UN to Investigate Treatment of WikiLeaks Suspect Bradley Manning

One of the things Barack Obama said he would do as president is end the torture policies of Chimperator George W. Bush. Unfortunately, he has not done so and the situation of WikiLeaks suspect underscores this failure of Obama to make good on this campaign promise. Manning has languished in a brig cell at Quantico, Virginia for seven months, yet has not been charged with anything more than vague charges of releasing classified information. Moreover, based on reports of supporters, Manning is receiving treatment tantamount to torture. Once again, the U. S. Constitution's supposed guarantee of the rule of law and bans on incarceration without being specifically charged and requirements of a speedy trial are turning out to be a sham - like so many other things in the USA. Now, supporters of Manning have asked the United Nations to investigate and - unfortunately - I suspect the USA could be found in violation of its own laws and international conventions to which it is a signatory. In Manning's case, it seems the infamous policies of the Court of Star Chamber are alive and well and that Manning - if he did release information to WikiLeaks is being punished for what Germans at Nuremberg were told they should have done when the Nazi regime was guilty of war crimes. Here are details from the Guardian:
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The United Nations is investigating a complaint on behalf of Bradley Manning that he is being mistreated while held since May in US Marine Corps custody pending trial. The army private is charged with the unauthorised use and disclosure of classified information, material related to the WikiLeaks, and faces a court martial sometime in 2011.
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The office of Manfred Nowak, special rapporteur on torture based in Geneva, received the complaint from a Manning supporter; his office confirmed that it was being looked into. Manning's supporters say that he is in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day; this could be construed as a form of torture. This month visitors reported that his mental and physical health was deteriorating.
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He was charged in July with leaking classified material including video posted by WikiLeaks of a 2007 US attack in Baghdad by a Apache helicopter that killed a Reuters news photographer and his driver. He is also suspected of leaking other material to the website, which is posting more than 250,000 secret state department cables. Manning has not commented on whether he is the source.
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In an interview with MSNBC, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, described Manning as a political prisoner and called on human rights organisations to investigate. Nowak, an Austrian rights lawyer, has been involved in cases related to the Balkans, Guantánamo Bay, Iraq and China.
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Manning's real offense - if he indeed leaked the materials - is that he showed the U.S, military to be guilty of possible atrocities. Sadly, Obama and the military are more concerned about punishing Manning than bringing charges against those who committed the atrocities. Once again, the situation is all too typical of American claims of moral superiority that are not borne out by reality.