This past May, PFC Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst who allegedly boasted of leaking video and documents to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was arrested. Originally held in Kuwait, in July he was transferred to a prison at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. (Firedoglake has a helpful timeline of events here.)
According to Manning's military defense lawyer, David Coombs, Manning is being held in maximum custody, alone in a cell about six by 12 feet. He does not see any other inmates and has only minimal exchanges with guards, who wake him up at 5:00 a.m. daily and check on him every five minutes. Coombs writes: "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."
According to Coombs, Manning eats all his meals in his cell, is not allowed to exercise in his cell (if he tries to do sit-ups the guards stop him) and is not allowed sheets or pillows to sleep with.
The military's explanation of these conditions is twofold. A Quantico prison spokesman told Agence France-Press that Manning is being held in "maximum custody" because he is considered a risk to national security.
Manning is also said to be a threat to himself, given the serious trouble he's in. As a result, he's on "Prevention of Injury" watch, which accounts for the lack of sheets and pillows.
But his lawyer thinks that's a ruse. And indeed, it's hard to imagine why prison officials would treat someone who they worry is mentally disturbed by isolating him to the point that, as medical experts have documented, is likely to make him crazy.
His friend David House, one of the few people aside from his lawyer that's been allowed to visit him, reports in a post today on Firedoglake that "it has become obvious to me that Manning's physical and mental well-being are deteriorating." (House also adds interesting details about Manning's confinement conditions and treatment, including some which contradict prison officials' claims.)
As Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice who teaches at Yale Law School told me, if these extreme conditions and deprivations are being imposed because the military believes Manning is a danger to himself, then "he should be in a hospital rather than a brig." In any event, Fidell says he believes that Private Manning's treatment is "not customary."
Glenn Greenwald has done an excellent job of calling attention to Manning's situation, which has sparked an active debate over whether the conditions of his confinement amount to torture.
The office of Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, has reportedly received a complaint charging exactly that. The U.N. is expected to investigate.
At the very least, the conditions would seem to amount to a violation of Article 13 of the UCMJ, which states:
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.
In a recent blog post Manning's lawyer writes that military case law would allow a judge to infer that the conditions of Manning's confinement amount to punishment. As he writes in this post, citing the relevant case law:
Article 13 provides that pretrial confinement should not be "more rigorous than the circumstances require to insure" the servicemember's presence at court. "Conditions that are sufficiently egregious may give rise to a permissive inference that an accused is being punished. . . ." United States v. King, 61 M.J. 225, 227-28 (C.A.A.F. 2005); see also United States v. Crawford, 62 M.J. 411 (C.A.A.F. 2006). Arbitrary or purposeless conditions also can be considered to raise an inference of punishment. King, 61 M.J. at 227-28 (citing United States v. James, 28 M.J. 214, 216 (C.M.A. 1989)).
Although Coombs has raised the issue with officials at Quantico, he can't actually bring a motion for relief under Article 13 until the case is officially referred for court-martial. So far, although Manning has been charged, the case is still under investigation and court-martial has not yet begun. It therefore remains up to Quantico officials to address the situation. Although Coombs says that the Army Staff Judge Advocate's office has tried to intervene to improve Manning's conditions, it has so far been unsuccessful. Quantico is run by the Marines.
Follow Daphne Eviatar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/deviatar
Sloyd provided an excellent link to these facts, if you are interested:
A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning
http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/2010/12/typical-day-for-pfc-bradley-manning.html
His confinement may be harsh but, in my opinion, it is not inhumane.
No he is not. And we will all remember that you favor these conditions for accused criminals if you are ever arrested
As for these condition should I ever be arrested - I'm not in the military. That means I probably wouldn't have anywhere near as clean a cell as Manning probably has. I've seen a few episodes of "Lockup". Yuck. That was enough to make me dig up my pot farm and go out of business.
http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/2010/12/typical-day-for-pfc-bradley-manning.html
THis is normal treatment for anyone in a military brig, especially solitary confinement and a high profile case like this.
Oh that's right--expanding the force of the Bush Patriot act on spying, renditions and extra judicial terminations.
Personal rights rank pretty low on his list of things to defend.
Have a look at the link provided by sloyd. It gives a clearer picture of Manning's confinement, which is not unusual for a military prisoner.
A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning
http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/2010/12/typical-day-for-pfc-bradley-manning.html
I couldn't agree more. The civil rights of every American are the responsibility of this Constitutional Law Professor President, who so far has only been good at dismantling them. Expanded spigh. ing, assumption of the power to name American Citizens enemy com. bat. tants and order their x ah cutions anywhere in the world without trial, growing the dept of home. land. security info gathering to include virtually every citizen in the nation whether suspected of a cryme or not. The list goes on. You shoulod read up on it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sevM5IstFFY
It is not.
President Obama said "We do not torture". He needs to be properly apprised of how the people under his command are treating Private Manning.
Ask John McCain. Ask any POW of WWII or Viet Nam.
Sadly, I think that at this point folks like you are so far gone you probably won't even believe them, will you?
I read an article recently where Senators Lieberman and Fienstein longed for the good old days when the Espionage Act of 1917 authorized the government to arrest people who were critical of the government.
Little by little the Congress has taken every opportunity to undo the democratic principles that were established by the American Revolution. What they have not done has been accomplished by the Executive Branch's abuse of Executive Orders and Signing Statements claiming that laws do not apply to them.
We've come to a crossroad in this country. Will our government, that shining city on a hill, be willing to restrain itself from destroying democracy?
Great post! The answer, unfortunately seems to be no, they are too far past any accountability. When the only option we the people have is voting, and we've seen how meaningless that has become, then no, they won't restrain themselves from destroying democracy.
"I must have missed the part where PFC Manning was convicted of a crime." He has not yet been convicted, but according to his lawyer they expect to start pretrial precedings in the Spring of 2011.
"Espionage Act of 1917 authorized the government to arrest people who were critical of the government." You can thank the Progressives that were in power at that time for that one.
"Little by little the Congress has taken every opportunity to undo the democratic principles that were established by the American Revolution." It is about time people started agreeing with the TEA Party.
My name is John now and it always has been. I know what guidelines I need to follow (they are non-negotiable) and I consistently apply as necessary. Society can create all the changes they want, but if it is not for the better count me out. Nice article.
The confidentiality classification of these materials are the lowest such designations in use. The government has automaticaly labels millions of documents as classified as a matter of policy . High ranking officials have stated, that the information released might be embarassing but presents an accurate picture of how government personnnel intepret what they observe on a day-to-day basis. The miltary has acknowledges tens of thousands of personnel have access to this material, yet only one person as been accused to date.
The government repeatedly scapegoats low-level and often innocent employees or individuals when these breeches occur. After ruining lives, ,families, careers and reputations, they issue an “Oops. Our bad!” and pay the accused millions in damages. This occurred with security guard Richard Jewel who discovered Right to Life Bomber Rudolph’s bomb in the Olympic Village in Atlanta, notified the police, cleared the area of passersby. For his heroic actions, he was the one arrested. Dr.Wen Ho Lee, a career researcher at Sandia National Laboratory was accused of permitting access to Chinese intelligence on his computer. The government harassed himand his family until Ho plead to a single felony count to end the misery. Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield's fingerprints were wrongly linked to the Madrid bombing and was accused of abetting the terrorists by the FBI in 2006. Our government is quick to accuse, quick to scapegoat and slow in organizing its resources pursue the true culprits.
Wht does the government target the weak while giving passes to the powerful? Cheney, Armitage and Rove exposed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame and her contacts abroad to death to punish her husband Joe Wilson, who outed the administration’s lies about Iraq’s purchase of uranium from Niger
Numerous clinical studies have demonstrated that protracted solitary confinement rapidly breaks down the human’s ability to maintain a grip on reality. This kid has not even been charged. But if the reports are true, our military is now imposing the psychological torture on U.S. soil that they did in Abu Ghraib and in the CIA’s secret prisons in Eurasia and Asia. How long will it be before these “enhanced” techniques become commonplace in our jails and prisons?
How would you be reacting if this was happening to you? Your spouse? Your children?
"He is allowed to watch television during the day. The television stations are limited to the basic local stations. His access to the television ranges from 1 to 3 hours on weekdays to 3 to 6 hours on weekends."
"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."
"On weekends and holidays, he is allowed to have approved visitors see him from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m."
"He is allowed to receive letters from those on his approved list and from his legal counsel. If he receives a letter from someone not on his approved list, he must sign a rejection form. The letter is then either returned to the sender or destroyed."
"He is allowed to have any combination of up to 15 books or magazines. He must request the book or magazine by name. Once the book or magazine has been reviewed by the literary board at the confinement facility, and approved, he is allowed to have someone on his approved list send it to him. The person sending the book or magazine to him must do so through a publisher or an approved distributor such as Amazon. They are not allowed to mail the book or magazine directly to PFC Manning."
Boy is that sur sounds like torture.???Give me a break.
He is allowed NO exercise 23 hours out of every day, and then only as much walking as he can manage in his steadily weakening condition for one hour. He is kept in isolation 162 out of 168 hours a week. He is required to say he's "OK" every five minutes - that's 160 times between 5 am and 8 pm - but not allowed to otherwise speak to another human soul five days a week. His sleep is interrupted, apparently also every five minutes, every night. Tell me how such conditions are NOT torture? Because he can read a magazine and watch re-runs of "The King of Queens?" Are you serious?