Manning's Father Says Treatment Of His Son Is " Inexcusable and Degrading"

[sabrina 1]

WikiLeaks suspect's treatment 'stupid,' U.S. official says

Manning's father, Brian Manning, this week called his son's treatment "inexcusable" and "degrading." In an interview with a PBS "Frontline" correspondent, he said, "This is someone who has not gone to trial or been convicted of anything. They worry about people down in a base in Cuba, but here they . . . have someone on our own soil, under their own control, and they're treating him this way. . . . It's shocking enough that I would come out of our silence as a family and say . . . you've crossed a line. This is wrong."

The growing outrage over Manning's treatment from across the country has had some effect:

He is held in his cell for 23 hours a day and is required to give up his jumpsuit uniform at night. On Friday, officials said he is now given a sleeping garment at night.

Emphasis mine

Which only goes to prove that as the prison psyciatrist said, he was never a suicide risk in the first place. It was all about punishment and intimidation.

I think Manning should be moved as he is clearly not safe in Quantico.

[suffragette]

1. And they would likely still not be allowing him a

"sleeping garment" if not for the attention and outrage.
Pressuring someone they deem "suicidal." Never bought it.

K&R and fix your subject line while you're still in the editing window.

[sabrina 1]

3. Thank you, I fixed it.

Yes, it took a lot of outrage, but it shows that if people are relentless about wrong-doing, even the Pentagon has to listen.

I never bought it either. As P.J. Crowley said, it was stupid to treat him that way. Bad strategy aside from anything else. And now, they have essentially admitted they were lying but put themselves in this position by acting the way they did.

Anyhow, I am glad he has been given some clothing.

[suffragette]

5. I'm glad he was given the clothing as well

And agree, he should be moved. Also, they should stop stalling and allow Kucinich access to visit.

[EFerrari]

8. Has he been given real clothing?

The last item I saw was a big "smock" thing that looked like it was quilted asbestos.

[sabrina 1]

14. In the Pentagon's statement, they say that he has been

provided with a 'garment'. If he was really was suicidal, and I know this for a fact, they do have paper clothing in prisons to give to people. Even in the horrendous prison system we have, they generally do not keep suicidal inmates naked. That is a sadistic and very sick thing to do, and it seems to me those responsible need serious, psychological help.

The Nazis had a thing about 'nakedness' also and I read somewhere regarding the history of the Nazis, that during their reign of terror, sado/machosism became very popular in Germany.

[EFerrari]

15. If so, it's a big, thick smock

and it looks like it would be painful to wear against bare skin.

Someone posted a picture Sunday night. It was quilted like an oven mitt only thicker.

[sabrina 1]

17. If that's true, then they are only further proving how sadistic

and sick they are. And I think demands should be made to have him removed completely from their facility. Maybe Human Rights organizations from all over the world should start a campaign that will embarrass them until they learn a lesson.

Who are these people we seem to have an over abundance of pretty sick people in this country who are completely lacking in so many of the characteristics that are a part of the the make-up of a human being.

[suffragette]

27. I didn't know that

and yet I'm not surprised if that's the case.

Just looked around and saw the pic in the Politico article speculating if it's one of those type of smocks. They look like huge oven mitts.

If it is one of those or similar, I don't see how you could sleep in that unless you're worn out to exhaustion.

[EFerrari]

2. Agreed. He is not safe there. nt

[sabrina 1]

4. Sorry I had to delete the other post. I posted twice as I got a

message it had not posted the first time. But I did see your comment and love the title 'Abu Quantico'. If you don't mind, I will call it that from now on.

Also, the reason I posted this was because I saw the threads claiming Manning's father was contradicting everyone else regarding his treatment. I noticed there was no link in one of them so didn't give it much credibility anyhow.

I see this one is getting unrec'd. The truth hurts some people, obviously.

[chill_wind]

6. Was it just my imagination, or was there a furious amount

of spinning here and there of that interview yesterday?

[EFerrari]

7. At least five people told me his father said he was fine.

Gross. What IS that?

[ReggieVeggie]

16. Yep

saw the same thing

[sabrina 1]

9. It wasn't your imagination. I saw a couple of threads

claiming Manning's father was denying he was being treated badly. One of them was what looked like a quoted conversation with Manning Sr. where he appeared to be denying any wrong treatment of his son. It was out of context and had no link. I haven't seen the full conversation yet, but this quote from his interview seems pretty strong to me in the sense that he does not like the way his son is being treated.

[EFerrari]

10. I posted the video link at least twice

so people could see the man with their own eyes. Argh.

[sabrina 1]

11. I missed that, will go look for it now.

People see what they want to see. I thought it was strange that his own father would contradict his attorney and other witnesses. Even if that was what he believed, he would have known how much damage it would do to have him contradicting his son's attorney.

[EFerrari]

12. This is one clip.

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/10/wikileaks-mannings-d.html

[sabrina 1]

13. Thank you, just watched it. It is very, very interesting.

My heart goes out to the father. He must have been very angry about his son's treatment to do this interview because it seems the family wanted to remain silent.

He's a military man himself and it sounds like he pushed his son into the military, with good intentions I'm sure.

I got the feeling that he might be wrong about his confiding in him. His son might not want to get him involved and so waits to talk to his attorney and/or his David House.

Poor man, I can't imagine what he's going throught.

[Gravel Democrat]

18. Thank You! For all of your posts here. If the Democrats (of yesterday) had a Conscience

her name would be sabrina1

When I think of Democrat it's people like you that come to mind.

It's too bad so sad that so many impostors have attempted to co-opt the party. You're well aware of the fact that if Bush was treating this person in this way this very board would be outraged, organizing protests, marching on Quantico, etc.

Your perseverance will save what's left and bring a new wave.

[sabrina 1]

25. Thank you for the kind words

Btw, I love Gravel, that is a man of real integrity! :-)

[myrna minx]

21. No - it wasn't your imagination - it was disgusting. n/t

[fascisthunter]

45. I'm Glad people are noticing trends here

it's pretty obvious what those folks are trying to do here.

[ReggieVeggie]

19. kick

[Mnemosyne]

20. K&R for more visibility. n/t

[myrna minx]

22. Thank you for posting this - this dispels the disgusting use of Manning's father as a tool to push

pro-torture talking points that were puked all over DU yesterday. It was disgusting.

[sabrina 1]

24. Yes, that was pretty low.n/t

[myrna minx]

35. It's eerily quiet today.

:hi:

[Forkboy]

36. Par for the course.

Low is where they started.

[sabrina 1]

38. I am almost speechless at the fact that the Dem. Party

leadership is either silent on this issue, or pretending it is in anyway acceptable.

And what happened to all the hearings in Congress while Bush was president, Leahy's eg, that were promised would gain steam once Dems had a majority?

There were hearings about Habeas Corpus being restored, eg. But now we hear nothing. Sometimes I think we are better off in the minority. The subpoenas that Karl Rove ignored eg. Whatever happened? There was so much going on back then, he was going to have to come in voluntarily or be arrested.

Now, there is just silence. So much for the promises of how if we would just have patience until we gained the WH and both houses of Congress, all would be taken care of.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[demmiblue]

23. K&R

Some of the responses here are disgusting.

[sabrina 1]

28. Any attempt to excuse the inhumane and degrading treatment

of any human being, is thoroughly digusting and not something I ever thought I would see coming from democrats.

Now we see the man and the woman we had so much faith in to change the direction of this country regarding our human rights record and the rule of law, have instead, done the opposite. I can't remember ever being so disappointed in people I once respected. I really hope one day they can explain this.

[Ilsa]

30. I have to agree. It seems like every day there is a new

situation in which Obama simply "goes along to get along" instead of doing the right thing. I don't see myself lifting a finger to help his re-election, and I plan on voting for another progressive candidate in the primary, little good that it will do.

I admire Manning's courage in getting the truth out. I'm not certain I'm ready to condone what he did. BUT, I don't think he shouldn't be treated this way, not in a thousand years. It's cruel, degrading, manipulative, and punitive, and he hasn't had his day in court. This reflects very badly on our democracy and our leaders, especially Obama as CIC.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. Didn't his dad say that he was having a great time and was grateful to the nice guards?

And, particularly recommended the stimulating group meetings in solitary and the casual dress code?

[sabrina 1]

31. Well, if you were reading DU yesterday you might have thought so.

But apparently his father's words were taken out of context and these words were omitted altogether.

When something doesn't sound right, it usually isn't ~ so, I was not surprised to find that his father was as outraged as every other decent human at the treatment of his son. Especially since he himself is a veteran.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

32. Yep. The apologists for torture were busily making up straws to grasp.

It's all rather pathetic to see the lengths this administration has gone to avoid the "embarrassment" a whistleblower has caused them.

[Solly Mack]

33. k/r

[Uncle Joe]

34. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sabrina.

[sabrina 1]

37. You're welcome, Uncle Joe.

There was some inaccurate information being pushed about Manning's father yesterday. This should help correct the record I hope :-)

The man is heart-broken enough as it is, it was reprehensible to try to use his decision to break the family's silence to condemn the treatment of his son, for political purposes. He deserves better than that.

[Kurovski]

39. K&R

Put him on trial or turn him lose.

And quit with the torture. Americans are savagely inured to torture these days.

[myrna minx]

41. .

:hug:

[DFab420]

40. May I point out he isn't the only American prisoner held in 23 hours a day cell?

And that this treatment is used for many people held in maximum security situations? Which means, are we is this confinment style torture? If so then we have been "torturing" prisoners for the entire time we've had a justice system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermax

Very interesting stuff

Here is the whole interview..

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june11/wikileaks_03-10.html

Yes he said it's stupid, but he ALSO says his soon is holding up fine. That it's humiliation, not torture, that he is concerned about.


OK, now feel free to hateorade me..

[sabrina 1]

42. Our prison system is shameful and has been the target of

human rights organizations for a long, long time. Eg, the Soviet Union could have used the same argument when they were caught persecuting a prominent dissenter, that he was not being treated differently from other prisoners. What did that say about them though? Did it excuse them, or make it even more obvious that the country was badly in need of reform?

I don't think pointing out how bad our prison system is, in any way diminishes what is being done to Manning. If anything, it is a good thing that his case is drawing attention to our horrendous human rights abuses in our own prison system.

His father was making the point that his son was NOT suicidal as claimed. I think he made it very well. He said he was not complaining, apparently not showing any signs of the kind of distress that might have led his father to believe he might want to kill himself.

I don't have any intention of 'hateorading' anyone. I am glad though, that this case IS drawing attention to our brutal and archaic prison system which is based on punishment and revenge, which rarely gets any kind of attention other than from human rights organizations.

The treatment of Manning, the treatment of detainees in our illegal wars, the treatment of people incarcerated in this country, is just shameful. It is sadistic, brutal and wrong, not to mention counter-productive.

But the larger issue of the policies of this country evident in the prison system, not only doesn't diminish the wrong being done to Manning, it highlights how widespread these abuses are and how much in need of reform the entire system is if we are to be considered a civilized nation.

[Luminous Animal]

43. Yes. We do torture U.S. prisoners. Amnesty International has has

reported on this inhumane treatment for several years now. Human Rights watch, the UN Commission on Torture and the ACLU recognize and advocate against the cruel and inhumane treatment of thousands of U.S. prisoners.

http://www.supermaxed.com/

[DFab420]

44. True!

I just wanted to make sure that people who are outraged about Bradley Manning realize this isn't new, this isn't special, and if they think the way we treat him is wrong, then they need to reconcile that with the way we treat KSM, Unabomber, Robert Reed, and hundreds more prisoners in our system. If it's wrong for him it should be wrong for them too.


Just food for thought.

[sabrina 1]

47. What made you think that any true progressive Democrat

outraged by Manning's treatment was NOT outraged by our entire prison system?

I have never met a progressive democrat who was not directly involved in some way, either by donating or by some form of activism, in demanding prison reform in this country.

We did not wait until THIS case to be outraged. If you do a little research even on some DUers you will complete consistency in their outrage over torture, whether it is of a serial killer or anyone else.

I can't make it any plainer than this. Torture and degrading treatment of human beings, even the worst kind of criminals, including John Gotti whose treatment was appalling and reduced those responsible to Gotti's own level of brutality, is wrong and shameful and turns those responsible into criminals themselves.

[sabrina 1]

48. Thank you!

Our entire prison system is shameful. Maybe Manning's case will get some attention for this blight on our democracy.

[Ramulux]

46. All those assholes on this website

who tried to spin this interview into something it wasn't should be ashamed of themselves. They should all make a thread apologizing for purposefully lying to us.

[sabrina 1]

49. When I saw the first thread claiming Manning's father

was just thrilled with the treatment of his son, and it had no link, just a selected passage, I had a feeling it was an intentional distortion of the facts.

It was a reprehensible thing to do as the man is distraught enough about his son. So much so he and his family have remained silent. But this treatment caused him to break the family's silence meaning that the exact opposite of what some people tried to claim here, was true.

I guess anything goes when your goal is to protect a political party rather than the morals and principles that make a country worth living in, its Constitution and its reputation as a civilized nation.

What I've seen since Democrats gained a majority is turning me off party politics more and more each day.

[bvar22]

50. It was a willful distortion of the facts,

And, yes, it was and is reprehensible.