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After fourteen months of investigation, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez has published his report on the United States’ “cruel and inhuman treatment” of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who allegedly released classified information to WikiLeaks. The findings are part of a report on “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” in countries of the world.
Mendez concluded, “Imposing seriously punitive conditions of detention on someone who has not been found guilty of any crime is a violation of his right to physical and psychological integrity as well as of his presumption of innocence.” He demanded to know why the government was holding an “unindicted detainee in solitary confinement.” The US government said Manning was under “prevention of harm watch” and was not being held in “solitary confinement.” However, the government never provided details on “what harm was being prevented.”
The government asserted in a response to Mendez that the “brig commander” had authorization to “impose” an “isolation regime” because of the “seriousness of the offense” for which Manning would eventually be charged.
Mendez tried to get a private unmonitored meeting with Manning on the conditions of his detention. According to the report, the US government would not guarantee the conversation would be private. Mendez declined to meet because it would violate terms applied universally in “fact-finding.” He sent a follow-up letter to the government on May 13, 2011. The government continued to refuse to grant Mendez a “private, unmonitored and privileged” meeting with Manning.
The report renews Mendez’s request for a private unmonitored meeting with Manning.
Manning has been in detention without trial for six hundred and fifty-nine days. He was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq and shortly after was transferred to Quantico Marine brig. He was held in solitary confinement until public outrage at the harsh measures to which he was being subjected led him to be transferred to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth. This happened in April 2011, eleven months after he arrived at Quantico.
In June 2011, it was discovered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that the brig staff had mostly ignored the work of psychiatrists and psychologists. Multiple times, he was recommended for removal of “prevention of harm” or “prevention of injury” status.
It is not likely that Manning will have his trial until August of this year. By then, he will have been held in detention for eight hundred days.
An Article 32 or pre-trial hearing on the twenty-two charges against him, including the most severe charge of “aiding the enemy,” has already been held by the military at Fort Meade. All of those charges proceeded onward, and, in February, he was arraigned and formally charged.
Manning has not pled guilty or not guilty. His next court dates are March 15 and 16. The court at Fort Meade will hear pre-trial motions that must be addressed before his case can proceed to trial.
In the past months, members of Icelandic parliament have nominated Manning for a Nobel Peace Prize. A Russian human rights official has condemned the US government’s treatment of Manning. And NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake has offered some words of support for what Manning allegedly did.
The Bradley Manning Support Network and others who support Manning will be out demonstrating at Fort Meade during the upcoming hearing. There will also be demonstrations around the world at US embassies and in various locations throughout the United States.
*Below is coverage by “The Young Turks” of the UN Special Rapporteur Mendez’s condemnation (from March 7):
42 Comments
Peasant Party, are you creating a list on twitter to follow the proceedings on Thursday and Friday?
Kevin, this needs to go to the front page of FDL.
Front Page!!!
DW
US rapidly getting to be closer to a Pakistan military run government which makes up its own rules. Glad someone out there is watching this witch hunt, kangaroo court, shame the messenger crap.
Since Obama already ruled that Manning is guilty, there will be a trial followed by his execution, but he will get a trial first.
“…UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez has published his report on the United States’ “cruel and inhuman treatment” of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who allegedly released classified information to WikiLeaks. The findings are part of a report on “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” in countries of the world.”
I have little hope that this report will induce any action due to the fact that the United States can bully, bribe, and cheat the entirety of the UN to keep it’s and Israel human rights violations a non-issue for most of their existence.
We are become a rogue terrorist nation. I really identify with the civilized Germans of the 1930s. Except our military and its troops now so hardened by the extremes of years of killing and brainwashing to do so are more callous and dangerous. How shall those of us who see it happen act? I must admit to wavering between complete withdrawal to the trivia of day to day minor pleasures, the next IPad and fantasy movie and the compulsion to Cassandra like cry out at what I see as the truth, to take my walker to stand at the gates of Camp Frank Merrill and Ft. Benning.
It is not likely that Manning will have his trial until August of this year. By then, he will have been held in detention for eight hundred days.
Hmm so all the coverage and manning will have been held without trial for over two years. is the solace we are meant to get from this that if he had received no coverage he could be held even longer without trial.
The other alternative is to become an ex-pat. I recommend some place that has been the victim of USA,Inc. corporate abuse, refuses to forget, and is determined to not become a victim again. There are countries in Latin America that fit that description.
This report is for two audiences, “the people” of the USA and “the people” of the world, ironcomments.
It is “we” … “the people” who must say “Enough!!!”
Our government is not merely corrupt, it is illegitimate, that is what is being said. “We” know it is no longer legitimate because our CONSENT is neither consulted, nor respected …
Do you wish to surrender now, or will you stand upon principle and fight, honorably (and one hopes, it may be non-violently) for what matters until the day that you die?
That is the question which faces us.
It is neither polite nor pleasant …
It simply IS …
Period.
DW
I remember a comment alleged to Stalin about the Pope’s criticism of him:
“How many divisions does the Pope have?”
Same here. Where are the teeth, if any?
Our problem is we can’t reach people. I know that there are millions who feel as we do but the MSM doesn’t tell anyone the truth so everyone feels angry and isolated. The ‘Nam war was televised every day for all to see but these “wars” are hardly mentioned. If we were able to bring voters together we might have enough to fill the streets of DC.
Bullshit harm prevention means the guards check with a flashlight your room every hour when your locked up at nite but during the day you get out of your cell and interact with the other prisoners if you want too. Solitary means a special cell away from all other prisoners night and day.
If the government actually had a case they thought they could win they would have put Brad on trial by now.
I’ll bet O smoked a whole pack of Gauloise when he was informed of this. (I think he doesn’t read the news any more than W did.)
By the way, the military has credentialed me. I will be a member of the media pool again.
I think its time we ask the Nobel committee to take back Obama’s prize.
Excellent.
Kevin, have you been able to speak with Ellsberg? Your coverage of this story is historically significant. I’m wishing you had someone with his experience to confer, not that you aren’t extremely capable, I just imagine the task is a little daunting.
I so much appreciate your work.
Bradley tried to warn us about the truth in Afghanistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113410/US-soldier-kills-16-Afghan-civilians-deadly-shooting-rampage.html
Now Obama has to defend keeping Bradley in prison when news of what Bradley was trying to warn us against has made front page news.
Ignoring Problems does not make them go away Obama get a Spine let Brad go and admit your mistake then bring all the troops home now.
Or be remembered in history as weak, stupid and a war criminal.
The Alyona show had Kevin and Ellsberg on for a panel discussion. It was fabulous.
I’ve got to go find that. Thanks.
I just feel an overwhelming sadness and shame. Lots of shame.
Michelle Obama was ridiculed for saying during the election that she never felt so proud of her country. How’s it feel now, Michelle?
I am not suggesting that anyone gives up the good fight. Just pointing out that the problems and struggles of our age is a continuum from our past. Of course the rule of law and the egalitarian application of it, is central to a civil society, therefore I long for it just as much as you do because we are humans and not units of production. In order to move forward as a society we must first recognize and fully appreciate the situation we find ourselves in. Just as one is using a map to create a route to get from point a to point b, the person must first accurately gain their bearings and accurately assess the situation.
To think that this report will be the “final straw” for the mass awakening in human conscience is pie in the sky thinking when reality suggest that we as a people can drop nuclear bombs on civilian populations and will do so again if the money is right.
We are not the first nor we will be the last generation to say “Enough” and I take solace in that because no matter how bad our past or present situation may get there will always be those of us who desire to improve the human condition. I do this as a scientist and volunteer.
We shall reach whomever we may, Twain, and you suggest the greater reality, many millions in this nation do know and more, many more are coming to understand. The media is PART of the political class, so they will NOT speak to the truth until enough already know the truth … that it may not be hidden or spun … consider that while all of us have learned … since we got “here” … that we already knew that something was dreadfully wrong … and we all came to seek others … hoping to find welcome and encouragement and even … hope. Have we not all found those things, to some extent or other, remembering those who are no longer with us, as well, some have died, others have left on their own, and some, too many, I hold, were “invited” to leave.
My point is that we MUST, all of us, keep the faith in sanity, in reason, and in humanity, in tolerance, in understanding, and in peace. And then, we must also find the way to a future in which those things are the central basis of life, not crass money, or brutal power, not greed or hubris.
I do not suggest it will be easy, I merely remind you that all of us have, if we are honest about it, spent most of our lives preparing for this time and this moment …
Let us have the courage and the centered grounding to take the next steps to imagine what we must do … and then … to set about doing those things and building that world we all envision … by living our truth, for that is the ONLY way we may ultimately change the world … by becoming that change and by being the “leaders” we seek, true leaders who do not seek to profit, or to control, but to serve the needs and reality of life on this planet, this paradise.
I know that you fully understand what I am saying, Twain, and that is why I often ask that you to share the wisdom which your life and experience have taught and shown you … with the rest of us … for those truths are the pathways to freedom, to justice, and to a new world.
DW
It was embedded in one of Kevin’s posts a while ago, if that helps.
Agreed, ironcomments, completely.
Strange as it may seem, I am more optimistic, in a reasonable way, each and every day as I see that more and more human beings come to side with life and with conscience.
The Masters have condemned themselves to failure and revealed their destructive plans and mechanizations for all to clearly see … theit ONLY power, now, is fear, and increasingly violent repression … they have no options nor other plan …
DW
I had a chance to talk to Ellsberg in December. It was a privilege.
Here’s the video of my appearance with Ellsberg.
Watch out for Drones!
The US Military and Intelligence Community targets reporters, who are not embedded in the Pentagon’s War and Torture Machine.
Hey Kevin, do you know if Bradley is aware of his nomination for the Nobel Peace prize by that group from the Icelandic parliament?
Many thanks for your superb coverage of Manning!
Thank you for that link, Kevin.
You and Ellsberg, were both, of course, superb and placed needed and much appreciated perspectives around Bradley Manning’s continuing courage and exemplary humanity.
DW
I have a number of friends who have chosen that route. If I were not so old and low on capital I would join them.
What a great bunch of folks you all are! I had to leave and missed contemporaneous discussion but you fill my heart and bring me hope. Maybe that’s the most important thing we can do for now.
Didja all see that Occupy Activist @JeffRae’s twitter account has been subpoenaed? WTF?!?
I’m older and financially limited as well. Ecuador uses the US dollar as currency and your money will go about 50% farther there. An added bonus is that Pres. Correa repudiated H. Clinton and ejected the US Ambassador.
Some of us have been where you are for ten years. The German experience has much to teach us, despite enormous differences. No one could understand how a ‘civilized’ nation could descend to such barbarity. Hannah Arendt’s Totalitarianism is till the go-to book.
You now have to pay the exit tax to become ex-pat. My wife and I spent a couple of hours tonight going through the legal stuff involved. We are seeing a lawyer next week to sort it out for us.
Our government is not merely corrupt, it is illegitimate
It is morally corrupt, but it is not illegitimate. Obama was elected by what US standards amounts to fair and square. We all share the shame.
They were squeezing him to get Assange, but even if he wanted to, he couldn’t have fingered Julian because there was no direct connection.
Seemed like a good idea at the time (my parents are rolling in their grave).
“Elections” are only PART of the political compact that “America” purports to respect, Knut, and that compact is explicitly delineated in the Declaration of Independence … it goes like this “…governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.”
Whether Obama, and the rest of the political class, which includes the media, LIKE that reality or not is irrelevant … the political class does not and cannot erase or belittle the power of that truth.
And it IS the truth.
We, you and I, and the rest of “the people” do NOT share the same level of responsibility, of “shame”, for the current state of our nation’s “affairs” as does the political class, which, effectively, and IN FACT includes ALL MEMBERS of the three “branches” of the federal government, who are DUTY BOUND by their oath TO the Constitution to represent our, that is “the people’s, interests BEFORE they do ANYTHING else … Clearly the current controlling members of the federal government, elected AND appointed have NOT done so and are NOT doing so.
That, Knut, is both self-evident and undeniable, whatever you or the members of the three “branches” may believe, imagine, or hope that the rest of us DO NOT understand the truth of it.
We are at the most profound crisis point which this nation has ever faced, as a people and as a civil society, even including the strife that “divided” this nation over the issue of slavery, and you may not pretend, at least not successfully, in such company as gather here, otherwise. You may well have your own opinion about what we face and its importance, as I have mine, but you essentially seek to excuse treasonous and criminal behavior by professing that we are all, equally culpable and by further suggesting that it is somehow, “fair and square”, which is, in my opinion pathetic drivel and poppycock more worthy of an apologist for brutal tyranny than the dispassionate view of an honest observer.
Your suggestion or “position” is akin to suggesting that George III was shabbily treated by ingrates and ruffians who brought his righteous and reasonable wrath down upon themselves through their own perfidy, laxity, gullibility, and simple-minded inattention to knowing their proper place or “station” in life …
You imply an “effectiveness”, a suasion, the ability to influence political reality, as quite equal among the “players” the different and “competing “interests”; the wealthy, the corporate, the well-connected, and the powerful … contrasted with those who are none of those things … a perfidious blindness to actual reality which you expect the rest of us to assume … an appeal to a non-existent “level playing field”, clearly placing YOURSELF in the self-elected role of a mendacious and distracting scold, impressing no one, and convincing them even less of the worth or value of your opinion.
Frankly, you words are intended to diminish understanding and to undermine perceptions which have come at great and terrible cost, you belittle honest democracy and make mock of “the people’s” common plight, whether that is your intent or not, I do not really know, but it certainly seems to be so.