Anyone who reads this post from David E. Coombs, Bradley Manning’s lawyer will realize that Bradley Manning is being tortured by the United States of America. He is being tortured in our name. Bradley Manning has not been convicted of any crime. Even if he were convicted of a hideous crime, torture would be immoral.
The United States claims that it is not torturing Manning, but consider one example of many disgraceful revelations made by David E. Coombs:
The guards are required to check on PFC Manning every five minutes by asking him if he is okay. PFC Manning is required to respond in some affirmative manner. At night, if the guards cannot see PFC Manning clearly, because he has a blanket over his head or is curled up towards the wall, they will wake him in order to ensure he is okay.
What the phuque. This is not making sure he is “OK,” as the military claims. Rather, this is sleep deprivation and it is a way to damage cognitive functioning. For those who suggest that this is not a problem, would they ever allow this to be done to someone they loved? And why is it that medical websites universally caution that we get enough sleep?
Learning and memory: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later.
Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.
Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime. These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.
Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.
Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.
Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.
Why would anyone do this to anyone else, other than to torture them? Why, especially, would you do this to a man who has never been convicted of a crime? This is the character of the perennial war-monger totalitarian state coming through loud and clear, and Barack Obama is not willing to step in and call a halt to this despicably immoral situation.
Bradley Manning had the guts to speak truth to power, and now, in my name and yours, he is being made into a hideous example so that none of the rest of us get any foolish ideas.
Lest anyone thinks that the case of Bradley Manning is an anomaly, consider the equally infuriating case of the other Bradley, Bradley Birkenfeld, who blew the whistle on thousands of rich American tax cheats. Guess where Birkenfeld is today. You got it. He's in prison. It should be written in the Constitution: "Don't try to hold rich people accountable." http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/01/07/repor…
"If there’s a soldier anywhere in the world who’s fought and suffered for my freedom, it’s Pfc. Bradley Manning. . . . Manning, like many young soldiers, joined up in the naive belief that he was defending the freedom of his fellow Americans. When he got to Iraq, he found himself working under orders “to round up and hand over Iraqi civilians to America’s new Iraqi allies, who he could see were then torturing them with electrical drills and other implements.” The people he arrested, and handed over for torture, were guilty of such “crimes” as writing “scholarly critiques” of the U.S. occupation forces and its puppet government. When he expressed his moral reservations to his supervisor, Manning “was told to shut up and get back to herding up Iraqis.”
The people Manning saw tortured, by the way, were frequently the very same people who had been tortured by Saddam: trade unionists, members of the Iraqi Freedom Congress, and other freedom-loving people who had no more use for Halliburton and Blackwater than they had for the Baath Party.
For exposing his government’s crimes against humanity, Manning has spent seven months in solitary confinement – a torture deliberately calculated to break the human mind."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/15918/bradley-manni…
Solitary confinement as torture? The issue is discussed at Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/5/dr_atul_gawa…
I saw this show about solitary confinement, it was horrible, the living conditons were good, clean bed some had a tv, or what not but not being able to talk to someone, be touched by another human for months on end is cruel, many were put into isolation for minor infractions for 6 months or more.
then they wondered why they go nuts and attack anyone who happens to be around. one guy was put into isolation for 6 months for disobeying an order. not for violence mind you, but just because he didn't obey some order. they were not specific, but personally I find that cruel.
sure if you attack someone because your irritable,or because they antagonize your or abuse you, like guards bothering you unfairly and you fight back simply in self defense a week in isolation, not 2 years.
and being forced to stay inside only getting exercise in a enclosed area for one hour without sunshine or fresh air and being able to play a game or whatever.
that is bad. you know you can torture someone without even touching them.
what a perpensity for abuse by the guards.
Let's go over this one more time. Bradley Manning has not been convicted of any crime. Despite this, he is being tortured and humiliated by the United States Government, in ever new ways, as reported by Glenn Greenwald. http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald…
There is no way that Barack Obama is unaware of these circumstances. Ergo, Barack Obama is the second Pro-Torture President in recent American history.
This past weekend, I watched the documentary, "<a>Taxi to the Dark Side".
The film details the torture techniques used by our military in Afganistan, Iraq and Gitmo. Some of the more effective methods include isolation, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, forced standing and a host of physical and emotional stressing techniques.
Watch the documentary, the compare the descriptions of torture to the treatment of Bradley Manning.
Barack Obama says he's fine with the way Bradley Manning is being treated.
Hillary Clinton's spokesperson stated that the Pentagon's treatment of Manning is "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/11/obama-br…
Bradley Manning has written a letter regarding his improper treatment. The UK Guardian reports:
The most graphic passage of the letter is Manning's description of how he was placed on suicide watch for three days from 18 January. "I was stripped of all clothing with the exception of my underwear. My prescription eyeglasses were taken away from me and I was forced to sit in essential blindness."
Manning writes that he believes the suicide watch was imposed not because he was a danger to himself but as retribution for a protest about his treatment held outside Quantico the day before. Immediately before the suicide watch started, he said guards verbally harassed him, taunting him with conflicting orders.
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-…
There's no room for honest dissent in the Obama Administration, even when it comes to torturing a man who has not been convicted of any crime.
"P.J. Crowley abruptly resigned Sunday as State Department spokesman over controversial comments he made about the Bradley Manning case."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/13/s…