By now, most people here have probably heard about how Manning is being stripped of all clothes every night and made to stand at attention outside of his cell naked every morning. What we haven't heard, is any explanation for why his conditions were changed, other than vague statements that
“Because of recent circumstances, the underwear was taken away from him as a precaution to ensure that he did not injure himself,” Lieutenant Villiard said. “The brig commander has a duty and responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of the detainees and to make sure that they are able to stand trial.”
and that "to discuss the details would be a violation of PFC Manning's privacy."
So, what were these "recent circumstances"? According to Manning's lawyer, it was a single sarcastic comments to his jailers.
On his blog, David Coombs says:
On Wednesday March 2, 2011, PFC Manning was told that his Article 138 complaint requesting that he be removed from Maximum custody and Prevention of Injury (POI) Watch had been denied by the Quantico commander, Colonel Daniel J. Choike. Understandably frustrated by this decision after enduring over seven months of unduly harsh confinement conditions, PFC Manning inquired of the Brig operations officer what he needed to do in order to be downgraded from Maximum custody and POI. As even Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell has stated, PFC Manning has been nothing short of "exemplary" as a detainee. Additionally, Brig forensic psychiatrists have consistently maintained that there is no mental health justification for the POI Watch imposed on PFC Manning. In response to PFC Manning's question, he was told that there was nothing he could do to downgrade his detainee status and that the Brig simply considered him a risk of self-harm. PFC Manning then remarked that the POI restrictions were "absurd" and sarcastically stated that if he wanted to harm himself, he could conceivably do so with the elastic waistband of his underwear or with his flip-flops.
Without consulting any Brig mental health provider, Chief Warrant Officer Denise Barnes used PFC's Manning's sarcastic quip as justification to increase the restrictions imposed upon him under the guise of being concerned that PFC Manning was a suicide risk. PFC Manning was not, however, placed under the designation of Suicide Risk Watch. This is because Suicide Risk Watch would have required a Brig mental health provider's recommendation, which the Brig commander did not have. In response to this specific incident, the Brig psychiatrist assessed PFC Manning as "low risk and requiring only routine outpatient followup [with] no need for ... closer clinical observation." In particular, he indicated that PFC Manning's statement about the waist band of his underwear was in no way prompted by "a psychiatric condition."
While the commander needed the Brig psychiatrist's recommendation to place PFC Manning on Suicide Risk Watch, no such recommendation was needed in order to increase his restrictions under POI Watch. The conditions of POI Watch require only psychiatric input, but ultimately remain the decision of the commander.
And there you have it. They're using anything they can to worsen the conditions that Manning is being held in. First there's the months of solitary, which, even if we accept the claims that it's not "really" torture, have been shown to gravely injurious to the psyche. Then there's the short-lived suicide watch, which got that commander removed. And now this.
Incidentally, as Coombs wrote in his blog post about the suicide watch, "He was stripped of all clothing with the exception of his underwear." Not even then, when, supposedly, they were really worried about him actually killing himself, did they remove his underwear as well.
This sort of "forced nudity" is also reminiscent of the sort of abuse that we saw at Gitmo and other places where the CIA was allowed to go wild. In a repost of an earlier report of CIA treatment of detainees:
The first of several “specific conditioning interrogation techniques” lists “Nudity. The HVD’s clothes are taken and he remains nude until the interrogators provide clothes to him.” [Underline in original.]
The CIA said the prisoner is kept nude (or occasionally dressed in a diaper) while being subjected to other “conditioning techniques,” sleep deprivation and a bland diet of Ensure. Nudity continues while interrogators apply other more aggressive techniques designed to emphasize a prisoner’s helplessness.
Finally, as noted in this piece from the Guardian, it's showing a disgusting level of hypocrisy from the US government.
In recent days and weeks the US government has condemned human rights abuses and repression in almost every country across the Middle East – yet at a prison within its own borders it sanctions the persecution, alleged psychological torture and debasement of a young soldier who appears to have made a principled choice in the name of progress.
"Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal," said Barack Obama in 2008. But the stench of his hypocrisy is no longer bearable. It is time, now more than ever, that Bradley Manning received the justice he so clearly deserves.
And we're somehow supposed to believe in the leadership of this country? And that we have any sort of moral standing in the world anymore? This is not "justice". This is sending a warning to anyone out there that if they dare to challenge those in power by providing documents which prove illegal and unethical behavior, this sort of fate is what they have to look forward to.
(As a side note, completely unrelated to the diary, there's no "recent diary" list on the FP, just a "recently rec'd" list. So unless this thing gets rec'd, no one will see it, but if no one sees it, it'll never get rec'd. WTF?)
Update: Up on the rec list? Thanks everyone, for getting this the visibility I think it needs.