Bradley Manning Being Touted A Patriot: Still In Solitary Confinement

By Louis Hanks on February 15, 2011, 8:06 am

Instead of declaring Manning a hero, the revised bill calls for Manning to be treated “humanely” in prison. The switch in emphasis came after there was a huge national outcry from conservatives around the country that Berkeley was honoring a man some considered a criminal. Berkeley city officials had also been concerned with the original bill since it declared Manning a hero for a crime in which he has not been convicted nor admitted.

Solitary Confinement For Seven Months

For the past seven months, Army Private First Class Manning has been held in solitary confinement in the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia. Twenty-five thousand other Americans are also in prolonged solitary confinement, but the conditions of Manning’s pre-trial detention have been sufficiently brutal for the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on Torture to announce an investigation.

Part Of The DOD

I’m assuming the view of DoD officials is clouded by the fact that Manning, by being in the armed services, was a part of the DoD and that they can’t accept the idea that he might honestly believe there were wrongdoings that needed to be exposed. They insist that Assange must have preyed on him and pushed and cajoled him into sharing the info. Of course, now the big question is what will the government do. Without this link, there’s no case against Assange. So either they try some other, exceptionally weak claim. Or… the give up. They should know what the right option is, but somehow I doubt they’ll choose wisely.

 

Assange Is Free

While WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange has been cast as a heroic champion of free speech, his ongoing expose of US foreign policy would not have been possible without the work of Private Bradley Manning. It was Manning who allegedly stole the classified documents published by WikiLeaks. It is Manning who now languishes in a US military prison.