A military judge has ruled that Pvt. Bradley Manning, on trial for leaking classified files, was treated inhumanely while imprisoned in a military brig in Quantico, Virginia.
Manning—who had told friends and co-workers he was gay, but also reportedly considered gender-reassignment surgery—was held for nine months in an isolated 6×8-foot cell in Quantico, VA, where he was denied access to sunlight and exercise.
According to the Bradley Manning Support Network:
After more than two weeks of intense litigation by Bradley Manning’s defense, and hearing how Quantico brig staff blatantly disregarded Navy Rules in their mistreatment of Bradley, military Judge Denise Lind has confirmed that Bradley was punished unlawfully before trial by awarding Bradley 112 days credit.
Instead of awarding 10-for-1 credit, which would severely reprimand the military for its handling of Bradley and which would significantly impact Bradley’s potential sentence, Judge Lind gives 1-to-1 credit for selected portions of Manning’s confinement.
Jeff Paterson, a Manning advocate, says the ruling by Judge Denise Lind “confirmed that Bradley was mistreated—and vindicated the massive protest effect that was required to stop the Marines at Quantico from torturing Bradley.” Paterson says 112 days off Manning’s sentence is “not nearly enough to hold the military accountable for their actions.”
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Manning was arrested in May 2010 and charged with passing classified documents to the whistleblower site Wikileaks. His trial is set for March—if found guilty, he faces up to 150 years in prison, minus the 112 days Lind has credited him.
hephaestion
Bradley Manning should be treated as a hero, not as vermin you would step on, as our insanely bloated and over-funded military has done. Corrupt soldiers were killing innocent Iraqis willy-nilly and it was courageous of Manning to expose this evil. It is a sad and godless world that would punish what Manning did.
brent
It is obvious that the military was treating Manning as someone who should be kept under suicide watch. If they did not do that and Manning committed suicide, the critics would be saying that the military didn’t do enough to help him. Not to mention left wing conspiracy theories that Manning of course was murdered.
Cam
@brent:
Funny then that there are accepted procedures for doing just that….and they didn’t follow them.
The court points out the obvious. It never ceases to surprise me that the groups who scream most loudly about the “American Way” are also the same groups that seek to break the laws of this country at every opportunity.
2eo
Mistreated and tortured for doing absolutely NOTHING wrong. No lives were endangered in any conceivable way and it showed just how much utter contempt the brass in the US has for their allies, who are fighting and dying like they are and are supposed to be comrades.
It is sad god fearing lunatics who are punishing him, he should be given the medal of honour for his absolutely patriotic pro-American better than the best clean and moral approach to his work. If his attitude was prevalent among the people in these positions the military would be far, far better than it is now.
I’d shake his hand for his brilliant, patriotic work. America should be proud there are still people like Manning.
Will L
If they had shot him for treason like they should have, we wouldn’t have to listen to his whiney ass complain about his treatment.
brent
@2eo: I would like to shake the hands of the patriots who released the memos on global warming about three years ago. I love how liberals like Barbara Boxer accused them of theft, when she did not accuse Bradley Manning of theft.
2eo
@brent: I would as well, there is a clear campaign of information manipulation and paid informant preference, science should be unbiased and clear cut.
It isn’t theft, nobody who exposes lies and corruption can be considered a traitor, the traitorous action is condoning the lies.
curan
Manning certainly did do something wrong, and he knew it.
Manning used his security clearance and server access to pack hundreds of thousands of documents and transferred them to Wikileaks.
Manning certainly did not read each one and confirm that no lives were endangered. He trusted Wikileaks redaction for that.
Many good things have come from Manning’s actions. The whole of the “Arab spring” is directly attributable to his release. A great many other productive events around the world have resulted that we see very little reporting on here in the US (corruption in India comes to mind). The fall of Egypt and Libya was “authored” by Manning.
Manning then felt compelled to discuss his actions in online chat with someone that turned out to have a substance abuse problem, and this person turned him into the FBI.
Manning’s hands are far from clean. There are extenuating circumstances: his youth, persecution, hints of gender identity disorder, family abandonment, anxiety about repeated deployments, etc.
This situation is hardly black and white.
Cam
Brent and Will,
Please detail out your opinion that Manning is treasonous. Considering that the documentation he released showed that the military was aware that Pakistan was most likely giving troop positions to the Taliban causing injury and death to our troops but that they were not doing anything to stop that.
His release of that information most likely saved troops lives. But you seem to think that saving troops lives should not be done if it is inconvenient for people at the top. That isn’t patriotism from you, it’s treason.