Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Salon’s Wikileaks compendium

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I was going to add this as a comment to my recent diary about the fate of Bradley Manning, but I wasn’t sure if anybody would still be reading it.

I also was originally going to specifically make this about the UN now investigating said allegations regarding Manning’s treatment in prison.

However I found this collection on Salon with several articles about this event.

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Comments

  1. I, and we, used to be able to say “America doesn’t torture”.

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    p>Christopher, awhile back, I believe it was you who suggested that I was being overly dramatic in suggesting that Julian Assange might be “disappeared”. Are you still so confident?

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    p>America tortures. America causes people to disappear.

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    p>In my view, the question now is what we who are appalled by this sad reality are going to do about it.

    • …but using the word “see” feels odd when we’re talking about disappearing!  Seriously, though, I do not believe Assange or Manning will be made to disappear; that does still sound a bit paranoid.

      • but I do agree its unlikely.

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        p>They don’t want to disappear Assange, they want to make him out to be a cyber terrorist or something, someone who’s universally hated — so no one takes what he has to say credibly — and then they want to (if possible) lock him up. In Manning’s case, they clearly want to torture the guy (slowly) until he’s willing to lie and testify against Assange, suggesting that Assange was involved in actually getting Manning to fork over the evidence… instead of just the vehicle. After he does that, I doubt they really care.  

      • Private Manning is being kept in solitary because of blogging. The entire episode is unfolding because the US Government recognizes the power of free and unfettered speech.

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        p>Julian Assange and private Manning are not accused of picking up weapons and physically attacking anybody. They are, instead, being abused and harassed because of the words, images, and audio they have published.

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        p>Spreading awareness of just what is going down is hardly doing “nothing”.

        • I had one friend who, before I spoke to him about anything about the guy, was like ‘he should be locked up forever.’

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          p>And, I was like, “But they’re not even trying him for anything, despite the fact that he’s a US citizen and subject to the same rights and privileges (among them, a speedy trial) as anyone else, and he’s being kept in solitary confinement, woken every five minutes, not even allowed to exercise in his cell.”

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          p>As gung-ho as he was, even he was a little shocked at the treatment. He didn’t even believe me at first, and I had to explain at length to him the importance of being able to exercise in solitary confinement… in terms of avoiding a deteriorating mind… and that it was highly unusual for people held in solitary confinement to be prevented from having exercise.  

      • If Julian Assange is a terrorist–of any stripe–than the word has lost all meaning.  I’m a terrorist, then, and you’re a terrorist.  The  ugly, reactionary rhetoric coming out of the mouths of this nation’s leadership is deeply troubling, all because our “tribe” has been embarrassed.  Shameful stuff.  

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