Bradley Manning testifying today...

[Luminous Animal]

From

Ed Pilkington ?@Edpilkington https://twitter.com/Edpilkington

BRADLEY MANNING on board that kept him on harsh regime: 'It was weighted against me, they were looking to justify decision already made'

BRADLEY MANNING 'The most entertaining thing in my cell was the mirror. You can interact with yourself. I spent a lot of time with it'

BRADLEY MANNING 'I was authorised to have 20 minutes sunshine call' – ie 20 mins outside his cell - in chains - every 24 hours

BRADLEY MANNING: 'I was not allowed to exercise in my cell. So I would practice dance moves as dancing wasn't listed as exercise'

BRADLEY MANNING SPEAKS: 'If I needed toilet paper I would stand to attention and shout: “Detainee Manning requests toilet paper!”'

BRADLEY MANNING: 'You could see the reflection of the reflection of the skylight if you angled your face on the cell door' - Quantico

BRADLEY MANNING: 'If you put your head on cell door & looked through crack you could see reflection of t window' – on Quantico

BRADLEY MANNING: Lawyer draws life-sized Quantico cell on floor of court and soldier stands in it to recreate his conditions #WikiLeaks

BRADLEY MANNING: ' “I didn't think I would set foot on American soil for a long time. It was great to be back on US soil”

BRADLEY MANNING SPEAKS: 'I remember thinking I'm going to die. I thought I was going to die in a cage' – on Kuwait

BRADLEY MANNING SPEAKS: 'The early time frame was a total blur. Nights blended into days, days into nights' – on time in Kuwait

BRADLEY MANNING SPEAKS: 'I had pretty much given up. I thought I was going to die in this 8x8 animal cage' - on Kuwait

[hrmjustin]

1. I wish freedom for this man.

[Luminous Animal]

2. From Kevin Gosztola

?@kgosztola https://twitter.com/kgosztola

Bradley Manning liked hearing about current events: "It grounds me," the big world, as opposed to my little cell

One guard wondered when Bradley Manning would get off "Manning watch"

Bradley Manning says there was very little difference between being on Suicide Risk & Prevention of Injury status at Quantico

Bradley Manning is smiling & energetic while giving testimony. Very intelligent. Really great to hear from him finally

Bradley Manning said in Kuwait he felt suicidal but didn't want to die, wanted to get out of "animal cage" where he was being held

Bradley Manning thought when he left Kuwait military might move him to Guantanamo or Djibouti so was pleased to end up at Quantico

[sabrina 1]

27. He is extremely intelligent. That was apparent from the

conversations he had before being arrested where he went into detail about his life and his decisions. He was fully aware of the consequences, and willing to accept them. People often do not realize how smart he was and just knee-jerk react to this story.

He should be released and the criminals he reported on, arrested and tried.

It's a sad thing that the person who thought his oath meant something and acted on it to report war crimes, is the one on trial, while the war criminals go free.

The World is Watching as we demonstrate our hypocrisy. 'We don't do torture'. That's what he believed but how wrong he was.

[Solly Mack]

3. k/r

[Luminous Animal]

4. Keep in mind that the press is not allowed to take notes and can only

update during 10 minute breaks. They are back in court now.

[Luminous Animal]

5. From Nathan Fuller

Last edited Fri Nov 30, 2012, 06:39 PM - Edit history (1)

https://twitter.com/nathanLfuller? @nathanLfuller

Quick recess. Sgt Bellinis lied to Bradley, said doctors recommended he stay on Prevention of Injury watch, though they recommended it end.

At night Quantico blasted fluorescent light into Manning's cell, then woke him 2-3x each night if he turned his face away from it.

[Lucinda]

6. ...

[Luminous Animal]

7. A fine write-up on yesterday's proceedings (Psychiatrist testimony).

http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/quantico-psychiatrist-bradley-manning-treated-worse-than-death-row-inmates

Quantico psychiatrist: Bradley Manning treated worse than death row inmates
Two mental health professionals testified to the fact that Quantico was the first brig to blithely ignore their recommendations to remove a detainee from restrictive conditions.

Defense lawyer David Coombs asked Col. Hoctor if he thought Quantico was running the risk of of endangering Bradley Manning, and Col. Hoctor said yes, it was, as these conditions might have “unintended consequences.” Coombs asked how Col. Hoctor would describe officials who didn’t consider these effects, and he said, “callous.”

Bradley’s treatment would continue indefinitely

When Cpt. Hoctor expressed his concerns, and the fact that Bradley’s restrictive conditions should not be justified with mental health language, to Col. Robert Oltman, Security Battalion Commander in charge of Quantico, Col. Oltman told him that Cpt. Hoctor should continue to report weekly but that “we’ll do what we want to do,” and that Bradley would be on POI watch for the foreseeable future.

This made Cpt. Hoctor the “angriest [he’d] been in a long time,” as the treatment was “senseless,” had no psychiatric justification, and a Battalion Commander had never before said outright that such a confinement statues would continue indefinitely regardless of his recommendations. He also said that this treatment could harm Bradley, as “everyone has limits,” though “he’d been strong.”

Col. Oltman’s testimony

Col. Oltman himself testified for most of this morning, explaining why Bradley remained on POI watch and why he didn’t fully trust Cpt. Hoctor’s opinion. Col. Oltman didn’t make the decision to put Bradley on POI watch, but decisions in Bradley’s confinement were passed along to Col. Oltman who then passed them up the command chain. He had the authority to change Bradley’s status, but never reduced his status. He said that because a soldier, Captain Webb, had killed himself at Quantico earlier that year, and since Cpt. Hoctor hadn’t recommended Cpt. Webb be put on Suicide Risk, Col. Oltman didn’t weigh his advice for other detainees as heavily.

...

[lovuian]

16. This Trial will go down in history as a travesty to the Bill of Rights

Quantico is not on US soil for a reason
it is to avoid the US Laws on imprisoning prisoners and from what is written and testified
Manning was tortured

Extreme isolation has long been recognized as a punishment that inflicts irrevocable harm upon one’s mental state. When touring one of the nation’s first forays in isolation punishment at New York’s Auburn state prison in the early 1820s, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave De Beaumont wrote, “This absolute solitude, if nothing interrupt it, is beyond the strength of man ... it does not reform; it kills. The unfortunates upon whom this experiment was made, fell into a state of depression, so manifest, that their keepers were struck with it; their lives seemed in danger, if they remained longer in this situation.”
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/unbelievable-inhumanity-solitary-confinement-and-punishment-little-reading-book

It is away of driving people insane so they commit suicide

It is torture

The United States Military should have realized that what they were doing was ruining their case against Manning
in the eyes of the world

[hootinholler]

21. Um, Quantico is in Virginia.

Unless they seceded again...

[kossp]

25. Since when is Quantico not on american soil?

Last I heard, Virginia is still part of the united states.

[SidDithers]

35. This post will go down in history as a travesty of geography...nt

Sid

[dionysus]

42. vaht? don't diss the sweet baby jesus Sid.

[Luminous Animal]

44. lovuian is the sweet baby jesus?

[Luminous Animal]

8. From Nathan Fuller again..

https://twitter.com/nathanLfuller

Bradley testified about Quantico removing his underwear, allowing him to stand humiliatingly naked even though this went against brig policy

15 min recess. Played short video wherein Quantico official says, "I wish we had 100 PFC Mannings," yet then puts him on Suicide Risk.

Quick recess. Sgt Bellinis lied to Bradley, said doctors recommended he stay on Prevention of Injury watch, though they recommended it end.

[sabrina 1]

28. He was tortured. And where is the outrage we used to see, at least from the Left,

when soldiers defected and reported on Bush war crimes? Remember how the Left rallied around heroes like Kevin Benderman? At least they said he was hero back then.

I would say I hope those who tortured him would pay for their crimes, but we all know that won't happen. At least during the Bush years, I used to have such hope that once we got rid of him, torturers would be prosecuted. Now I have no hope.

[Luminous Animal]

9. Alexa O'Brien

Alexa O'Brien ?@carwinb https://twitter.com/carwinb

Re "log" notes dancing in his tiny 6 x 8 cell (where he was 23.5 hrs a day) #Manning said it was a way to get around regs for no exercise.

Manning: 'The guards referred to Suicide Watch as #Manning watch.'

Guards responsible for #Manning told him they had never seen a detainee on Suicide Watch so long.

[Luminous Animal]

10. Manning is done with defense quetioning. Tomorrow is the prosecutions turn.

[KoKo]

11. Thanks!

[Zorra]

12. Oh, man...that's just sick. They tortured him. nt

[Luminous Animal]

13. Yes they did. Many kudos to Glenn Greenwald being one of the first to raise the alarm

and giving activists and human rights campaigners the knowledge to demand better treatment.

[Luminous Animal]

14. Second day, prosecutions turn...

Kevin Gosztola ?@kgosztola

Manning has essentially testified he was coerced into putting information about whether he was suicidal onto a form by Quantico guards

Fein made it pretty clear to court that Bradley Manning was forced to sign "voluntary statements" by Quantico Brig officers

Bradley Manning: "I was receiving it as an order. Here is a voluntary statement. Sign this."

These "voluntary statements" Manning was ordered to sign made him uncomfortable. He didn't know whether legal or not, crossed out language.

Suppose here's key question for Bradley Manning: Was he ever not coerced or ordered to sign forms that would be used against him?

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Obama promised to defend whistle-blowers.

[randome]

18. But not leakers who hand documents over to foreign nationals.

That's the big difference.

[sabrina 1]

29. Manning is a whistle blower. More Whistle Blowers have been prosecuted under this administration

than under Bush. When it happened under Bush, the 'left' went wild.

Actually the 'left' is still outraged over the prosecution of Whistle Blowers like Manning.

[NCTraveler]

22. That is why he should not defend Manning. He is not a whistle-blower. nt.

[sabrina 1]

30. Manning is a Whistle Blower. I will take the word of some of this country's most respected

heroes on that. And I am almost certain that if Bush was president, there would be no doubt on the 'left' that he is a Whistle Blower. Lucky of other soldiers, like Keven Benderman eg, that they blew the whistle on what was going on in Iraq while Bush president or I guess we'd be seeing similar attacks on them.

Btw, regardless of that, do you support any detainee in this country being tortured the way Manning was? Pres. Obama stated that his treatment was 'appropriate'. I am assuming when he said that he was not aware of how he was being treated. It was due to the State Dept's P.J Crowley that the torture eventually stopped. However, Crowley 'resigned' after speaking out about Manning's treatment.

[NCTraveler]

34. I am sure he has no clue what he released to this day. He is not a whistle-blower.

He gives whistle-blowers a bad name.

I do not support any detainee in this country being tortured in the way in which I have read Manning has been. There should be a full independent investigation into it. Not an inside investigation. Those in charge of his treatment should face justice.

But the two are completely different things. The way he is treated and his personal criminal acts. I can hold two thoughts at the same time. I want both Manning and his abusers to receive the justice they deserve.

[sabrina 1]

37. Whistle Blower Daniel Esllsberg among others, do not agree with you.

Ellsberg views Manning as a Whistle Blower much as he was. He has more or less describe himself as the 'Bradley Manning of my day'.

Sign Daniel Ellsberg’s petition to free Bradley Manning

Bradley is treated much better at Ft. Leavenworth, yet he’s still deprived of his due process rights. Though promised a “speedy trial,” he’s spent more than 800 days in prison without court martial. President Obama has illegally declared him guilty before a trial even began. The prosecution has prevented the defense from showing the lack of harm from WikiLeaks’ releases. More to the point, Bradley is a heroic whistle-blower who believed the American public deserved to know what their government does at war and in secret. He shouldn’t be on trial in the first place.

Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Bradley Manning Support Network call on you to stand up for Bradley again. Sign our petition and share it widely. Bradley put his future on the line for a transparent government and a better democracy. Now he needs you to call on U.S. officials to do the right thing.

Some of the most respected human rights individuals and organizations, support Manning as a courageous Whistle Blower. I will go with their expert assessment on this rather than what is mostly the Right's hatred for someone who blew the whistle on Bush's War Crimes and Policies.

[Luminous Animal]

40. Thank you, Sabrina...

And like Manning, many people were calling Ellsberg a traitor.

[Zorra]

45. But...but!!! Ellsberg exposed crimes by a sitting President! He's a TRAITOR! blahblahblah!

blah blah!

The world was different in those days! Strawman! Red herring!


I will be eternally grateful to Daniel Ellsberg for the majorly important service he did for all of us. If Daniel Ellsberg says Bradley is a heroic whistleblower, then I'm convinced for sure now.

Thanks, sabrina1.

[NCTraveler]

46. I fully understand your position. I don't agree with it.

I also don't agree with Ellsberg. I have no problem with that. Clearly if Ellsberg says it, you take it as the gospel. Not the way I work.

[Initech]

17. Note: do not read the Yahoo article on this. There are some truly disheartening comments.

[Luminous Animal]

20. Thanks for the heads up!

[sabrina 1]

31. The Right Wing hates Manning because he exposed mostly Bush War Crimes. I expect nothing

less from them.

[Initech]

36. The comments have nothing to do with that.

The idiots posting them were complaining about how Yahoo made the headline read just his last name Manning so people would click on it thinking it was one of the Manning Brothers ( the football players).

[sabrina 1]

38. I've read the Right Wing's comments on Manniing so I know their views. I did not read

these, but my comment stands. The Right Wing hates Manning because he blew the whistle on Bush's war crimes.

[Luminous Animal]

39. That's pretty damn funny!

[Luminous Animal]

19. Michael Ratner from the Center of Constitutional Rights on Democracy Now

talking about yesterdays testimony.

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/30/accused_wikileaks_whistleblower_bradley_manning_testifies

What came out—what it began with was really his arrest in late May of 2010. He was almost immediately taken to Kuwait. And that’s where—really where they got him in a way that really, for a period of time, almost destroyed him. They put him into cages that he described as eight-by-eight-by-eight. There were two cages. He said they were like animal cages. They were all—they were in a tent alone, just these two cages, side by side. One of them had whatever possessions he may have had; one of them, he was in, with a little bed for a rack and a toilet, dark, in this cage for almost two months. He was taken out for a short while and then, without explanation, put back in the cage, meals in the cage, etc., all of that.

And then—wait until you hear this. They would wake him at night at 11:00 p.m., 10:00 or 11:00, and his day—or night—was all night, and he was allowed to go back to sleep at 12:00 or 1:00, noon, the next day. So when we think about what happened to people at Guantánamo or sensory deprivation or what McCoy says in his books on torture, what are they trying to do except destroy this human being?

And he said, "For me, I stopped keeping track. I didn’t know whether night was day or day was night. And my world became very, very small. It became these cages. And I’m person," he said—this was really, I thought—all of us really were interested in it. He said, "I’m someone who likes current events. I take a broader view of the world." And he gave an example of the oil spill in the Gulf. And he said, you know, "When that ended," and he said, "my world all of a sudden was totally confined to these cages." And that was almost two months in Kuwait, something that none of us really knew about for this period. And he went on to talk about then what happens when he went to Quantico.

....

What’s remarkable is that he still has this incredible dignity after going through this. But I think all these prison conditions were—sure, they were angry at Bradley Manning, but in the face of that psychiatric statement, that this guy shouldn’t be kept on suicide risk or POI, they’re still keeping him in inhuman conditions, you can only ask yourself—they’re trying to break him for some reason. The lawyer, David Coombs, has said it’s so that he can give evidence against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

[sabrina 1]

32. Sick. Disturbing beyond belief. But then, when we learned of our torture policies towards

the Iraqis, some of us knew such sick minds would not hesitate to use them against their own.

We should be ashamed. And people need to remember, he was not a criminal. He reported crimes, THEIR crimes, and then they prove him right..

[Luminous Animal]

23. More...

Ed Pilkington ?@Edpilkington
Bradley Manning on why he told his lawyer to eschew the media: 'I wanted a court martial, I didn't want the court of public opinion'

Kevin Gosztola ?@kgosztola
Bradley Manning didn't want to talk about his confinement because worried facility was going to use to justify keeping on POI


Alexa O'Brien ?@carwinb
Govt cross examined #Manning visits by individuals including House which were recorded. 1/2

#Manning said did not discussed case or treatment at visits b/c visits were recorded, and because he dealt with matters through counsel.
Expand Collapse

Kevin Gosztola ?@kgosztola
Maj. Fein: "Would you describe David House as an activist?" Govt trying to get Manning to give info that could be used by WL grand jury

[Luminous Animal]

24. One more from Kevin...

Kevin Gosztola ?@kgosztola

Bradley Manning: "Didn’t want anyone to get targeted for being associated in any way or form with me”

[sabrina 1]

33. Very brave. He could have done what they wanted him to do and lied. But it was always clear

that he was a person of high morality. That must have frustrated the torturers.

[woo me with science]

26. K&R

[Luminous Animal]

41. Glenn Greenwald writes...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/30/bradley-manning-liberty-lost-america

The oppressive, borderline-torturous measures to which he was subjected, including prolonged solitary confinement and forced nudity, have been known for some time. A formal UN investigation denounced those conditions as "cruel and inhuman". President Obama's state department spokesman, retired air force colonel PJ Crowley, resigned after publicly condemning Manning's treatment. A prison psychologist testified this week that Manning's conditions were more damaging than those found on death row, or at Guantánamo Bay.

[sabrina 1]

43. We should be ashamed. But that would mean we had a conscience and all the other human

qualities necessary to know the difference between right and wrong.

Still, there have been other nations which thought that their war criminals would never be held accountable or their heroes finally vindicated. What is happening in Latin America right now where decades old crimes are finally being exposed and the criminals punished, should cause some slight concern for war criminals everywhere.