Is Bradley Manning being tortured?

Manning has been in solitary confinement for the past 10 months, under a prevention-of-injury order that keeps him locked in his cell for 23 hours a day and stripped naked at night.

Free speech in America apparently doesn’t extend to government officials, said Luis Lema in Switzerland’s Le Temps. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was fired this week for speaking out against the brutal treatment of Bradley Manning, the young soldier accused of giving tens of thousands of U.S. military documents to WikiLeaks. Manning has been held in solitary confinement for the past 10 months, subject to a prevention-of-injury order that keeps him locked in his cell for 23 hours a day and stripped naked at night. Crowley called that treatment “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid”—and it’s hard not to agree. President Obama, exasperated by the flap, insisted that the Pentagon had assured him that Manning’s detention conditions were “appropriate.” But “skeptics might point out that George Bush, too, placed his full confidence” in the Pentagon’s interrogation methods.

It’s quite a “radical turnaround” for Obama, said John Goetz in Germany’s Der Spiegel. One of Obama’s campaign pledges was that government whistle-blowers would be “protected from reprisal.” But his government is currently pursuing legal action “against a number of such informants,” including Manning. Of course, given the gravity of the charges against Manning, it’s understandable that he was initially placed under high security. But over the months he has been a model prisoner, and even the military psychologist recommended “virtually every week” that he be treated like other prisoners. It seems clear that he has, in fact, been singled out for harsh treatment.

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