Bradley Manning
Soldier in solitary confinement indefinitely, accused of aiding Wikileaks
By Dr. Publico
The American Tribune
The ideal version of justice is that, before the law, a person is innocent until proven guilty. But for those of us who have any jail and prison experience, the reality is quite different.
The current experience of Bradley Manning puts the lie to that idealism and, indeed, reveals the neo-liberals as little more than political stooges (or otherwise ineffectual before conservative corporate power).
Bradley is the 22-yr-old soldier who is accused–but not charged–with supplying WikiLeaks with the secret documents being distributed around the world.
He spent two months in a military jail in Kuwait, and has now been in the infamous Marine brig in Quantico, VA, for the past five months under extraordinary conditions.
The fundamental concept of innocent until proven guilty predates even the American republic and the US Constitution. It comes to us from English jurisprudence and is considered as bedrock common law.
The Constitution codifies the concept implicitly through several provisions, including the “right to remain silent,” and “the right to a jury.”
Jails in the US are used essentially for three basic reasons. 1. To hold persons deemed to be a direct predatory threat to the public, 2. to hold persons who are unable to raise their bail, and 3. to serve as prisons for those sentenced to terms under a year.
However, again, reality intrudes. Jails in fact are also used as the coercive means to induce “cooperation” with one’s prosecution and/or the prosecution of others. Many of us, including myself, have had that experience.
According to a Marine brig officer, Lt. Brian Villiard, Bradley Manning is confined in solitary for 23 hours a day, barred from exercising (and under 24-hour direct surveillance), denied a pillow or sheets, and denied any news.
As one who has undergone such experiences (albeit, not for that length of time), and as a doctor of psychology (PsyD), I’ll cite the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (JAAPL), “…psychological stressors such as isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture.”
From a psych standpoint, the denial of exercise (being forbidden in your cell from pushups, knee-bends, etc.) is to enhance the effects of torture (i.e., the denial of sublimation). Other than as punishment (for what? he’s been a model prisoner), it serves no other purpose.
Given the young age of Manning, his imprisonment by Marine brig personnel, the open-ended commitment without charge, and the excessive conditions of his confinement, it should be expected that his condition is deteriorating, which Lt. Villiard admits. Bradley is being given anti-depressants by medical personnel.
Whatever the crimes that Manning may become charged with, clearly there is already a crime being committed: All those who impose these conditions, along with all those in the chain-of-command, are criminals themselves and should be so charged, up to and including the Commander-in-Chief. Let them argue the Constitutional merits…
Small wonder that, instead of pursuing the prosecution of the war criminals from the previous Administration, Obama & Co., are further incorporating those crimes into the current one.
Under the conditions of Manning’s confinement, anything he may say is the fruit of torture and not worth warm spit…
