Anonymous Hackers Target Alleged WikiLeaker Bradley Mannings’ Jailers

[Hissyspit]

Source: Forbes

Anonymous Hackers Target Alleged WikiLeaker Bradley Mannings’ Jailers

Mar. 7 2011 - 6:34 am

- snip -

Over the weekend, the loose hacker collective Anonymous declared that it will go on the offensive against those who are currently detaining Manning in a Quantico military brig, keeping him in solitary confinement and forcing him to strip nightly and stand at attention naked each morning.

In a crowdsourced document used to coordinate the group’s actions, Anonymous members name Department of Defense Press Secretary Geoff Morell and chief warrant officer Denise Barnes as targets and call on members to dig up personal information on both, including phone numbers, personal histories and home addresses. The goal of the operation, for now, is to “dox” the two officials, the typical Anonymous method of publishing personal information of victims and using it for mass harassment.

- snip -

“Manning must be given sheets, blankets, any religious texts he desires, adequate reading material, clothes, and a ball. One week. Otherwise, we continue to dox and ruin those responsible for keeeping him naked, without bedding, without any of the basic amenities that were provided even to captured Nazis in WWII.”

One member of Anonymous, who tells me he’s not associated with the action, says that doxing will likely include “ruin life tactics” such as “ordering them pizza, sending them thousands of boxes, reporting them to police for drug abuse, sex offenders list, tricking their ISPs into canceling the Internet, messing with their social security numbers, false flag, fax harassment, phone harassment, email bombing, subscriptions to magazines, diapers, tampons.”

Read more: http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/03/07/anonymous-hackers-target-alleged-wikileaker-bradley-mannings-jailers

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Wow. They've been eating their Wheaties, I guess.

The Defense Department isn't on the same level as the Phelps clan or the Church of Scientology. This may be the end of Anonymous.

[boppers]

51. DoD went after Anonymous and Wikileaks a while ago.

This isn't a new war front, this is another skirmish.

[Bragi]

2. I consider this to be fair tactics

The people who are making and carrying out illegal orders to abuse and torture Manning to force him to implicate Assange deserve whatever harassment they get from Anonymous.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

3. and you have actual proof of abuse and torture being done?

[Lastactiongyro]

4. yes, it is out there in many forms, go look it up.

[Occulus]

5. .

:puke:

[Bodhi BloodWave]

7. while i find some of the things done to manning exessive and uncalled for

i do not think it puke-worthy to be of the view that its not torture or abuse, to me claiming so cheapens those two words

[EFerrari]

39. Then you have some reading to do because experts agree

that forced nudity, sensory deprivation and sleep disruption is abuse. Solitary confinement can lead to permanent brain damage.

[TalkingDog]

48. You are correct.

Sadly.

[marasinghe]

47. i know what you mean. for me, it's like obama claiming to be a democrat & a constitutional scholar,

& then allowing his army to bully manning - sadistically, albeit in non-physical terms - cheapens those terms.
i guess, it's about opinions. except for manning - who's at the receiving end of some wolf pack level unpleasantness, which, we figured, had gone out with the tides that swept out joe mcarthy & his heroic band of courtroom patriots, such as ronald reagan & john wayne.

[Bragi]

13. No, I believe all the apologists

I'm sure the military has placed him in solitary confinement, restricted his sleeping, made sure he has nothing to read, and now stripped him naked so as to keep him mentally sharp and healthy.

I also believe that waterboarding is just another way of making sure prisoners get enough water.

You?

[jaxx]

6. Why is anon doing that?

Manning's lawyer said he made a remark about suicide, that is why his clothing is removed at night.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/03/ap-wikileaks-manning-lawyer-says-suicide-joke-led-to-stripping-030511/

[Maine_Nurse]

9. And that is pretty standard suicide precautions at civilian and military jails. nt

[jaxx]

12. Yeah, so why is anon going to crucify the people protecting him?

None of this makes sense. It's ridiculous.

[Bragi]

15. Because they are torturers

Maybe not according to administration and military apologists, but it sure would be torture under the Geneva convention.

I have no sympathy for torturers.

[Bragi]

16. No doubt in the torture chambers of America's prisons

I'm sure in the inhumane hell-holes that are America's prisons, this kind of abusive punishment takes place routinely. This doesn't mean it isn't torture.

[atreides1]

19. But is humiliation an accepted precaution?

In civilian jails an inmate is placed on suicide watch, and restraints are used if required. Besides, if someone really wants to commit suicide they will find a way to do it.

[Maine_Nurse]

27. Civilian jails also do the naked with no blanket thing. No, I don't think it is right...

I work in a psych facility and we don't need to resort to that, but then again we have trained staff to deal with it, jails and prisons don't (although they should).

[marasinghe]

45. for a few moments, i thought you were being sarcastic ....

until i saw your next post. ever read ken kesey?

[pocoloco]

10. "why his clothing is removed at night"

The question is why is he even thinking of suicide?

[jaxx]

11. Why? Who knows.

Stealing government data might have something to do with it...and the consequences of.

[Maine_Nurse]

14. IIRC, this isn't the first time the suicide thing has come up with him...

I seem to remember something from the beginning of this mess about his past history.

[Bragi]

21. Indeed

As a self-identified nurse, do you think that putting him in solitary confinement, restricting his sleep, giving him no books or other distractions, and stripping him naked nightly would be a good way of thwarting any suicidal tendencies?


Or might your training suggest that this kind of abuse would have the opposite effect?

[Maine_Nurse]

30. I absolutely agree with you...

all I am saying is that it is fairly common practice in both military and civilian prisons and especially jails. There is currently a lawsuit going on here about the exact same treatment in a county jail. The female inmate is claiming she wasn't suicidal, otherwise her treatment does follow their policy.

Ideally, if someone is that suicidal, they would be committed to a facility that could deal with it without using that type of treatment. Frankly, though, most of the psych beds in this state are usually full and there would be no place to put them for eval.

[msanthrope]

46. He had the bolt removed from his gun while in the Army because of his mental state.

http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/2010/09/pfc-manning-lawyer-does-not-question.html

[1monster]

50. And all of the prison psychologists keep saying he is NOT suicidal.

[Bragi]

17. Probably to escape torture

That would be my guess. he has been trained in resisting torture, so he can probably hang on a long time, but I'm sure he reamins afraid that he will eventually break down and do what his tortures are demanding -- to falsely implicate Assange as a co-conspirator in his decision to send the docs to Wikileaks.

[Demstud]

24. I'm guessing

Maybe so he can't hang himself? That's the only reason I can think of beyond psychological torture (or physical torture if it's too cold).

[Danascot]

44. I'd be suicidal too

He's fucked.
He's young and his life is over.
He knows they're never going to let him go and he has little hope they'll ever stop making his life a living hell.

[1monster]

49. He's not. He made a sarcastic remark when he was told his confinement would

not be upgraded to something less than what it was. It was obvious sarcasm and they chose to use it to punish him more.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

20. You cite the Army Tiimes

as a source of information? :shrug:

[jaxx]

26. It was an AP article, 3 paragraphs long, posted on Army Times.

Which, by the way has miraculously just disappeared. When the link is clicked on it's the big 404.

Strange, dontcha think? Who wants that information hidden?

Manning's lawyer has this on his site at the end of paragraph two:

<..> In response to PFC Manning's question, he was told that there was nothing he could do to downgrade his detainee status and that the Brig simply considered him a risk of self-harm. PFC Manning then remarked that the POI restrictions were "absurd" and sarcastically stated that if he wanted to harm himself, he could conceivably do so with the elastic waistband of his underwear or with his flip-flops.

http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/

Sarcastic or not, the statement shouldn't be ignored.

[jwirr]

32. Then why do they have him in a cold cell? Does he not have a right

to a warm place to sleep? This man has not had the benefit of a trial - something the constitution guarantees all citizens. They have no right to punish him the way they are until he has been found guilty by a judge and jury and even then there are limits to the kind of punishment that can be administered. In the line of Kucinich: Is this the USA or are we in a gulag somewhere? Either we are upholding our constitution or we are not. At this point it looks to me like we are not.

[bonnieS]

36. He said he made a sarcastic remark

and he is NOT on a suicide watch list. This is humiliation for the sake of wearing him down. It is a Bush tactic--look it up.

I am surprised he has enough of a mind left to make a sarcastic remark.

[bonnieS]

37. Not exactly

He said that Manning was making a sarcastic comment, and is NOT on suicide watch.
I am amazed Manning still has enough a mind left to make sarcastic comments.

[bonnieS]

38. sorry--

I got a note that it did not go through the first time.

[EFerrari]

42. As a punishment. He was requesting a change in his status

and it was denied. Then he said something to the effect that if he really wanted to hurt himself, he could hang himself with his waistband and to punish him, they took his clothes.

[Ohio Joe]

8. Not really, this is not very dangerous stuff and hard to trace

Digging up personal information like phone numbers and addresses is not that hard. Getting the information onto the net in a way that cannot be traced (or at least not traced to them) is not that hard either. The rest is just letting people know what to do and sitting back. There will be people all over the place that will do what they want.

Their real problem is, is that they are not targeting the right people and certainly not enough people, IMHO. Also, they should not have advertised that they were going to do exactly this type of action. They should have quietly picked about 50 people to target, gotten the information and then just published it with instructions. heh, they would have been bombarded with crap before they could have reacted... Now... They know it is coming and can be prepared. No where near as effective.

edit - This was meant to be a reply to bolo but I seem to have put it in the wrong place... oh well :D

[Downwinder]

18. Prescott Bush got considerably better treatment for aiding the enemy.

[jwirr]

33. And he was an elected government official who should have been

tried for treason.

[KansDem]

22. You know, there was a time this would really bother me...

But not so anymore.

You have to draw the line when your own country's military tortures it's own soldiers...

[EFerrari]

40. That's pretty much how I feel, too. n/t

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blackspade]

25. I hate that the Administration has to resort to abuse to

generate a case against Manning.
If the evidence is so compelling, why has he not gone to trial?
He hasn't even been indicted!
What I don't get is why would he be suicidal at all?
Obviously his metal health is of little interest to his jailers.

[Bragi]

28. They want Assange, and think Manning can bring him in

It isn't all that complicated.

The administration thinks they have the evidence they need to get the whistleblower (Manning) at least to trial, but they want him to implicate Assange, which is why they are torturing him.

If they can get Manning to break down and implicate Assange, they think they may then be able to extradite Assange for espionage. (

It's actually a pretty weak strategy, far as I can tell. How they could charge Assange for posting the material, but not charge the NYT for publishing it, is still a mystery.


And even if they break Manning through torture, then any resulting attempt to extradite him from Europe will focus on how the evidence against him (from Manning) is the result of torture, and that Assange himself would be at risk of torture if sent to the U.S.

So I think the torture tactic will ultimately fail here because despite what Americans may think, torture is still unpopular elsewhere. The torture of Manning will ultimately undermine the U.S case against Manning and Assange, and just further discredit the U.S and the American "justice" (sic) system in the eyes of the world.

[blackspade]

35. My questions were more rhetorical in nature.

But I agree with you about what they are trying to achieve.
I just think that it underscores that the political class in this country see laws as inconveniences unless they further power and profit.
Manning exposed the ruling classes for what they are; petty and greedy.

[Historic NY]

29. How come we don't hear about others imprisoned there at the brig?

I'd imagine they would have stories too. I do know in most civilian lockups your screened and if you answer incorrectly well your headed for similar conditions.

[Bragi]

31. Americans don't really care what happens in their prisons

Americans don't care what happens in the prison system as a whole, and care even less about military prisons.

If Americans did care, then the U.S would not have the highest incarceration rates in the world.

Nor would the public have allowed its prisons to be run by for-profit corporations.

[EFerrari]

41. The conditions in American prisons have drawn condemnation

from human rights organizations all over the world. I had no idea until I started trying to figure out the Manning stuff.

[rgbecker]

34. Manning shouldn't even be in jail much less in Solitary Confinement.

He's accused of a non violent crime, not yet convicted and in most cases these accused are let out on bail until the trial. I say anything the captors get, they deserve.

[Kurovski]

43. K&R

:kick: