Supporters outside Quantico, where Manning was kept in solitary confinement

Glenn Greenwald comments on UN torture chief condemning Bradley’s treatment. Greenwald, who first broke the story of Pfc. Manning’s abusive conditions at the Quantico military brig, reviews UN rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez’s recent condemnation of Manning’s treatment and of the U.S. for continuing to obstruct his visit. Greenwald highlights how unusual and pernicious this denial of visitation is:

Over the past year, the U.N. torture investigator repeatedly complained – including in official reprimands – that his investigation was being obstructed by the Obama administration, which refused to provide unmonitored access to interview Manning. About this refusal to allow an unmonitored interview with Manning, the U.N. official said: “Such a condition violates long-standing rules that the UN applies for prison visits and for interviews with inmates everywhere in the world.” In reporting on this U.N. grievance, The Guardian wrote: “It is the kind of censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes around the world”; indeed, “the vast majority of states allowed for visits to detainees without conditions.” Just to underscore how unusual was this obstruction: the Bush administration allowed investigators with the International Committee of the Red Cross private interviews even with the most “high-value” detainees at Guantanamo: that is, once they emerged from the CIA “black sites” were they were kept for almost three years beyond the reach of the ICRC (see p. 3 of the ICRC report).

This especially remarkable, Greenwald says, given President Obama “repeatedly railed against and vowed to end detainee abuse.” (Read more…)

Help us with a whistle-blower quote crowdsourcing project! Over at WikiLeaks Forum, we’ve started a list of quotes that emphasize truth, government secrecy and deceit, and whistleblowing. We’ve included quotes from the likes of James Madison, Volaire, and others. Contribute to the list here.

Protests are planned for Bradley Manning’s motion hearing. Next week, March 15 and 16, Bradley Manning will have a motion hearing at Fort Meade, from which a more concrete timeline for Manning’s court martial should emerge. On Friday, March 16, supporters in England plan to hold a vigil for Manning outside the U.S. Embassy in London, demanding the U.S. drop all the charges for the Nobel Peace Prize nominee. (Read more…)

Eyal Press reports on corporate whistle-blowers. The author of a new book on the conscience of whistle-blowers, Press says that while the Obama administration’s high-profile crackdowns on those who speak up about abuses have been in the national security realm, financial whistle-blowers have largely been ignored. (Read more…)