(NEW YORK) MintPress — After more than a year of investigating reports that Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of leaking classified documents to the watchdog website WikiLeaks, was mistreated while in detention, the UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, has condemned the American government for its handling of the case.
Manning, now 24, was arrested in May, 2010 at a US military base in Iraq, where he was working as an intelligence analyst. He was held in Kuwait before being transferred to the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, where he was kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for more than nine months.
In his report to the Human Rights Council, Mendez, writes “The special rapporteur concludes that imposing seriously punitive conditions of detention on someone who has not been found guilty of any crime is a violation of his right to physical and psychological integrity as well as of his presumption of innocence.”
In an e-mail to MintPress, Mendez explains that subjecting Manning to solitary confinement “amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which — under international law — is less serious than torture but likewise absolutely prohibited.” He continues, “I did not characterize it as torture because I was unable to determine whether the purpose pursued by the brig commanders….was intentional infliction of the severe pain and suffering associated with torture.”
Mendez insists, though, that “I have made it clear that, in my view, the treatment could have amounted to torture and did amount, at the very least, to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Assessing America’s actions
Mendez says he was not satisfied, either, with the governments’ explanation. He reveals that it “gave two reasons for this treatment: a) It was related to the seriousness of the offense with which he would be charged; b) It was consistent with prison regulations that authorized the brig commanders to establish a ‘prevention of harm’ regime.
But Mendez maintains neither explanation was sufficient to justify what Manning endured since he has yet to be found guilty of any offense and the government did not explain what harm was being prevented.
U.S. complicity?
Interestingly, in his report, Mendez also addresses allegations of torture in several other countries, including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
He tells MintPress, “I prefer not to compare countries in regard to their human rights performances,” but Mendez adds, “In this instance, I found that the behavior of the US government had fallen behind a standard that applies to all nations.”
Manning to face court martial
Manning, a native of Oklahoma, was transferred in April, 2011 from Quantico to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where he was held in more open conditions. He’s now being kept in a military facility in Virginia so he can make pre-trial appearances at Fort Meade in Maryland.
Those hearings in fact continued Thursday, when a military judge in the case said the government contends that Manning indirectly helped al-Qaeda. He was charged in February with aiding the enemy, among 22 total counts, but until now the military had not identified that enemy.
He has also been charged with fraud and related activity in connection with computers as well as for violating Army Regulations 25-2 “Information Assurance” and 380-5 “Department of the Army Information Security Program.”
Prosecutors say Manning downloaded and sent to WikiLeaks nearly half a million sensitive battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, and a video of a deadly 2007 Army helicopter attack that WikiLeaks dubbed “Collateral Murder.”
Defense lawyers contend that Manning was clearly a troubled young soldier whom the Army should never have deployed to Iraq or given access to classified material while he was stationed there from late 2009 to mid-2010. They maintain the leaked material did little or no harm to national security.
Torture chief denied access
Mendez, in the same report in which he condemned the government’s treatment of Manning, also renewed his request for a “private and unmonitored meeting with Mr. Manning to assess his conditions of detention.”
The Pentagon has refused to allow the special rapporteur to see Manning privately and has instead insisted that all conversations be monitored. The UN says the lack of privacy violates human rights procedures.
Manning is meanwhile expected to learn by Friday when his trial will start. He has not yet entered a plea to the counts he faces, which could result in a sentence of life in prison. Mendez says he continues to monitor the situation through Manning’s lawyer.
Although Mendez’s judgment is not binding on the American government, he contends it “should investigate and hold accountable any official responsible for his (Manning’s) mistreatment, and institute procedures through which prison regulations may not be abused in the future.”