Bradley Manning is a 23 year old US Army intelligence analyst who was arrested in May 2010 and is now being held in solitary confinement in a military prison in Quantico, Virginia.
The reasons for his arrest?
He is the alleged source of the Wikileaks documents and video that showed the world some real and unpleasant events that are happening in the war in Iraq. He has not been convicted for these alleged leaks and so they are still only allegations.
He has been charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice and of ‘aiding the enemy’, which potentially carries the death penalty and is the basis for certain US politicians calling him a traitor, even though he has not yet been found guilty of these alleged ‘crimes’.
However, what is appalling are the conditions under which he is being held.
He is being kept in solitary confinement in a 6 foot cell for 23 hours a day, made to strip naked to sleep and for inspection outside his cell every day and he is also deprived of proper exercise, although he is allowed 1 hour of exercise in chains.
These conditions are regarded by some psychologists as a kind of torture aimed at weakening Bradley both physically and mentally. Furthermore, these conditions are worse than those in which convicted prisoners on Death Row are held.
Remember though, this is someone who has not been tried for the alleged acts, which means that the whole concept of ‘innocent until proved guilty’ seems to have been completely lost in his case.
If Bradley Manning is the source of the leaks then, as some commentators have suggested, he needs to be regarded as a political prisoner as the leaked information contains descriptions of war crimes.
If he is the source of the documents and video then he is a whistleblower, not someone who is ‘aiding the enemy’.
The video that was allegedly leaked by Bradley Manning to Wikileaks is called ‘Collateral Murder’. It shows violence by the military on civilians and can be viewed from this link HERE
The mainstream media is not fully reporting the Bradley Manning situation and is yet again failing in its duties to the public.
The independent news media programme, Democracy Now, recently held interviews with Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower of the Pentagon Papers, on the subject of the Bradley Manning situation and they can be watched from these links HERE and HERE
You can read Daniel Ellsberg’s comments on his website HERE
His interview on the Democracy Now website includes the following comment:
“The conditions under which Manning is being held clearly violate the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution against cruel and unusual punishment—even for someone being punished, having been convicted. Here we have someone who has not yet been tried, not yet convicted, being held in isolation, solitary confinement, for something over 9 months. This is something that is likely to drive a person mad, and may be the intent of what’s going on here.”
You can also hear Bradley Manning’s friend David House provide a description of the appalling way in which Bradley Manning is being treated from the link HERE
More information on this appalling situation can be accessed from the link HERE