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25 Feb 2012 By Bill Quigley Today US Army Private Bradley
Manning is to be formally charged with numerous crimes
at Fort Meade, Maryland. Manning, who was nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize by members of the Icelandic
Parliament, is charged with releasing hundreds of
thousands of documents exposing secrets of the US
government to the whistleblower website Wikileaks.
These documents exposed lies, corruption and crimes by
the US and other countries. The Bradley Manning
defense team points out accurately that much of what
was published by Wikileaks was either not actually
secret or should not have been secret. The Manning prosecution is a
tragic miscarriage of justice. US officials are
highly embarrassed by what Manning exposed and are
shooting the messenger. As Glen Greenwald, the
terrific Salon writer, has observed, President Obama
has prosecuted more whistleblowers for espionage than
all other presidents combined. One of the most outrageous parts
of the treatment of Bradley Manning is that the US
kept him in illegal and torturous solitary confinement
conditions for months at the Quantico Marine base in
Virginia. Keeping Manning in solitary confinement
sparked challenges from many groups including Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for
Constitutional Rights, the ACLU and the New York
Times. Human rights' advocates rightly
point out that solitary confinement is designed to
break down people mentally. Because of that,
prolonged solitary confinement is internationally
recognized as a form of torture. The conditions and
practices of isolation are in violation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN
Convention against Torture, and the UN Convention on
the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination. Medical experts say that after 60
days in solidary peoples' mental state begins to break
down.
That means a person will start to experience panic,
anxiety, confusion, headaches, heart palpitations,
sleep problems, withdrawal, anger, depression,
despair, and over-sensitivity. Over time this can lead
to severe psychiatric trauma and harms like psychosis,
distortion of reality, hallucinations, mass anxiety
and acute confusion. Essentially, the mind
disintegrates. That is why the United Nations
special rapporteur on torture sought to investigate
Manning's solitary confinement and reprimanded the US
when the Army would not let him have an unmonitored
visit. History will likely judge Manning
as heroic as it has Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the
Pentagon Papers. It is important to realize that
tens of thousands of other people besides Manning are
held in solitary confinement in the US today and every
day. Experts estimate a minimum of 20,000 people are
held in solitary in supermax prisons alone, not
counting thousands of others in state and local
prisons who are also held in solitary confinement.
And solitary confinement is often forced on Muslim
prisoners, even pre-trial people who are assumed
innocent, under federal Special Administrative
Measures.
In 1995, the U.N. Human
Rights Committee stated that isolation conditions in
certain U.S. maximum security prisons were
incompatible with international standards. In 1996,
the U.N. special rapporteur on torture reported on
cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in U.S.
supermax prisons. In 2000, the U.N. Committee on
Torture roundly condemned the United States for its
treatment of prisoners, citing supermax prisons. In
May 2006, the same committee concluded that the United
States should "review the regimen imposed on detainees
in supermax prisons, in particular, the practice of
prolonged isolation."
John McCain said his two
years in solitary confinement were torture. "It
crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance
effectively than any other form of mistreatment." The
reaction of McCain and many other victims of isolation
torture were described in an excellent 2009 New Yorker
article on isolation by Atul Gawande. Gawande
concluded that prolonged isolation is objectively
horrifying, intrinsically cruel, and more widespread
in the U.S. than any country in the world. This week hundreds of members of
the Occupy movement merged forces with people
advocating for human rights for prisoners in
demonstrations in California, New York, Ohio, and
Washington DC. They call themselves Occupy 4
Prisoners. Activists are working to create a social
movement for serious and fundamental changes in the US
criminal system. One of the major complaints of
prisoner human rights activists is the abuse of
solitary confinement in prisons across the US. Prison
activist Mumia Abu-Jamal said justice demands the end
of solitary, "It means the abolition of solitary
confinement, for it is no more than modern-day torture
chambers for the poor." Pelican Bay State Prison in
California, the site of a hunger strike by hundreds of
prisoners last year, holds over 1000 inmates in
solitary confinement, some as long as 20 years. At the Occupy Prisoners rally
outside San Quentin prison, the three American hikers
who were held for a year in Iran told of the
psychological impact of 14 months of solitary
confinement. Sarah Shourd said the time without human
contact drove her to beat the walls of her cell until
her knuckles bled. When Manning was held in solitary
he was kept in his cell 23 hours a day for months at a
time. The US government tortured him to send a
message to others who might consider blowing the
whistle on US secrets. At the same time, tens of
thousands of others in the US are being held in their
cells 23 hours a day for months, even years at a
time. That torture is also sending a message. Thousands stood up with Bradley
Manning and got him released from solitary. People
must likewise stand up with the thousands of others in
solitary as well.
So, stand in solidarity with Bradley Manning and fight
against his prosecution. And stand also against
solitary confinement of the tens of thousands in US
jails and prisons. Check out the Bradley Manning
Support Network, Solitary Watch, and Occupy 4
Prisoners for ways to participate. Bill teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans
and works with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
A version of this article with sources is available.
You can reach Bill at
quigley77@gmail.com |
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