DOD Continues to Stall on Kucinich’s Request to Visit Bradley Manning (emptywheel)

[chill_wind]

DOD Continues to Stall on Kucinich’s Request to Visit Bradley Manning
By: emptywheel Monday March 14, 2011 7:41 am

Last we heard of Dennis Kucinich’s request to visit Bradley Manning, the Pentagon had spent a full month referring his request from one official to another rather than respond to his request.

(see details snipped)

In short, a full month after the date when a member of Congress requested a visit with Manning, DOD is still stalling on a real response with bureaucratic buck-passing.

On Friday, Anti-War Radio’s Scott Horton did an interview with Kucinich. Here’s an update on his quest to visit an American citizen detained less than an hour from Kucinich’s congressional office.

more:

link edit- http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/03/14/dod-continues-to-stall-on-kucinichs-request-to-visit-bradley-manning/

[stockholmer]

1. here is a good interview with Marcy Wheeler about this on mp3

http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_11_wheeler.mp3


Marcy Wheeler, blogging under the pseudonym “emptywheel” at firedoglake.com, discusses Obama’s weasel-worded disagreement with State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley’s (who has since resigned) candid assessment of Bradley Manning’s mistreatment in custody; why lax security in the Department of Defense – responsible for the leaked State Department cables – may have created a rift between the two agencies; Manning’s subjection to techniques designed to create “learned helplessness” and generate false confessions; and the curious timing of pro-Manning protests and the punitive measure taken against him.

Marcy Wheeler, aka emptywheel, blogs at firedoglake.com. Marcy grew up bicoastally, starting with every town in NY with an IBM. Then she moved to Poway, CA, home of several participants in the Duke Cunningham scandal. Since then, she has lived in Western MA, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and finally–for the last 12 years–Ann Arbor.

[chill_wind]

2. Thanks for posting the link.

:thumbsup:

[stockholmer]

5. and another mp3 interview with Dennis Kucinich on this too

http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_11_kpfk_kucinich.mp...

Rep. Dennis Kucinich discusses the runaround he’s been getting from the Department of Defense after requesting a visit with Bradley Manning; why Manning’s draconian pretrial treatment raises serious questions about the US criminal justice system and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; and the Kucinich-Walter Jones co-sponsored resolution requiring the president to get the troops out of Afghanistan by year’s end.

[suffragette]

3. They're going to need their shoe heels resoled

with all the foot dragging they're doing on this.

[chill_wind]

7. Probably trying to figure out next how they can fire Kucinich. :-/

Damned nosy Congressman. It would be a heck of a lot easier if we had a dictatorship.

[suffragette]

8. Or at least how they can pressure him into stop pushing

[stockholmer]

4. dupe post due to system error

[chill_wind]

6. Kucinich:

"That’s right. I put in a request to the Secretary of Defense who referred me to the Secretary of the Army who referred me to the Secretary of Navy who referred me to the Secretary of Defense and still not an answer on whether or not I can visit."

:crazy:

[apples and oranges]

9. When will Kucinich visit his own constituents who are currently being detained

while awaiting trial?

[chill_wind]

10. When will self-professed liberals stop rationalizing and obfuscating

on right and wrong - and join him in working for change?

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced U.S. Department of Peace legislation to Congress in July 2001, two months before the September 11 attacks. Kucinich has reintroduced the legislation every 2 years since. The bill currently has 70 cosponsors. Some of the numerous organizations endorsing the legislation include Amnesty International and the National Organization for Women.

This bill includes several additional proposed mandates that would work in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and go beyond the existing mandates of the United States Institute of Peace. Some highlights among the areas of proposed additional responsibility include:

* Provide violence prevention, conflict resolution skills and mediation to America's school children in classrooms as an elective or requirement, providing them with the communication tools they need to express themselves beginning in elementary school through high school.

* Provide support and grants for violence prevention programs addressing domestic violence, gang violence, drug and alcohol related violence, and the like.

* To effectively treat and dismantle gang psychology.

* To rehabilitate the prison population.

* To build peace making efforts among conflicting cultures both here and abroad.

* To support our military with complementary approaches to ending violence.

* Monitoring of all domestic arms production, including non-military arms, conventional military arms, and of weapons of mass destruction.

* Make expert recommendations on the latest techniques for diplomacy, mediation, conflict resolution to the U.S. President for various strategies.

* Assumption of a more proactive level of involvement in the establishment of international dialogues for international conflict resolution (as a cabinet level department).

* Establishment of a U.S. Peace Academy, which among other things would train international peace-keepers.

* Development of an educational media program to promote nonviolence in the domestic media.

* Monitoring of human rights, both domestically and abroad.

* Making regular recommendations to the President for the maintenance and improvement of these human rights.

* Receiving a timely mandatory advance consultation from the Secretaries of State, and of Defense, prior to any engagement of U.S. troops in any armed conflict with any other nation.

* Establishment of a national Peace Day.

* Participation by the secretary of peace as a member of the National Security Council.

* Expansion of the national Sister City program.

* Significant expansion of current Institute of Peace program involvement in educational affairs, in areas such as:

1. Drug rehabilitation,

2. Policy reviews concerning crime prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation,

3. Implementation of violence prevention counseling programs and peer mediation programs in schools,

* Also, making recommendations regarding:

1. Battered women's rights,

2. Animal rights,

* Various other "peace related areas of responsibility".

Proposed funding for a U.S. Department of Peace would initially come from a budget that is defined by the prevention bill as, "at least 1 percent of the proposed federal discretionary budget, FY 2008 of which 53% is already allocated to the Department of Defense (budget)". Whether or not the U.S. Institute of Peace would be promoted to a cabinet level position, is not addressed by this bill.

A growing, national movement of citizens continues to actively promote and lobby for this legislation.

The Peace Alliance is the National Organization spearheading the passage of the legislation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Peace

[lamp_shade]

11. Only if and when it draws attention to himself.

:thumbsup:

[TheKentuckian]

12. When will Dinocraps find their moral compass?

[apples and oranges]

13. That's really mature. But I really would like an answer

there are probably hundreds of people in Kucinich's own district who are being treated unfairly in our criminal justice system. People whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being the wrong color, etc. Where is Kucinich when it comes to the people who have no voice?

[Wilms]

14. The OP is about Kucinich visiting Manning.

You have a problem with that. Correct?

[chill_wind]

15. He's on the Oversight Committee. I would really like an answer

about why the games and stall tactics at the DOD are allowed to continue. Which is the point of the OP.


re: "Where is Kucinich when it comes to the people who have no voice?"

DK On The Issues

Ban the death penalty-98% of those convicted are poor
Q: Do you support the death penalty?

A: I oppose the death penalty and would ban it. Ninety-eight percent of defendants sentenced to death have been people who could not afford their own attorneys. One death row inmate is found innocent for every seven executed. African-American defendants are more likely to receive death sentences than others who committed similar crimes. And the death penalty does nothing to deter crime that can't be accomplished at least as well without it.
Source: Associated Press policy Q&A, "Death Penalty" Jan 25, 2004

Terminate the federal death penalty, even if unpopular
Q: As president, what would be the least popular, most right thing you would do?

KUCINICH: I would take action to stop the federal death penalty.
Source: Debate at Pace University in Lower Manhattan Sep 25, 2003

Focus on prevention, not punishment
Since even the most severe punishment of many crimes can never compensate for lost lives, a sense of violation and a lost sense of security, it is crucial that we create programs to deter crimes and prevent them from ever occurring.
Source: 1996 Congressional National Political Awareness Test Jul 2, 1996

Voted YES on funding for alternative sentencing instead of more prisons.
Vote on an amendment that would reduce the funding for violent offender imprisonment by and truth-in-sentencing programs by $61 million. The measure would increase funding for Boys and Girls Clubs and drug courts by the same amount.
Reference: Amendment sponsored by Scott, D-VA; Bill HR 4690 ; vote number 2000-317 on Jun 22, 2000

Voted NO on more prosecution and sentencing for juvenile crime.
Vote to pass a bill to appropriate $1.5 billion to all of the states that want to improve their juvenile justice operations. Among other provisions this bill includes funding for development, implementation, and administration of graduated sanctions for juvenile offenders, funds for building, expanding, or renovating juvenile corrections facilities, hiring juvenile judges, probation officers, and additional prosecutors for juvenile cases.
Reference: Bill introduced by McCollum, R-FL; Bill HR 1501 ; vote number 1999-233 on Jun 17, 1999

Rated 80% by CURE, indicating pro-rehabilitation crime votes.
Kucinich scores 80% by CURE on rehabilitation issues

CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants) is a membership organization of families of prisoners, prisoners, former prisoners and other concerned citizens. CURE's two goals are

1. to use prisons only for those who have to be in them; and
2. for those who have to be in them, to provide them all the rehabilitative opportunities they need to turn their lives around.

The ratings indicate the legislator’s percentage score on CURE’s preferred votes.
Source: CURE website 00n-CURE on Dec 31, 2000

Moratorium on death penalty; more DNA testing.
Kucinich sponsored a bill limiting capital punishment:

H.R. 1038, S.233:

To place a moratorium on executions by the Federal Government and urge the States to do the same, while a National Commission on the Death Penalty reviews the fairness of the imposition of the death penalty .

S.486 & H.R.912:

To reduce the risk that innocent persons may be executed .

* H. R. 912, 3/7/2001, Innocence Protection Act of 2001 (Delahunt, et. al.)
* S.486, 3/7/2001, Innocence Protection Act of 2001 (Leahy, et. al.)
* H.R.1038, 3/15/2001, National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 (Jackson (IL), Rodriguez, Clay, Hoeffel, Jackson-Lee (TX))
* S.233, 1/31/2001, National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 (Feingold, Levin, Wellstone, Corzine)

Source: H.R.912 01-HR1038 on Mar 7, 2001

More funding and stricter sentencing for hate crimes.
Kucinich sponsored the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act:

Title: To provide Federal assistance to States and local jurisdictions to prosecute hate crimes.

Summary: Provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or other assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution of any violent crime that is motivated by prejudice based on the race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability of the victim or is a violation of hate crime laws.

1. Award grants to assist State and local law enforcement officials with extraordinary expenses for interstate hate crimes.

2. Award grants to State and local programs designed to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles.

3. Prohibit specified offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.

4. Increase criminal sentencing for adult recruitment of juveniles to commit hate crimes.

5. Collect and publish data about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on gender.

http://www.ontheissues.org/2004/Dennis_Kucinich_Crime.htm


Kucinich scores 80% by CURE on rehabilitation issues. This is an OLD record- beginning of Bush admin, but if he has modified his stances or been kicked out of their good graces, I don't know about it.

CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants) is a membership organization of families of prisoners, prisoners, former prisoners and other concerned citizens.

CURE
http://www.curenational.org/new/index.html

Every state has one.

CURE-Ohio is a non-profit, tax-exempt, prisoner advocacy organization that focuses on educating the Ohio public and our elected leaders about the need for responsible prison management, humane treatment of those incarcerated, fairness in the parole process, training in job and life skills for all Ohio's prisoners, and opportunities for employment, housing, and medical care after release. We seek to accomplish the restoration of our communities by promoting effective rehabilitative and restorative programs in Ohio's prisons, as well as effective and less-expensive alternatives to incarceration, including drug treatment.

http://www.cure-ohio.org/index.htm

Legislative record- http://www.ontheissues.org/OH/Dennis_Kucinich.htm

I agree that much more attention is deserved on the broad issues of prison treatment and conditions everywhere. I also I think DK can stand up on this issue just fine and hope a few more Congress members can find their own spines and join him.