Reply #111: Sure ~

[sabrina 1]

The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig's medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Just by itself, the type of prolonged solitary confinement to which Manning has been subjected for many months is widely viewed around the world as highly injurious, inhumane, punitive, and arguably even a form of torture. In his widely praised March, 2009 New Yorker article -- entitled "Is Long-Term Solitary Confinement Torture?" -- the surgeon and journalist Atul Gawande assembled expert opinion and personal anecdotes to demonstrate that, as he put it, "all human beings experience isolation as torture." By itself, prolonged solitary confinement routinely destroys a person’s mind and drives them into insanity. A March, 2010 article in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law explains that "solitary confinement is recognized as difficult to withstand; indeed, psychological stressors such as isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture."

If they can remove his ability to think for himself, they can get him to sign anything, I guess that is the thinking. But while here in this great democracy of ours, where torture and inhumane treatment are as acceptable as they were in other repressive regimes, confessions extracted this way are acceptable, in most other civilized nations, they are not.

Julian Assange has stated that the never met Manning. We know that the government realizes they cannot get Assange under the Espionage Act. And we also know that this is their latest fantasy, to get Manning to claim that he 'colluded' with Assange. And if they have to drive him insande to get such a confession, they are prepared to do so.

Even that wouldn't work anyhow. They need lawyers it seems. There would be nothing wrong on Assange's part if he were to communicate with a source, even if he paid him, (unless we want to criminalize tabloids) as discussed in yesterday's judiciary hearings. News editors and publishers regularly meet with sources.

This country has sunk to such a low level that I am not sure it can ever be restored to some kind of democracy. To see people on democratic boards cheering this kind of treatment of any human being, is simply sickening. And makes me think that democrats who do, are hypocrites, slamming the Bush administration for the same crimes, it is apparently okay if they do it.