care about the facts, the issues, the Constitution and or anything else. You don’t care about the fact that your comments are those of a no-nothing thug. For your limited information there is no war going on. The War on Terror is absurd since one can’t fight a war against a point of view, no matter how reprehensible.
Though our brave soldiers are being killed and maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan, because people like you support ignorance, there is no war in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Why? Because under the Constitution only Congress can declare war and it hasn’t
As for a nutcase breaking a stick and sodomizing him, why do I think it would be someone like you who would attempt it? I say attempt because unlike you Manning has “cojones” and would kick your ass, he’s proven his courage already. You? Other than talking tough, not so much.
Regarding you as Jimmy Clift put it:
Puzzling,
I agree with the two reasons that you give for the government to abuse Manning. I thought at least citizens still had rights in the U.S.
IDC,
Who is the enemy that Manning is alleged to be aiding? It is not al-Qaeda. Read the wikileak documents and you might feel different. Besides, since when do allegations of a crime allow the government to punish anyone? I have a son in Afghanistan so I care what secrets are disclosed. The wikileak documents didn’t put any soldiers at risk.
So what do you call what we are doing, a picnic. My son had a friend blown to pieces by an IED and another who had part of his brain distroyed by one and this scum gives away secrets to aid the enemy. Sorry if I don’t feel the same pity you do but to me he is the lowest of the low. But I supposed you would have him receive a medal for what he did.