U.S. Disgrace

Here's a link to an article by Joan McCarter, at Daily Kos, entitled:
UN, legal scholars criticize administration for treatment of Bradley Manning

"A senior United Nations representative on torture, Juan Mendez, issued a rare reprimand to the US government on Monday for failing to allow him to meet in private Bradley Manning, the American soldier held in a military prison accused of being the WikiLeaks source. It is the kind of censure that the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes around the world.

"Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said: 'I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr Manning.'....

"Mendez, who has been investigating complaints about his treatment since before Christmas, said the US department of defence would not allow him to make an 'official' visit, only a 'private' one. An 'official' visit would mean he meets Manning without a guard present. A 'private' visit means with a guard and anything the prisoner says could be used in the planned court-martial.

"Mendez pointed out that his mandate was to conduct unmonitored visits, and that had been the practice in at least 18 countries over the last six years.

"'Since December 2010, I have been engaging the US government on visiting Mr Manning, at the invitation of his counsel, to determine his condition,' Mendez said. 'Unfortunately, the US government has not been receptive to a confidential meeting with Mr Manning.'"

[Read the article. There's much more.]