I was invited to a presentation at MIT this afternoon, given by P.J. Crowley of the U.S. State Department. His role there is Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs. Mr. Crowley was at MIT to talk about the role of social media in government. During the Q&A, Mr. Crowley stated that he felt Bradley Manning, who has been in military custody since May 2010 for his connection to WikiLeaks, is being “mistreated” while in custody.When Mr. Crowley said that, people in the room applauded. He was later asked by a BBC reporter in the room if everything he said today was “on the record,” to which he said yes.
Regardless what Bradley Manning may have done, no prisoner deserves the conditions and mental torture he’s been subjected to, as reported by various sources, including The Washington Post.
Charlie deTar: There’s an elephant in the room during this discussion: Wikileaks. The US government is torturing a whistleblower in prison right now. How do we resolve a conversation about the future of new media in diplomacy with the government’s actions regarding Wikileaks?PJCrowley: “I spent 26 years in the air force. What is happening to Manning is ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid, and I don’t know why the DoD is doing it. Nevertheless, Manning is in the right place.”
President Obama [...] gave this explanation when Jake Tapper asked him about PJ Crowley’s condemnation of Manning’s treatment.”With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are. I can’t go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning’s safety as well.”
I have no doubt that George Bush asked the DoD whether everything was being run professionally at Guantanamo and they assured him that they were. Perhaps the reason there haven't been any Wall Street prosecutions is because Obama asked Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein if there was any fraud and those banking executives assured the President that there wasn't.
[Daniel] Ellsberg, a former military analyst known for having leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other papers in 1971, fired off a quick response to Obama's remarks in an op-ed for the Guardian, writing, "If Obama believes that, he'll believe anything. I would hope he would know better than to ask the perpetrators whether they've been behaving appropriately.""I can just hear President Nixon saying to a press conference the same thing," Ellsberg suggested, making a sarcastic reference to his own history as a whistleblower: "'I was assured by the the White House Plumbers that their burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's doctor in Los Angeles was appropriate and met basic standards.'"
"If President Obama really doesn't yet know the actual conditions of Manning's detention," Ellsberg added, "if he really believes, as he's said, that 'some of this [nudity, isolation, harassment, sleep-deprivation] has to do with Private Manning's wellbeing', despite the contrary judgments of the prison psychologist – then he's being lied to, and he needs to get a grip on his administration."
He knows. He’s okay with it. He owns the torture rights now.
Barack Obama isn't worth one of Bradley Manning's toenail clippings, and the fact that he remains one of the most respected and admired people on the planet even as he facilitates and glibly validates Manning's torture—with an army of apologists eager to rationalize away not only this, but far worse for him—is a sorry statement on humanity.
Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
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