Besides citizen activism, human rights organizations have questioned the conditions of Manning's detention, usually eliciting terse responses from the Obama administration. Remarkably, the Obama administration blocked international inquiries into Manning's condition including those made by the UN Special Rapporteur and Amnesty International.
UN Special rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez reprimanded the US government on April 11, 2011, for refusing to allow him to meet in private with Manning. The UK Guardian commented, "It is the kind of censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes around the world."
Mendez said: "I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr. Manning ... I am acting on a complaint that the regimen of this detainee amounts to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or torture ... until I have all the evidence in front of me, I cannot say whether he has been treated inhumanely."
German Parliamentary committee - Conditions of Manning's Imprisonment violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The German Parliament's Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid wrote to the Obama administration on April 12 stating, "The conditions of his (Manning's) detention therefore violate Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which has been ratified by the United States. Under Article 10 of the ICCPR, "All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person." Against this background I would like, on behalf of my colleagues, to ask you to review the conditions of Mr. Manning's detention and ensure that he is treated humanely."
State Department Executive Forced to Resign Over his Remarks on Manning's Detention
The public uproar about the conditions of Manning's imprisonment included the US State Department's Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, PJ Crowley, being forced to resign his position after he called Manning's treatment in the Quantico brig "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid." In his resignation letter, the retired Air Force Colonel and senior director of public affairs for the National Security Council and Special Assistant to the President for national security affairs during the Clinton administration, wrote to his boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that while the "unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a serious crime under U.S. law, the exercise of power in today's challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values."
State Department Spokesperson Given a Grilling on Bradley Manning's conditions during Human Rights Report Press Conference
Journalists, during an April 14 press conference on the State Department's Report on Human Rights in other countries, repeatedly questioned the State Department's Acting Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner on why the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture was not allowed access to Bradley Manning to determine the conditions under which he is being kept.
Legal Scholars Challenge Manning's Treatment
In a letter published in April, 2001 in the New York Review of Books, renowned Harvard legal scholar, Laurence Tribe, one of President Obama's law school professors and until recently an adviser to the Obama administration, and over 300 other legal scholars warned that Manning's treatment at Quantico could be seen as "a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against punishment without trial."The conditions under which Manning had been held, "may well amount to a violation of the criminal statute
against torture. If Manning is guilty of a crime, let him be tried, convicted, and punished according to law," they wrote. "But his treatment
must be consistent with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There is no excuse for his degrading and inhumane pretrial punishment."
The signers of the letter, in a forceful comment about President Obama, wrote, "he was once a professor of constitutional law, and entered the national stage as an eloquent moral leader. The question now, however, is whether his conduct as commander-in-chief meets fundamental standards of decency."
Citizen Activism begins at Leavenworth
Immediately after the public learned that Manning was to be transferred to Fort Leavenworth, a citizens' action group from Kansas and Missouri was formed. The new group -- MO-KAN Bradley Manning Support Group -- is sponsoring a rally for Manning on June 4, 2011 in Leavenworth, Kansas.
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