Once again, UN torture chief excoriates the US on treatment of Bradley Manning. Speaking to AFP at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, UN torture rapporteur Juan Mendez said,

“I believe Bradley Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the excessive and prolonged isolation he was put in during the eight months he was in Quantico.”

Mendez approvingly noted that Manning was moved from Quantico to Fort Leavenworth (he was moved again to Virgina, recently), but remains intent on investigating his treatment in the Virginia prison: “the explanation I was given for those eight months was not convincing for me.”

In keeping with its pattern of secrecy instead of accountability, the Obama administration continues to bar Mendez from visiting Manning privately. (Read more…)

Bradley Manning has not “leaked,” but the administration has. Emptywheel’s Marcy Wheeler reports on the unclassified version of the Department of Defense Inspector General’s report on DOD leaks under President Obama. According to the IG’s definition, a “leak” is a “communication or physical transfer of [SCI]information to an unauthorized recipient.” The SCI refers to Secure Compartmented Information, which is more specific than merely ‘classified information.’ So Wheeler notes, “as defined, Bradley Manning’s alleged leaks are classified, not SCI.”

Meanwhile, Obama administration officials – including a senior official – have been leaking SCI. The report confirms that:

“some unauthorized disclosures of SCI to the public did occur within DoD between December 23, 2008 and December 23, 2011. Among the unauthorized SCI disclosures to the public reported, a DoD Senior Official was directly attributed as a source of unauthorized SCI disclosures to the public.”

The report refers to unauthorized leaks, implying what we already know to be true: that some SCI leaks have been authorized. Wheeler gives two examples:

“the leaks of a range of compartment names to Bob Woodward, which John Rizzo suggested were part of “one big authorized disclosure,” or reported cooperation between DOD and CIA and Hollywood on the movie about Osama bin Laden’s killing, itself the subject of a different investigation.”

Wheeler notes that this is just the unclassified version, and that a classified version – surely far more revealing – is being sent to Congress. She concludes, though, “it does begin to show that the Administration that has accused more leakers of “espionage” than all others combined itself leaks far more sensitive information.” (Read more…)

Open government groups criticize Obama’s transparency record. Politico’s Josh Gerstein reviews the scores of complaints from transparency and accountability groups at odds with President Obama’s promise to head the “most open and transparent [administration] in history.” Despite lofty rhetoric guaranteeing openness and accountability, the Obama administration has been among the most secretive in decades. Gerstein outlines some major complaints:

• Administration lawyers are aggressively fighting FOIA requests at the agency level and in court — sometimes on Obama’s direct orders. They’ve also wielded anti-transparency arguments even bolder than those asserted by the Bush administration.

• The administration has embarked on an unprecedented wave of prosecutions of whistleblowers and alleged leakers — an effort many journalists believe is aimed at blocking national security-related stories. “There just seems to be a disconnect here. You want aggressive journalism abroad; you just don’t want it in the United States,” ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper told White House press secretary Jay Carney at a recent briefing for reporters.

• In one of those cases, the Justice Department is trying to force a New York Times reporter to identify his confidential sources and is arguing that he has no legal protection from doing so.

• Compliance with agencies’ open-government plans has been spotty, with confusing and inaccurate metrics sometimes used to assess progress. Some federal agencies are also throwing up new hurdles, such as more fees, in the path of those seeking records.

• The Office of Management and Budget has stalled for more than a year the proposals of the chief FOIA ombudsman’s office to improve governmentwide FOIA operations.

The administration has been particularly secretive regarding national security issues. None of this bodes well for Pfc. Bradley Manning, who’s alleged online chats indicate he believed the material attributed to him belongs in the public domain. (Read more…)

I am a teacher from CT who feels that war crimes are never OK, even when committed by the US. These atrocities were made public because of the brave and heroic actions of Bradley Manning, whose duty it was to expose them.

Submit your photos and words of support: iam.bradleymanning.org