Political India: Engaging America

A group of 250 legal experts including a former professor of United States President Barack Obama has written a letter condemning the U.S.' treatment of Bradley Manning, the former U.S. Army intelligence analyst held responsible for leaking government documents to Wikileaks.

Mr. Manning, who was charged with giving the whistleblower website documents pertaining to the U.S. military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan and also a controversial cache of State Department cables, has been in solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, for the last nine months.

Describing his conditions of confinement as “illegal and immoral,” Mr. Obama's former teacher at Harvard University, Laurence Tribe, joined numerous peers to argue that if Mr. Manning's harsh treatment was continued by the Pentagon, it may well amount to a violation of the criminal statute against torture, defined as, “the administration or application…of… procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality.”

Mr. Manning's routine in the Quantico military facility confines him to his cell for 23 hours a day, the legal specialists wrote. They said during the remaining hour, he was only permitted to walk in circles in another room, with no contact with any person whatsoever.

Mr. Manning was also banned from dozing or relaxing during the day, subjected to constant monitoring, and during the past week he was said to have been “forced to sleep naked and stand naked for inspection in front of his cell, and for the indefinite future must remove his clothes and wear a “smock” under claims of risk to himself that he disputes”.

The letter said the Obama administration had supplied no evidence that Mr. Manning's treatment reflected any concern for his own safety or that of other inmates, and “Unless and until it does so, there is only one reasonable inference: this pattern of degrading treatment aims either to deter future whistleblowers, or to force Manning to implicate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a conspiracy, or both.”

Numerous other groups and prominent individuals have called on the Pentagon to end it, some controversially. Last month, the former U.S. State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, resigned after calling the Pentagon's actions “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid”.

Mr. Crowley, highest-profile casualty over the Manning affair thus far, however went on to say in media interviews that he had “no regrets” about his comments and argued that the manner of Mr. Manning's detention had “undermined the investigation into his role as the alleged source for Wikileaks”.

Photograph credit: Politico

From The Hindu

In the latest twist to the saga of Bradley Manning, the United States military intelligence officer in jail over allegations of leaking private files and cables to Wikileaks, the whistleblower website, a top representative of the State Department publicly agreed that Mr. Manning was being "mistreated".

Even as Mr. Manning released his first direct communication from his holding cell in a military facility in Quantico, Virginia, P.J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Public Affairs and a spokesman for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said at a seminar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that the treatment meted out to Mr. Manning was "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid on the part of the Department of Defence".

Mr. Manning, who had earlier only spoken through his lawyer, David Coombs, or his friends, said in his letter, that ever since being placed on suicide watch in January, he was being forced to strip naked every night and subjected to "unlawful pre-trial punishment".

His letter further alleges that his "prescription eyeglasses were taken away from me and I was forced to sit in essential blindness", and, often becoming upset, "Out of frustration, I clenched my hair with my fingers and yelled: 'Why are you doing this to me? Why am I being punished? I have done nothing wrong.'"

Friction within Obama administration

Mr. Crowley’s comments revealed frictions within the Barack Obama administration on how to deal with Mr. Manning, with the President issuing comments that effectively condoned Mr. Manning’s treatment.

At a news conference Mr. Obama said, "With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards... They assure me that they are."

Implying that Mr. Manning’s solitary confinement and stripping was for his own protection Mr. Obama added, "I cannot go into details about some of their concerns... but some of this has to do with Private Manning’s safety as well."

Earlier this month the government’s Justice Department announced that Mr. Manning had been slapped with 22 new charges including "aiding the enemy", punishable by death. Although the charges did not explicitly identify who the "enemy" in question was, they alleged that when he was based out of his post in Iraq, he did "steal, purloin, or knowingly convert to his use or the use of another, a record or thing of value of the U.S..."

In January this year, a non-profit group called Psychologists for Social Responsibility wrote an open letter to Secretary of Defence Robert Gates in which it said it was "deeply concerned about the conditions under which PFC Bradley Manning is being held", citing in particular the fact that he was in solitary confinement for approximately 23 hours a day in a cell approximately six feet wide and twelve feet in length "for no discernable reason other than punishment..."

In his letter, Mr. Manning also commented on a recent decision of the United States government to keep him under even more restrictive conditions through a Prevention of Injury (PoI) order. In particular, he shared excerpts from the observation records which, according to The Guardian, consistently report that Mr. Manning was "respectful, courteous and well spoken", and "does not have any suicidal feelings at this time".

Further, reports said that 16 separate entries made from 27 August until the records stopped on January 28 "show that Manning was evaluated by prison psychiatrists who found he was not a danger to himself and should be removed from the PoI order".

Private Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who has been in detention for nine months on charges of supplying whistleblower website Wikileaks with sensitive government data, has been slapped with 22 new charges including “aiding the enemy,” punishable by death.

In the barrage of charges brought by the U.S. government against Mr. Manning, federal prosecutors argued that Mr. Manning, “without proper authority, knowingly give intelligence to the enemy, through indirect means,” between November 1 2009 and May 27 2010.

Since early 2010 Wikileaks went on to release a steady stream of private files pertaining to U.S. military engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and ultimately State Department engagements around the world. In the ensuing crackdown by U.S. authorities Mr. Manning was arrested and held in solitary confinement at the military facility in Quantico, Virginia.

The list of charges announced this week included allegations that Mr. Manning “wrongfully and wantonly cause to be published on the internet intelligence belonging to the U.S. government, having knowledge that intelligence published on the internet is accessible to the enemy.”

Prosecutors in the case went on to argue that Mr. Manning's actions in this regard were prejudicial to good order and discipline in the armed forces and were of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.

While not explicitly identifying who the “enemy” in question was, the charge sheet against Mr. Manning had aided the enemy when, based out of Contingency Operating Station Hammer in Iraq, he did “steal, purloin, or knowingly convert to his use or the use of another, a record or thing of value of the U.S...”

Numerous charges announced pertaining to computer file theft, in particular identifying the combined value of the files purportedly stolen as being in excess of $1,000 so as to attract a stronger potential penalty .

Media reported that he had said via his Twitter account that “aiding the enemy” was the most significant additional charge.

Among the questions raised regarding Mr. Manning's case was the issue of “why legal proceedings against him did not seem to be moving forward,” the New York Times argued. Though the Army said the delay was to evaluate his “mental capacity” at the defence's request, such an evaluation was still said to be pending.

In January this year a non-profit group called Psychologists for Social Responsibility wrote an open letter to Secretary of Defence Robert Gates in which it said that it was “deeply concerned about the conditions under which PFC Bradley Manning is being held,” citing in particular the fact that he was in solitary confinement for approximately 23 hours a day in a cell approximately six feet wide and twelve feet in length “for no discernable reason other than punishment...”