FINAL UPDATE III: Many eyes are on this, someone must know someone at Quantico. I hope an officer or guard there shows the simple human kindness to throw Bradley an iPhone with this video playing on it, showing him what was happening outside the gates on his behalf, showing him he has not been forgotten. No one deserves to be driven insane even after being found guilty, nevermind before. Free Bradley Manning. BREAKING: Former Commander of Quantico HQ Company Protests Treatment of BM
VIDEO BELOW: Quantico Marine Base on MLK Day. In attendance was Coleen Rowley, Ray McGovern, Cindy Sheehan, and dozens of Vietnam, Iraq, and other war veterans. Also author and Kos contributor David Swanson (War is a Lie) who almost got disappeared to who knows where, it's marked by a bit of jostling at 2:27 when the shot drops to the ground, and David is being pulled away by Marines.
David reports:
On Monday, two U.S. marines grabbed me and began pulling me away from a crowd of protesters...
For a split second I was certain I would be locked up and charged with some made-up offense, such as failure to obey an unlawful order, or disrupting the war. But that was only for a split second, because without any hesitation the people I was with grabbed me and pulled me back.
These were people who have pull.
This happened at Quantico, Virginia, where we were protesting the cruel and unusual pre-trial isolated confinement of Bradley Manning, the young man who allegedly did his legal duty and made public through wikileaks the evidence of numerous felonies.
When I had been successfully pulled away from the marines, one of my rescuers was hauled off - for a split second. Then he was rescued as well -- without the slightest hesitation, and without aggression or exacerbation of tensions. No one was taken prisoner. No one was hurt.
It turns out that people have pull when they simply choose to pull others out of a jam.
Manning is being held in isolation (no matter what the military calls it) under conditions designed to break his mind. He has been in a 6ft by 12ft cell for 23 hours a day for eight months now, forbidden to exercise in his cell, with no sight of daylight or natural rhythms, no clock, constant silence except for 1 hour of "approved" television per day, no personal items (such as photos of loved ones,) constant light. If he begins to nap between the hours of 5a.m. and 8p.m., will is made to sit up or stand. If he begins to do push-ups or any kind of exercise he is forced to stop. His one hour of "exercise" outside of his cell consists of walking figure eights in shackles, in a dog cage...
Under a bogus "prevention of injury" watch a guard must ask him every 5 minutes "are you ok?" to which he must answer affirmatively. At night when he tries to sleep, if his face is not clearly visible, he must be awakened and his face turned clearly in the proper direction. His friend David House who visits him reports that Manning's physical appearance and behavior have changed, and that he has trouble "focusing" on some subjects.
Bradley Manning, like any of us, is supposed to be presumed innocent until found guilty, and has not been convicted of a solitary thing.
All I have to say to that Marine officer is that he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States above all other duties. The Oath of an officer does not require him to obey any officer, including the commander-in-chief, if he is giving an illegal order. The constitution guarantees "speedy trial" and forbids "cruel and unusual punishment." It is this officer's duty to release Bradley Manning. We will be ruled by laws, not men.
See "Try Robert Gates for Treason, Not Bradley Manning"
White House Phone Numbers, GIVE BRADLEY MANNING HIS CARE PACKAGE DELIVERED ON MLK DAY!
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
UPDATE: We must remember that, among other things, when Bradley released the Apache gunship video to Wiki he was reporting a clear war crime. Reporting a war crime is not breaking the law.
Bradley wrote to Adrian Lamo:
"At first glance it was just a bunch of guys getting shot up by a helicopter...No big deal ... about two dozen more where that came from, right? But something struck me as odd with the van thing, and also the fact it was being stored in a JAG officer’s directory. So I looked into it."
"The van thing" in which a man crawling on the ground in agony and in which 2 children were wounded was a strictly illegal attack upon the wounded during wartime, which is why it was being buried in the military Judge Advocate General's office.
Article 12 of the Geneva Convention of 1864 states that,
"...Members of the armed forces and other persons (...) who are wounded or sick, shall be respected and protected in all circumstances. They shall be treated humanely and cared for by the Party to the conflict...Any attempts upon their lives, or violence to their persons, shall be strictly prohibited; in particular, they shall not be murdered or exterminated...".
The law extends to those attempting to evacuate them, to whom it is required that assistance be given if possible.
From a Marine Corp study guide,Military Studies:
"Marines do not attack medical personnel, facilities, or equipment. Both friendly and enemy medical personnel are to be encouraged to come to the battlefield in safety to care for the wounded combatants."
When watching this video focus your attention on the second attack, on the van. It is absolutely clear that this is a war crime. As far as the Wikileaks documents Bradley is alleged to have leaked, they have already told us that the military is lying to us about important things like the Taliban not having SAMs when they do.
UPDATE II: Comment thread debates "is it torture?" Psychologists say it is.
Psychologist Organization Protests to Gates on Bradley Manning’s Solitary Confineme
January 3, 2011
The Honorable Robert M. Gates
Secretary
100 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
Dear Mr. Secretary:
Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) is deeply concerned about the conditions under which PFC Bradley Manning is being held at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. It has been reported and verified by his attorney that PFC 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 discernible 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.
As an organization of psychologists and other mental health professionals, PsySR is aware that solitary confinement can have severely deleterious effects on the psychological well-being of those subjected to it. We therefore call for a revision in the conditions of PFC Manning’s incarceration while he awaits trial, based on the exhaustive documentation and research that have determined that solitary confinement is, at the very least, a form of cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment in violation of U.S. law.
In the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court case Medley, Petitioner, 134 U.S. 1690 (1890), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Freeman Miller wrote, "A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community." Scientific investigations since 1890 have confirmed in troubling detail the irreversible physiological changes in brain functioning from the trauma of solitary confinement....
http://my.firedoglake.com/...