Bradley’s father speaks out against treatment on PBS Frontline
Bradley Manning’s father has appeared in public for the first time to protest his son’s treatment at the hands of the US military. Brian Manning granted PBS’ Frontline an exclusive interview this week. Brian Manning spoke to reporter Martin Smith, and some of the interview footage was aired on the Thursday, March 10th, 2011 edition of PBS NewsHour.
In the interview posted on the Frontline website, Brian Manning explains why he has decided to speak out about his son:
Martin Smith: You decided you wanted to come talk to me because you wanted to complain publicly about the conditions of his imprisonment.
Brian Manning: Yes.
Martin Smith: Those conditions are?
Brian Manning: Well he’s being–his clothing is being taken away from him and he’s being humiliated by having to stand at attention in front of people–male or female as far as I know–that are fully clothed. I mean this is someone who has not gone to trial or been convicted or anything. It’s shocking enough that I would come out of our silence and say, as a family, you know, now that–you’ve crossed the line. This is wrong.
In a statement released today, the Department of Defense claimed that Bradley Manning is no longer made to sleep naked and that he was only outside of his cell for morning wake-up because “he chose to do so.”
The full interview with Brian Manning will air during a profile of Bradley Manning on a Frontline broadcast to be aired nationwide on March 29, 2011.
- We are all Bradley Manning! Join the Bradley Manning Support Network as we take action to end the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning.
- Watch the Frontline excerpt:
Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.
“he was only outside of his cell for morning wake-up because “he chose to do so.”
How gullible does the Defense Department think we are? “He chose to do so.” If it didn’t make me so upset it would be laughable.
The story material coming out of Bradley’s prison is unbelievable in modern times. Something happens to leadership in the military complex that creates strange and weird persons out of these people.
Just look at the Canadian head military man from Afghanistan who is now in prison in Canada for the cold blooded murdering of several women.
I have followed the behavior of a number of leaders and find that they should not be permitted to behave the way they are behaving. The handling of Bradley Manning is just another repulsive handling of a who has not been proven guilty of anything.
To maintain credibility these leaders must be dismissed from their strange careers and given much assistance by psychiatric teams before they can be released into normal society. This is the tragedy of military work. Very few of these people come home quite abnormal. They then have trouble to fit back into their normal environment. It is not a fault of their making. But is the fault of a society that causes the world to go in the direction of “military things”. Those in charge of Bradley Manning fit the well known pattern. They are crazy! Their behavior clearly shows that.
What is even crazier is that all these other military personnel would stand at attention and watch what is taking place without doing anything about it. This speaks heavily of the culture of these people.
These punishers of Manning are thugs masquerading as good americans in service to their country. They are the dumb tools and military robots who haven’t a clue as to what it means to a fair, honest, constitution-respecting citizen. They are mindless henchmen covering up the crimes that Brad Manning made public, and therefore should be implicated as aiding and abetting the perpetrators. On this case our beloved president, a constitutional expert, shows absolutely no regard for the rights of a whistleblower. Since he is part of the cover-up, he has implicated himself tacitly in this conspiracy. This case is showing the world what monsters and hypocrites our leaders are. I read that some killer moron marine said that Brad should be killed. It seems he has been trained to where he now has the morality and conscience of sociopathic serial killer. I’m sure most of the rebutlickin party has the same view….they are born followers and brown-nosers and sycophants to anyone who who can verbally dominate their simple, knee-jerk minds.
It is happening again, but this time it is right here in the U.S.A
Reamber the prison in Iraq and the pictures that got out and told all.
Strange, what is wrong with us! This is barbaric behaver not becoming a civilized society!
Yours,
Robert Gray
To the Parents of Bradley Manning,
It is inexcusable for his treatment. I will give you something to rail them against. Look up the Toshiba Corporation.They are still operating in the USA.These guys gave computer aided machines that allowed the Russians to make better propellers.Now that’s endangering the USA Bradley doesn’t deserve his treatment. I am sick to my stomach that Obama said this was ok.Will he allow his daughters to undergo such Raunchy treatment should they join the military? I am mad. Lets send Obama a message that inhuman crimes against his people WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
This country runs around priding itself thinking it is better than everyone else and can do anything they please. If you try to publicly come out and state why this country is wrong, your silenced. Where is our freedom of speech? Everything has to revolve around money going back into the USA’s pockets, or else it is illegal or shot down.
The USA should be spending billions of dollars on a NEW fuel source. Hell, find a way to get our cars to run off something other than oil. Oh that’s right, the government gets a fat portion from the oil while we all get raped on high gas prices. Besides, if we get rid of all the cars polluting the air, we will be in better health. Meaning we wont get sick as often, meaning we wont be spending as much on medical, which goes back into the gov’s pockets. They allow cigs so ppl get addicted, and long term use = more money into the gov’s pockets.
Screw getting oil over seas. Gas powered cars are boring anyways.
Anyone who uncovers anything shady the gov is doing will be hushed, or killed. I feel sorry for this kid. Doing the right thing by uncovering how shady our government is, and look what happens. LOL freedom my ass.
I feel bad for this kid. I think he had a lot of inner conflicts and saw some things in the military that disturbed him. When you haven’t had a strong support system growing up and undergo the type of intense isolation he has had to endure, it’s extremely traumatic.
More than anything, he needs our prayers.
this is sick, we the people are suppossed to have decisions in this country and now they are torturing this KID because he showed what was really going on. If we don’t have the right to know then what are we the people? just cash cows apparently. our children sign up for this ridiculous war, die for it and we can’t even know what they are really doing. this is not freedom people.
At least Manning has a father that’s stepping up to support him. I heard elsewhere that he said Manning didn’t want to be in the Army and he forced him into it because he figured it would “straighten him out.”
Ironic that he’s not the one who needs straightening.
I can’t say enough how glad I am his family is finally speaking out. It’s got to take a lot of guts.
Imagine a military dedicated to peace and not war, to comfort from disaster and not destruction of property. Our earthly disasters are destructive enough. Imagine sending 100 thousand troops to Japan to rebuild and battle the losses–not other human beings.
As for Manning, remember what Schopenhauer said about the three stages of truth.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/fukushima-nuclear-plant-owner-falsified-inspection-records/story-fn84naht-1226023073141
Almost everyday your son has shed light on corruption.
We reward the light Wikileaks brought us by keeping him in the dark, 23 hours a day, mostly nude & exposed for his subjects to reciprocate their type of panopticon. It is the only form of (pre-)justice their feeble minds and morality understand.
Long live Mr. Manning
- Peter
What Brian Manning did takes a lot of courage. The U.S. Mafia is persecuting Brad’s friends at MIT and his supporters. David House and others are getting death threats. Domestic terrorism is the fascists’ preferred torture and population control method.
The U.S. Mafia won’t allow Bradley’s parents or Dennis Kucinich to see him because it would lift his spirits. But the main reason is that it would show he’s a normal 23-year-old man whose family and friends love him. That would defeat the criminals’ purpose. They’re distorting the truth 180 degrees. They won’t get away with it anymore thanks to Bradley, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and Anonymous.
The only “problem” with Bradley has been a problem for Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, David House, Jane Hamsher and all WikiLeaks supporters: They are knowledgeable, responsible people who see through the puppet government’s facade of lies, as Bradley did when he the found and studied the hard evidence. Millions of other Americans had access to the same files, but ignored or hid them in obedience to the Mafia government.
The real traitors and criminals are framing Bradley without stating openly that he’s a spy and traitor. It’s one of the oldest, dirtiest CIA and Army Intelligence tricks in the book, a “false light” operation. They used it on the Rosenbergs to get them executed. No doubt Bradley’s humorous remark about military intelligence being an oxymoron enraged the criminals. It’s the truth.
The fake government planned this out before they arrested Bradley. They want to make him look like an unstable freak and loser who committed treason to get revenge. They’re sweating bullets. Look at Obama when he answers reporters’ questions!
Obama’s in charge of SIXTEEN federal intelligence agencies that WE THE PEOPLE finance to the tune of $45 billion a year. Bradley and Julian Assange outwitted the U.S. Mafia’s top experts and risked their lives to get the truth out to the people.
If Bradley did what we believe he did, he’s the greatest patriot of the century. At any rate the deed is done, people are learning the truth and revolutions are going on around the world. No one can re-write Bradley’s history or turn him into someone he’s not. Only we define ourselves. He knows the truth and it’s keeping him alive.
The monstrous criminals who secretly took over our government must be arrested, imprisoned, investigated and brought before an international war crimes tribunal. They can’t be allowed to harm anyone else. Those who allow these crimes to continue, knowing the facts, are aiding and abetting enemies of the people. That’s the bottom line.
http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/media/panor165.html
http://washingtonpeacecenter.net/node/4543