Pentagon: Manning not being humiliated

Posted By Josh Rogin Monday, March 14, 2011 - 11:20 AM Share

Pentagon Deputy Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations Col. David Lapan wrote into The Cable Monday to take issue with our post on the resignation of P.J. Crowley and tell us that alleged WikiLeaks source Private Bradley Manning is not being held in isolation, is not subject to humiliation, and no longer has to sleep without his underwear.

"There has been quite a bit of hyperbole on this case and I want to ensure you have the correct information," Lapan told The Cable over email.

Lapan said our assertion that "Manning, who is being held in a maximum security prison and under isolation 23 hours a day at the Marine Corps' base in Quantico, VA, has reportedly been subject to daily disrobing and various other humiliations, which have been widely criticized by human rights groups, including Amnesty International," is not quite accurate.

Here's what Lapan had to say about Manning's conditions:

Quantico is a military brig, not a prison, and it is not a maximum security facility. http://www.quantico.usmc.mil/activities/display.aspx?PID=588&Section=SECBN

Manning, however, is considered a maximum custody detainee. He is not "under isolation 23 hours a day." Here are the facts of his pre-trial confinement:

PFC Manning is not in solitary confinement. He has a single-occupancy cell, like all of the other detainees.

PFC Manning is not in isolation.

PFC Manning is a maximum custody detainee in a prevention of injury status.

PFC Manning is not currently on suicide watch.

PFC Manning is being held in the same quarters section with other pre-trial detainees.

PFC Manning is allowed to watch television and read newspapers.

PFC Manning is allowed one-hour per day to exercise.

PFC Manning is provided well-balanced, nutritious meals three times a day.

PFC Manning receives visitors and mail and can write letters.

PFC Manning routinely meets with doctors and his attorney.

PFC Manning is allowed telephone calls.

PFC Manning is being treated just like every other detainee in the brig.

Also, there is no 'daily disrobing and various other humiliations.' In recent days, as the result of concerns for PFC Manning's personal safety, his undergarments were taken from him during sleeping hours. PFC Manning at all times had a bed and a blanket to cover himself. He was not made to stand naked for morning count but, but on one day, he chose to do so. There were no female personnel present at the time. PFC Manning has since been issued a garment to sleep in at night. He is clothed in a standard jumpsuit during the day.

EXPLORE:OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, STATE DEPARTMENT, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, WIKILEAKS
 

SAMUEL ADAMS

4:47 PM ET

March 14, 2011

Six of one - half dozen of

Six of one - half dozen of the other.
PFC Manning is not in solitary confinement? He has a single-occupancy cell, like all of the other detainees. A SINGLE OCCUPANCY CELL without interaction IS solitary confinement by another name.. He is allowed 1 hour exercise. That leaves 23 hours in a single occupancy cell without interaction.PFC Manning is in isolation. Could the "War is Peace" explainations be anymore from the Ministry of Truth? This is doublethink: an act of simultaneously accepting as correct two mutually contradictory statements and beliefs combined with a memory hole for the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a web site or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened. Orwell would be proud.

 

SJI384

11:48 PM ET

March 15, 2011

Freak Out

You need to calm down.

1 - All 'single occupancy cell' lets us know is that the prison doesn't have an overloaded population. It's not bursting at the seams with inmates, so they don't double-up unless they have to. Many times in maximum security, they leave prisoners in cells by themselves so they don't get paired up with an inmate who may snap and kill them in a fight before a guard can get there to stop it (or, in case the prisoner in question *is* this type of inmate). Like GregT said, it may well be an "old school" cell block with 3 concrete walls and bars for a 4th wall. Unless he's in a cell with a 4th metal wall or a sound-proof, shatter-proof glass wall for observation, he's not in isolation.

2 - How is one hour of exercise different than ANY OTHER maximum security prison?? That's how they operate, there's no mutually contradicting statements there.

Also, you make a GIANT leap from this situation to 1984. There's no one pulling wool over our eyes with double-speak or lying by omission here. Unless this is an out-and-out lie, the statements made by the Colonial describe absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, given the situation.

You may want to do research on typical conditions in a maximum security facility before you freak out.

 

MLB1052

12:57 AM ET

March 16, 2011

Oh Well!

The guy is going to be tried in a court for what? Passing on secrets? Shut your liberal piehole before you start spewing cherry filling all over! LOOK UP THE PENALTY FOR SPYING IN THE UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE. Penalty is Death. The U.S. Governments last execution for Spying was in the 50's, we need to implement this policy once again in the Armed Forces. Too much info is being transmitted which is sensitive, detrimental to the security of the United States and those who support our policy and way of life abroad. This info that he leaked may have leaked into the terrorist's hands, causing men and women of today's American military to be killed. People you may or may not know, but willing to put their life on the line for you. They were probably making him sleep naked because he was a risk of attempting to hang himself w his skivies. They were protecting his life.
Just because someone is in the military does not mean they are animals or neanderthals. That is the way you are putting it in your text, or in your statement. There are rules and laws in the military prison system also, and I can assure you, as a 20 year Marine Corps Veteran that they are being followed to a "T"

 

GREGT

3:55 PM ET

March 15, 2011

Six of one, half dozen of ...something else!

To continue to claim that Manning is in ISOLATION requires a suspense of disbelief. A single occupancy cell may be interpreted as a form of isolation BUT (and this is the important part) it is NO WHERE CLOSE to how ISOLATION is defined in our penal system.

While I've never been to (or in) Quantico's brig, I imagine it has the typical bar still doors of movie and TV lore. Isolation cells have solid doors, sometimes with slots to pass food, etc.

Manning is not in this.

Manning gets to watch TV, use the telephone, send letters, meet with visitors. None of that is true for those in isolation.

Claiming that Manning is in ISOLATION is nothing but propoganda (but for what purpose?).

 

John Hudson reports on national security and foreign policy from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, the White House to Embassy Row, for The Cable.

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