Bradley Manning moved to country club prison
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The truth of the matter is that Pfc. Manning was entrusted with duties and responsibilities designed to protect the U.S. Government from harm. His position was low on the chain, and the fact that he had access to any confidential information is beyond me, but he did have access. No one with that rank should have been able to read or view such intelligence.
That notwithstanding, however, he was a member of the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, and he knew that releasing classified information was a crime, regardless of the right or wrong of it, therefore he should be prosecuted most vigorously.
The traitor Manning has been moved to satisfy the unknowing public and to quiet the storm of controversy. Here’s the story from Politico:
After enduring months of public complaints that WikiLeaks suspect Pfc. Bradley Manning was being treated too harshly at a brig in Virginia, the Army has decided to transfer him to a brand-new facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he’ll likely have fewer restrictions and more privileges, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
While Manning is essentially being moved from maximum-security to medium-security, Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson said the decision was not a concession that Manning had been treated improperly at the Quantico, Va., brig. Rather, Johnson said, it was a recognition that the Virginia facility does not customarily hold pre-trial detainees for more than a few months. Manning has been under arrest for nearly 11 months and was moved to Quantico last July.
“Army Corrections Command has reviewed the new facility and determined that it has the expertise and capability to provide continued long term pretrial confinement for Private Manning,” Johnson told a hastily organized news conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday night.
“This facility is appropriate to meet Private Manning’s health and welfare needs given the possibility that he will remain in pretrial confinement for an additional time during the Rule 706 board process [a mental competency evaluation] and the likelihood that the pretrial phase of the case will continue for months beyond that.”
Undersecretary of the Army Joe Westphal described the Leavenworth jail this way: “It’s more open. He’s got more space, more ability to intereact with other prisoners. He will eat with them.”
Officials said the move had been under consideration for several weeks. Johnson said that, after Manning met with doctors conducting the mental competency review April 9, there was little obstacle to moving him to Kansas.
Manning, his attorney, liberal activists and international human rights groups had complained that the Army was, in essence, punishing him through unnecessarily strict treatment at Quantico. They said he was in solitary confinement, with virtually no contact with other prisoners and only an hour a day out of his cell for exercise. He was forbidden to exercise in his cell and took all his meals there. At one point, he was made to sleep naked due to what the military said were suicide concerns, though Navy psychiatrists declined to support the move. More recently, he’s been given a smock to wear at night.
At the Kansas facility, officials said, Manning is expected to have three hours a day for exercise and to interact with eight other pre-trial detainees held there. However, he will not have a cell-mate and all his privileges are subject to an evaluation to be made once he arrives. The Pentagon offered reporters a tour of the Leavenworth facility. It never did that when Manning was house at Quantico.
“Many will be tempted to interpret today’s action as a criticism of the pre-trial facility at Quantico. That is not the case,” Johnson said, “We remain satisfied that Private Manning pre-trial confinement at Quantico was in compliance with legal and regulatory standards in all respects and we salute the military personnel there for the job they did in difficult circumstances.”
“It’s not designed for these long-term situations,” Undersecretary of the Army Joe Westphal said of Quantico.
Johnson said better mental health services at Leavenworth were also “a factor” in the decision.
Manning faces preliminary charges of aiding the enemy, of disclosing classified diplomatic cables, videos and other materials to those not authorized to receive them, and of violating computer security regulations. If convicted at a court martial, he could be sentenced to life in prison. A death sentence is possible but military prosecutors have indicated they don’t intend to pursue that.
Johnson said Manning will return to the Washington area “as needed” for court martial proceedings.
Manning’s situation drew the attention of liberal activists and some foreign governments, as well as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, who was denied a private meeting with the prisoner. However, the most high profile criticism came from State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who told an audience last month that that Manning’s treatment was “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.” Crowley resigned three days later.
Crowley’s comment resulted in President Barack Obama being asked about Manning’s case at a news conference. Obama said he’d asked for and obtained assurances that the conditions of Manning’s confinement were “appropriate.”
Johnson said Manning’s attorney, David Coombs, was to be informed of the move Tuesday. There was no immediate reaction from Coombs.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who was also denied a private meeting with Manning, said the announcement had not resolved his concerns.
“Absolutely nothing the Department of Defense has done so far with respect to Pfc. Manning provides any assurance that his basic human and constitutional rights are being protected. The Department of Defense has refused to provide timely answers to even the most basic questions,” Kucinich said in a statement.
Johnson denied that the media attention to Manning’s case led to the move announced Tuesday, but conceded that the the issue received attention from higher-level officials than those who would have addressed it absent the news coverage.
“Because this has been in the newspaper, people at our level have been involved in taking a look at that as well,” Johnson said.
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He is being treated like any other prisoner awaiting trial, anywhere in the nation. Keep in mind that of the hundreds of people who see him regularly, including the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, no one, not one person has found any evidence of mistreatment. The only one whining is poor Bradley.
I’d forgotten all about him. He’s the Wikileaks chap isn’t he?
I thought we were ‘innocent until proven guilty’?…Naive of me clearly
It seems that the United States Government has gotten very good at punishing before conviction since the turn of the century. Whether or not the information given away by Private Manning rises to the level of being a traitor or just an embarrassment to many high level administrators is yet to be established. I don’t seem to remember anyone throwing “Scooter” Libbey or Dick Cheney in solitary confinement which they outed CIA agent Valerie Plame though it would have been nice. We, as a nation, have shown our true colors since being attacked on 9/11. We have imposed our will and ideologies on the people of other countries (Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq) without much concern over the amount of fear we might be spreading among its citizens, one would think we would not be so fearful the one time that we got hit. We, as a people, went about our daily lives when innocent, collateral damage was occurring else where, but we seem to react very badly when something happens on our shores. It makes me wonder that if we had to fight the Revolutionary War all over again how well we would fair. We seem to have lost a lot of the values that this country was once founded upon. All of the rights that were fought for and won from the English Crown, the American Government has usurped for its own now in the name of protecting us against us.
Well said, lazer. I harken back to the wisdom of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” I understand the military mentality of Thou shalt not… no matter what, but that being said, where is our right to know? If the MSM won’t grow a pair and stand up to the powers that be, then somebody has to do it. I put Manning in the same class as Daniel Ellsberg, a whistleblower not a traitor. I don’t believe Manning released the info to hurt the country or for personal gain, he released it because he felt that government and the military should not be allowed to operate in the dark. Not to say that there should be no secrets, of course there are, but I saw some of the tapes he released and the only thing damaged, besides the killed civilians, was government pride. If Cheney and Libby could out Valerie Plame with no repercussions, then why is Manning the scapegoat? I contend that it is only because the government has a hard on for Wikileaks and anyone associated with it. If Manning had posted on youTube, he would have been a hero.
I agree with both Lazer and DP, this whole affair is, or should be, a national disgrace, from beginning to where we are now. Heads should roll at a very high level, they won’t of course, not while they have a scapegoat.