Issue 1178 (Billie Joe cover), page 48. March 14, 2013

The current issue of Rolling Stone magazine (March 14, 2013) features the ten-page article, “The Trials of Bradley Manning,” by Janet Reitman. Though not mentioned on the front cover (which Billie Joe Armstrong fills), it’s the longest piece in the issue, and it details Manning’s Army tenure, his decision to release documents, and most prominently, the horrors he suffered at the Quantico Marine brig and the subsequent hearing seeking accountability for that torture.

While the full piece is currently only available in print, you can read an excerpt here, introducing readers to Manning’s months of pretrial abuse:

Thus began Manning’s journey through the exceedingly murky realm of military pretrial detention, a nearly three-year ordeal punctuated by months of legalized torture, not unlike what enemy detainees­ endured at Guantánamo Bay. Though not the standard treatment for U.S. soldiers, even those accused of war crimes, Obama administration officials deemed it “appropriate” for Manning, who, in many regards, “ceased to be a ‘soldier’ from the moment he crossed the line and revealed the secrets of the war,” observes Kristine Huskey, the director of the Anti-Torture Program at Physicians for Human Rights. “In doing that, he became, in effect, the ‘enemy.’ And once you’re the enemy, you can be subject to treatment that is not for people on our side.”

Rolling Stone subscribers can access the entire piece online.

Furthermore, Reitman, who’s previously covered Jeremy Hammond, the young activist on trial for hacking the emails of private intelligence firm Stratfor that WikiLeaks published, is continuing to write about Manning online.

In Bradley Manning Explains His Motives, she details Manning’s statement taking responsibility for releasing documents to WikiLeaks, setting the narrative about him straight along the way:

Manning has often been cast as a naïve young man who was manipulated by Assange, Berg or others into giving them the information. In accepting his guilt, he made it clear that no one pressured him into doing it. “The decision to send was my own,” he said. “And I take full responsibility.”

In another article, Did the Mainstream Media Fail Bradley Manning?, Reitman explores Manning’s revelation that he’d attempted to discuss the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs with the Washington Post and the New York Times before turning to WikiLeaks:

If nothing else, this chapter of the Manning case should spark some hard questions about the value of the press as a check on governmental power, and the extent to which the mainstream press has ceded ground to organizations like Wikileaks.

Also, Bradley Manning is featured first in Rolling Stone’s new installment, The New Political Prisoners: Leakers, Hackers and Activists.

You can read Michael Hasting’s Rolling Stone interview with Julian Assange here.