traitor or patriot? all depends how you look at it i suppose.
The Breaking of Bradley Manning
The cruel and protracted persecution of Bradley Manning moved on a stage this week. After being imprisoned for 18 months without trial, he finally got as far as a court. Well not really a court, just a pre-trial hearing that will determine whether he will face a full court martial with penalties that could include life in jail.
Not surprisingly to anyone who has been following this black farce the chances of him getting a fair trial seem pretty remote, with President Obama already (and outrageously) on the record as saying that ‘he broke the law’ and the presiding officer at the pre-trial, a man who works for the government department investigating wikileaks, excluding all but 2 of 38 defense witnesses.
Just to remind ourselves, Bradley Manning is a 23-year-old U.S. Army Private who is accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. Accused, remember, not convicted of anything whatsoever so far. He has been imprisoned without charge for 18 months. For much of that time he has been kept in conditions that constituted cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture. He was finally charged with 22 offenses and could face life in prison.
Why ? Because Bradley Manning is alleged to be a whistle-blower. Through his leaks we know about a horrific civilian massacre that the army covered up in Iraq and numerous lies it told about civilian deaths in Afghanistan. The cumulative effect of the leaked logs is to paint a realistic picture of both of these illegal and immoral wars that is totally at odds with the happy-clappy government spin.
There is no evidence, and no serious suggestion, that anything leaked by Wikileaks has in any way compromised American security or put lives at risk. The government’s own reviews of the leaks concluded that little damage was done. Anyone who argues to the contrary must produce specific and credible proof or be ignored. At a time when 60% of the American public oppose the disastrous Afghan ‘war’ Manning is an American hero who has performed a service for his country.
How has his country repaid his principled action ? For 23 hours a day this vulnerable young man was totally isolated in a small cell. There he was barred even from exercising and was under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. He was subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation, being woken every few minutes through the night at times, a classic torture technique. For reasons that appeared completely punitive, he was denied the most basic amenities, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (no psychiatrist had said suicide watch was necessary). He was made to take drugs, allegedly to counteract the damaging mental effects of long-term solitary confinement.
It was worse than that, though. His jailers ratcheted up the torment. He was forced to strip naked for 7 hours stretches and also forced to stand naked outside his cell while it was ‘inspected’. No reason was given. By the time his full court martial comes around the chances are they will have succeeded in their aims and he will be broken in mind and spirit. Why are we seeing this blatant continuation of some of the worst aspects of the Bush regime when Obama campaigned on the need to strengthen protection for whistle-blowers ? How does he reconcile this cruelty with his conscience ? Doesn’t the hypocrisy make him gag ?
Seriously, when this kind of thing happened under a right-wing regime like George W Bush decent Americans were up in arms. So why the hesitancy now to loudly and unequivocally slam Obama for doing exactly the things that were so despised about Bush ? I know in Americas two-party faux-democracy Obama may seem to represent the least-worst alternative, the acceptable face of corporate control, and I know a lot of liberals had much hope and faith invested in him but come on .. to give him a pass on this is craven and self-delusional. This is utterly despicable and exactly the kind of abuse we expected Obama to end.
It doesn’t matter that Bush was 100% awful and Obama is perhaps only 90% awful. Its not about degrees of awfulness its about right and wrong and this would be equally wrong whoever was doing it. Right now the eyes of the world are focused on America and the way it is treating Bradley Manning. Last month, 54 members of the European Parliament signed a letter to the U.S. government raising concerns about Manning’s 18-month pretrial confinement. What happens over the coming weeks will confirm beyond any dispute what kind of country America is.
(via lonelycoast)
