The Inhumane Conditions of Bradley Manning’s Detention

[Magda Hassan]

U.S. military investigators have been unable to find a direct link between jailed Army PFC Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks, reports NBC News.
However, the alleged source of the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables did download files illegally maintain military investigators. Reports NBC:

The officials say that while investigators have determined that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, there is apparently no evidence he passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.

WikiLeaks founder Assange has repeatedly stated that he had no contact with Manning prior to "reading his name in a magazine." WikiLeaks has, however, provided $15,000 towards Manning's legal fees, and Assange has referred to him as a "political prisoner."
Manning has been in the media spotlight recently as stories of his prison conditions have emerged. He is currently being held at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, in solitary confinement. The military has strongly denied that Manning's detention conditions are punitive or "torture," as has been alleged.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/24...13445.html

[David Guyatt]

He's a Brit and our grovelment does nothing, nothing. It takes Amnesty International to step in to the ring to try to shame them.

How do you spell gutless disgrace?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb...uk-citizen

Bradley Manning is UK citizen and needs protection, government told

Amnesty International asks government to intervene on behalf of soldier suspected of having passed US secrets to WikiLeaks

Ed Pilkington in New York, Chris McGreal in Washington and Steven Morris
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 February 2011 20.00 GMT


Bradley Manning, who is being held in a military jail and charged with the unauthorised use and disclosure of classified information. Photograph: AP

The British government is under pressure to take up the case of Bradley Manning, the soldier being held in a maximum security military prison in Virginia on suspicion of having passed a massive trove of US state secrets to WikiLeaks, on the grounds that he is a UK citizen.

Amnesty International called on the government to intervene on Manning's behalf and demand that the conditions of his detention, which the organisation calls "harsh and punitive", are in line with international standards.

Amnesty's UK director, Kate Allen, said: "His Welsh parentage means the UK government should demand his 'maximum custody' status does not impair his ability to defend himself, and we would also like to see Foreign Office officials visiting him just as they would any other British person detained overseas and potentially facing trial on very serious charges."

Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, which provides legal assistance to those facing capital punishment and secret imprisonment, likened the conditions under which Manning is held to those in Guantánamo Bay.

"The government took a principled stance on Guantánamo cases even for British residents, let alone citizens, so you would expect it to take the same stance with Manning."

Manning is a UK citizen by descent from his Welsh mother, Susan. Government databases on births, deaths and marriages show she was born Susan Fox in Haverfordwest in 1953.

She married a then US serviceman, Brian Manning, stationed at a US base near the city, and they had a daughter, Casey, in the same year. Bradley was born in Oklahoma in 1987.

Born in the US, he is a US citizen. But under the British Nationality Act of 1981, anyone born outside the UK after 1 January 1983 who has a mother who is a UK citizen by birth is British by descent.

"Nationality is like an elastic band: it stretches to one generation born outside the UK to a British parent. And that makes Bradley Manning British," said Alison Harvey, head of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association in London.

So far, however, Manning's British status has not impinged itself upon the UK authorities. The British embassy in Washington said it had not received any requests to visit Manning in jail. "It hasn't crossed our path yet," an official said.

The issue of the soldier's nationality has been bubbling furiously on Twitter in recent days and has been taken up by the UK branch of the Bradley Manning supporters network.

He has been held in the brig of Quantico marine base in Virginia since last July, having been arrested in Iraq, where he was stationed as a US army intelligence analyst two months previously.

He is alleged to have been the source of several WikiLeaks exposés of US state secrets, including the massive trove of cables released in November.

He has been charged with illegally obtaining 150,000 secret US government cables and handing more than 50 of them to an unauthorised person. Yet campaigners say the conditions in which he is being held are wholly disproportionate.

He was recently put on suicide watch for two days, in which he was stripped to his underpants, against the advice of prison psychiatrists. He remains on a regulation that keeps him alone in his cell 23 hours a day and requires him to be checked every five minutes, and he is shackled hand and foot when he has visitors.

In December the UN began an investigation into his treatment to see if it amounted to torture. The Foreign Office said that it was unable to release any information on an individual's nationality without that person's consent.

In general terms, the government normally will not intervene in cases of dual nationality where the person is held in the other country, but there are exceptions on humanitarian grounds, including claims of inhumane treatment.

[Magda Hassan]

I would expect nothing less from the poodle. They also offered up Gary MacKinnon on a silver plate. And any number of Guantanamo prisoners and who knows who else. Spineless evil vogons.

[Peter Lemkin]

Watch David House's latest update on Bradley Manning's condition



» Click here to watch the video
Peter -

Bradley Manning's friend David House was able to visit Bradley at the Quantico brig this weekend - this time, without being detained.

David discussed his visit with Bradley on MSNBC this week - click here to watch the video and hear the latest about Bradley Manning.

Bradley is still under a punitive psychiatric detention at Quantico. Bradley was put on suicide watch as punishment for two days, and remains under an unnecessary prevention of injury order in maximum custody - far beyond any other prisoner in the brig. David told us that Bradley seemed "catatonic," and was clearly mentally and physically affected by his extreme isolation.

But it's not all bad: Bradley "brightened up" when discussing the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, particularly the role of young people and the Internet in helping spur democratic movements.

Watch David talk about Bradley Manning on MSNBC and share the video with your friends.

Thanks for standing by Bradley Manning.

Michael Whitney
Firedoglake.com

[Magda Hassan]

Kucinich demands visit with accused Wikileaks source


By Nathan Diebenow
Friday, February 4th, 2011 -- 7:33 pm








A liberal congressman has demanded a chance to visit with accused secrets leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is being held in US military custody.
"As you know, I am concerned about reports of his treatment while in custody that describe alarming abuses of his constitutional rights and his physical health," Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates Friday.
He continued, "His care while in the custody of the Department of Defense is the responsibility of the U.S. Government and as a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform it is my duty to conduct effective oversight."
Recent reports have suggested that Manning's condition has declined visibly during six months in solitary confinement. Kucinich earlier in the week demanded that the Army publicly reveal Manning's mental health.
"If true, the Army's treatment would obviously constitute 'cruel and unusual punishment' in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution," Rep. Kucinich wrote in a previous letter to Gates.

Kucinich urged that Manning be immediately provided with a mental health specialist should the accusations of unfair treatment before his deployment to Iraq prove correct.
"At the very least, the Army must explain the justification for confining someone with mental health problems under conditions that are virtually certain to exacerbate those problems and explain the danger he now presents that only these extreme conditions of confinement can avoid," he added.
Kucinich's letter came in response to The Washington Post's report on Pfc. Manning, an Army intelligence analyst accused of being a source of the WikiLeaks documents. The report indicated that the Army deployed Manning to Iraq in spite of a mental health screening that recommended he remain at home.
In Iraq, Manning's mental health continued to deteriorate, the report indicated, to the point where he was demoted in rank for assaulting another soldier. Since his arrest in May 2010, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement at a prison in Quantico, Va.
Quoting from Glenn Greenwald's December 2010 report on Manning's condition, Kucinich wrote,"In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything."
Kucinich also quoted from a recent "Open Letter" from the Psychologists for Social Responsibility, issued in protest of Manning's incarceration. The letter said that the group determined Manning's confinement fits the definition of "cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment" and thereby violates US law.
In January, two activist reporters who tried to deliver a petition protesting Manning's treatment were detained against their will at Quantico. A few days earlier, Manning had been placed on suicide watch for two days against the wishes of the prison's psychologist.
Many of Manning's defenders say the US is trying to use its leverage against the Army private to pressure him into testifying against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, something the New York Times suggested last month.
Manning has been held in some form of solitary confinement for at least the past six months. He faces charges the Army says could result in up to 52 years in prison.
The United Nations' special rapporteur for torture has reportedly launched an investigation into complaints that Manning's treatment at Quantico amounts to torture.
This week, Amnesty International attempted to increase support to Manning by suggesting he may be a British citizen because his mother is reportedly Welsh by birth. However, Manning's lawyer said that his client considered himself an American citizen.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/kucin...ks-source/

[Peter Lemkin]

"In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything."

What a country.....! Innocent until proven guilty.....of course unless first assumed to be guilty...and tried....ah, the hell with a trial [waste of time]....just let him rot in solitary.....all suspected terrorists and 'unAmericans' are de facto guilty now. I guess the government can cut some cost from the budget by just getting rid of the Judicial System. Make 'em all guilty and put em all away. Brownshirts will be issued to all good Americans shortly.

They hate us for our liberties and freedoms...Ha!!

[David Guyatt]

Will Gates agree to Kucinich's request?

If Manning is being treated inhumanely, the answer has to be no.

[Peter Lemkin]

Will Gates agree to Kucinich's request?

If Manning is being treated inhumanely, the answer has to be no.

I'll bet: NOT A CHANCE!!

[Magda Hassan]

Soldier who leaked US cables may be freed over 'denial of rights'

By Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

[URL="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/soldier-who-leaked-us-cables-may-be-freed-over-denial-of-rights-2207442.html?action=Popup"]
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Lawyers acting for Bradley Manning, the US intelligence analyst accused of stealing classified diplomatic cables later made public by WikiLeaks, may file for the charges against him to be dismissed on the grounds that the nine months he has been held in solitary confinement breach his constitutional rights. While Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, attended an extradition hearing in London yesterday accompanied by his court of celebrity backers and 100 journalists, 23-year-old Manning spent another day in solitary confinement in his tiny, bare prison cell under conditions which have been described as inhumane and tantamount to psychological torture.
The few visitors allowed access to Private First Class Manning say that he points out that while his own reading material is subject to punitive restrictions, others, including Mr Assange, will profit from books being published about the exposure of the cables.
One of those who visited the prisoner at the end of last month, the computer researcher David House, reported that Pfc Manning has taken great interest in how new media has driven popular protests in Egypt and Tunisia and led to the fall of regimes.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

See https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=e...iogG&pli=1

(5) Since 2 March 2011, I have been stripped of all my
clothing at night. I have been told that the PCF Commander intends on
continuing this practice indefinitely. Initially, after surrendering
my clothing to the Brig guards, I had no choice but to lay naked in my
cold jail cell until the following morning. The next morning I was
told to get out of my bed for the morning Duty Brig Supervisor (DBS)
inspection. I was not given any of my clothing back. I got out of the
bed and immediately started to shiver because of how cold it was in my
cell. I walked towards the front of my cell with my hands covering my
genitals. The guard told me to stand a parade rest, which required me
to stand with my hands behind my back and my legs spaced shoulder width
apart. I stood at "parade rest" for about three minutes until the DBS
arrived. Once the DBS arrived, everyone was called to attention. The
DBS and the other guards walked past my cell. The DBS looked at me,
paused for a moment, and then continued to the next detainee‟s cell. I
was incredibly embarrassed at having all these people stare at me
naked. After the DBS completed his inspection, I was told to go sit on
my bed. About ten minutes later I was given my clothes and allowed to
get dressed.