If someone tells me they’re going to shoot themselves in the face, I’m not going to give them a gun.Marine Master Sgt. Craig Blenis • Discussing, during a trial for Pfc. Bradley Manning, why he recommended, as a member of the board he was on, that Manning remain at suicide-risk status, leading to the oft-reported harsh conditions Manning faced while staying in Quantico, Va. Among the reported tell signs: A noose fashioned out of a bedsheet from when he was held in Kuwait, and a written statement where Manning claimed he was “always planning and never acting” on suicidal impulses. These claims overrode a psychiatrist’s opinion that Manning was of no harm to himself or anyone around him.
The Defense Department has said Manning’s treatment properly conformed to his classification as a maximum-custody detainee who posed a risk of injury to himself or others. He was moved in April 2011 to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he has a medium-security classification.
Publicity about Manning’s treatment helped bring worldwide attention to his case. In March, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Mendez presented a report to the UN’s Human Rights Council in which he criticized the U.S. government for refusing his repeated requests for a private visit with Manning.
Although they never spoke, “I am persuaded that Pfc. Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture, Mendez wrote in a Nov. 15 email to The Associated Press.
Mendez said he doesn’t know if Manning’s treatment amounted to torture, as Manning supporters claim.
If Manning gets a life sentence, such a sentence decrease — which could be as much as seven years — would be useless, according to Jeff Paterson of the Bradley Manning Support Network, who adds, “If that credit is meaningless, then that signals that you can actually torture any personnel or detainee without any actual consequences.”
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