What is The Government Afraid of on a Bradley Manning Trial?
The following is a posting on thing2thing.com web site. This site is dedicated to putting out information so Bradley Manning is not forgotten. Never in known modern history has anyone been kept locked up in solitary for years with out even a trial. What is the crime? Even if the charges against this soldier were true, which there is a good case that they are not, he does not deserves such inhumane treatment. Who gets treated like this? The civilians we elected to control the military, because this is not a military republic, seems ineffective in dealing with the military’s conduct on this. What are we hiding by not having a trial? Is there a high raking officer or officers involved in smething ugly that would come out on trial? One wonders...We are a civilian republic but when the military says something it is taken like it was a god-like entity talking to its subjects.
If we learnt nothing from watergate, Iran-contra, Iraq war is that the military and the civilians in charge of it, lie all the time. Why should we allow that an american citizen be treated like this?
Not a felon, not a deserter. It’s been said that he committed treason by releasing truthful documents. By calling anybody and particularly a soldier ugly names and then not give’m a chance to defend himself, what do you call that? It comes the time that what ever the charges even if true, they stop being relevant as time passes and the truth is leant and history take it’s truth and seals it. It would seem to so many that the faster this man is tried the faster justice is done and isn’t that what the government should be after? adamfoxie*
Nevertheless the world must know, since we just learned it, that Manning’s cage in Kuwait was a real cage, and very small – about 8 x 8 x 8 feet. Manning described it as one that was normally used for animals, and located inside a tent. He was kept there all the time, except 20 minutes per day, and even fed there. He was forced to be awake at night and sleep during the day, from 1pm onwards, with average temperatures rising to 101 F. Manning had almost no human contact for 2 months and he had no idea of what was going to happen to him. That’s when he felt like his “world had shrunk”. His living space and perception of the world quite literally had shrunk. It was at this time he thought of suicide.
If we learnt nothing from watergate, Iran-contra, Iraq war is that the military and the civilians in charge of it, lie all the time. Why should we allow that an american citizen be treated like this?
Not a felon, not a deserter. It’s been said that he committed treason by releasing truthful documents. By calling anybody and particularly a soldier ugly names and then not give’m a chance to defend himself, what do you call that? It comes the time that what ever the charges even if true, they stop being relevant as time passes and the truth is leant and history take it’s truth and seals it. It would seem to so many that the faster this man is tried the faster justice is done and isn’t that what the government should be after? adamfoxie*
Nevertheless the world must know, since we just learned it, that Manning’s cage in Kuwait was a real cage, and very small – about 8 x 8 x 8 feet. Manning described it as one that was normally used for animals, and located inside a tent. He was kept there all the time, except 20 minutes per day, and even fed there. He was forced to be awake at night and sleep during the day, from 1pm onwards, with average temperatures rising to 101 F. Manning had almost no human contact for 2 months and he had no idea of what was going to happen to him. That’s when he felt like his “world had shrunk”. His living space and perception of the world quite literally had shrunk. It was at this time he thought of suicide.
Under the name “Prevention of Injury”, this treatment was maintained during the rest of Manning’s 9 months at Quantico, against repeated advice from psychiatrists, one of whom stated, that his opinion had been ignored for the first time in 24 years of service. Manning was also forced to sign statements, given anti-depressants and other medications. His toilet was next to his bed and he was watched while using it.
The military are in the process of claiming that the ensemble of this treatment was “proper”.
I’ll be doing another interview in a few days with artist Clark Stoeckley, who has been doing the courtroom sketches. Looking forward to hearing a citizen’s first-hand account rather than filtered spin from the distant press. Watch this space.
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