European parliamentarians condemn White House treatment of Bradley Manning
Representatives of several political parties call on Obama to allow meeting with UN torture investigator
November 30, 2011. Bradley Manning Support Network
Press conference video (YouTube) Features Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee member Gerry Condon.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — Speaking at a press conference this morning at the European Parliament (photo right), elected officials representing a broad spectrum of political parties expressed their strong concerns about the mistreatment of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning. They released a letter signed by dozens of Members of Parliament to officials in the White House and U.S. military, which read in part:
“We are troubled by reports that Mr Manning has been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and other abusive treatment tantamount to torture.”
The full text of the letter is included below. Today’s press conference follows on a revelation by Manning’s counsel, David Coombs, that military officials have refused to provide the defense team with video-recordings that were made while Manning was subjected to periods of forced nudity during part of his confinement.
“Every day that the Obama administration persists in their refusal to respect basic standards of civil and human rights, they will become increasingly isolated in the eyes of the international community,” said Jeff Paterson, an organizer with the Bradley Manning Support Network. “They know that the show is over, but they’re too embarrassed to hand over the video.”
In a recent “Defense Request for Evidence” that was made public earlier this week, Manning’s chief counsel David Coombs revealed that the Obama administration has been withholding favorable evidence from his defense team. They noted that military prosecutors have not turned over a damage assessment conducted by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which found no adverse impacts on national security caused by the information exposed via WikiLeaks.
“The White House has known for some time that these revelations never posed a threat to our national security,” said Kevin Zeese, a legal adviser with the Bradley Manning Support Network. “They aren’t violating Manning’s civil liberties for the sake of his safety or our own, but rather for the psychological impact these abuses are intended to convey.”
Legal observers have noted that the legitimacy of any trial against Manning has already been compromised by numerous rights violations on the part of the Obama administration. Among these violations are substantiated concerns related to due process, freedom of speech, fifth amendment rights, undue command influence, and unlawful pretrial punishment that may have amounted to torture.
Juan Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, is preparing to issue a report on Bradley Manning’s conditions of confinement. PFC Manning’s supporters have argued that this report won’t be fully complete so long as the Obama administration prevents them from conducting an unmonitored meeting. Manning’s request for an unmonitored meeting with Mendez still stands.
The full text of the letter from the Members of the European Parliament:
OPEN LETTER
U.S. President Barack Obama,
Members of the U.S. Senate
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta
U.S. Secretary of the Army John McHugh
US Army Chief of Staff Raymond T. Odierno
As Members of the European Parliament, who were elected to represent our constituents throughout Europe, we are writing to express our concerns about alleged human rights violations against Bradley Manning, a young soldier who has been accused of releasing classified information pertaining to possible U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are concerned that the U.S. Army has charged Bradley Manning with “aiding the enemy,” a capital offense that is punishable by death. We have questions about why Mr. Manning has been imprisoned for 17 months without yet having had his day in court. We are troubled by reports that Mr. Manning has been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and other abusive treatment tantamount to torture. And we are disappointed that the U.S. government has denied the request of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to meet privately with Mr. Manning in order to conduct an investigation of his treatment by U.S. military authorities.
We call upon the United States government to allow Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, to conduct a private meeting with Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower. Mr. Mendez has made repeated requests to American officials to meet privately with Mr. Manning in response to evidence that he was subjected to abusive confinement conditions while he was detained at a facility in Quantico, Virginia. Mr. Manning was held in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day during the eight months he was incarcerated at that location. It appears that he was at times forced to sleep and stand at attention without any clothing. His legal counsel has documented additional incidents which indicate the possibility of other rights violations.
Hundreds of U.S. legal scholars have signed an open letter to the Obama administration, arguing that the conditions of confinement endured by Mr. Manning at Quantico may have amounted to torture. Following worldwide calls for an end to the abusive treatment, Manning was moved to a facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where his conditions are said to have improved. The U.S. military conducted an internal investigation into the allegations of mistreatment at Quantico. The preliminary results of this investigation found that Mr. Manning was improperly placed on “prevention of injury” status, against the recommendations of qualified medical personnel. However, these findings were ultimately overturned by a military prison official who was implicated by the report. Therefore, the U.S. military’s internal investigation has been compromised by clear conflicts of interest. This so-called “prevention of injury” status was the justification for a number of extraordinary measures, such as denying Mr. Manning comfortable bedding and not allowing him to exercise.
By preventing U.N. officials from carrying out their duties, the United States government risks undermining support for the work of the United Nations elsewhere, particularly its mandate to investigate allegations of torture and human rights abuses. In order to uphold the rights guaranteed to Bradley Manning under international human rights law and the U.S. Constitution, it is imperative that the United Nations Special Rapporteur be allowed to properly investigate evidence of rights abuses. PFC Manning has a right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. People accused of crimes must not be subjected to any form of punishment before being brought to trial. Finally, we in the European Union are totally opposed to the death penalty. And we certainly do not understand why an alleged whistleblower is being threatened with the death penalty, or the possibility of life in prison. We also question whether Bradley Manning’s right to due process has been upheld, as he has now spent over 17 months in pre-trial confinement.
Furthermore, Bradley Manning should not be forced to waive his right against self-incrimination in order to speak with anyone who seeks to investigate evidence of abuse in their official capacity.
Consistent with these internationally-recognized standards, as well as the rules governing his mandate, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez must be allowed to conduct an unmonitored meeting with Bradley Manning, without any further delay.
I am scandalised and shocked by this affair and deeply disappointed at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Obama is the traitor. He lied to us in order to be elected. Not voting for that “change” again!
The treatmeant of Bradley Manning stinks to heaven, and that from the man who got the nobel peace prize, so that’s what you get for telling the truth in America today?
What happend to the land of the free?
I have no idea how Barrack Obama is able to look at himself in the mirror when he is shaving in the morning.
It is incredible that something like this can happen in the US. Does Bradley Mannings have a lawyer? Why don’t we hear from him?
On the question of Bradley’s lawyer by Winnifred: The Bradley Manning Support Network continues to fund 100% of Bradley’s chosen civilian legal team headed by David Coombs. Mr. Coombs selectively releases information regarding the case on his blog at http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/
Yesterday, the Senate voted to authorized the indefinite detention of anyone, including US citizens, without trial. We all risk becoming Bradley Manning if that is signed into law. Any political enemy can be accused of being a threat, that could include OWS protestors when they become too big a threat to the 1% business interests that own many of our legislatures. Manning’s case may be a test by the US government on how far it can go and what it can get away with. The Occupy movement needs to see the threat here to their own cause.
It was the exposing of Obama’s insensitivity in embracing a policy of intentional humiliation and torture by isolation and deprivation of the young soldier Bradley Manning that made clear to me,early on, the horrible mistake we had made in assigning value to the rhetoric of his campaign. He appeared suddenly on the political scene. He is disinterested in the social problems we are currently facing here in America.
How can anyone expound change, yet do just the opposite and still run for re-election! It’s just incredible that this situation, and Obama’s hands off the military altogether is not paramount in the minds of his young hopeful base that helped him into power. When will a leader ever appear who will bring the revolution we need?
Obama better get a clue about torture.
I would so love to see the Nobel Peace Prize go to Bradley Manning. Just think, the embarrassment (well, okay, so our government can’t be embarrassed) of him not being able to receive it.
I’m glad to see people waking up.
Obama is ruled by the Banking elite , a crminal evil group of psychopaths. They do whatever they like as can be seen in Wall St and all those in the CFR and the British equivalent The Royal Institute of International Affairs. They have an Army and a vicious dehumanised Police Force to defend their personal interests. When these are arrested and removed , Obama and the Generals will change sides , like all cowards always do . The brave will fight on to obtain the release of Bradley Manning .The criminals are not only outnumbered but psychologically mentally retarded and our combined intelligence can and will beat them eventually. Put simply, they are idiots and one is reminded of the spoilt child who becomes hysterical when not being able to get what he wants. I wish you all good luck. You are going to win.
To the Nobel prize Committee I would urge to withdraw the Nobel Prize from the lying bastard in the White House and to give it to Bradley Manning.
Electing a Republican administration means you love the fat cats of the big corporations, bankers and so on. The “Democraps” like Obama and Khonte Clinton are worse because they are just lying frauds. Freedom, human rights and liberty of speech and creed abroad? FINE! But fighting for those rightxs in the USA makes you an enemy of the fascist Police State.
Break the monopoly of these two rotten to the core parties!
How can you look yourself in the eye, if you approve
of this injustice!
the administration is scared of this trial as it will obviously highlight its own wrongdoing – too late now – the WHOLE WORLD is watching!
sorry for Bradly though but his suffering could be a blessing in disguise
Someone explain me US law, please.
Does the state have to prove that Mr. Mannings leaked secret info, or does Mannings lawyer have to prove it wasn’t him?
It is difficult to accept that the man “Obama” who spoke so eloquently and passionately at Cairo University soon after the election about ideals, democracy and other lofty concepts is the same “Obama” who tortures, lies, assassinates Americans without a warrant, makes deals with people who ought to be in prison for financial crimes and, in general is dragging the U.S. into a moral swamp. And this hypocrite won the Nobel Peace Prize? The same “Obama” who has continued old wars and made new ones, squandering our precious tax dollars? “Obama” is a brand-name, it is a marketing device designed to keep the corporate state in business. He got my vote once–never again. It would be nice to have leaders who occasionally act heroically, but all we have are sociopathic politicians incapable of showing the slightest leadership. The generals are running our foreign policy and the bankers and Wall Street are running our economic policy. This is not leadership, it is slight-of-hand puppetry. Al Qaeda will not destroy the United States. It is the Democrats and the Republicans who will destroy our country, especially when they “work together”. To sum it up in one word: disgust.
Jerry Gerber
It has been reported that the main reason for the torture of Bradley Manning is to make people even more afraid of the U.S. President and those he commands. This is not the ideals the U.S. people would like to have presented in a government based on a Constitution and the rule of law.
Certainly as much as the U.S. has said they support the U.N. and the international communities they should honor an unmonitored meeting for Bradley Manning; “Juan Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, is preparing to issue a report on Bradley Manning’s conditions of confinement. PFC Manning’s supporters have argued that this report won’t be fully complete so long as the Obama administration prevents them from conducting an unmonitored meeting. Manning’s request for an unmonitored meeting with Mendez still stands.”
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The truth should not be punishable. Let the truth shine, and deal with it. If the country did wrong…fix it. Not torture the messenger.
The U.S. government changes it’s laws to suit their needs at the moment. “Money is the root of all evil.” That is what this country’s standards are founded upon. Money. Not morals as the Bible teaches, and certainly not liberty and justice for all. Bradley Manning or Julian Assange should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As George Carlin said, “No matter what you want, the government WILL get their way.” Can I get a one-way ticket to a civilized country?? The fact that people are concerned about this whole situation means there are still a lot of decent people standing up for what is right.
Obama’s moto in the election campaign was -”Yes we can”.So now they can do, what they want.because- yes they can!they are in power!infinite power.
Needless to say, the Government is dumb. Obama withdrew the troops from Iraq, but why not he pull out Brad from jail? Charges against him a ruthless, since telling the truth is not a treason, but a voice of common sence
By the way, it seems to me that Manning is rather political prisoner than military. Cowards from DoD are hiding the truth
I have to wonder how many Americans are unaware of this happening! I am so sorry to say that I was among them! I have son’s, grandsons , neices, nephews- that I was pproud to help raise with great great pride in America ( even though I knew that we had left our soldiers abandoned in Vietnam) But this- this is the worst thing I have seen in this country WE must first get this hypocrite out of the White House OUR WHITEHOUSE- and stay informewd- we do not all have to agree about anything but the fact that we are BORN FREE and must STAY FREE!