Bradley Manning exiting the Ft. Meade courtroom.

U.S. official pushes back on Manning’s “aiding the enemy” charge. Three current and one former U.S. national security officials, speaking anonymously, are questioning the prosecution’s decision to charge Bradley Manning with aiding Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula:

these officials said they had no information about how specific items acquired by WikiLeaks might have aided AQAP.

“The alleged disclosure of classified information, while deplorable, does not in and of itself constitute an act of terrorism,” said one current official.

Furthermore, former State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley, who was asked to resign after strongly denouncing Bradley’s treatment in Quantico “described the aiding the enemy charge as “unnecessary and an overreach.”

“It’s a hard case and an unnecessary case to make. … It undermines the credibility of the prosecution,” Crowley said.

The “aiding the enemy” charge, the most severe, carries a potential death sentence. The government is seeking to prevent damage assessments, concluding little to no harm came from WikiLeaks’ releases, from coming to light in Manning’s trial. (Read more…)

Juan Mendez is interviewed, reporting on Manning’s abusive treatment. UN torture chief Juan Mendez’s statements shed more light on the heinous nature of solitary confinement, and the U.S. government’s efforts to block him from visiting Manning:

“[Bradley] spent eleven months, three in Iraq and eight in Quantico base in Virginia, on the conditions of solitary confinement, meaning that he would have to stay in his cell for 23 hours of every day and he would be accompanied to do exercises by himself for the remaining hour every day. Now, under the literature that I have surveyed that kind of treatment creates a pain on suffering of a psychological nature and that is serious enough that it can and should be classified as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

I also said that it could amount to torture if it was even more severe that the pain on suffering that was inflicted on him. But I did not have the means of establishing that because despite my request the Government did not allow me to visit Manning on conditions in which my conversation with him would not be monitored and so I had to decline.”

Mendez has re-submitted his request to visit Bradley privately. (Read more…)

Government’s WikiLeaks policies cause internal problems. Highlighting the extent of the government’s overreaction to the WikiLeaks releases, emails from the defense and judge to the prosecution were blocked because they included the word “WikiLeaks.” Now the prosecution has assigned someone to check its spam filter daily. Politco’s Josh Gerstein writes about the email exchange, with more details from the hearing.

Jesselyn Radack also writes about what she calls the government’s “absurd WikiLeaks policies,” connecting the email incident to the State Department attempting to fire whistle-blower Peter Van Buren for merely linking to WikiLeaks-released documents on his personal blog.

The government has created its own monster with its abusive WikiLeaks policies, which serve only to further elevate WikiLeaks and the information on the site. If the Obama administration is really interested in stopping WikiLeaks and not simply stopping dissent, the administration should spend more time encouraging whistleblowers and implementing strong protections for employees to use internal channels and less time prosecuting whistleblowers and clamping down on employees who expose waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement or illegality.

Radack’s write-up also includes videos of Van Buren discussing the State Department’s overreaction. (Read more…)

"shame on our governments - the wrong people are in jail - "

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