Stripped naked every night, Bradley Manning tells of prison ordeal

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

US soldier held on suspicion of leaking state secrets speaks out for first time about experience

'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/bradley-manning-strip-clothing-prison">Stripping me of all of my clothing is without justification'

Ed Pilkington in New York | Friday March 11 2011

Bradley Manning, the US soldier being held in solitary confinement on suspicion of having released state secrets to WikiLeaks, has spoken out for the first time about what he claims is his punitive and unlawful treatment in military prison.

In an 11-page legal letter released by his lawyer, David Coombs, Manning sets out in his own words how he has been "left to languish under the unduly harsh conditions of max custody" ever since he was brought from Kuwait to the military brig of Quantico marine base in Virginia in July last year. He describes how he was put on suicide watch in January, how he is currently being stripped naked every night, and how he is in general terms being subjected to what he calls "unlawful pre-trial punishment".

It is the first time Manning has spoken publicly about his treatment, having previously only been heard through the intermediaries of his lawyer and a friend. Details that have emerged up to now have inspired the UN to launch an inquiry into whether the conditions amount to torture, and have led to protests to the US government from Amnesty International.

The most graphic passage of the letter is Manning's description of how he was placed on suicide watch for three days from 18 January. "I was stripped of all clothing with the exception of my underwear. My prescription eyeglasses were taken away from me and I was forced to sit in essential blindness."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-bradley-manning-prison

[myrna minx]

1. This is outrageous.

:cry:

[OnyxCollie]

2. K&R. nt

[Loge23]

3. Bastards.

The fuckin' fascists are the true enemies of our country.

[CrispyQ]

4. Yet the war criminals walk free, doing book tours & being interviewed on TV 'news' shows.

It's fucking disgusting that people aren't outraged about this young man's treatment. If they do this to him, they can, & will do it to any of us.

[Bragi]

15. Yep, and that's one of the goals

The U.S security establishment is making it clear to people within the U.S that there are no longer any constraints in dealing with anyone -- citizen or not -- who leaks evidence of U.S war crimes, or is charged with any other offense to national security.

[Auntie Bush]

21. Those war criminals are making millions on books which have been written for them. nt

[midnight]

33. And more recently Bush was given a medal. Crazy.

[EFerrari]

5. So, they stopped recording the doc's recommendations so they could abuse him

and claim it was for his own good:

"Sixteen separate entries made from 27 August until the records stop on 28 January show that Manning was evaluated by prison psychiatrists who found he was not a danger to himself and should be removed from the PoI order."

Motherf#ckers.

[USBlues]

6. Where's our president? Why does he not stop this?

He must be ok with the torture and inhumane treatment of an American citizen who has been found guilty of nothing.

What happens to these guys once they become president? Are they fed some kind of drug that turns them into militaristic freaks? Jesus.

[Bragi]

16. I agree, Obama had to approve this

Let's not be naive. This would not be happening without at minimum the military authorities knowing that the WH would not intervene and order that the torture be stopped.

That is so fucking sad.

[GKirk]

19. That's a stretch...

...I can't imagine anyone asking the President for permission to do that. But
now that he surely knows about it he needs to stop it.

[Bragi]

23. This has been public knowledge for weeks now

He has known about this torture, and hasn't said a word indicating any discomfort with it.

[Name removed]

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[Bragi]

36. Does that distraction have a point?

Are you just trying to derail this discussion, or have you a point you'd like to make?

[Name removed]

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[Raster]

43. That's the best you can come up with?

Seriously?

[Bragi]

48. It's typical on this topic

There seems to be a pro-secrecy group that comes out of the woodwork here whenever Manning, Assange and Wikileaks are discussed.

They typically make claims of dire outcomes for Manning and Assange, do their best to take on the majority sentiment here (nothing wrong with that) and also try to divert discussion away from what's actually happening (a dishonest debating technique).

On a totally separate matter if you've not seen it, you should check out the famous HBGary plan to use social media (like DU) to create divisions among Wikileaks supporters.

See "The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters"
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/11/campaigns

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[tpsbmam]

45. Are you seriously equating the two?

Talk about false equivalency!

Obama is the Commander in Chief and, as such, he has the responsibility to intervene when this soldier, who many consider a whistleblowing hero, is being tortured. And yes, he is being tortured not only IMO but according to national and international standards.

Obama has to be okey-dokey with this, which horrifies me no end.

[ProudDad]

51. YES! (n/t)

[ProudDad]

49. He's busy making sure that the same thing continues at Guantanamo!

"Change you can believe in..." NOT!

[azygous]

7. Never any mention of his being gay

The fact he's an "out" gay probably plays a not insignificant role in how he's being treated. Coupled with being viewed as a traitor, I'm sure his captors consider Bradley less than human.

[EFerrari]

9. I keep expecting to see a glbt advocacy group take up for him

but, unless I've missed it, it hasn't happened. :(

[Ken Burch]

30. Here's a scary thought....

Is it possible that the admin cut a deal with the LGBT leadership to stop defending DOMA in the courts in exchange for their silence on Manning?

[EFerrari]

31. I think most of the big groups are too tied in to the Beltway

and censor themselves. Maybe I'm thinking mostly of HRC and not Get Equal. Hmm. May be time to email Get Equal and ask them wtf.

[Name removed]

63. Deleted message

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[Ken Burch]

70. His only real crime was revealing the truth about what our power structure does

It was an act of morality to tell the world that this country's "diplomats" really ARE trying to get as many wars started as possible.

None of the secrets he revealed were ever in the service of honorable or progressive objectives. None could ever have brought peace or justice to anyone. Secrecy in government is always right-wing(with the sole exception of World War II).

[Ken Burch]

73. Nothing Bradley Manning did could possibly have deserved solitary confinement or torture

Besides, you know perfectly well he's being treated worse precisely BECAUSE of the fact that he's gay.

And, in case you forgot, Democrats are supposed to be ANTI-secrecy when it comes to the government. Secrecy only helps the people who oppose us.

[ProudDad]

53. Every human being in every jail and prison

is considered less than human by her/his captors...

Ever hear of the Stanford Prison Experiment? It's inevitable...


But Manning's case is special -- they're trying to force him to lie about WikiLeaks in order to "get Assange"...

[grahamhgreen]

8. Anyone who is not against this is complicit.

[Solly Mack]

10. K&R

The U.S. State Department's report on human rights calls prolonged pre-trial detention a human rights abuse.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. The GESTAPO type treatment can't be far behind state approved

water boarding and using dogs on restrained prisoners of war.

No wonder the terrorist organizations can recruit so many willing "Evil Doers"

[Solly Mack]

13. I believe that a country that commits torture is a country that will commit

any atrocity.

I'd be more inclined to think a country would try to prevent such things if said country was completely honest/transparent about their crimes and prosecuted the guilty.

[Bragi]

24. Well said

Even more loathsome is a country that practices torture to send a message that there are no longer any legal or political constraints that will prevent them from inflicting torture on any future whistleblowers who release evidence of war crimes.

It's hard to know how a country that was founded as a shining light for human and legal rights could have fallen so low.

[jwirr]

11. Torture. Obama this is not my country. What did you do with it?

[Bragi]

14. How rogue torture states like the U.S weaken themselves

This example illustrates why the U.S has basically screwed itself in terms of international law. The main reason for abusing Manning is to try to break him so he will somehow implicate Assange and/or Wikileaks, allowing the U.S to then try to extradite him to the U.S for trial.

However, since the U.S is now a known torture state, and has also demonstrated that it does not provide legal due process when it comes to people charged with offenses related to national security, it is now difficult to imagine any EU country extraditing anyone to the U.S, even if their politicians wanted to.

In the case of Assange, it would be even more difficult to extradite him since there are so many prominent U.S politicians who have already called for his extra-judicial murder.

So it turns out there are consequences for choosing to become a rogue state that does not adhere to international law or respect human rights.

Having said that, I expect the abuse and torture of Manning will continue just to show any future whistleblowers that there are no longer any constraints on U.S authorities torturing anyone -- citizen or foreigner -- who dares to leak evidence of U.S war crimes.

[Mnemosyne]

20. Your most important point is an excellent call, "just to show any future whistleblowers

that there are no longer any constraints".

I had chills reading this, Bragi. The detention of Manning is also a war crime, imho.

[Bragi]

22. I agree that is a shocking statement to make

If you told me even 10 years ago that I'd write a sentence saying there are now no constraints to protect people --m even citizens -- from unlawful abuse by U.S authorities, I could and would have given you ten reasons why that could never come about.

Now that it has come about, it is truly shocking, as is the fact that so many Americans are no longer appalled by this kind of state-sanctioned abuse.

[Mnemosyne]

29. I remember when DU deleted many threads, even regarding war crimes

a few years ago. I lost a job offer writing for a paper for daring to suggest Nuremberg, Geneva Convention violations in 2005. The editor that had made me the offer actually blanched when he read my piece about it.

I so wanted to be wrong.

It makes me feel like vomiting daily. They get more upset over the price of gas. :crazy:

[EFerrari]

34. I remember the day one of our elected officials dared to criticize Bush

for the first time since 9/11. It was a Saturday in 2004 and two Congresswomen from California (although I don't remember who it was).

By that time, the torture program had already been gone from being a nearly immediate response to 9/11 to being a policy.

[Mnemosyne]

38. How sad and disgusting that the memory is only one or two dared to criticize Lil Boots.

Mad world, Beth. Mad, mad world. :hi::hug:

[EFerrari]

52. I tend to think the two agreed to come out against Junior on the same day

as a way to defuse the backlash pre-emptively. One of them may have been Jane Harman, surprisingly. The other one might have been Zoe Lofgren.

Those were some bad days. :hi:

[Mnemosyne]

69. I just wonder how much has changed. How many are still keeping their

mouths shut from fear, I wonder. BFEE has a long, powerful reach. :hi:

[JDPriestly]

64. It used to be that many European countries would not extradite

a prisoner to a country if that prisoner might face the death penalty for the charges being pressed. I don't know if that is still true, but if it is, it might prevent some of the European countries from extraditing Assange or others involved in Wikileaks.

[blackspade]

17. Totally unjustified!

Shame, shame, shame!!!!

[Plucketeer]

18. Ever feel like we're....

being sucked into a swirling black hole, and witnessing all these unfathomable incidents as we go ever deeper??? Theoretically, everything is reduced to mere particles once swallowed by these chasms. Somehow, I find that comforting.

[Bragi]

26. I feel exactly that way

However, I'm not sure the prospect of being swallowed up in a swirling black hole offers much comfort, beyond maybe just getting the inevitable over with.

[nalnn]

25. Harsh

While I do think this is very harsh treatment that I would not want to endure myself, wasn't this done under the pretense that Manning was suicidal? If this is true, it seems a good measure to take if the government is trying to avoid a sort of 'Wikileaks Martyr'. I'm not defending it except in the case that it might prevent a suicide.

[Bragi]

27. Yes, that's their line, and its bullshit

If you read up on this, it quickly becomes clear this is a bullshit lie that can't stand up to even the lightest bit of scrutiny.

In fact, they don't even care that it's an obvious bullshit lie that can't withstand any scrutiny. That's partly what makes this so scary.

(If you want to check out the bogus suicide watch claim, here's a good posting from anothjer thread on that subject:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=612988&mesg_id=613075 )

[JDPriestly]

66. They are doing this because they don't have the evidence against

Assange to implicate him for conspiracy on some other charge.

If Assange has correctly explained how he obtains leaks from third parties, then even if Manning is proved to be the person who actually leaked some or all of the Wikileaks material at issue, then Assange did not have any sort of specific agreement with Mannning, nothing that could be the basis for a charge of conspiracy.

Let's say that someone decided to leak some sort of state secret by simply publishing it in a comment on DU or some other website under a pseudonym or false identity. (The prerequisite for doing that, of course, would be that you would need to know secrets. I realize that is a far-fetched premise for most of us.)

Just having a website on which people can post things or to which any person could send things anonymously would not, in my opinion, suffice to make you a conspirator.

As I understand it, Assange invited people to provide him with classified or secret material or material that was being protected by some party not necessarily governmental. He served as a conduit for material from different sources and different countries. he wasn't particularly targeting the US.

I could be wrong, but that is my understanding. Unless publishing classified material is a crime, I don't think Assange committed a crime. The New York Times and Washington Post get leaks and publish them -- and quite frequently. So, those acts are protected by the First Amendment. Judith Miller's various disclosures from Scooter Libby are just a couple of examples of the New York Times' publication of secrets.

I've said all this before. Sorry for the redundancy. But some people might not have understood my opinion on this. It is just my opinion.

[EFerrari]

28. The article says explicitly that no doctor has found him to be suicidal. n/t

[Name removed]

58. Deleted message

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[nalnn]

65. Wow

Way to make up intentions of someone you know nothing about.

Did I say it was right? No. Are there suicidal people in prison (both for crimes they did not commit as well as for crime they did)? Yes. Would I want them prevented from hurting themselves? Yes.

[liberation]

67. Uh?

Since you don't know Manning personally and you're assuming he is suicidal. Aren't you technically the one making assumptions about people who you do not know?

[nalnn]

68. n/t

[avaistheone1]

32. Unconscionable.

And this is happening on whose watch?

[Ken Burch]

74. You have to have a LITTLE torture to hold on to "the indepedents"

They can't handle anybody who is "soft on humanity".

:eyes:

(note: the post title was probably inspired loosely by the line "there is NO cannibalism in the British Navy. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit, but all new ratings are warned that if they wake up in the morning and find any toothmarks at all anywhere on their bodies, they're to tell me immediately so that I can immediately take every measure to hush the whole thing up." from an episode or Monty Python's Flying Circus).

[defendandprotect]

37. Anyone who suggests this isn't torture, should be forced to suffer the same conditions --

[Bragi]

39. Or just ridiculed and ignored

These are the same people who once claimed that waterboarding isn't torture.

[Raster]

44. But...but...waterboarding isn't torture....

...unless of course it's happening to them.

[nalnn]

40. Anyone else

Can confirm this?

[Bragi]

42. Sounds plausible

I do hope it makes him somewhat more comfortable, but I have no doubt that the reason for this is that stripping him naked was clearly indefensible, so they give him a smock to convince some people, falsely, that he is being held humanely, and isn't being tortured.

In fact, he is being tortured to try to break him down mentally, with or without the smock.

[OnyxCollie]

47. And GITMO detainees eat lemon-baked chicken!

It's fucking paradise there!

[ProudDad]

54. Oh, you mean one of these FUCKING THINGS

In a frigid cell...

Try it...

[Robb]

72. De rigueur, if you're a water heater.

...You're right, that doesn't look remotely comfortable.

[FlyByNight]

41. So much for the emphasis on human rights

Appalling and completely inexcusable.

[Marthe48]

46. Sexual Torture

Part of this article says:

..."David Rosen at SodaHead, describes the use of sexual torture used on detainees at Abu Ghaib and elsewhere:

The best single source on the use of sexual torture at Abu Ghraib remains the Taguba Report. In the report’s executive summary, the following “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” are identified as having been used at the prison:

* forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;".....

http://streamsofwikileaks.tumblr.com/post/3739301393/sexual-torture-used-on-bradley-manning-leaksource

http://leaksource.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/sexual-torture-used-on-bradley-manning/


I am ashamed of this.

I cannot think of another citizen who exposed U.S. secrets who was subjected to this kind of treatment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_spies#Americans_convicted_of_spying_for_foreign_countries

[AKDavy]

50. Manning is the ONLY real hero to emerge from the invasions

Be warned: This is what happens when truth becomes an enemy of the state.

As others have asked: What does it say about us when it's more dangerous to expose war criminals than to be one?

[ProudDad]

55. Pretty pathetic track record for the legions of the Empire... (n/t)

[Bragi]

56. Yep! /nt

[blizz]

57. Shame

[Cyrano]

59. America has become what it has always claimed to have fought against.

Government hypocrisy has become the norm, and official lies have become grotesque "truths."

And it will probably only get worse. Sadly, our Constitution has died a silent death.

[ReggieVeggie]

71. Suck it up, Manning!

Obama says your treatment is appropriate!

[DeSwiss]

75. K&R

Children Of Tomorrow

Children of tomorrow
I apologize to you
On behalf of those in my time
For the things we didn't do
We didn't stop the tyrants
So your fate could be prevented
We watched them steal our freedom
By our silence we consented
We didn't choose to circumvent
The doom you've not escaped
While the Bill of Rights was murdered
And the Constitution raped

Some of us were lazy
Others too afraid
To think about our children
The ones we have betrayed
I guess we were too busy
To be concerned or care
To try to ease the burden
Of the chains we made you wear
We could have been good shepherds
When the wolf got in the fold
But we watched the flame of freedom die instead
And left you cold

I'm sorry we were timid
My selfish generation
We left you but a remnant
Of a free and prosperous nation
I'm sorry for our actions
Like cowards we behaved
We could have left you freedom
Instead you are enslaved
Children of tomorrow
Descendants of our land
I'm sorry we allowed this
The fate you now with stand

- Anonymous

[Turborama]

76. Kicking

Over the large pile of recently locked threads.

:kick: