http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/un_investigating_bradley_manning_torture_claimsObama torturing gays?
Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army intelligence officer who allegedly leaked diplomatic cables and evidence of war crimes to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, hasn't been convicted of a crime – and if he did what he stands accused of, he would in a more just be properly considered a hero.
But for more than six months, Manning has lived in strict solitary confinement in a military prison, barred from even exercising or reading a newspaper, torturous conditions those who have visited him say are rapidly deteriorating his mental and physical health.
Activists are encouraging Manning's supporters to contact officials at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, where he's currently being held in isolation 23 hours a day, to demand he be treated humanely. Supporters have also raised more than $117,000 for his legal defense fund, which should come in handy if the government ever gets around to giving him a trial.
And now the United Nations is looking into whether he's being tortured, with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak opening an investigation this week in response to a complaint from one of Manning's supporters; Lt. Col. Davidi Coombs, Manning's military lawyer, recently described the conditions his client is being held in on his blog, a somewhat unusual step for an attorney required by the gravity of the situation and the need to pressure those responsible to immediately stop the mistreatment.
Speaking yesterday with MSNBC's Cenk Uygur, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he didn't know whether Manning was the one who leaked the 250,000 State Department cables or the "Collateral Murder" video of U.S. troops gunning down Iraqi civilians -- but that if he was, “then this man acted for political reasons. He is a political prisoner in the United States. He has not gone to trial. He's been a political prisoner without trial in the United States for some six or seven months. That's serious business.”
No one's alleging Manning is being subjected to electrodes on his genitals or needles under his nails. But solitary confinement for months at a time is no less torture, which is why even authoritarian states like Tunisia have pledged not to use it for more than 10 days.
Since he was first put in solitary, “it has become obvious to me that Manning’s physical and mental well-being are deteriorating,” writes supporter David House, one of the few people allowed to visit Manning, in a piece for Firedoglake. Among other conditions, Manning is not allowed bedsheets or a pillow, is barred from receiving any news about current events, and is prohibited from possessing any personal items. Though he has been psychologically evaluated and ruled not a suicide the threat, the military is justifying the conditions based on a “Prevention of Injury” order, prompting speculation it's an attempt to push Manning into confessing (or helping in the prosecution of others).
“When told of the Pentagon’s statement that he did indeed receive exercise,” writes House, “Manning’s reply was that he is able to exercise insofar as walking in chains is a form of exercise.” He laughed when told a military spokesman said he was allowed to read newspapers.
The impact of long-term solitary confinement on an inmate – a disgracefully all too common punishment in the U.S., employed at prisons in more than 40 states – can be psychologically devastating. Take the case of Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen the Bush administration labeled an “enemy combatant,” who spent 3 ½ years on a military brig in strict isolation. He left a broken man. “Whatever happened to him has radically changed him,” said one psychiatrist who examined him afterwards. Family members can no longer bear to visit him, not even recognizing the Jose Padilla of the days before he was mentally destroyed by the system. "He is not the same man who was taken into custody in 2002.”
Manning's supporters don't want the same thing to happen to him, but they'll need to apply more of the sort of public pressure that forced the Pentagon into issuing a whole host of defensive denials that Manning is being mistreated. The group Courage to Resist, which supports soldiers who refuse to be a part of illegal wars and occupations -- that is, those who uphold their military oath to protect and defend the Constitution -- is encouraging people to demand an immediate end to Manning's solitary confinement by writing the following officials:
Quantico Base Commander
Colonel Daniel Choike
3250 Catlin Avenue, Quantico VA 22134
(703) 784-2707 (phone)
Quantico Brig Commanding Officer
CWO4 James Averhart
3247 Elrod Avenue, Quantico VA 22134
(703) 784-4242 (fax)
You can also write Manning himself (postcards are recommended), care of Courage to Resist, at 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, CA 94610. And if you haven't already, go on record with your support by joining Code Pink in demanding humane treatment for Bradley Manning.
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