WikiLeaks’ Assange Freed while Alleged Leaker Bradley Manning Imprisoned under Inhumane Conditions

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Source: Democracy Now!
(with full transcript and related stories- ENG)
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WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, walking out from The Royal Courts of Justice in London,
Thursday, December 16, 2010, at night:

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"...he’s been held for seven months without being convicted of any crime..."

"...he is in solitary confinement, and
he’s not only in solitary confinement..."

"...released for one hour a day only...
barred from even doing things like exercising inside of his cell...
being denied just the most basic attributes...

such as a pillow and sheets..."

"...prolonged solitary confinement, which is something that the United States does almost more than any other country in the Western world... can have a very long-term psychological damage, including driving people to insanity and the like

"...and there are case laws — cases in E.U. jurisprudence where they have refused to extradite prisoners to some countries, such as Bulgaria, on the grounds that solitary confinement is a form of torture..."

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The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention

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UPDATE II (excerpt) by Glenn Greenwald for Salon Magazine
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Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months -- and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait -- under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture. Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "Maximum Custody Detainee," the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 out of 24 hours every day -- for seven straight months and counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. For reasons that appear completely punitive, he's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions are not "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

View the whole story and continue reading at Salon...

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SEE ALSO:

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1. "...if justice is not always an outcome at least it is not dead yet..." - Some of the first words of a WikiLeaks’ Assange Freed on Bail
   
   
2. Brazilian President Lula da Silva pays public solidarity to WikiLeaks, condemns the "hunt" and attacks to Julian Assange, and yells at the Brazilian Big Media for not doing the same for the sake of The Freedom of Speech.
   
   
3. 60 Minutes with H.E. Lula da Silva & Eike Batista @ CBS
   
   
4. MasterCard and Visa blocked donations for WikiLeaks. Meanwhile... for Ku Klux Klan it remains all right! > Stephen Colbert clips some of the "best" (actually, worst) abominable talks and threatens made on Assange, and interviews Daniel Ellsberg, "The Most Dangerous Man In America".
   
   
5. Justice for Haiti: Beyond Aid and Debt Forgiveness

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Oliver Stone: "Um momento histórico da América do Sul. Nada parecido desde Bolívar, desde 1820..."

"Hey... Esses caras estão mudando a América do Sul...

Antes, nós expulsávamos os reformadores, um após outro..."

Oliver Stone & Tariq Aziz
"Ao Sul da Fronteira"
no Democracy Now!
PARTE II

Assista à Parte 01 > O Grande Lançamento do Ano: Num Cinema Bem LONGE de Você!

Entenda, no trecho de entrevista a seguir, como um cidadão de alto nível, herói de guerra, chega a se indignar com o seu próprio país ao ver de perto tanto mal sendo feito por tanto tempo, em tantos lugares, o tempo todo.

Ao ponto de empregar o melhor de seu reconhecido talento como ferramenta de conscientização para que todos possam abrir os olhos e reagir a tantas injustiças e distorções sendo "exportadas" - ou distorcidas internamente - para prejudicar tantos países irmãos ou, talvez ainda pior, patrícios irmãos.

Países e gentes que podem perfeitamente compartilhar harmônica, próspera, pacífica e democráticamente um vasto continente abundante em recursos, capaz de propiciar um desenvolvimento pujante e, ao mesmo tempo, sustentável, solidário e justo para todos.



Dos recordistas em Oscars de Melhor Diretor, desde o início da premiação em 1928, apenas 01 foi laureado 04 vezes e apenas 02 foram laureados 03 vezes, todos falecidos. Dos laureados com 02 Oscars, apenas 04 continuam vivos, Oliver Stone entre eles, laureado por Platoon, em 1986, e Nascido em 04 de Julho, em 1989.

Muito antes, porém, Oliver Stone já havia recebido seu primeiro Oscar, em 1978, pelo Melhor Roteiro Adaptado para o legendário Expresso da Meia-Noite.

Outro de seus de filmes, Wall Street, deu o Oscar de Melhor Ator para ninguém menos que Michael Douglas.

Entre suas quase duas dezenas de sucessos aclamados por Hollywood, os filmes investigativos sobre a história, a história do presente sobretudo, acabaram virando uma de suas especialidades.

Ele já levou para as telas três presidentes americanos em JFK, Nixon e W.

Já focou na ganância do setor financeiro em Wall Street, "hit" de Hollywood, e na sua seqüência, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, lançado no Festival de Cannes em maio.

E abordou os aspectos mais controversos da guerra, em seus clássicos Platoon e Nascido em Quatro de Julho.

O aclamado Platoon é, de certa forma, autobiográfico.

Oliver Stone viveu os horrores da guerra por dentro.

Ele é Veterano da Guerra do Vietnã. E duas vezes condecorado. 

Com a Estrela de Bronze e com o Coração Púrpura.

Foi exatamente depois de voltar daquela guerra sem o mínimo sentido, que Oliver Stone "sentiu-se chocado" ao não ver sentido nenhum na presença de tantos soldados do seu país, como ele o fora um dia, em tantos lugares das Américas Central e do Sul por onde ele passava, viajando, 15 anos depois de voltar do inferno no Vietnã.

Perplexo, começou a se interessar pelo assunto e buscar respostas, ou melhor, como cineasta, tentar documentar respostas em película.

Daí nasceram vários filmes sobre o continente como Salvador, Comandante e Looking for Fidel.

Em seu último filme, South of The Border (Ao Sul da Fronteira), lançado em junho tanto nos Festivais de Veneza e Cannes quanto na América Latina e Estados Unidos, Oliver Stone pega a estrada pela América do Sul e se encontra com 07 Presidentes no continente.

Suas impressões - bem como as do co-roteirista do filme, o comentarista político, historiador, ativista, cineasta, romancista e editor britânico-paquistanês Tariq Ali - não poderiam estar postas com mais clareza quanto nesta entrevista modelar concedida em junho de 2010 a Amy Goodman e Juan Gonzalez do Democracy Now!

Seu testemunho vivo, presencial, seu olhar "estrangeiro", sobre o que se passa em nosso país e em nossa tão próxima e ao mesmo tempo distante vizinhança, bem como a sua convivência permanente com as mensagens e percepções difundidas pelos meios de comunicação desde o Alaska até a Patagônia, nos dão a tão necessária medida, o contraponto equilibrado e a transparência há tanto turvada e omitida, para que possamos - em contrapêso ao côro uníssono das outras muitas fontes que, entrentanto, comungam obviamente de interesses convergentes - para que possamos balancear pesos e contrapesos e chegarmos a nossas próprias independentes e soberanas conclusões.

E que as câmeras de Oliver Stone nos tragam um pouco mais de luz para nossa ação!

Finalmente, cabe aqui repetir a assertiva: nada justifica que um filme dirigido por um dos mais premiados diretores de Hollywood e que é exatamente sobre nós e nossa história do presente, não seja divulgado e promovido exatamente entre nós como qualquer outro filme muito menos qualificado o seria.

Continuarei a legendar a brilhante entrevista de Oliver Stone e Tariq Aziz para o Democracy Now.

Para quem quiser antecipar-se, entretanto, ela pode ser encontrada com transcrição em inglês em:

Democracy Now!

Diante da virulência com que o filme foi recebido, Oliver Stone montou um "site de guerra" extremanete bem lastreado quanto às distorções na Grande Mídia Estadunidense e trazendo documentos que envolvem diretamente a CIA no Golpe-de-Estado contra Chávez em 2002. Vale conferir (em inglês) em:

South of The Border

Esta é uma discussão bastante ampla.

Engrenada à máquina da Grande Mídia estão as máquinas da Distribuição Cinematográfica, da Produção Fonográfica, da Realização de Eventos e muitas outras.

A manipulação da informação dentro de nossas fronteiras não se dissocia da mesma manipulação interna a cada país e da máquina global de propaganda, estejam todas e cada uma coordenadas ou não.

As Grandes Fábricas de Mitos. 

Os Grandes Moinhos de Heróis.

Veja também:

O Grande Lançamento do Ano - Num Cinema Bem LONGE de Você!

O "Choque de Civilizações" 

Eike sobre Evo

A Falsa Democracia (por José Saramago) e a força do Brasil
9/11 (Tue) > ¡Viva Chile! And peace be upon US as so! 

Peter Hallward (earlier TODAY) on “Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment”

Go to Original w/ transcript (Democracy Now!) >

 

“Unless prevented by renewed popular mobilisation in both Haiti and beyond,  the perverse international emphasis on security will continue to distort the reconstruction effort, and with it the configuration of Haitian politics for some time to come.” 

“What is already certain is that  if further militarization proceeds unchecked, the victims of the January earthquake won’t be the only avoidable casualties of 2010.” 

Peter Hallward is the author of Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment and a professor of Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University.

Kim Ives is journalist with the newspaper Haiti Liberté, speaking from Port-au-Prince.

Haiti, Forgive Us

Go to Truthdig >

Go to Democracy Now! >

Posted on Feb 9, 2010

By Amy Goodman

The tragedy of the Haitian earthquake continues to unfold, with slow delivery of aid, the horrific number of amputations performed out of desperate medical necessity, more than a million homeless, perhaps 240,000 dead, hunger, dehydration, the emergence of infections and waterborne diseases, and the approach of the rainy season, which will be followed by the hurricane season.

Haiti has suffered a massive blow, an earthquake for which its infrastructure was not prepared, after decades—no, centuries—of military and economic manipulation by foreign governments, most notably the United States and France.

Haiti was a slave plantation controlled by France.

In 1804, inspired by Toussaint L’Ouverture (after whom the now barely functioning airport in Port-au-Prince is named), the slaves rebelled, founding the world’s first black republic.

Under military threat from France in 1825, Haiti agreed to pay reparations to France for lost “property,” including slaves that French owners lost in the rebellion.

It was either agree to pay the reparations or have France invade Haiti and reimpose slavery.

Many Haitians believe that original debt, which Haiti dutifully paid through World War II, committed Haiti to a future of poverty that it has never been able to escape.

(While France, as part of the deal, recognized Haiti’s sovereignty, slave-owning politicians in the United States, like Thomas Jefferson, refused to recognize the black republic, afraid it would inspire a slave revolt here. The U.S. withheld formal recognition until 1862.)

The U.S. Marines occupied Haiti from 1915 until 1934.

In 1956, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier took control in a military coup and declared himself president for life, initiating a period of brutal, bloody dictatorship, with U.S. support.

Papa Doc died in 1971, at which point his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, took over, maintaining the same violent dictatorial control until he was driven into exile by popular revolt in 1986.

Jubilee USA, a network calling for elimination of debt owed by poor countries, estimates that Baby Doc alone diverted at least $500 million in public funds to his private accounts, and that 45 percent of Haiti’s debt in recent decades was accumulated during the corrupt reign of the Duvaliers.

Loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) imposed “structural adjustment” conditions on Haiti, opening its economy to cheap U.S. agricultural products.

Farmers, unable to compete, stopped growing rice and moved to the cities to earn low wages, if they were lucky enough to get one of the scarce sweatshop jobs.

People in the highlands were driven to deforest the hills, converting wood into salable charcoal, which created an ecological crisis—destabilizing hillsides, increasing the destructiveness of earthquakes and causing landslides during the rainy season.

Haiti’s first democratically elected president was Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest committed to the poor.

He was elected in 1990, then ousted in a military coup in 1991.

In 1994, with Haitian refugees flooding into Florida, the Clinton administration was forced to restore Aristide to power, but only with additional structural-adjustment demands.

Aristide was re-elected in 2000, only to be deposed again in a U.S.-backed coup in 2004, Haiti’s bicentennial.

The destruction of Haiti’s rice industry, which was replaced with U.S. government-subsidized rice that Haitians refer to as “Miami rice,” as well as the sale of critical state-owned enterprises, like Haiti’s sole flour mill and cement factory, have left the country dependent on foreign trade and aid, keeping Haiti at a permanent disadvantage.

It is critical now to cancel Haiti’s ongoing foreign debt, so that the country can devote its scant resources to rebuilding and not to repaying debt.

The G-7 finance ministers met in Canada this week and announced the forgiveness of the bilateral debt between member states and Haiti.

But the World Bank, IMF and IDB debts remain (the IMF controversially promised a $100 million loan after the earthquake, eliciting condemnation, and has since pledged to convert it to a grant).

Earthquakes alone do not create disasters of the scale now experienced in Haiti.

The wealthy nations have for too long exploited Haiti, denying it the right to develop in a secure, sovereign, sustainable way.

The global outpouring of support for Haitians must be matched by long-term, unrestricted grants of aid, and immediate forgiveness of all that country’s debt.

Given their role in Haiti’s plight, the United States, France and other industrialized nations should be the ones seeking forgiveness.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
 
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.