The Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning

From CounterPunch, legendary Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg weighs in on the alleged WikiLeaks accomplice:

The president refused to comment on PJ Crowley's statement that the treatment of Manning is "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid". Those words are true enough as far as they go – which is probably about as far as a state department spokesperson can allow himself to go in condemning actions of the defence department. But at least two other words are called for: abusive and illegal.

Crowley was responding to a question about the "torturing" of an American citizen, and, creditably, he didn't rebut that description. Prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity – that's right out of the manual of the CIA for "enhanced interrogation". We've seen it applied in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. It's what the CIA calls "no-touch torture", and its purpose there, as in this case, is very clear: to demoralise someone to the point of offering a desired confession. That's what they are after, I suspect, with Manning. They don't care if the confession is true or false, so long as it implicates WikiLeaks in a way that will help them prosecute Julian Assange.

That's just my guess, as to their motives. But it does not affect the illegality of the behaviour. If I'm right, it's likely that such harsh treatment wasn't ordered at the level of a warrant officer or the brig commander.

More here.

My outrage about this has been growing for a few weeks now.

I'm not sure which documents Manning is accused of handing over to WikiLeaks, but I do know that they have something to do with either Afghanistan, Iraq, or both. And I also know that the US has committed war crimes in both theaters--indeed, the invasion of Iraq, in itself, was a war crime, as per the Nuremberg trials. Attempting to show the world what we have done is not treason. Rather, it's the reverse: leaking classified documents that show illegal government action is heroic and patriotic.

But for weeks now the Department of Defense has been treating Manning like he was Al Qaeda. I mean, they didn't charge him until just a few days ago. And he certainly hasn't been found guilty of anything because they haven't even put him on trial yet. It is absolutely horrific that he would be treated in this way; it is definitely a violation of his Constitutional rights. It's also one of many reasons it's a very bad idea for the US to torture prisoners of war: if we do it to our enemies, then it's okay to do it to our own. And we are doing it to our own.

Ralph Nader called for Obama's impeachment last Friday, and my response was that the consumer advocate was totally correct to do so, even though it's something of a drag because I like Obama. But Ellsberg kind of puts it all into perspective: the President just has to know what's going on with Manning, and yet does nothing about it. Obama's pat dismissals of the issue make him thoroughly responsible, if only because he knows and allows it to continue.

I don't want to even imagine that Obama is actually complicit in this, but it's looking more and more like he is. That makes him a torturer, as sure as Cheney and Bush. But this time our leader is torturing a US citizen. And that sends shivers up my spine.

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