OMG, OMG, OMG, Bradley Manning is being tortured. He's locked up 23 hours a day. He is held in total isolation. They wake him up if he starts to fall asleep. He has no bedding. They say it's for his own protection even though he's not on a suicide watch. He has been imprisoned for months without being charged with a crime. His civil rights have been violated. It's cruel and unusual punishment. The UN has decided to investigate the US for torture of Bradley Manning. OMG, OMG, OMG.
All but one of the above statements are false. The false statements are not just spin, they are lies. It's a challenge to decide which statement is true, isn't it.
Almost all news about Bradley Manning has been accepted as fact or as a real possibility by most people, it seems. Similar reports appear everywhere and the spin is repeated endlessly. It has gone viral. But none of the reports focus on Bradley Manning, rather they use his situation to ultimately demonize President Obama somehow. The worst form of propaganda ever. And most people just eat this up.
Hold on to your OMG's.
The old saw about things that sound too good to be true also applies to things that sound too bad to be true. The many horrors that have been reported about the incarceration of Bradley Manning falls into the latter category.
I want to limit this discussion to the reporting about incarceration of Bradley Manning. I want to unspin the reports and expose the lies. We are not being told the truth.
In a recent Salon article titled UN to investigate treatment of Bradley Manning by Greenwald, additional claims of torture are revealed beyond his earlier piece and, he says, the claims are confirmed.
I decided to check the source of the confirmation. This verified that Greenwald wasn't telling the truth. The spin is astonishing. The article is full of bald-faced lies and wildly distorted reporting.
Manning's defense attorney tells a different story even though he is cited as the source. The information from Manning's attorney seems to be taken out of context and spun in nearly all of the reports I've read in various publications and blogs.
Without question, Manning's defense attorney is biased. It is to his advantage to make a case for cruel or excessive prison conditions. It's also to his disadvantage to lie about the facts. This in mind, here's what David Coombs, Manning's attorney, says about Manning's current situation.
Right up front, he says
PFC Manning is currently being held in maximum custody. Since arriving at the Quantico Confinement Facility in July of 2010, he has been held under Prevention of Injury (POI) watch.
This POI watch sure sounds similar to a "suicide watch" to me, but technically it isn't exactly the same. It's true that Manning was initially under a suicide watch. Later, that was lifted and he's now under the POI watch. Greenwald and most everyone else says "...despite not being on suicide watch..." in ways that imply that there's no longer an official resaon to hold Manning in solitary confinement. This is lying by omission.
The fact is that the POI watch is a valid reason to keep Manning in solitary confinement. Perhaps it hasn't been reported that letting Manning mingle with other prisoners might be an "injury" risk. I suspect that other soldiers might not treat Manning kindly if they consider his alleged crimes to be acts of treason. The Prevention of Injury concept makes sense in terms of potential relapse into thoughts of suicide as well as external threats of injury.
Greenwald states in his earlier piece about torture and Manning
Like most individuals held in severe isolation, Manning sleeps much of the day, is particularly frustrated by the petty, vindictive denial of a pillow or sheets, and suffers from less and less outdoor time as part of his one-hour daily removal from his cage.
Geez, I thought he was being tortured with sleep deprivation techniques. It's good to know that he gets to sleep.
How does this POI watch work?
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.
Wait. So Manning isn't allowed to sleep all day as Greenwald claimed. So there's no sleep deprivation and he gets a full nights' sleep. That doesn't sound like torture to me.
My sister-in-law, a psych nurse, tells me that this is similar to procedures they follow for anyone on a suicide watch and for those who are likely to become suicidal. Five minute status checks included. No sheets, no pillow, etc. These rooms are bare. The POI watch is a certain level of a suicide watch. Some articles say that Manning is there for "protection". This is probably the closest to the truth.
Wait. What was that about checking on him if he has a blanket over his head? A blanket? I would have sworn he didn't have sheets or a pillow. Here's the more complete statement.
He is not allowed to have a pillow or sheets. However, he is given access to two blankets and has recently been given a new mattress that has a built-in pillow.
So he's not lying naked in a cold cell without any covers. Wait. Did I say naked?
When PFC Manning goes to sleep, he is required to strip down to his boxer shorts and surrender his clothing to the guards. His clothing is returned to him the next morning.
I guess that's almost true. Personally I sleep [redacted, TMI]
Is PFC Manning sitting around in silence and deprived of contact with the outside world? I assumed that this was the case from all the articles I read. Cenk said on the Ed Show that Manning was being held in complete isolation. Greenwald speaks of "his one-hour daily removal from his cage" and "full-on sensory deprivation". Quite the visual image, eh? His attorney says
He is allowed to watch television during the day.
From 7:00 p.m. to 9:20 p.m., he is given correspondence time. He is given access to a pen and paper. He is allowed to write letters to family, friends, and his attorneys.
He is only allowed to have one book or one magazine at any given time to read in his cell. The book or magazine is taken away from him at the end of the day before he goes to sleep.
Not so isolated, then. Where's that TV located?
It is technically true that Manning isn't protected by civil laws regarding illegal constraint and 8th Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishement. I remind everyone that military personnel are not civilians.
The military equivalent of these protections is Article 55 of the UCMJ and Article 13 of the UCMJ. Manning's attorney discusses the details here.
Article 13 safeguards against unlawful pretrial punishment and embodies the precept that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
No person, while being held for trial, may be subjected to punishment or penalty other than arrest or confinement upon the charges pending against him, nor shall the arrest or confinement imposed upon him be any more rigorous than the circumstances required to insure his presence, but he may be subjected to minor punishment during that period for infractions of discipline.
Manning's defense attorney has incentive to show that Manning may have received excessive punishment, yet he seems to be steadfast in saying that Manning is being treated the same as others. This is his incentive for getting relief for Manning using such a claim:
If a military judge determines that a servicemember has been illegally punished prior to trial, she has substantial discretion to grant administrative credit, usually in the form of additional pretrial confinement credit, or even grant an outright dismissal of the charges.
What about the charges asking for a UN investigation? All of the news reports say that the charges were filed by "Manning supporters". No names are provided. One report hints a possible source for the charges.
Urged on by his attorney, David Coombs, Manning supporters have been waging an online campaign claiming the Army private's prison conditions are inhumane, charges the military says are baseless
This report comes from Fox News. Predictably, they blame the defense attorney and Manning supporters. It's quite clear that Manning's attorney is not behind and of the activities asserted by Fox News. That would be a stupid move by any attorney. The person or group that filed the charges remains anonymous.
Some reports imply that the UN decided to investigate these claims on its own. Not so. The fact is that a formal request was sent to the UN.
What will the UN investigators do? According to this Washington Post report,
Nowak [Manfred Nowak, special rapporteur on torture in Geneva] is the special investigator on torture, working for the U.N. Human Rights Council. Rapporteurs regularly assess complaints from alleged victims of human rights violations. If a complaint is verified as legitimate, the investigator sends an urgent letter or appeal to the government that it believes has committed the violation.
Keep on waiting for that urgent letter or appeal, I guess.
Something tells me that the complaint won't be legitimate. Just a guess.
What was the one true statement? Manning is confined to his cell for 23 hours each day.