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.<\/p>\n
Manning is still in solitary confinement at the Marine base in Quantico, VA. According to Democracy Now!<\/a>, “On Monday, the human rights group Amnesty International wrote the Pentagon to protest what it called Manning\u2019s ‘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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. It continues,<\/p>\n 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”.<\/p>\n Following protests from Manning and his lawyers, the \u2018suicide risk\u2019 restrictions were lifted on Thursday.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Manning is also detained under a Prevention of Injury (POI) assignment, despite a recommendation from his official military psychiatrist that this is not necessary. Detainees with POI status are subjected to extra restrictions such as checks by guards every five minutes and bars on sleeping.<\/p>\n There have been no formal reasons given for Manning’s maximum custody and POI status, yet his lawyers’ attempts to challenge the restrictions have been ignored by the authorities.<\/p>\n “The repressive conditions imposed on Manning breach the US’s obligations to treat detainees with humanity and dignity,” said Susan Lee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While Manning is subjected to inhumane treatment and Assange is ‘free’ on bail in London, Wired.com<\/a> reports that “WikiLeaks has acknowledged possessing a second video Manning mentioned in his chat, but has not published it to date. This one involves a May 2009 airstrike near Garani village in Afghanistan that the local government says killed nearly 100 civilians, most of them children.”<\/p>\n Wired.com suggests, “If it\u2019s true that investigators have found no evidence linking Manning and Assange, it may be because Manning allegedly erased it from his system. He discussed doing so in his chats with Lamo. Manning noted in the chats that any incriminating evidence of his activities had been ‘zerofilled’, or erased, from his computers.”<\/p>\n Lamo provided the state department with the chat logs of his conversations with Manning, a segment of which follows:<\/p>\n (02:09:24 AM) Lamo: *random* are you concerned aboutCI\/CID looking into your Wiki stuff? I was always paranoid. \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n (02:14:36 AM) Lamo: So you have these stored now? Manning has not been formally charged, yet the military seems to be taking every opportunity to punish him. Assange is still restricted to London, waiting for his Feb. 7 hearing for possible extradition for questioning in Sweden — not even for prosecution (an “improper” reason for extradition, according to Assange’s legal defense team, as quoted by the Guardian, UK<\/a>). All while the whole world is watching, waiting and tweeting; but there is still much we do not see, and many wonder what we can actually do<\/em>. At the very least, we can keep reminding the powers that be that we are in fact watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(02:09:40 AM) Manning: CID has no open investigation
\n(02:10:28 AM) Manning: State Department will be uber-pissed\u2026 but I dont think they\u2019re capable of tracing everything\u2026<\/p>\n
\n(02:14:54 AM) Manning: i had two computers\u2026 one connected to SIPRNET the other to JWICS\u2026
\n(02:15:07 AM) Manning: no, they\u2019re government laptops
\n(02:15:18 AM) Manning: they\u2019ve been zerofilled
\n(02:15:22 AM) Manning: because of the pullout
\n(02:15:57 AM) Manning: evidence was destroyed\u2026 by the system itself
\n(02:16:10 AM) Lamo: So how would you deploy the cables? If at all.
\n(02:16:26 AM) Manning: oh no\u2026 cables are reports
\n(02:16:34 AM) Lamo: ah
\n(02:16:38 AM) Manning: State Department Cable = a Memorandum
\n(02:16:48 AM) Lamo: embassy cables?
\n(02:16:54 AM) Manning: yes
\n(02:17:00 AM) Manning: 260,000 in all
\n(02:17:10 AM) Manning: i mentioned this previously
\n(02:17:14 AM) Lamo: yes
\n(02:17:31 AM) Lamo: stored locally, or retreiveable?
\n(02:17:35 AM) Manning: brb latrine =P
\n(02:17:43 AM) Manning: i dont have a copy anymore
\n(02:17:59 AM) Lamo: *nod*<\/p><\/blockquote>\n