Bradley Manning needs consular visit, mother tells William Hague

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The mother of Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking data to WikiLeaks, has written to William Hague asking for British consular officials to visit him in military prison to check on his physical and mental health, which she said was deteriorating.

Manning, 23, has been in custody since last May in conditions that have provoked widespread criticism of the US military and government. He is held alone in a maximum security cell for 23 hours a day and stripped naked each night apart from a smock.

Manning does not have a British passport or consider himself British, his lawyer has said, but because his mother, Susan, is Welsh, the soldier is "British by descent", the Foreign Office confirmed this month.

In her letter, Susan Manning wrote that she visited her son in Quantico marine base in Virginia in February, travelling with her sister, Bradley's aunt and his uncle, "but they were not allowed to see Bradley.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/bradley-manning-mother-william-hague

[buckrogers1965]

1. Irony.

The British are stepping in to make sure an American citizen is treated at least as good as we would expect someone to treat a farm animal. It was just a couple of hundred years ago it was America complaining about how the British treated us. Now we do it to our own citizens and our good friends have to perform an intervention.

[truth2power]

2. Something is very wrong with this whole affair. What does Bradley manning know

that both Obama and the military don't want to come out??

Yeah, I'll put on my :tinfoilhat:

[Mz Pip]

4. I think the problem is

that Obama isn't even paying attention to this. He asked about Manning's treatment and was told everything was hunky dory and for some naive reason he believed what he was told. I expected Obama to be more savvy than that.

This is one issue with the Obama Administration that really really bothers me. There is no reason this man should be kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

[earcandle]

3. I am so happy his Mom has showed up to correct this situation. This has been maddening!

[avaistheone1]

5. Yet didn't his father say a few weeks ago that he was fine with how is son is being treated?

It seems to me the parents are at odds in their statements.

[EFerrari]

6. No, he didn't. He gave an interview expressly to voice

his disapproval of how his son was being treated:

Bradley Manning's father speaks out over Pentagon's treatment of his son

'You've crossed a line. This is wrong,' says Brian Manning, comparing his son's treatment to those in Guantánamo

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 March 2011 22.50 GMT


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/15/bradley-manning-father-pentagon-treatment

[EFerrari]

7. Also today: US WikiLeaks suspect's jail conditions criticized (Germany)

US WikiLeaks suspect's jail conditions criticized
The Associated Press
Posted: 04/13/2011 08:09:48 AM PDT

BERLIN—Germany's parliament says its human rights committee is protesting against the conditions in which a U.S. Army private suspected of giving classified material to WikiLeaks is being detained.

A statement from parliament's lower house Wednesday said committee members appealed in a letter to President Barack Obama for him to ensure "humane" conditions for Pfc. Bradley Manning.

It says committee chairman Tom Koenigs wrote that his current detention conditions "are unnecessarily hard and have a penalizing character."

Manning is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, for all but an hour every day. He is stripped naked each night and given a suicide-proof smock to wear to bed. Amnesty International says the treatment may violate Manning's human rights.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17834797?&nclick_check=1

No more at link.