By In non-Japan earthquake related news, comes this announcement from the Pentagon that the leftists as usual are exaggerating the treatment Bradley Manning is receiving in pre-trial confinement:
Quantico is a military brig, not a prison, and it is not a maximum security facility. http://www.quantico.usmc.mil/activities/display.aspx?PID=588&Section=SECBN
Manning, however, is considered a maximum custody detainee. He is not “under isolation 23 hours a day.” Here are the facts of his pre-trial confinement:
PFC Manning is not in solitary confinement. He has a single-occupancy cell, like all of the other detainees.
PFC Manning is not in isolation.
PFC Manning is a maximum custody detainee in a prevention of injury status.
PFC Manning is not currently on suicide watch.
PFC Manning is being held in the same quarters section with other pre-trial detainees.
PFC Manning is allowed to watch television and read newspapers.
PFC Manning is allowed one-hour per day to exercise.
PFC Manning is provided well-balanced, nutritious meals three times a day.
PFC Manning receives visitors and mail and can write letters.
PFC Manning routinely meets with doctors and his attorney.
PFC Manning is allowed telephone calls.
PFC Manning is being treated just like every other detainee in the brig.
Also, there is no ‘daily disrobing and various other humiliations.’ In recent days, as the result of concerns for PFC Manning’s personal safety, his undergarments were taken from him during sleeping hours. PFC Manning at all times had a bed and a blanket to cover himself. He was not made to stand naked for morning count but, but on one day, he chose to do so. There were no female personnel present at the time. PFC Manning has since been issued a garment to sleep in at night. He is clothed in a standard jumpsuit during the day. [The Cable]
So Manning is getting treated like everyone else, meeting with people all day, using the telephone, watching TV, reading newspapers, etc. and yet the leftists want everyone to believe he is being treat inhumanely. These claims are so typical and just shows what a joke Amnesty International who has been making these claims has become. While they claim that Manning watching TV all day is torture they continue to show little interest in the real torture going on in North Korea.
But then again Amnesty is just looking for money and the rich liberals want to read about Manning being inhumanely treated by the big, bad US military instead of reading about nameless Asians being tortured and starved to death in North Korea. So I guess it is understandable why they are exaggerating his treatment, but if they are going to do that they should quit calling themselves a human rights organization and instead call themselves a political activist organization.
4:48 pm on March 17th, 2011 1
I don't know if the Pentagon is addressing other statements from Amnesty International, but from the Amnesty article you linked and the open letter from Amnesty to the Pentagon, nothing the Pentagon says here refutes what was actually claimed.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/006…
A few examples:
Pentagon: "Manning, however, is considered a maximum custody detainee. He is not “under isolation 23 hours a day. PFC Manning is not in solitary confinement. He has a single-occupancy cell, like all of the other detainees.
PFC Manning is not in isolation."
Amnesty Article: "…has been held for 23 hours a day in a sparsely furnished solitary cell and deprived of a pillow, sheets, and personal possessions since July 2010"
Amnesty's wording seems to be accurate. They didn't say 'solitary confinement'.
Pentagon: "PFC Manning is a maximum custody detainee in a prevention of injury status. PFC Manning is not currently on suicide watch."
Note that they said that he is not 'currently' on suicide watch. They didn't say he never was. Again, the Amnesty message seems accurate. And considering that the 'suicide watched' ended due to protests from Manning and his lawyers, it does seem that the Pentagon is out of line here.
What the Pentagon does not address, however, are the specific complaints in the letter. The military psychiatrist said that Manning's Prevention of Injury status is unnecessary. They ignored that and did anyway because…why?
Sure, Manning's treatment is nothing like what he could look forward to in a prison cell in North Korea or in Abu Ghraib, but still it seems clear that he is not "being treated just like every other detainee in the brig."
So what am I missing? What exactly are you claiming that the 'leftists' are exaggerating?
8:57 pm on March 17th, 2011 2
He betrayed his country and deserved the maximum punishment. No one should feel sorry for him.
9:15 pm on March 17th, 2011 3
#2
How about a trial first?
10:09 pm on March 17th, 2011 4
Amnesty International, eh? Where are their complaints about the pensioners in Zimbabwe? How about political prisoners in North Korea or China?
I have no respect for AI. All those illegitimi complain about are democracies… Let them move to a "Worker's Paradise" if they are uncomfortable here… Starting with Joan Baez…
7:54 pm on March 18th, 2011 5
#3 He admits he betrayed his country. Why support him?
7:56 pm on March 18th, 2011 6
#1 Amenesty international is a FRAUD organization. Why support them? They NEVER speak out agsinst the many crims of Kim Jong-Il in North Korea. People are EXECUTED there for owning Bibles or for making even one phone call out of the country. Why should anyone think that's "cool" or "fun"????????
8:30 pm on March 18th, 2011 7
JoeC,
"How about a trial first?"
What a quaint, old-timey notion.
9:34 pm on March 18th, 2011 8
setnaffa 4, I find Joan Baez completely honest. For example:
'Her disquiet at the human-rights violations of communist Vietnam made her increasingly critical of its government and she organized the May 30, 1979, publication, of a full-page advertisement (published in four major U.S. newspapers)[30] in which the communists were described as having created a nightmare, which put her at odds with a large segment of the U.S. left wing, who were uncomfortable criticizing a leftist régime. In a letter of response, Jane Fonda said she was unable to substantiate the "claims" Baez made regarding the atrocities being committed by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge.'
and
'In 1989, after Tiananmen Massacre Baez wrote and released the song China to condemn the Chinese Communist Party for its bloody slaughter of thousands of student protesters who called for establishment of democratic republicanism.'
and
'On June 25, 2009, Baez created a special version of "We Shall Overcome" with a few lines of Persian lyrics in support of peaceful protests by Iranian people. She recorded it in her home and posted the video on YouTube[36] and on her personal website. She dedicated the song "Joe Hill", to the people of Iran during her concert at Merrill Auditorium, Portland, Maine on July 31, 2009.'
from the Political Involvement section of the Wikipedi article about her.
1:20 am on March 19th, 2011 9
#8, that makes one of us. She (and the rest of AI) still spends more time complaining about US "atrocities" than the real human rights violations of any number of other nations.
People in North Korea are executed for having a cell phone. And Chavez in Venezuela is funding/equipping Columbian terrorists; but Baez spends her time telling us Obama is wrong for not closing Gitmo…
11:39 pm on March 19th, 2011 10
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