The conditions under which alleged WikiLeaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning is being jailed have triggered a new outcry, after the former intelligence analyst's lawyer said his client was being forced to sleep nude in his cell. A spokesman at the Marine brig that's holding Manning said the move was "not punitive." Authorities reportedly decided to take away Manning's clothes at night after he joked that he could hang himself with his underwear waistband. Is he being mistreated, or is the military just trying to keep him safe?
What appalling abuse: If Manning is such a danger to himself, says Glenn Greenwald at Salon, "why isn't he on 'suicide watch'"? This is abuse, plain and simple. It disgraces all Americans, from the Republicans who applaud it to the Democrats who would be outraged if George W. Bush had done this but who look the other way because it's happening on Barack Obama's watch.
"Bradley Manning's forced nudity to occur daily"
Safety first: "Sarcastic or not," Bradley Manning did make a remark about being able to kill himself with his underwear, says Jazz Shaw at Hot Air. That warranted precautions. Imagine the stink his leftist cheerleaders would make if "the brig commander did nothing and then he actually did turn up dead in his cell by his own waistband."
"The all naked Bradley Manning show"
We're supposed to be better than this: Bradley Manning is "no hero," says Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway. If he's found guilty of giving secret documents to WikiLeaks, he "deserves to be punished" severely. But he also deserves to be treated humanely. The only fathomable reason to subject him to this kind of abuse is to "break him psychologically." That is "unacceptable." We treat enemy prisoners better than that.
"The shameful treatment of Bradley Manning"
