- posted on 01/13/2011
Manning has been held in solitary confinement since July of 2010!!!
He reportedly is held in his cell for approximately 23 hours a day, a cell approximately six feet wide and twelve feet in length, with a bed, a drinking fountain, and a toilet.
For no discernable reason other than punishment, he is forbidden from exercising in his cell and is provided minimal access to exercise outside his cell. Further, despite having virtually nothing to do, he is forbidden to sleep during the day and often has his sleep at night disrupted. - posted on 01/13/2011
David House, a computer researcher from Boston, is one of few people permitted to visit accused Wikileaker Bradley Manning at a military prison in Quantico, Va. He's relayed a message from Manning: My blankets hurt.
Over the last week, a debate has exploded over whether the conditions of Manning's confinement¡ªhe is confined to a cell for 23 hours a day, permitted little if any exercise, barred from reading newspapers, and gets little human contact¡ªconstitutes torture. Salon's Glenn Greenwald described it as "inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing...isolation." House, speaking to the Guardian, said that he's seen "a steady decline in [Manning's] mental and physical wellbeing" over the course of several visits due to the solitary confinement. The hubbub has sparked an investigation by the U.N.'s special representative for torture.
The Army quickly responded that Manning is allowed to read newspapers, exercise, watch television, and generally gets treated like any other prisoner.
Today, House has written an account on Firedog Lake of his most recent visit with Manning, and relays Manning's answers about how bad his treatment really is. It doesn't sound fun. Maybe it qualifies as inhumane. And House certainly demonstrates that Army officials are lying when the describe how pleasantly he's being treated. But does it sound like torture to you?
Manning related to me on December 19 2010 that his blankets are similar in weight and heft to lead aprons used in X-ray laboratories, and similar in texture to coarse and stiff carpet. He stated explicitly that the blankets are not soft in the least and expressed concern that he had to lie very still at night to avoid receiving carpet burns. The problem of carpet burns was exacerbated, he related, by the stipulation that he must sleep only in his boxer shorts as part of the longstanding prevention of injury order. Manning also stated on December 19 2010 that hallway-mounted lights shine through his window at night. This constant illumination is consistent with reports from attorney David Coombs' blog that marines must visually inspect Manning as he sleeps.
Manning sleeps on a mattress with a built-in pillow and an uncomfortable blanket, a state of affairs that Greenwald described as a "vindictive denial of a pillow or sheets." The denial probably is vindictive, or maybe it's because¡ªdespite a psychiatrist's finding that Manning is not a suicide risk¡ªthey don't want him to have access to cloth that can be fashioned into a noose. Either way, is it that big a deal, all things considered?
The most serious claim about Manning's confinement is his lack of exercise. According to House, Manning said he had not been permitted outdoors for a full month prior to their visit, and despite getting an hour a day to exercise, he "is [only] able to exercise insofar as walking in chains is a form of exercise." This is at odds with the Army's claims that Manning is permitted to do "activities [that] may include calisthenics, running, basketball." Barring even basic physical activity certainly seems inhumane and wrong, but again¡ªis it the stuff of a U.N. investigation?
Manning also says he's not allowed access to news¡ª"when I said 'The Pentagon has stated that you are allowed newspapers,'" House wrote, "his immediate reaction was surprised laughter." He gets an hour of television a day, but there are no news programs on the channels available to him during that time slot.
Many of the restrictions Manning faces are due to a Prevention of Injury order, designed to keep him from hurting himself. House and Greenwald quite reasonably want that order lifted. If I were Manning, or a friend of his, I would certainly be raising hell about every overstarched blanket.
But the bottom line is that there is nothing even remotely unusual about the conditions under which Manning is currently confined. There are literally thousands of people¡ªby one estimate as many as 20,000 [pdf]¡ªin this country in solitary confinement right now. It is a distressingly routine technique. To the extent that it is inhumane, illegal, unconstitutional, and violative of international law¡ªwhich it may be¡ªthere are thousands of people in line ahead of Manning awaiting their U.N. investigations.
And to use the word "torture" to describe Manning's treatment¡ªbased on what we know so far¡ªundermines the noble effort over the past decade by people like Greenwald to define that word in a way that criminalizes the perverse techniques employed by the Bush Administration. Even those who argue that solitary confinement is indisputably torture acknowledge that the confinement must be lengthy in order to qualify. Manning has been imprisoned for six months. You are not being tortured if you are denied access to a newspaper.
- Re: Support for Bradley Manning£exposing war crime is not a crime!posted on 01/13/2011
Condemn solitary confinement! We need to reveal the inhuman detainee abuses!
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/23/manning
- posted on 06/20/2012
Reply #3 mayaLONDON (AP) ¡ª WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is beyond the grasp of British authorities as long as he is holed up in Ecuador'sLondon embassy, the government said Wednesday. But he faces arrest if he steps outside.
Police said Assange had violated the terms of his bail, which include an overnight curfew, and "is now subject to arrest." Police officerswere stationed Wednesday outside the Edwardian apartment block that houses the small South American country's London embassy.
The Foreign Office said as long as Assange remains inside, he is "beyond the reach of police."
"We will seek to work with the Ecuadorean authorities to resolve this situation as soon as possible," it said in a statement.
The 40-year-old Australian took refuge in the mission on Tuesday, saying he was seeking political asylum in Ecuador, whose leftist President Rafael Correa has previously offered words of support.
Ecuador said Assange would "remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorean government" while authorities in the capital, Quito, considered his case.
Assange was arrested in London in December 2010 at Sweden's request. Since then he has been fighting extradition to the Scandinavian country, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sexual assaults on two women in 2010.
He denies the allegations and says the case against him is politically motivated. He also claims extradition could be a first step in efforts to remove him to the United States, where he claims to have been secretly indicted over his website's disclosure of 250,000 State Department cables. The leaks of the secret diplomatic exchanges deeply angered the U.S. government.
Asked about the case at a Geneva press conference, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said Assange was not being victimized.
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