Only days after the United Nations issued an official and rare criticism of United States for its human rights violations of Army Private Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of being the WikiLeaks source and held in a military prison is scheduled to be moved from the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia where he has been allegedly tortured.
Associate Press reported Tuesday afternoon, "U.S. officials say the Army private suspected of giving classified data to WikiLeaks is being moved to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas in the wake of international criticism about his treatment during his detention at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va."
Officials speaking on condition of anonymity stated that an announcement that Army Pfc. Bradley Manning will be moved is expected on Wednesday at the Pentagon. AP reports the officials spoke anonymously because "the move has not yet been made public."
Career peace and justice advocate and head of Voters for Peace Kevin Zeese emailed today, "This could be a major victory to have him removed from Quantico where the Marine authority has shown that it is unable to treat Manning appropriately and has continued to mistreat him."
'High level army officials do whatever they want'
A German Parliament committee has protested to the White House about manning's treatment.
Among many other non-government groups that have expressed that Manning's treatment may violate human rights is Amnesty International.
The organization, Psychologists for Social Responsibility has protested Manning's treatment, although the American Psychologist Association, the head of which sold a torture-related "positive psychology program" to the military, has remained silent on the torture of Manning. In January:
"Psychologists for Social Responsibility sent an open letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressing concern about Manning's solitary confinement conditions at Quantico, Va. military prison in violation of Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions and U.S. law. Manning now represents not only suppressed whistleblowers, but also thousands American prisoners subjected to torture." ("Abused Wikileaks soldier alarms Human Rights Psychologists (video)," Dupré, D. Examiner, Jan 11, 2011)
In mid-April, a letter condemning Manning's treatment was signed by 250 mostly law professors, and an earlier letter was signed by over 100 law professors.
Despite human rights and constitutional rights defenders that have applied pressure in the Manning case, the US army and its medical teams, including at least one psychiatrist, have apparently operated according to a different set of rules.
At a private meeting on 13 January 2011 involving high-level Quantico officials, one of those officials ordered that PFC Manning remain in maximum custody and under prevention of injury watch indefinitely according to Manning's defense attorney, David Coombs.
When a Brig psychiatrist at that meeting was advised of there being no mental health justification for the decision, the senior Quantico official issuing the order responded with a statement heard and reported by countless targeted individuals, “We will do whatever we want to do.”
Coombs was therefore "in the process of filing a writ of habeas corpus seeking a court ruling that the Quantico Brig violated PFC Manning’s constitutional right to due process," as disclosed late Tuesday.
It might be that the greatest influence over the case and Manning's move was pressure from the United Nations. Senior United Nations representative on torture, Juan Mendez issued an official and rare reprimand to the US government last week after he was prevented from meeting Manning by the Pentagon.
Colonel Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said last week:
"We cannot, under Quantico brig practice, guarantee the UN special rapporteur an unmonitored visit. At Quantico, such a guarantee is only reserved for attorney-client communications. As in the federal prison system, and for security reasons, the department of defence does not guarantee unmonitored communications with confinees except for privileged communications or in other special circumstances not present here.
The UN response was to censure the United States with "the kind of censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes around the world," reported Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian.
The UN special rapporteur on torture, Mendez explained that he is mandated to conduct unmonitored visits. He met representatives from the state department and Pentagon less than two weeks ago, learning last weekend they were denying his visit.
Mendez said: "I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr Manning."
Manning has been held in maximum security, in a single-occupancy cell at Quantico base, reportedly treated in a manner that meets criteria of torture.
"I am insisting the US government lets me see him without witnesses. I am asking [the US government] to reconsider," Mendez had said, before world news sources increased reports of U.S. human rights violations involved in the Manning case.
According to statements on Coomb's website, while the defense hopes moving Manning to Fort Leavenworth will result in improving his conditions of confinement, it intends pursuing redress at the appropriate time for flagrant violations of his constitutional rights by Quantico confinement facility.
Fox News reported that due to "security purposes," the Pentagon had not revealed when Manning will be transferred, but it was imminent.
Manning represents an untold number of tortured prisoners in the U.S. In January, Quantico prison spokesman Lt. Brian Villiard denied Manning is being treated "unduly harshly" according to MSNBC.
"Pfc. Manning is not being treated any differently than any other maximum-custody detainee in the brig," Villiard said.
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