Escalating the WikiLeaks controversy, Salon's Glenn Greenwald reported this week that the U.S. military is holding Bradley Manning, the Army private accused of feeding classified documents to WikiLeaks, in "inhumane" conditions. According to Greenwald, Manning has been a model prisoner since his May arrest, but is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day: Forbidden to exercise, watched around the clock, drugged to prevent his mind from "snapping." By the standards of many nations, says Greenwald, such "personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions" constitute "torture." Is that an exaggeration? (Watch an MSNBC discussion about Manning's treatment)
Yes, such treatment is nothing short of torture: "This is, frankly, horrifying," says Mike Masnick in Tech Dirt. Manning hasn't even been convicted of a crime, yet he has been caged with next to no human contact for far longer than most "modern civilizations" would allow — and, for good measure, his jailers won't even give him a pillow. Such prolonged solitary confinement is known to cause psychological damage; it's torture, plain and simple.
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