Sunday, April 10, 2011

Wikileaks #7

WIKILEAKS NEWS #7,   2011

Compiled by Dick Bennett

Contents

New Restrictions on Manning

IVAW Actions

NYTimes Article on Manning

CIA Use of Nakedness

Importance of WikiLeaks

Excessive Secrecy by US



 NEW RESTRICTIONS ON MANNING

Reply |Michael Whitney, Firedoglake to Dick

act@firedoglake.com

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=dd75a4efec&view=cv&fs=1&tf=1&ver=Y8M4VH4wdAY.en.&am=!4ZMZMVHteft_DX0jI_E08oqhW3xZ2mMXrI-DCS-3Z5mfhIsjg8tJ8B6LqQ&search=inbox&th=12f4133dbac43d8d&cvid=1 

Sign the petition:

Tell Quantico to allow official visits to Pfc. Bradley Manning

Click here to signDick,

The isolation of Bradley Manning just took a turn for the worse. Now Quantico Marine Base and the government are breaking their own rules to deny visits to Bradley Manning.

Government officials and Quantico Marine Base have just declared that Congressman Dennis Kucinich and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture - who have tried to visit Manning for months - would not be considered to be on "official government business." That means brig authorities could monitor their conversations and possibly use them against Manning in court.

We need to appeal this decision to the leadership at Quantico and the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Quantico Base Commander Colonel Daniel J. Choike, and Brig Commander CWO Denise Barnes. If enough of us call out this wrongheaded decision, we can generate pressure in the media to allow official visits with Bradley Manning.

Sign our letter to Quantico and Pentagon leaders: follow your own rules and allow official visits to PFC. Bradley Manning. Click here to add your name.

What do Quantico and the Pentagon have to hide? Are they afraid of what Bradley Manning might say about his treatment when the brig cameras are turned off?

For 9 months and counting, Bradley Manning has faced almost complete solitary confinement. He is still forced to strip nude nightly. He is still in maximum custody with an unnecessary "Prevention of Injury" order - far beyond that of any other detainee. He is still cut off from appropriate exercise and other rights afforded prisoners at the brig.

When confronted about Manning's harsh treatment, President Obama said the Pentagon had reassured him that Manning's confinement met "basic standards." If Manning's conditions meets our "basic standards," then why is the government going to such great lengths to keep him from meeting with official visitors?

Call out the hypocrisy of denying Bradley Manning official visitors. Sign our letter protesting the decision to block unmonitored visits to Bradley Manning.

The decision to block official visits to Bradley Manning isn't just ludicrous. It's against the rules. Marine rules clearly state that people "conducting official government business, either on behalf of the prisoner or in the interest of justice," can be allowed "official visits" not subject to monitoring by the brig. That explicitly includes Members of Congress like Rep. Kucinich.

Rep. Kucinich, a member of the House Oversight Committee, has been trying to visit Manning in prison for more than two months. The Congressman repeatedly wrote to Secretary Gates and other military officials requesting a visit to investigate the allegations of torture-like conditions to which Manning has been subjected. And the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has opened an official investigation into PFC. Manning's conditions.

If it seems like a stretch to say that a member of the US Congressional Oversight Committee and the United Nations visiting a military prisoner alleging abuse does not constitute 'official government business,' that's because it is. This is one big game of semantics, with the ultimate goal being to keep the public from hearing the truth about Manning's confinement.

The secrecy has to stop. Sign our petition to Secretary Gates and Commanders Choike and Barnes to stop obstructing and allow official visits to Manning.

With your help, we will make sure there is nothing secret about the way the US Government is treating Bradley Manning.

Michael Whitney,  Firedoglake.com

Firedoglake's community of 350,000 activists is supported by small donations from people like you. Can you chip in to keep us strong? Click here to contribute:


Take action on Iraq War's 8th anniversary - Support Bradley Manning   3-20-11

IVAW to jbennet    webmaster@ivaw.org https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12ecff7f61bbbe35

Take Action

Tell us how you marked the 8th anniversary of the Iraq occupation.

Tell Quantico Marine Base Commanders to end degrading treatment of Bradley Manning.

Let us know how your call to Quantico went.

Join a Bradley Manning protest action near you!

Make a donation to support our work.

Dear James ,

Whether it's in the streets or on the phone, join IVAW in taking action this weekend.

IVAW members are taking part in protests across the country to demonstrate our continued opposition to eight years of US occupation in Iraq.

In Madison, Wisconsin our members in the Midwest are joining with tens of thousands calling on our government to redirect monies from funding wars abroad to funding human needs of working families at home.

In Washington, DC and elsewhere, we are joining in a global day of action in defense of Bradley Manning, accused Wikileaks whistle-blower.

How are you marking the occasion? Did you make it out to a protest this weekend?  Send us an email and tell us what you did.  We'll compile a list of actions that took place and share it next week.  (Let us know if you have any cool pictures too!)

Make a phone call to help end Bradley Manning's pre-trial punishment.

Accused Wikileaks whistle-blower, Bradley Manning, is being held in virtual solitary confinement for 23 hours at a time.  He has no contact with other inmates or meaningful exercise.  He has been forced to strip naked every night.  Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights have both called for an end to this inhumane treatment, which is degrading at best and, at worst, amounts to torture.  People around the world are calling for this treatment to end, which is why State Department spokesman PJ Crowley recently called the confinement "ridiculous and stupid" and warned it could damage the global standing of the US.  (He was forced to resign after making the comments.)

Call Quantico Marine Base on behalf of Bradley Manning:

Quantico Public Affairs: 703-432-0289

Let the Quantico Public Affairs officer know that you'd like to get a message to Base Commander Daniel Choike and Brig Commanding Officer Denise Barnes to:

1. End the inhumane, degrading conditions of Bradley Manning's pre-trial confinement, including him being stripped naked at night.  Respect Manning's human rights.

2. Specifically, lift the "Prevention of Injury (POI) watch order" and allow Bradley meaningful physical exercise, uninterrupted sleep during the night, and a release from isolation.

3. We are not asking for "special treatment". In fact, we are demanding an immediate end to the special treatment.

Send us an email to let us know you made the call, and how it went.

It's not too late to take part in a Bradley Manning protest action in your area.  Check here for a list of events.

In Solidarity,

Iraq Veterans Against the War National Staff

Aaron, Amadee, Bryan, Chantelle, Jason, Joe, Jose, Sarah, and Serena

Iraq Veterans Against the War is a 501(c)(3) charity,

and welcomes your tax deductible contributions

To ensure delivery of IVAW emails please add webmaster@ivaw.org to your address book.
© 2010 IVAW 630 9th Avenue Suite 807, New York, NY 10036
. All

Intro: "A lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking secret government files to WikiLeaks, has complained that his client was stripped and left naked in his cell for seven hours on Wednesday."

Pfc. Bradley Manning has been in solitary confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia, for more than 9 months. (photo: AP)

Bradley Manning Left Naked in Jail Cell

By Charlie Savage, The New York Times  04 March 11

http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/368-wikileaks/5159-bradley-manning-left-naked-in-jail-cell

A lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking secret government files to WikiLeaks, has complained that his client was stripped and left naked in his cell for seven hours on Wednesday.
The conditions of Private Manning's confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., have drawn criticism in recent months from supporters and his lawyer, David E. Coombs. The soldier's clothing was returned to him Thursday morning, after he was required to stand naked outside his cell during an inspection, Mr. Coombs said in a posting on his Web site.
"This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification," Mr. Coombs wrote. "It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated. Pfc. Manning has been told that the same thing will happen to him again tonight. No other detainee at the brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation."

BACKGROUND TO FORCED NAKEDNESS AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAPON

Read Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, pp. 273-4.    The CIA used this and other methods of torture to make Khalid Sheikhj Mohammed talk.  The CIA “kept Mohammed naked for more than a month….chained naked to a metal ring in his cell was for prolonged periods.”


Disturbing Things We Wouldn’t Know Without WikiLeaks

A slide show of Greg Mitchell reactions to Cablegate.  At TheNation.com

“Unnecessary Secrets: The Curse of Over-Classification, from the Pentagon Papers to WikiLeaks” by San Ford Ungar.   Columbia Journalism Rev. (March April 2011).  Two main problems: The excessive secrecy makes it impossible to know what deserves to be secret, and so many “secrets” impairs democracy. 

END OF WIKILEAKS NEWS #7

1 comment:

CountvonLuckner said...

This entire episode is a billboard proclaiming the sheer sociopathy that has become America...the graveyard of the once free. Such contempt for morally principled dissidents and whistle blowers is not without precedent: in fact it is amazing how much this case is like that of TYLER KENT back in 1940 who leaked the content of transatlantic cables between FDR and Churchill all of which dialogs unmistakably belied a desire by both despots to bald facedly LIE to the American people and dupe them into making war on Germany when in fact between the Armistice of 1918 and the year 1939, the U.S. had in fact engaged in no less than 22 undeclared armed conflicts with foreign countries that the public was never told of and Germany had in fact maintained almost entirely peaceful relations with its European neighbors. Roosevelt never once refuted these charges against him made by Hitler in an OPEN letter to Roosevelt in March, 1939....Tyler Kent, a code clerk at the US Embassy in London did what Bradley Manning did---blew the whistle on FDR to help expose him for the LIAR and oath violator he was and as a result was immediately stripped of his diplomatic immunity (probably without precedent in this country's history) and thrown out on the train tracks by the U.S. Foreign Service to be "tried" by a Brit kangaroo court and imprisoned at Brixton like Arnold Leese and Capt. Ramsay who had also spoken out against Churchill's delirium.

Dick's Wars and Warming KPSQ Radio Editorials (#1-48)

Dick's Wars and Warming KPSQ Radio Editorials (#1-48)