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Stand With Brad, We Are All Bradley
Manning
WikiLeaks threatens corporate media control over information, the government's
need to mislead to the public
The article below is from a speech given by Kevin Zeese in support of Bradley Manning at Bus Boys and Poets in Washington, DC on March 13, 2011.
His cell is six feet wide and twelve feet in length.
It has a bed, a drinking fountain, and a toilet.
At 5:00 a.m. he is woken up. He will not be allowed to sleep again until 8:00 p.m. If he attempts to sleep at any time from 5 AM to 8 PM he will be made to sit up or stand by the guards.
He will not be allowed to exercise in his cell, not even pushups -- for his own protection, too dangerous, say his jailers. If he tries guards stop him.
He has no clothes as they were taken away the night before. He is forced to sleep naked with a scratchy smock over him that itches throughout the night. He tried not to use the smock because it was so uncomfortable but was forced to do so.
A voice asks through the door: Are you alright? I need a verbal response. "Yes, I'm alright." Five minutes later: Are you alright? I need a verbal response. "Yes, I'm alright." Every five minutes, every day for 7 months he is asked: Are you alright? I need a verbal response.
A voice through the door orders: Get out of your bed for the morning Duty Brig Supervisor inspection.
Still no clothes.
He gets out of the bed, shivering from being naked all night in a cold cell.
He walks toward the front of the cell with his hands in front covering his genitals.
A guard orders: Stand at parade rest.
He puts his hands behind his back, with legs spaced shoulder width apart. He stands at "parade rest' waiting and waiting until the Brig Supervisor arrives. Everyone is called to attention.
Brig supervisor and the other guards walk past the cell. They stop, look as he stands naked. Stare at him. Look at the room. Stare at him some more. Then they move on to the next cell. He stands waiting for the inspection of all the cells to end. When completed a guard orders -- go sit on your bed. Sitting naked, waiting, waiting, waiting ten minutes later, finally, clothes arrive and he can dress. The shiver from the cold night stays with him.
This is how Bradley Manning's day begins. The nudity has been required for more than a week with no end in sight, but he has been in solitary in Quantico for 7 months, in total for 10 months.
Charles Dickens, who spent months at a time living with the general populations of prisons and mental hospitals throughout America in the 1800's, wrote about solitary confinement: "I believe it to be cruel and wrong"I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body."
