Bradley Manning's 1,000th day in prison

[kpete]

America's track record on the handling of prisoners is no more enlightened than, say, Egypt's or Germany's or just about any other country you could name.

Saturday, February 23, marks Bradley Manning's 1,000th day in prison without a trial. In 2010, he was arrested for allegedly passing a trove of diplomatic cables and military reports to WikiLeaks, a nonprofit sunshine organization that publishes state secrets. Manning has been charged with everything from bringing discredit upon the armed forces to "aiding the enemy." Much of his first year of confinement was spent in humiliating suicide watch and Prevention of Injury conditions.

The actions of Bradley Manning offer a moment to reflect on the meaning of secrecy in the information age. Regardless of one's opinion of the young private (traitor or hero, disturbed or determined, ideological or idiotic), he put the entire secrecy apparatus to the test. Manning downloaded a perfect geologic slice of what we don't know, and presented that information to the world. He took the catastrophic loss of "secret" information out of the theoretical and into the real world. He initiated the government secrecy industry's worst-case scenario.

What is perhaps most astonishing is that the U.S. government had no substantive contingency plans or response mechanisms in place for such an event, aside from a shameful mistreatment of a harmless, if unwell, twenty-three year old.

For all that Bradley Manning revealed, he didn't really reveal much. But by its shameful non-application of justice in Manning's prosecution -- 1,000 days in chains for a nonviolent offense, without the dignity of a trial by jury -- the U.S. government has itself revealed the most terrible truth imaginable. ...The Atlantic

[tblue]

1. Damn I hate this.

Obama said this treatment is okay because "he broke the law." Really? He hasn't been found guilty yet, or even had a trial. I will never forgive our potus for that. It was like putting a curse on the poor man.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

4. Unless i'm wrong Manning's own lawyer has been delaying a trial to

run one test, check another avenue, file arguments and so on

Should Obama be blamed for the delays Manning's lawyer creates?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. "Due process is violated if a practice or rule 'offends some principle of justice so rooted in the

traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental'.''

Snyder v. Massachusetts, 291 U.S. 97, 105 (1934).

[Gregorian]

3. Manning is in prison because he threatens to reveal the fraud of war.

Peace is a decision. No one is forcing anyone to kill. And that's why the business known as war is threatened by the truth.

Why are so many people blind to the fraud that is being forced upon them? And they spend 2 hours per day working in the name of it. TWO fucking hours every day is what you pay for the military to get rich off of you. That's the fraud.

[WillyT]

5. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!