Prisoner of Conscience, WikiLeaks, and American National Shame

Update below

U.S. military officials tell NBC News that investigators have been unable to make any direct connection between a jailed army private suspected with leaking secret documents and Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

  MSNBC

Not for lack of trying.

The officials say that [...] there is apparently no evidence [Pvt. Brad Manning] passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.

[...]

On Monday, U.S. military officials also strongly denied allegations that Manning, being held in connection with the WikiLeaks' release of classified documents, has been "tortured" and held in "solitary confinement" without due process.

The officials told NBC News, however, that a U.S. Marine commander did violate procedure when he placed Manning on "suicide watch" last week.

Military officials said Brig Commander James Averhart did not have the authority to place Manning on suicide watch for two days last week, and that only medical personnel are allowed to make that call.

[...]

The official said that after Manning had allegedly failed to follow orders from his Marine guards. Averhart declared Manning a "suicide risk." Manning was then placed on suicide watch, which meant he was confined to his cell, stripped of most of his clothing and deprived of his reading glasses — anything that Manning could use to harm himself. At the urging of U.S. Army lawyers, Averhart lifted the suicide watch.

U.S. Marine and Army officials say Manning is being treated like any other maximum security prisoner at Quantico, Va. He is confined to his single-person cell 23-hours per day, permitted one hour to exercise, permitted reading material and given one hour per day to watch television.

Let’s have a closer look.

Manning, who has been imprisoned for 7 or 8 months in solitary confinement 23 hours out of every 24 and has been a model prisoner the entire time in spite of his conditions, “allegedly” failed to follow orders. For either retribution or simply another attempt to destroy him, he was declared a “suicide risk” which added more deprivation to his already deprived conditions, including taking away his reading glasses so that he could no longer even read to pass the time or keep sane. He is confined to a tiny cell 23 hours a day and has not been charged or tried, but, according to “military officials” this does not constitute being held in solitary confinement without due process.

UPDATE: I just read that Manning was in fact given his glasses to read and then taken away again while they had him falsely under suicide watch. So, that's okay, then.