Since posting a December 15 article on WikiLeaks I’ve regretted omitting even one mention of the reason WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, for better or worse, have become household names and the lid on public understanding of U.S. foreign policy and tolerance of free speech has been lifted just a bit more. That reason has a name: Bradley Manning; and Bradley Manning has spent seven months in solitary confinement at a military prison in Quantico, Virginia without yet being convicted of any crime.
A few hours after posting my opinion piece, Glenn Greenwald, writing at Salon.com, published an insightful article, titled “The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention.” Greenwald opened thus:
Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months — and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait — under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.
Greenwald wrote that Manning has “been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems,” yet has been relegated to the “highest and most repressive level of military detention,” involving a 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement where the former private lacks access to a pillow, sheets, physical exercise, direct access to the press and is under constant surveillance.
Greenwald, citing articles posted by surgeon and journalist Atul Gawande and The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law notes that many experts in the field consider solitary confinement to be similar in emotional effect to methods of physical torture. Indeed, many nations will not use solitary confinement other than for “extreme cases of prisoner violence.”
Atul Gawande cites a U.S. military study reporting that social isolation endured by nearly a hundred and fifty naval aviators imprisoned in Vietnam was “as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered.”
The U.S.’s highest court seems to agree that solitary confinement creates severe emotional distress in inmates, including suicide:
More than a century ago, U.S. courts understood that solitary confinement was a barbaric punishment that severely harmed the mental and physical health of those subjected to it. The Supreme Court’s 1890 decision in In re Medley noted that as a result of solitary confinement as practiced in the early days of the United States, many “prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition . . . and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better . . . [often] did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community.” And in its 1940 decision in Chambers v. Florida, the Court characterized prolonged solitary confinement as “torture” and compared it to “[t]he rack, the thumbscrew, [and] the wheel.”
On December 19, Laura Flanders, writing in The Nation, said that Julian Assange was “headed for the 10-bedroom home of British former army officer Vaughan Smith, described by the Guardian as a rightwing libertarian. Assange’s lawyer joked that it would not be so much “house arrest as manor arrest” while he fights extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.”
To his credit, Assamge. following his release from a London prison, surreptitiously urged others to support Manning:
During my time in solitary confinement in the bottom of a Victorian prison, I had time to reflect on the conditions of those people around the world also in solitary confinement, also on remand, in conditions that are more difficult than those faced by me. Those people also need your attention and support.
While Bradley Manning sits in solitary confinement, and his supporters are harassed by the Department of Homeland Security, he can at least reflect on his role in allowing the public to better understand some of the atrocities happening in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and spark a debate on American diplomacy, freedom of speech, and imperial objectives around the world. To keep him occupied, Manning’s family is sending him a batch of books for Christmas, an eclectic mix Manning requested including, according to the Daily Beast:
• Decision Points, by George W. Bush
• Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Pure Reason, by Immanuel Kant
• Propaganda, by Edward Bernays
• The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
• A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
• The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
• The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel
• On War by Gen. Carl von Clausewitz
Hopefully soon the Obama administration will decide to either try Manning for a crime or release him from prison. In the meantime, Manning must endure soul-crushing solitary confinement while leading political figures falsely misrepresent his whistle-blowing activities as murderous and monetarily motivated and call for his head.
Thankfully, at a congressional hearing on the leaked diplomatic cables, Michigan’s powerful House representative, John Conyers, has introduced a far more rational element to elite discussion over the leaked diplomatic cables:
As an initial matter, there is no doubt that WikiLeaks is very unpopular right now. Many feel that the WikiLeaks publication was offensive. But being unpopular is not a crime, and publishing offensive information is not either.
And the repeated calls from politicians, journalists, and other so-called experts crying out for criminal prosecutions or other extreme measures make me very uncomfortable.
Indeed, when everyone in this town is joined together calling for someone’s head, that is it a pretty strong sign we need to slow down and take a closer look.
Conyers has been joined by libertarian Ron Paul in supporting WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Hopefully, soon, Bradley Manning, the true hero in this story, and the one who has thus far sacrificed the most, will have his own influential champions to ensure that his case is treated in a judicious and humane manner.
This post was written by
Gabriel Caplett – who has written 106 posts on Headwaters - Community Journalism for the Great Lakes.
Gabriel Caplett is a writer and market farmer from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
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I cannot comment on this article until I know the military occupation code of Bradley Manning, i.e. was he assigned to a type of military security occupation?
According to PBS News Hour, Private Manning had security clearance. Thus, he was obligated to maintain his oath to protect the government of the United States of America which it is alleged he has violated.. Private Manning’s father was interviewed recently and he was reported to have said he “twisted his son’s arm” in order that he join the military. It is regrettable that it appears Private Manning may continue to lack proper direction which is the reason his father urged him to join the military in the the first place.