Apparently anonymous Pentagon sources have told NBC news that they are failing to find any evidence of direct contact between Pvt. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange in its attempts to indict Assange for prosecution.
Manning is still in solitary confinement at the Marine base in Quantico, VA. According to Democracy Now!, “On Monday, the human rights group Amnesty International wrote the Pentagon to protest what it called Manning’s ‘inhumane’ treatment.” Manning was arrested last spring in connection to the “Collateral Murder” video released by WikiLeaks, which shows a US Army helicopter opening fire on civilians; those killed included two Reuters employees. Manning allegedly confessed to former hacker Adrian Lamo that he was responsible for leaking the video, who turned him in.
The treatment 23-year-old Manning is being subjected to includes being “held for 23 hours a day in a sparsely furnished solitary cell and deprived of a pillow, sheets, and personal possessions since July 2010,” according to the Amnesty International website. It continues,
Last Tuesday, Manning was placed on ‘suicide risk’, which resulted in him being stripped of his clothes apart from underwear, and the confiscation of his prescription glasses for most of the day, which Manning says left him in “essential blindness”.
Following protests from Manning and his lawyers, the ‘suicide risk’ restrictions were lifted on Thursday.
Manning is classed as a “maximum custody” detainee, despite having no history of violence or disciplinary offences in custody. This means he is shackled at the hands and legs during all visits and denied opportunities to work, which would allow him to leave his cell.