Cruel and unusual treatment of WikiLeaks suspect

Cruel and unusual treatment of WikiLeaks suspect
By Terry A. Kupers, Special to CNN
March 16, 2011 8:53 a.m. EDT

"In international circles, for example, according to the U.N. Convention Against Torture (the United States is a signatory), the same violations of human rights are termed torture."

Editor's note: Terry A. Kupers is institute professor at The Wright Institute and author of "Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It." He testifies as a psychiatric expert in court about prison conditions and the quality of correctional mental health care. He received the exemplary psychiatrist award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2005, and the William Rossiter Award from the Forensic Mental Health Association of California in 2009.

(CNN) -- Army Pfc. Bradley Manning has been imprisoned in the Quantico Marine Corps Brig for nine months, suspected of giving highly classified State Department cables to the website WikiLeaks. He has not been tried, yet is kept in solitary confinement in a windowless room 23 hours a day and forced to sleep naked without pillows or blankets.

Human rights groups have condemned his treatment, and even State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley spoke out against it. Crowley has resigned, allegedly under pressure from the Obama administration. Defense officials say Manning is stripped of his clothes nightly to prevent him from committing suicide, yet his civilian lawyer says his client is at no risk.

The problem with the argument that Manning is being kept in long-term solitary confinement to prevent his suicide is that long-term solitary confinement causes suicide.

snip

Clearly, Manning's treatment violates these constitutional guarantees and international prohibitions against torture. Why? Have we permitted our government, under the cloak of security precautions, to set up a secret gulag where conditions known to cause severe psychiatric damage prevail? As a concerned psychiatrist, I strenuously object to this callousness about conditions of confinement that predictably cause such severe harm.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/16/kupers.bradley.manning.prison/index.html?section=cnn_latest

His treatment was ok ?

..you know, so he has his CYA in place..

explaining under what circumstances torture is appropriate given that its recognised as being a crime.

btw thank for correction.

:hi:

...I hope you didn't take offence...

which didn't come to mind when I wrote.

Would take more than that to offend me....lol.

see the full statement/letter for signatories at the site

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2011/03/statement-on-private-mannings-detention.html

FWIW, it will be interesting to see if Marty Lederman signs on also. He departed some months back as pretty much the last of Obama's OLC Dream Team.

“Dream Team” at OLC Dismantled, as Marty Lederman Leaves Executive Branch
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/07/21/dream-team-at-olc-dismantled-as-marty-lederman-leaves-executive-branch/

had an effect.

more at either of the links regarding the assessments of the military psychiatrists involved in his case:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/15-5

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

to this migration of in theater tactics to Quantico.

It makes you wonder what else is happening there that we don't know about.

March 10, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Obama’s Guantanamo Policy Condemned by PHR
Indefinite detention can cause psychological harm and should not be formal US policy

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/news-2011-03-10.html

The guys a traitor 100 years ago he would have been shot already.

Because with your awesome powers of discernment, you ought to be sitting in judgment of all humanity, doling out punishment and praise, instead of simply making anonymous posts online. "What further need have we of witnesses!" the exclamation rings down through the ages, and those with eager ears to hear it and respond, fingers twitching on imaginary triggers.

He bragged about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/16wiki.html

If you think this guy is some Innocent you are hopelessly naive.

If you think Adrian Lamo is a credible witness, your name must be Otto.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

whether this guy is innocent or guilty as sin?

Good grief.

And neither are the medical ethics groups.

March 16, 2011

Letter To Defense Secretary Robert Gates Says Pentagon Confinement Standards Must Comply With U.S. Constitution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – In a letter sent today to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the American Civil Liberties Union charged the “gratuitously harsh treatment” to which the Department of Defense is subjecting Pfc. Bradley Manning in military custody is in clear violation of the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and serves no purpose other than to degrade, humiliate and traumatize him.

Manning, imprisoned for the past nine months at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on charges of handing government files to WikiLeaks, has not been tried or convicted of any crime. He is reportedly being held in solitary confinement, which includes being forced to remain in his cell for 23 hours a day, and is stripped naked at night.

“The Supreme Court has long held that the government violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment whenever it ‘unnecessarily and wantonly inflicts pain,’ the ACLU’s letter reads. “No legitimate purpose is served by keeping Private Manning stripped naked; in prolonged isolated confinement and utter idleness; subjected to sleep deprivation through repeated physical inspections throughout the night; deprived of any meaningful opportunity to exercise, even in his cell; and stripped of his reading glasses so that he cannot read. Absent any evident justification, such treatment is clearly forbidden by our Constitution.”

Following the resignation this week of P.J. Crowley, the former State Department spokesman who called Manning’s treatment “counterproductive and stupid,” President Obama said Pentagon officials had assured him that the conditions of Manning’s confinement are appropriate and meet basic standards.

http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-calls-military-treatment-accused-wikileaks-supporter-pfc-manning-cruel-and-un

The thread I posted last week has reports that talk about this in depth.


"...being kept in long-term solitary confinement to prevent his suicide is that long-term solitary confinement causes suicide/"

The Use of Solitary Confinement and Nudity
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=617422

and/or to make him incoherent to testify in his own behalf --

Miltiary still has laws on the books against TORTURE --






The Rightwing Koch Bros. Funded the DLC --

http://www.democrats.com/node/7789

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x498414

If you knew this, why didn't you tell us?

If you didn't know it, pass it along!


:)