The last time Bradley Manning saw the world outside of a jail, most Americans had never heard of WikiLeaks. On Friday, Manning, the man whose alleged unauthorized release of hundreds of thousands of classified documents put the website and its controversial leader, Julian Assange, on the map, turns 23 behind bars. Since his arrest in May, Manning has spent most of his 200-plus days in solitary confinement. Other than receiving a card and some books from his family, his birthday will be no different. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, his attorney, David Coombs, revealed key details about Mannings imprisonment and kind gestures from his family that provided a bit of comfort in the inmate's otherwise extremely harsh incarceration.

Theyre thinking about him on his birthday, that they love and support him, Coombs said of Manning's family and the card his mother, father, sister and aunt passed along via the lawyer on Wednesday. They wish they could be with him on his day, but they are not allowed because visitation is only on Saturday and Sunday, and a family member would be going down to see him on Saturday. Coombs passed a message to Manning from his aunt on behalf of the family; Manning, the lawyer says, asked Coombs to tell his aunt he loved her and wishes he could be with her as well.

Manning asked for a list of books, which his family bought for him and will be delivered over the next few weeks to coincide with his birthday and Christmas. On the list?

Decision Points, by George W. Bush Critique of Practical Reason, by Immanuel Kant Critique of Pure Reason, by Immanuel Kant Propaganda, by Edward Bernays The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins A Peoples History of the United States, by Howard Zinn The Art of War, by Sun Tzu The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel On War by Gen. Carl von Clausewitz

Manning is being held at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia. He spends 23 hours a day alone in a standard-sized cell, with a sink, a toilet, and a bed. He isnt allowed sheets or a pillow, though First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, an officer at Quantico, said he is allowed bedding of non-shreddable material. Ive held it, Ive felt it, its soft, Id sleep under it, he told The Daily Beast.

He isnt allowed to exercise (Quantico officials dispute this), but he has started stretching and practicing yoga.

For an hour every day, a television is wheeled in front of his cell and hes allowed to watch TV, including news, though usually local news, Coombs told The Daily Beast. He is allowed to read the news as well. Courtesy of Coombs, Manning now has a subscription to his favorite magazine, Scientific American. The November Hidden Worlds of Dark Matter issue was his first.

The conditions under which Bradley Manning is being held would traumatize anyone (see Salons Glenn Greenwald for a rundown of the legal and psychological issues associated with extended solitary confinement). He lives alone in a small cell, denied human contact. He is forced to wear shackles when outside of his cell, and when he meets with the few people allowed to visit him, they sit with a glass partition between them. The only person other than prison officials and a psychologist who has spoken to Manning face to face is his attorney, who says the extended isolationnow more than seven months of solitary confinementis weighing on his clients psyche.

When he was first arrested, Manning was put on suicide watch, but his status was quickly changed to Prevention of Injury watch (POI), and under this lesser pretense he has been forced into his life of mind-numbing tedium. His treatment is harsh, punitive and taking its toll, says Coombs.

There is no evidence hes a threat to himself, and shouldnt be held in such severe conditions under the artifice of his own protection.

The command is basing this treatment of him solely on the nature of the pending charges, and on an unrelated incident where a service member in the facility took his own life, Coombs said, referencing the February suicide of a marine captain in the Quantico brig. Coombs says he believes Quantico officials are keeping Manning under close watch with strict limitations on his activity out of an overabundance of caution. Both Coombs and Mannings psychologist, Coombs says, are sure Manning is mentally healthy, that there is no evidence hes a threat to himself, and shouldnt be held in such severe conditions under the artifice of his own protection.

Manning faces a military court-martial on charges of providing WikiLeaks with classified information in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

His future remains uncertain. Rep John Conyers (D-MI), in Thursday's congressional hearing on WikiLeaks, called for calm and a measured response to the new challenges the whistleblower's site presents to the future of governance. "When everyone in this town is joined together calling for someone's head, it's a pretty sure sign that we need to slow down and take a look."

Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) followed with a call for punishment. I have no sympathy for the alleged thief in this situation, Poe said, insisting the source of the leak, whoever it is, be held responsible. Hes no better than a Texas pawn shop dealer that deals in stolen merchandise and sells it to the highest bidder.

Mannings fate will be determined over the following months. What is clear today is that hes being held in extraordinarily harsh conditionsnotably harsher than Bryan Minkyu Martin, the naval intelligence specialist who allegedly tried to sell military secrets to an undercover FBI agent, and is currently being held awaiting trial, though not in solitary confinement. Manning, who has been convicted of nothing, has spent the better part of a year incommunicado, living the life of a man convicted of a heinous crime. Coombs challenges the legality of what he says is unlawful pretrial punishment. He is working to lift the POI restrictions placed on his client.

Denver Nicks is an editorial assistant at The Daily Beast.

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Bradley Manning: WikiLeaks Alleged Sources Life in Prison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified documents in the nations history, said on Thursday he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.

Manning, 25, launched an unprecedented bid to get female hormone treatment in a military prison a day after he was sentenced for leaking documents to the WikiLeaks website.

As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female, Manning said in the statement read by anchorwoman Savannah Guthrie on NBC News Today show.

During the sentencing phase of Mannings court-martial for leaking more than 700,000 secret documents, defense attorneys pointed out that the soldier suffered from gender identity disorder. A psychologist testified Manning had a difficult time adjusting to the hypermasculine environment of a combat zone.

Manning said in the statement that he wished to begin receiving hormone therapy while serving his sentence in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

A spokeswoman said the Army did not provide hormone therapy or gender-reassignment surgery, but that military inmates have access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and behavioral science specialists.

Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible, Manning said in the statement. I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun.

Mannings lawyer David Coombs said on the TV program he expected his client to get a pardon from U.S. President Barack Obama. Manning, who was convicted last month at Fort Meade, Maryland, on 20 charges, including espionage and theft, could be eligible for parole in seven years.

During the trial, Coombs had argued that Manning had been increasingly isolated and under intense stress when he leaked the files, and that his superiors had ignored warning signs.

Coombs said his client was not seeking gender-reassignment surgery, but he would press Fort Leavenworth to provide hormone therapy for Manning.

Im hoping that Fort Leavenworth will do the right thing and provide that. If Fort Leavenworth does not, then Im going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are forced to do so, Coombs said.

Asked if Manning wanted to be sent to a womens prison, Coombs said no.

I think the ultimate goal is to be comfortable in her skin and to be the person that shes never had an opportunity to be, he said.

Coombs said he was not worried about Mannings safety in a military prison since inmates there were first-time offenders who wanted to complete their sentences and get out.

Experts generally view military prisons as safer than civilian prisons since the inmates are accustomed to hierarchy and discipline.

Manning had not wanted his sexual identity issues to become public, but they did after his arrest in 2010, Coombs said.

Now that it is (public), unfortunately you have to deal with it in a public manner, he said.

A psychiatrist, Navy Reserve Captain David Moulton, testified during Mannings trial that the soldier suffered from gender dysphoria, or wanting to be the opposite sex, as well as narcissism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Geoffrey Corn, a military law expert at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, called Mannings bid for hormone treatment the first of its kind for the military. Openly gay members were barred from serving until the Pentagons dont ask, dont tell policy was repealed in 2011.

We dont have any precedent for the application of military medical care for elective gender reassignment therapy, he said.

Corn was skeptical that Manning would get approval for hormone therapy since federal courts have traditionally given the military deference for its life and activities.

I dont see it happening, he said.

Chase Stangio, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Unions Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, said in a statement that the Armys saying it did not provide hormone therapy raised serious constitutional issues.

Courts have consistently found that denying medical care for gender dysphoria to prisoners based on blanket exclusions violates the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which bars cruel and unusual punishment, Stangio said.

Reporting by Susan Heavey and Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone, Jeffrey Benkoe and Vicki Allen

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Bradley Manning wants to live as a woman named Chelsea

By PATRICK GAVIN

06/19/2013 10:07 AM EDT

Bradley Manning is currently standing trial for having leaked classified material to the website WikiLeaks, and an all-star cast of celebrities has put together a video in support of the Army soldier.

He was deeply disturbed by what he was seeing as intelligence analyst in Iraq, the shooting of the Reuters reporters, civilians by helicopters, filmmaker Oliver Stone says in the video, which was put online Tuesday. He leaked documents during a war and they were enormously helpful to people on the outside to understand what the government was thinking about on the inside.

Story Continued Below

Hes a man whos done things that the mainstream media should have done a long time ago, said talk show host Phil Donahue.

( PHOTOS: Celebrities and their D.C. pet causes)

Its enshrined in our Constitution that an individual has a right to release information and disseminate information that makes the powers that be uncomfortable, said recording artist Moby.

To take a risk, to take a stand knowing that in all likelihood you will be persecuted, penalized, demonized and punished for it, thats incredibly bold, said actor and comedian Russell Brand.

The clip, called I Am Bradley Manning, also features cameos from Maggie Gyllenhaal, Wallace Shawn, Peter Sarsgaard, Tom Morello and Roger Waters and is part of a solidarity campaign on behalf of Manning.

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Celeb video: 'I am Bradley Manning' - POLITICO

Bradley Manning is the young man behind the largest leak of classified government information in U.S. history.

Three years ago, U.S. Army Pfc. Manning shared three quarters of a million pages of protected war logs, communications and videos to WikiLeaks. The information maelstrom included the widely viewed Collateral Murder video, which shows classified footage from a U.S. helicopter that opened fire on civilians in Iraq, who were mistaken for insurgents at the time. Manning discovered these files through his work as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

WikiLeaks published almost everything in 2010, citing an anonymous source. WikiLeaks have never confirmed that Manning was that source, but his name was given to the authorities by a former hacker and journalist, Adrian Lamo, whom Manning spoke with about his plans.

Arrested on May 27, 2010, Manning has since had 22 charges filed against him by the military, including violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Espionage Act. After pleading guilty to various lesser charges in early February 2013, Manning pleaded not guilty in the aid of U.S. enemies and faces a possible life sentence.

His trial began on June 3rd, 2013 with Army Col. Denise Lind presiding as judge, and the verdict was announced on July 30th, 2013:

What this means is that Manning still faces years, even decades in prison. His maximum possible sentence is 136 years. The sentencing portion of his trial began on July 31st, 2013 and has not yet been disclosed.

Read more about Mannings verdict.

Learn more about Mannings life.

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Bradley Manning's verdict is in - The Pell Center for ...

On Thursday presiding military judge Col. Denise Lind denied defense motions to drop aiding the enemy and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) from the litany of charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier responsible for uploading hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and U.S. Army reports to the organization WikiLeaks.

Manning, who was arrested in May 2010 and spent an unprecedented 1,101 days in pretrial confinement before his trial began last month, is charged with 22 crimes, including aiding the enemy, wanton publication, espionage, exceeding authorized access, and stealing U.S. government property. While he pled to 10 lesser included offenses and currently faces up to 20 years, prosecutors have pushed forward on all but one offense. Manning faces life plus 154 years in a military prison if convicted on the prosecutions case.

The legal standard for Thursdays ruling is lower than what prosecutors would have to prove to convict Manning of aiding the enemy beyond a reasonable doubt. Lind concluded that the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence for each of the criminal elements challenged as deficient by the defense. In their motion to dismiss aiding the enemy, the defense had argued that prosecutors failed to produce any evidence that Manning had actual knowledge that he was dealing with al Qaeda when he uploaded documents to WikiLeaks. Prosecutors do not need to prove that Manning intended to give intelligence to al Qaeda; in order to convict Manning, they are only required to prove that he had actual knowledge or was clearly cognizant of the fact that he was giving intelligence to al Qaeda when he disclosed information to WikiLeaks.

Here's hoping third time's a charm, quipped civilian defense counsel, David Coombs, on Monday before arguing his third motion to dismiss the charge of exceeding authorized access to obtain 116 diplomatic cables.

In recent years, critics have called the statute dangerously over-broad, with the conviction and sentencing of Andrew Weev Auernheimer to three years in federal prison and $73,000 in restitution for what criminal-law scholar Professor Orin Kerr describes as visiting AT&Ts public website and using a script to obtain the the email addresses of iPad owners. Another case involves the aggressive prosecution of the late Aaron Swartz, the programmer and digital activist who committed suicide in January, and who was facing 30 years in prison after being indicted on 11 counts under the CFAA for downloading academic articles in violation of JSTORs terms of service.

The government could have you have to stand up and sing the national anthem before you access this information, and if you don't, that is unauthorized access, Coombs warned Lind last summer. Like Auernheimer, Manning had authorized access. The highest-ranking intelligence officer in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Cpt. Steven Lim, gave Manning a link to the Net Centric Diplomacy database in a January 2010 email. I gave the intelligence analysts a link through email, Lim testified in December 2011. Got from headquarters. Headquarters said pass along. Felt at time we were so focused on the ground, and needed bigger picture."

Despite denying the defenses first and second motions to dismiss the CFAA charges for failures to state an offense, Lind did adopt a narrow interpretation of the exceeding authorized access clause, requiring prosecutors to prove that a breach had occurred to obtain the charged information. By mid-summer of last year, Lind had qualified her ruling stating that access and use are not mutually exclusive ... Restrictions on access to classified information can arise from a variety of sources, to include regulations, user agreements, and command policies. Restrictions on access can include manner of access. User agreements can also contain restrictions on access as well as restrictions on use.

At trial, prosecutors based their theory of exceeding authorized access on an acceptable use policy (AUP), which they could not produce for Manning or anyone else in his brigade. (It allegedly outlined prohibitions on the use of unauthorized software.) Prosecutors also used seven signed non-disclosure agreements, the Terms of Service for two classified work computers, and forensic evidence that Manning placed a program called Wget on his classified work computer. Wget is a program that allows users to systematically download content from web servers.

In lieu of any establishing a clear prohibition via its witnesses on the installation of Wget, prosecutors have attempted to characterize Mannings systematic procurement of information from the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRnet) as harvesting. Prosecutors have also relied on Mannings security clearances as a fallback in trying to prove that access was exceeded or breached. On Thursday, Lind seemed to give way to the prosecution when she denied the defense motion to dismiss the offense stating, This case involves classified info. Access restriction on classified information are more stringent.

Lind is largely unknown to the public, except for a journal article on media rights to access to military criminal cases and her presiding over the case of a birther Army medical officer who refused to deploy to Afghanistan because he believed the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and was therefore an illegitimate commander in chief. But with a spate of major rulings against the defense, her courtroom manner has come into pointed relief.

Despite Manning having been held longer than any accused awaiting court-martial in U.S. military history, Lind ruled in February that the government had not violated his speedy trial rights. While she ruled that portions of Mannings confinement at Quantico were unlawful pretrial punishment, Lind only granted him one-for-one days sentencing credit and a 112 days of total relief in the face of life plus 154 years.

Despite the oppressive obfuscation and secrecy that shroud the proceedingsthe public was denied access to over 30,000 pages of court documents by the U.S. Army, the Military District of Washington, and Lind until the third day of Manning's trial, 18 months into the legal proceedingsome observers managed to maintained a sense of hope early while awaiting Linds ruling Thursday.

Courtrooms demand optimism, said a stenographer for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an organization responsible for crowd-funding and publishing the only available transcripts for the trial. But after Thursdays rulings, an expert witness for the defense, Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor of the Guantnamo Bay Military Commissions who testified that the five Gitmo detainee assessments Manning accessed were not a sensitive national-security matter, said, I had hoped that Judge Lind was going to reaffirm my faith in the independence and integrity of the military justice system that I respected when I was in uniform, but she didn't.

The outcome of the Manning trial will have wide ramifications for the First Amendment because Manning is charged with aiding the enemy and espionage for disclosing government information to the public via a media organization. Michael Ratner, president emeritus for the Center for Constitutional Rights and an attorney for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in the U.S, warned that aiding the enemy turns publishers, all publishers, into indirect aiders of the enemy because publications especially on the Internet are read by all. Last week, Yochai Benkler, codirector of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, told Lind that the cost of finding Pfc. Manning guilty of aiding the enemy would impose too great a burden on the willingness of people of good conscience but not infinite courage to come forward, and would severely undermine the way in which leak-based investigative journalism has worked in the tradition of [the] free press in the United States.

The defense has filed two additional motions to dismiss five charges of stealing U.S. government property, contending that prosecutors have presented no evidence of the theft of databases, and they should not be allowed to equate databases with the information contained within them. In her ruling on Thursday denying the defense motion to dismiss aiding the enemy, Lind stated that Manning was downloading intelligence reports about WikiLeaks, while contemporaneously uploading databases to the organization.

During last weeks testimony by Benker, Lind interrupted him after he testified that a 2008 Army counterintelligence memo on WikiLeaks was a relatively mediocre effort. This witness is not an expert in intelligence, Lind responded in annoyance. That is not relevant. Earlier Benkler had testified that the document in question contained a mistake of fact by asserting that WikiLeaks did not engage in authentication. Linds insistence was peculiar, since the prosecution is required to prove the criminal element that the document is in fact intelligence, meaning it is helpful to the enemy and true, at least in part. Benklers testimony was intended to go straight to defending Manning against the criminal elements of aiding the enemy, wanton publication, and the respective espionage charge for the document in question. After defense explained that it did not consider the document intelligence, Lind compose herself and let defense proceed.

Manning has opted to be tried by military judge alone, and not by a panel of officers and enlisted personnel. After the closing arguments that follow the prosecutions rebuttal case and a possible rebuttal by the defense, Lind will deliberate and announce her findings of guilt of innocence.

Since the court ruled that motive and actual damage (or lack of damage) evidence was not relevant at trialexcept to prove circumstantially that Manning was cognizant of the fact that the enemy used the WikiLeaks websiteevidence of Mannings intent and the impact of the leaks will finally be heard by the court at sentencing. Her ruling today not only criminalizes an act of conscience by someone seeking to hold those in power accountable to the rule of law, said Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and author, but defines such acts of conscience as an act of treason.

It remains to be seen, however, how much of the sentencing phase of this trial will be open to the public. The government is expected to elicit testimony from 13 classified sentencing witnesses in closed sessions or in classified stipulations for their sentencing case.

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Is Judge Denise Lind Bradley Mannings Biggest Enemy?

Manning Verdict: Military Legal Expert's Take 7/30/2013 3:33PM Transcript

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the only judge has acquitted Bradley Manning of aiding the enemy in all of the Mekong from local soldier has been found guilty of more than twenty unless that counts ... the sentencing phase of the case begins tomorrow at Fort Meade outside Baltimore ... and joining us to explain what kind of penalty Manning can expect is Eugene by Dell ... the Florence broadcast visiting the Electra in war and Yale law school ... thank you Brian much for joining us today ... is my privilege ... what did you ... role for conclusions you draw from these rulings ... well first of all I'm sure the defense camp is very pleased that the most serious offence has now been ... taken off the table for good ... of ... I think Robert Manning is still in a world of trouble ... I think he's facing me be very serious sentence even though it may not reach the Foxconn numbers ... that he could achieve had he been convicted of aiding the enemy ... but more broadly I think it's such an interesting case study here The federal government ... took on ... a junior enlisted man who ... has admitted doing some you know really wrong things ... on it ... it it had an aggressive prosecution ... it tried for ... a good thing to one of the most serious offences under the uniform code of military justice ... and it fail ... and we have an army Colonel ... saying ... the federal government failed to carry its burden of proof ... really in a way it's a triumph for the military justice system ... it now that I'm usually considered a fairly critical observer of the system a night ... I'm actually quite critical of the way ... parts of the Manning ... case of been conducted such as the pre trial confinement in such as the pathetically of it ... on satisfactory ... transparency arrangements ... but ... look that from that particular perspective here we have an individual was really became a government that its own game ... in a case that that the ... government presumably did its level best to get a conviction and so and it's quite interesting to me ... and I'm understands that this will also massively go for ... an appeal right and this will go through all the way the food chain again right ... right and let's mention what the food chain is here ... the first thing is that the best of the the sentences to announce ... the case will be reviewed by the commander of the military District of Washington ... of who is the so-called convening authority his post trial rolled ... what it is very controversial right now ... in Congress because of some sexual assault the legislation is pending ... after that general ... of the acts on the record and he can reduce the charges he can adjust the settings downward said not upwards obviously ... of the case will go to the United States Army Court of criminal Appeals in Northern Virginia that's a ... court composed of Army Jag lawyers ... and then the case could potentially go to the United States Court of Appeals for the armed forces that's a civilian court ... the judges there are appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate ... by and conceivably the case could go to the Supreme Court of the United States although I have to say ... that court takes very few military cases ... and the fact that there's no conviction for aiding the enemy which is that the most hotly contested ... the allegation ... makes it much much less likely that the justices would grant certiorari ... so we can be hearing about Bradley Manning folk Whitehall a long time and the Suns can be very long ... in any case one of things I find interesting about this case is the isthe privates ... on he's an unlisted manna and and it brings back thoughts of having the England's of the maverick reps this camels sheep shears to ... a private ... process prosecuted ... he's a Friday's be prosecuted well with the offices and wine ... Audi office is not being prosecuted in that's ... that's a great question the answer is I mean I gather ... that there have been fact Minson punishments handed out for people who ... permitted this ridiculous state of affairs to take place and this is astounding ... that a junior enlisted member ... of could get access to this information and then ... the unit David out of securing areas buying of the most simple means ... um ... I gather that there have been some administrative punishments handed out ... maybe people got some bad the ... performance evaluations ... but frankly I think is a ... part of the transparency and potentially given the extraordinary interest around the world in this case ... we really ought to know ... exactly who got punished for what and I don't ... think that ... it's right for the government to say well let's all subject to the privacy act and we can release it ... if the government wanted to tell us who would have punished and and why ... it could do so because this is the case of such ... great ... public moment ... not only does it look Seiyu them all six of their slight bit despondent who thought the lowest cost on the fifth sentence and it's it's new units a coal plant ... will will hand out some little bits bits and pieces to NAB slots on the wrist for everyone else is that what you would say it looks like whether or not that's the case ... no I don't I don't think it looks like that all been instructed Manning is the perpetrator here ... adhesive is no ... mystery as to why he was punished ... more severely than anybody else inside he's the actors so I know I think that's that ... the misconception ... Arkansas writes the bundle no worries was one where we ask you when we like the Xbox analysts Trafigura much Eugene find out ... all the Yale law school we appreciate time so ... my pleasure ... I'm Simon Constable and that was digits ...

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Manning Verdict: Military Legal Expert's Take - wsj.com

What's Next for Bradley Manning? 8/21/2013 4:00PM Transcript

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the ... private first class Bradley Manning is sentenced to thirty five years in jail ... while knacks the ham ... will have back and mall right and right now on the New Saab good afternoon and welcome I'm Simon Constable ... all I'm Simon Bradley Manning Manning is a big question not just the ham ... joining me recall Pfizer Patel says co director of the liberty and national security for another friend's son of the justices found the stem the streets of Manhattan thank you very much his debut on the New Saab increased at a thank you for having me so let's go through ... with the some of things with thirty five years to do anything strike you but I simply open on time tonight ... was an awfully long time that if you look at the other whistleblower are ... tight ... prosecutions that happens that in this administration you seen those people getting ... sentences in the range of eighteen knots twenty knots thirty months that's about the rain to reach that people been sentenced for other ... weeks of government secrets and compare that to the thirty five years it does seem like an extraordinarily long time ... this is only those sending a message ... aam to to of of what the weakest right that spot ... absolutely yes it's a it's a it's probably ... not what can he do can be can he ... you feel that skinny get down to time so to think ... why is it has a lot of steals options and unique in that apply for clemency to these review board in the military ... he has an automatic right to appeal to the military's Court of appeal ... and you can actually even take this case all the way up to the U S Supreme Court ... I'm ... and are important legal issues in this case which might need to add and change him and what he's been convicted ... to use it ... is it likely that the heat that he gets this down substantially what's the what's your feeling on the summit of a lot of people look look look of the sky and say yet he did something stupid I don't think anybody ... disagrees with that that this was was was ready quite quite unbelievably students in some ways ... the same time no one is that in many ... out of all not not many people autonomy get that house ... write a ... mean that's one of the things like the law doesn't care whether he has it that hard aren't that hard for ... the mining and don't see in other areas of law though it it does matter so many cases it matches you have the malice so that in in in the sense that you know we are humans how can we not be swayed by that PPP millet re ... the Milford judges achievements what I'm that that was one of the factors of the jet's digs in theory take into account in sentencing now ... recall that under the military justice system he is eligible for parole after ten years ago you never have a sentence of more than thirty hours ... automatically after ten years are eligible for consideration for for will and he's been he's been and he's been locked up for a considerable time so fat with ... for years the three s of a pot of that will come to an annual so ... aam this in some time off for having ... been and I guess ... today ... it aggressively ... death and aggressively up Porsche ... yes I'm basically in around seven years or so keen to bring his case out for Roh Moo can ... you also can get it down even futher through this review process from ... this and he can appeal it just as anybody else can appeal their their prison sentence doesn't become easier for ... people and probably many of them is a lot publicity around this and everyone the country knows about it will the millet re knows about it ... doesn't become easier when this is out of the public on a four that the most records to say I'm the and with the present system decided ... you know you've been a good TV critic of Prisma UK to blunt the lesson during his arm ... was thirty seven years from now public sentiment will no doubt be much less interested in Bradley Manning that it is today and so when it comes time for him to go ... up before our old ward I think he would have that the case to make at that time who can hum tum ... we feel is chances are she's getting attacked one for some time and he aam ... to BBB he's known as the day hero acidic and BP up in my neighborhood so aam it it seems likely to be attacked on present time ... we're Levy given protective custody ... I think it's it's it's a tough thing because he doesn't wanna be in solitary obviously and so you don't wanna create a situation where he's put in solitary for his own protection ... well ... I aam ... and the same time ago it is after the military to make sure that he is an attack that's their responsibility ... also in the rebels say ... come forces killed over one thousand people in the sum of the Damascus any poison gas attack and the government has denied the reports Pfizer Patel a former senior policy officer for the organization of the prohibition of chemical weapons system and a day and the continues with us ... aam you how great ... these two stories history ... all the new all the news to die ... aam ... what can you tell us about this attack they you know why I think it this way we know ... only a limited amount that this attack and we have the allegations date and about a thousand people died and people are complaining about a respiratory illness that is when suggests that it's likely some kind if it is a chemical weapons attack then ... those are the same tens of that kind of nerve agents and their fat attacks ... against the asset not a lot of them I guess is that make the same ... so late BX or sandwich or that they know they just attack the nervous system ... they can compete in a gas or liquid eye and ... that doesn't sound Basin the symptoms reported that its mustard gas because that that creates blisters and so forth and and that was something that accuse him fuss for Woolwich has said it was a hundred years ago now ... on the PC might get some of these these agents that you know these these these gases will ... make the Coming shells or or that this post and then they need to activate the Madame estate to spur us very quickly ... write ... not necessarily as I ... can actually linger for a long time and also depend so we will be possible to go to the sign and discover whether this wasn't the trace elements that oh absolutely I mean I have no doubt that have qualified chemical weapons teams that says the UN team is on the ground now ... they discover ... that ... it's an order gas or really any other kind of chemical agent attack it's even several weeks of paid to confess that ... quick quickly but if it if it does tie mounts that chemical weapons were used by the asset regime it is the alignment being cross that present Obama talked about if if if the line is crossed and on this happens ... when chemical weapons is it's it's a dream of the US might have to get involved it is the isthe without being given absolutely thank twenty twenty full of that's the treaty indication that he gave I guess I was almost a year ago now he said and this is the red line that they can cross they cannot use chemical weapons on civilians ... and so if they if that and there's the UN team though that if they were to find ... chemical weapons use I think he would be hard pressed to back away from that ... okay so maybe it's just some of which are free to be on the war yet again and again thank you very much Pfizer Patel ... the confusion hit the markets as the Fed was of July policy meeting minutes offered ... no clear signal on when the central bank will begin to end its money printing program ... MoneyBeat Report and Steve Russell and joins me now on the site to explain ... explain the confusion ... Monday's more trim the money war ... that ... nobody knows what's going on right now suffer from the of the minutes from the latest Fed meeting business all you officials that wanted to want to start tapering sooner than later ... your mother's that said ... no it's not playtime in and basically it didn't really answer any questions as to when the Fed is going to move next ... lot of reaction now is people ... that bought that September was going to be that that I'm that that is going to start ... pulling back on stimulus they still think that now ... people wouldn't think that still don't think that also so it did not not a lot of change here but think the big takeaway though ... CME's might add so much about school and markets is ... you didn't get a clear cut direction among others many of uncertainty people don't like uncertainty and on top of that ... Fed officials seen the will but more guarded about the economy the scene that you know maybe things aren't as good as they recently had opened ... he was very get better so it was better than terrible they thought that the tunnel but now I think that they're even starting to pull back a little bit so that is it that so beautiful was a little bit better than terrible and I think it's is not as much ... that meant I would fall ... so I mean really I mean it's not like them and it took about wanting to sell the employment situation ... and that is one of the big goals of this this money printing program which of which is going on seemingly for her upright longtime ... box ... they don't just want any old shops on the spot the problem now is the mix of jobs isn't the normal mix of jobs that tend to be fairly Ofwat asleep I joked with no benefits right ... by Mark D I was not signed and that isn't exactly conducive to say you know to to some of the Keane's is ... exactly and if you look at some of the distribution of jobs where the jobs coming from the coming from ... the whistleblower pain on areas of the market rate now so not to disparage any of those jobs but what does it say to them but I mean what you know them of them all banking jobs that are in investment bankers and you're feeling goes to get ... those jobs on on Saturday night they're not high paying jobs exactly and so yet there's a lot of worry about some of the labor force to station rate which is that the team won the status line into the open to station rate ... goes down when people give up looking for a job because they just like oh my I've tried to find a bride icons and there's nothing out there so that's also what ever reason why the unemployment rate is coming down some on the surface anonymous low unemployment looks good ... but the dig will deepen its because people are just quitting the workforce will that's not a good sign right there so ... the getting back to the minute so I think that im ... looking at this ... if if the Fed is getting a little bit more guarded about the economy getting a little bit more pessimistic about the economic outlook ... that's a clear-cut negative rate now and and maybe it means that that that the bond buying continues ... it's a it's a way you will of that that that I think in in the grand scheme of things that results in that sense of history but they could still ... starts reducing the amount of money referencing in September because ... that ... would just ... do it that we barely saw leads up eighty five billion a month is one of their friends and ... you know buying the bonds of credit money on how to know what ... they could make it ... the former healthily and they cried when I make it then the next month they can make it eighty four million and eighty three how ... big is this the rebate we very slow the rate cut from the upright isn't a great when you bring up because a lot of people were sort of interesting okay they didn't even by fifteen twenty billion rupees sixty five seventy to be the new number ... now here is what people talking about seventy five to eighty so his guts your point is that the speaker could be even slower than what was initially see ... yet the content that because I might from other recommended for this crazy stuff yours or the plethora much of ... a flood of Iran s options or has hit the market Tuesday and now ... the NYSE has told officials and tends ... to come to complete a with you tonight with small mistake of Aunty joins us from ... amid last check the price of a map ... as a five-year ... high and someone one of the firm set up behind the flood of Irani is sort of oh what this mom of a Goldman Sachs ... we are now ... another one of these issues as a sign the you know that these sorts of things have ... become ... in on for so it's semi regular occurrence over the last couple years and and what it was yesterday but at the open of the markets ... I'm a software system a Goldman Sachs uses to try and gauge its clients' interest in buying ... out various options contracts ... and I mistakenly or ... repairs it a lot of orders out into the market that ... became ... actual trades when other traders sought them out there and interacted with that so what you have to say ... you know more than twenty four hours later the exchange officials are going through their pre Ewing each one of these trades they are trying to decide ... which ones will stand them that their rules which ones are to be canceled ... and which ones are somewhere in between where they think they can find a middle ground between the price that that that Rey When on that and and what it really should ... so did check up ... let let's give this why Goldman Sachs my app that might be able to have at least some possibly all of these Iranian that what they say are Iranians trades option strife ... can sold and so that means if they've lost money on aam which could limit their growth on ... them that's not a problem whereas if your ideal options trading and we ... had the bomb accidentally when we get this time treatments ... well it these changes have clear-cut rules on now what constitutes a at what they call clearly erroneous ... and that they have a process for evaluating Hugo Chavez to be canceled altogether in which case yes you're right ... Goldman says when ... you walk away from that particular one ... you know which is the patients and because not everyone of them is going to be canceled and which ones to come out somewhere in the middle ... which is really what the traders prefer ... and some important reason this is such a big deal not just that Goldman Sachs and not just that the exchanges but to a lot of traders in the market is because ... those orders plans out there ... before you know bought and sold options ... basis of the sort of the colon bought out ... so what you've got now ... the fallout of traders all across the country will hold positions and they are not sure whether you know those will be honored ... it made all the trades is the most positions ... they'll be stuck with a new position they might not want to sell and and ... the confusing thing if you're a traitor ... and creates a ton of uncertainty in the market timing one one other things so aam you now I'm I'm I'm from its friends with him in the in the futures markets ... a long time ago is that you know it's it's you know if you lose money even though many cats that that's when you got on the contract price ... that that's the idea that twelve Loeb's exchanges work ... well that's true here I mean your expense however they do have these policies in place where you know someone makes a affecting order ... I've that sort of thing you know they they try and allow for that sort of thing where yet ... the objection to your life is that the traders ... out there in the world that have interacted with these orders that Goldman said ... they're saying hey ... you know this is just a dumb pipe another firm if you're going to cancel the order I end up with exposure ... and that's not right ... you're transferring risk from Goldman Sachs who made the mistake of me with it ... and you know there's gonna be some kind of middle ground ... in the last of them chose to me a lot a lot of bylaw bang with a bowl of warm well enough thank you very much was applied and Jacob Bunge Ee ... of The will Street ... it's time the next twenty four had always shale I'm I'm Simon console Williams a sneak peek ... of what's happening in financial markets over the next twenty four oz and office mcrook lattice of MarketWatch ... thanks of a mess of it ... so if you look back on ... it's down after hours on it's earnings report and this is ... a turnaround effort the stock actually been up about eighty percent so far this year but investors are looking to sing after hours ... I also wanna mention rather than just a turnaround story of a growth name that's reporting after hours is and celestial ... as the company that's benefiting from the center signed ... off on the way ... no ... natural and organic foods and I'm not has all the things ... this is a different day different names different spelling and it's up a lot after hours on her that that the unit in one of the net effect overseas overnight China and Europe have these purchasing Management is pushing to get it which is that I think DH off owl ... the many facts in businesses NAO brand in China so it gets a lot of attention this'll be the first reading on on ... how many factions and there are ... so far in August and he could see bodies move depending on how this number turns out ... I mean we could see some reaction to the Fed's minutes but as you were just discussing ... we are confused here so most of the reaction would be confusing exciting when when I mean I think everyone will be confused but because the volatility ... that we've already seen the last few days we've above the multiple affiliate are quickly before the open ominously Azzam jobless claims fall faster and thirty thousand ... on the plan from one entrance right and we also got some stalks point ... read ... and a couple retailer's ex and doing well this year I will be Bockel and dollar tree I think of ... analysts say one thing the Buffaloes that has a lot of exclusive items in the store is another topic that's ... close to your heart have some exclusive merchandise what once the Yukon get anywhere else because if you can get some Rossi could ... price comparison and that's not good for business exactly so that people think they're doing the right thing with that and and and on trees another one that's had a nice performance so far this year although ... there some concern with Wal-Mart having a weak report earlier ... interesting stuff looks to be busy in the mornings a week and it didn't reply to specific facts make ... that work lattice with this awful lot of Warsaw come ... I'm Simon Qassam on now was you next twenty fall and that was in use up the right

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What's Next for Bradley Manning? - wsj.com

Sometimes things that are fully expected still have the capacity to shock. Thats certainly the case with the news that the former Army private Bradley Manning has been sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. My colleague Amy Davidson, who has been writing about the Manning story since the beginning, has a post on the verdict, which contains more details. Ill confine myself to three points:

1. Make no mistake, the sentence is draconian.

Judge Denise Lind, an Army colonel, didnt give Manning the full sixty years in prison that the prosecution wanted, but the whistle-blower still faces the same sort of prison term handed out to murderers and gangsters. Assuming he follows the rules, he will be eligible for parole after eight years (a third of the sentence minus three and a half years, for time served). Even if he is released then, he will have been in prison for well over a decade.

Military justice is meant to be harsh: its designed to maintain discipline on and off the battlefield. But this isnt a case of a solider deserting his post or handing secrets over to the enemy. The governments attempts to show that Mannings leaks aided Al Qaeda were almost laughable, although nothing about this case is amusing. As Amy notes in her post, the stated intent of the Pentagon was to frighten other would-be leakers. There is value in deterrence, Your Honor, one of the military prosecutors told Lind. This court must send a message to any soldier contemplating stealing classified information.

But was it just a matter of deterrence? From the beginning, the Pentagon has treated Manning extremely harshly, holding him in solitary confinement for almost a year and then accusing him of aiding the enemya charge that carries the death penalty. (Thankfully, Lind found Manning not guilty on this count.) It certainly looked like an instance of powerful institutions and powerful people punishing a lowly private for revealing things that they would rather have kept hidden.

2. Much of the wrongdoing that Manning exposed hasnt been dealt with nearly as harshly as he has.

Amid all the discussion of the rights and wrongs of whistle-blowing and WikiLeaks, its easy to forget what exactly Manning revealed. In an article last month calling for him to be pardoned, the New Republics John Judis provided a useful reminder of some of the incidents captured in the battleground reports that Manning released:

American troops killing civilians, including women and children, and then calling in an airstrike to destroy evidence; the video of an American Apache helicopter gunship shooting civilians, including two Reuters reporters; American military authorities failing to investigate reports of torture and murder by Iraqi police; and a black unit in Afghanistan tasked to perform extrajudicial assassinations of Taliban sympathizers that killed as many as 373 civilians.

What has happened to those responsible for these acts? In most cases, not much. For example, no charges have been brought against the U.S. military personnel who were in the Apache helicopter when it opened fire in Baghdad, in July, 2007an incident that my colleague Raffi Khatchadourian wrote about at length in his 2010 article on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system, the A.C.L.U.s Ben Wizner said in a statement. Could anybody disagree with that?

3. Even if President Obama doesnt pardon Manning, history will.

Well before the sentence came down, supporters of Manning were busy campaigning to get him freed. There were demonstrations in Washington and elsewhere, bumper stickers, and online petitionsone of which Daniel Ellsberg, the former Department of Defense official who leaked the Pentagon Papers, helped to organize. In the wake of the verdict, more protests were planned, including a rally outside the White House on Wednesday night. Amnesty International asked President Obama to release Manning and called on the U.S. government to turn its attention to investigating violations of human rights and humanitarian law he helped to uncover.

It seems unlikely in the extreme that these efforts will lead anywhere. Obama has insisted all along that Mannings case was a matter for the military authorities, and that he wasnt going to intervene. Were a nation of laws, the President said at a fundraising breakfast, in 2011. We dont individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate . He broke the law.

In helping to reveal that the U.S. authorities had repeatedly misled the public about the war in Vietnam, Ellsberg also broke the law, of course. So do most whistle-blowers who are employed by the government. But history tends to be kinder to them than the courts, and I doubt that this case will be an exception. In fifty years, people will look on the Manning case as another blot on a dark era for the United States and the values that it claims to hold dear. As for Manning himself, future historians will surely agree with Ellsberg, who, speaking to the A.P. yesterday, described him as one more casualty of a horrible, wrongful war.

Courtroom sketch: Bill Hennessy/Reuters

Original post:
History Will Pardon Manning, Even If Obama Doesn't

President Obama is facing intense backlash from Congressional Republicans following his decision to commute the sentence of leaker Bradley Manning, now self-identified as Chelsea.

While the White House has defended the presidents decision to let Manning off the hook this May, national security experts and intelligence officers worry that Obamas last-minute push for clemency may open the door to more leaks of U.S. national security secrets.

Some have called Manning a hero. Others have called him a traitor. Lost in the debate, however, are the facts.

Here are 7 things you need to know about Bradley Chelsea Manning:

1. Manning leaked 750,000 documents total, including 150,000 diplomatic cables, to notorious anti-American hacking group WikiLeaks.

2. Mannings leaks likely cost the lives of American military personnel, including army officers, intelligence agents, foreign contacts, translators. He disclosed details of American military operations, the identities of American military allies, and placed sensitive American diplomatic relationships at risk, writes National Reviews David French. We may never know exactly how much damage he did.

3. Manning attempted suicide twice as a result of his transgenderism. Manning is a man who thinks hes a woman. He has been struggling with gender dysphoria for a number of years now. The sickness has caused immense emotional and psychological stress. Manning made the first attempt at ending his life on his in June. A second attempt was carried out in October during his first night of solitary confinement. He was placed on suicide watch and transferred to a special observation unit at the time.

4. Manning staged a hunger strike to make the Army pay for his gender reassignment surgery. The Army ultimately obliged. After receiving a recommendation by his psychologist to begin transitioning last April, Manning demanded that the Army support his treatment, including a surgical solution to gender dysphoria. One hunger strike and another suicide attempt later, the Army agreed to go ahead with the procedure.

5. Manning was charged with violating the US Espionage Act and sentenced to 35 years in prison. He will only serve seven years in prison, thanks to President Obama. Manning was detained in 2010 after leaking information of vital national security interest to the United States. He was due out of jail in 2045. That was before Obama stepped in. Manning will now be a free man (or man whos deluded into thinking hes a woman) on May 17.

6. Manning didnt know what he was leaking to WikiLeaks. Poorly-educated and wholly underinformed about US national security protocol and military logistics, Manning decided to take it upon himself to steal 750,000 documents from the Army. At the time he was just an Army private with little to no knowledge of what he was stealing. Nonetheless, he handed over all these documents to an organization infamous for its campaign to dismantle U.S. national security infrastructure.

7. Supported by a cadre of anarchists, libertarian extremists, anti-US leftists, pro-Russian allies, and liberal academics, Manning filed an official clemency request with the White House, according to his attorney. A White House petition asking for President Obama to commute Mannings sentence to time serve received 117,000 signatures, reports ABC News. Manning, who corresponds with supporters online, tweeted about the potential for her clemency request. If nothing else, a significant number of Mannings supporters are guilty of hypocrisy. Many of the same Democrats praising Obamas decision to commute Mannings sentence have been calling for an aggressive probe into Julian Assange and the alleged Russian hacking of the last presidential election.

Read more from the original source:
7 Things You Need To Know About Bradley Chelsea Manning

Three years after U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning was arrested in Iraq and accused of providing WikiLeaks with 700,000 intelligence documents and videos, many of them classified, his court-martial has begun. Manning, 25, faces life in prison if he is convicted of aiding the enemy, along with 21 other charges related to what has been deemed the largest leak of classified information in American history. Looming over the testimonies and accusations that are sure to fly between prosecution and defense during Mannings trial is the knowledge that whatever sentence he receives will be cut down by 112 daysnot much against the potential time he facesbecause back in January a military judge deemed Mannings pretrial detention treatment excessive.

So what, exactly, is excessive or extreme solitary confinement, and what does one do to deserve it? Experts say that while the technically undefined extreme versions of solitary confinement are rarely applied, prisoners across the country are often subjected to exaggerated isolation conditions. These are so severely harmful to their mental health, the experts say, that they may spark the violence they were created to prevent while also violating a prisoners Eighth Amendment right to be spared cruel and unusual punishment.

After Mannings arrest on May 29, 2010, he was transferred to a Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia, where, during his nine-month stay, he was reportedly held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, forced to sleep naked without pillows and sheets on his bed, and restricted from physical recreation or access to television or newspapers even during his one daily hour of freedom from his cell, all under the pretense that the private was a suicide risk. Mannings treatment while in prison sparked as intense a public outcry as his arrest itselfdrawing comparisons to the conditions of suspected terrorists at Guantnamo Bay.

Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who specializes in the psychological effects of imprisonment, said he could think of no other word to describe Mannings treatment in detention than inhumane.

The practice of leaving someone naked in a cell is not a justifiable correctional practiceand certainly not for more than a very limited period of time, Haney told The Daily Beast, adding that depriving a prisoner of a pillow or blanket is beyond the pale. Prisoners placed on suicide watch typically are stripped of their clothes only temporarily, until they can be provided with a suicide smock that prevents them from harming themselves while still giving them some sort of privacy. And even then, suicide watch usually lasts for just a few days before the prisoner is sent back to his or her regular cell or some sort of rehabilitation facility. It is unheard of for someone to be on suicide watch for nine months, Haney said. Solitary confinement, on the other hand, could go on for that long.

Most solitary-confinement cells are nearly indistinguishable in size from a regular prison cellabout 80 square feet, Haney explained. But while regular prisoners spend most of the day in classrooms, work programs, the library, or out in the yard exercisingall the while interacting with one anotherthey are really only in their cells at night to sleep. A prisoner in isolation usually spends 22 to 23 hours a day in a cell. Isolation cells are equipped with sinks, toilets, and in some cases even showers so that the prisoner hardly ever has to leave. While the rest of the prisoners eat together in a cafeteria or mess hall, a correctional officer slides a tray through a slot in the door of the solitary cell two or three times a day so that the isolated prisoner can eat, alone. The one or two hours a day an isolated prisoner is allowed out of the cell is usually used for recreation, but even then prisoners are often confined to individualized outdoor spaces, referred to as cages or dog runs, that are enclosed so that they can be used by only one prisoner at a time. Whenever a prisoner is taken out of an isolated cell, he must first put his hands through the same slot through which his food is served, to be restrained by a guard.

Its a stark and psychologically painful existence, said Haney. Your contact with the outside world is typically limited to noncontact visiting. You cant hug anybody or shake hands. The only time you have physical interaction with a human is when you are put in or out of restraints.

Except for rare, extreme cases, solitary confinement is not something a judge would mandate as part of a prison sentence. It is determined by the correctional facility, usually as a result of a serious infraction of prison rules or a buildup of several smaller infractions. Solitary confinement may be assigned originally for a few months, but as many prisoners react negatively to the conditions, they may continue to rack up infractions that could keep them isolated for years.

About 2.3 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and an estimated 80,000 of them are in solitary confinement, with their conditions varying widely from state to state and prison to prison. That number does not include the number of prisoners held in the more extreme type of solitary confinement, relegated to separate housing units reserved for those for whom simply the ability to communicate with others presents a severe threat to the safety of the facility. Haney said rarely is a prisoner considered such a threat and that probably only a handful of prisoners in the country exhibit behavior that justifies this kind of confinement. But what about those whose conditions arent justified?

Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist who has studied the mental effects of solitary confinement on prisoners, explains that the so-called Supermax facility, or cellblock dedicated to isolation, was created in the 1980s as a way to deal with the uncontrollable violence in prisons caused by overcrowding. Though the Supermax prisons were set up initially to separate the worst from the restthe rare few Haney describedthey were expanded. Pelican Bay State Prison in California, ranked one of the worst in the country, has 1,500 prisoners in its isolated Security Housing Unit.

Jules Lobel, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, is representing about 500 prisoners in a class-action lawsuit against Pelican Bay. By being held for more than a decade in solitary confinement, he said, the prisoners have been subjected to torture and the violation of their Eighth Amendment rights. While Lobel explained that there is no explicit definition of extreme solitary confinement, he considers three factors to determine whether a prisoners isolation is extreme.

The first is the length of time theyre forced to spend in isolationa period of several years versus a few weeks or months. The second is the level of isolation, whether a prisoner is allowed to participate in programs with other people or what kind of contact he has with the outside world. At Pelican Bay, they get no phone calls. Thats extreme, said Lobel. In Bradley Mannings case, I believe, he was shut up very severely from the outside world and other prisoners.

Then there is what Lobel calls the draconian nature of the conditions. By that he means solitary confinement is intended to be preventive, not punitive. But throughout the United States and at Guantnamo, and in the case of Bradley Manning, who has not been convicted of anything, extreme solitary confinement is used as a punishment. At Pelican Bay, there are no windows, and there is no reason not to have windows. So conditions are way harsher than whats necessary.

Lobel emphasizes the importance of understanding that a person who is not beaten or deprived of food can still be subject to mental torture. And thats exactly what Kupers says he believes is wrong with the solitary-confinement program in general. Kupers, who specializes in forensics and social-community psychiatry and who has studied the mental effects of solitary confinement on prisoners, says the more isolated a prisoner is from the outside world, the greater toll it takes on his mental health. Isolation itself is very damaging, and there is no way to ameliorate it, Kupers told The Daily Beast. People need to be taken out of isolation and put into rehabilitation programs. If you remove the solid steel doors and give them bars, thats slightly better, but it doesnt ameliorate the conditions.

Approximately 50 percent of all suicides at state and federal prisons across the country are carried out by the 2 to 8 percent of prisoners who are isolated. Thats because, as Kupers explained, the mental effects of suicide can range from paranoia and claustrophobia to full-blown mental illness and deterioration. Kupers pointed to the killing of Colorado prison chief Tom Clements by a former inmate whod just been released from seven years in prisonfive of which he spent in solitary confinementas a perfect example of how isolating prisoners makes them more dangerous, not less. You put someone in solitary for life and they will deteriorate and no one will notice, Kupers said. But if they are going to be released, they are now a disturbed and potentially dangerous person.

Link:
Extreme Solitary Confinement: What Did Bradley Manning ...