The song was conceptualised, composed, recorded and shot in 2 days. It was produced by M1 Studios with the video directed and edited by Weg Efokoa of Bluedrops Studios in Buea.
This project involves renowned Buea based artists such as BAAM, Bright Phase,Tata Kingue, Sley, Zinnia, Steveslil, Zionside, Abigail, Rude Boy, Bob Gala Didier and many more.
A concert is to follow so stay informed! Visit www.bueayouths.org for more info.
Here is the video for your enjoyment.
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ONE EFFORT FOR HAITI
We have all seen the devastation caused by the earthquake that hit Haiti, a poor nation in the island of Hispaniola.Countries around the world have pitched in to send rescue teams to Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake, which flattened buildings and killed tens of thousands, leaving countless others homeless.Some Cameroonians around the world have taken it upon themselves to put their effort too for Haiti. A Cameroonian UN representative by the name of Laura Fultang is actually at the fore front assisting with the relief efforts going on.Amabel Niba, editor of African Vibes Magazine set up the 1000 Africans for Haiti cause with all proceeds going to the Red Cross. To join, please go herehttp://www.causes.com/africanforhaiti. Join, contribute and make a difference. YES WE CAN!Denzyl, the most talked about afrobeat newcomer is joining his efforts too. He will be donating all proceeds from the single "So Long - a tribute to Haiti" from his debut album entitled "So Long" to the cause. Sneek peek of the album right here.In France, a collection of artists joined forces to create a heartfelt track/video "Un geste pour Haiti". This collection also featured Camer artists such as Manu Dibango, Les Nubians etc Watch the video right here
What happens when James Earl Jones and Aaron Neville join their uniquely different, yet equally amazing voices to bring us a special reading of "The Night Before Christmas"? Miracles happen:
The Kathyrn A. Morton Prize in Poetry includes a $2,000 cash award, publication of a full-length collection of poetry, and a standard royalty contract. Kathryn A. Morton was a published author and devotee of fine literature, especially poetry. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.A. from Stanford University, where she studied with Yvor Winters. Our contest begins January 1st, and ends February 15th. See below for page requirements. Also, please note our entry fee ($25) and P.O. Box number below.
Eligibility
Contest is open to any writer of English who is a citizen of the United States. Employees and board members of Sarabande Books, Inc. are not eligible. Individual poems from the manuscript may have been published previously in magazines, chapbooks of less than 48 pages, or anthologies, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Translations and previously self-published books are not eligible. To avoid conflict of interest, students in a degree-granting program or close friends of a judge are ineligible to enter the contest in the genre for which their friend or teacher is serving as judge.
Anonymous—the author’s name or address must not appear anywhere on the manuscript (your title page should contain the title only).
A minimum of 48 pages of poetry.
Typed on standard white paper, one side of the page only.
Paginated consecutively with a table of contents and acknowledgements page (a list of publications in which poems from the manuscript have appeared).
Bound with a spring clip or placed in a plain file folder. No paper clips or staples please.
* Also, please keep the following in mind:
Retain a copy of your manuscript. We cannot return manuscripts.
Submission of more that one manuscript is permissible if each manuscript is accompanied by an entry form and handling fee.
Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be altered. Winner will be given the opportunity to make changes before publication.
Simultaneous submissions to other publishers are permitted, but Sarabande Books must be notified immediately if manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
Finalists will be asked to send additional copies of the work. Sarabande Books will consider all finalists for publication. Winner will be notified in early July.
All manuscripts must be accompanied by our entry form which contains all the necessary identifying information. Do not send your manuscript without this form.
Submission Information
Electronic Submissions
Sarabande will accept manuscripts submitted online through our Submissions Manager software. Manuscripts submitted electronically must conform to the same guidelines as print manuscripts. Instructions and FAQs are located at the Submission Manager page,
*Manuscripts must be postmarked between and including January 1 and February 15.
*Include a self-addressed, stamped postcard for notification that manuscript has been received.
*Include a self-addressed, stamped, regular business-sized envelope for contest results.
*Please send your manuscript in a plain or padded envelope. No boxes please.
*No Federal Express, Overnight Mail, or UPS.
*We strongly advise that you send your manuscript first class.
*There is a $25 handling fee, check made payable to Sarabande Books, Inc.
Please send entries to:
The Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry
Sarabande Books, Inc.
PO Box 4456
Louisville KY 40204
The League of Canadian Poets, a national not-for-profit poetry organization founded in 1966, invites Canadian youth to participate in the annual Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Contest for Youth (formerly the Poetic Licence Contest for Canadian Youth). The youth contest is being funded through a generous donation from Richard Stursberg and family in honour of Jessamy Stursberg.
There are two age categories, junior (grades 7-9) and senior (grades 10-12). First place poems in each category will receive a cash prize of $350, second place winners will receive $300 and third place winners will receive $250.
All winning poems will be published in the League of Canadian Poets’ e-zine, Re:verse at www.youngpoets.ca. All winners will receive Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Contest for Youth certificates and student membership in the League of Canadian Poets for one year. Deadline: January 15, 2011.
Entry Guidelines 1. All submissions should be sent by e-mail to readings@poets.ca with the subject "Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Contest for Youth". 2. There are two age categories: Junior, grades 7 - 9 and Senior, grades 10 - 12 3. Poems must be previously unpublished and must be your own work. 4. Length of each poem submitted must not exceed 50 lines. Limit 2 poems per poet. 5. Each submission should include the poet’s name, address, and phone number, age, grade, name of school, and the titles of the poems entered. 6. Poems should not be sent as attachments, but as plain text files in the body of the message. 7. There is no entry fee. 8. Winners will be announced during National Young Poet’s Week in April and posted on the League’s websites www.poets.ca and www.youngpoets.ca. Announcements will be sent to the media, and the winners will be notified by mail and email.
Copyright remains with the poet. Winners will be asked for the first rights to publish their work. Should an entry be published elsewhere during the course of the contest, we ask that the entrant notify the League immediately. Revisions on any poem will not be accepted after it has been entered. All decisions of the jury are final. Contest is open to Canadian citizens and landed immigrants. Members of the League’s National Council, staff or the contest judges or their families are not eligible to enter these competitions.
* Incomplete submissions will not be considered, please read guidelines carefully.
The National Poetry Series was established in 1978 to ensure the publication of five books of poetry each year. Winning manuscripts are selected through an annual open competition, judged by five distinguished poets. Each winning poet receives a $1,000 cash award in addition to having his or her manuscript published by a participating trade, university, or small press publisher. Publishers currently include HarperCollins Publishers, Coffee House Press, University of Georgia Press, Penguin Books, and Fence Books. Recent judges have included John Ashbery, Yusef Komunyakaa, Mary Karr, Ilya Kaminsky, Natasha Trethewey, Campbell McGrath, Kevin Young, and Paul Guest. Winners have included Sterling Brown, Billy Collins, Stephen Dunn, Marie Howe, Naomi Shihab Nye, Eleni Sikelianos, and Terrance Hayes. Among the honored winners are Mark Doty who won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for his 1992 winning manuscript, My Alexandria; and, Gabriel Spera, winner of the Pen Center USA 2004 Literary Award for Poetry for The Standing Wave.
♦The National Poetry Series seeks book-lengthmanuscripts of poetry written by American citizens. All manuscripts must be previously unpublished, although some or all of the individual poems may have appeared in periodicals. Translations, chapbooks, small groups of poems, and books previously self-published are not eligible. Manuscript length is not limited. However, a length of 48-64 pages is suggested.
♦Manuscripts, accompanied by an entrance fee of $30.00 (per manuscript) made payable to The National Poetry Series, will be accepted at The National Poetry Series, 57 Mountain Avenue, Princeton, NJ, 08540, with a postmark ofJanuary 1 through (and including) February 15, 2011.
♦Manuscripts must include 2 cover pages:
One page should list title of manuscript, author’s name, address, and telephone number.
This should be the only pagewith author’s identification.
One page should list title of manuscript only.
♦Manuscripts must be:
Typed on standard white paper, on one side of the page only.
Paginated (include a table of contents).
Bound only by a clip as more permanent bindings are very difficult to handle!
♦DO NOT INCLUDE: Acknowledgments, explanatory statements, resumes, autobiographical statements, photographs, illustrations, or artwork. These will not be considered.
♦We regret that manuscripts cannot be returned.
No additions, deletions, or substitutions once a manuscript has been submitted.
Entrants should inform NPS immediately if their manuscript is selected for
publication elsewhere.
♦Finalists will be notified and asked to submit five (5) additional copies of their original submission.
♦Winning authors will be given the opportunity to make final changes prior to publication.
♦Please include a Self-Addressed Stamped Postcard if you would like confirmation that your manuscript has been received. Include a SASE if you would like notification of the NPS winners (announced in August).
♦Please visit The National Poetry Series web site: www.nationalpoetryseries.org for general updates throughout the competition.
If you require any additional information, write to the Coordinator,
The quintessential Lady Day, aka Billie Holiday, kicks us off in style. We journey back to Cuba to catch pianist Roberto Fonseca in concert. We conclude with some late night/early morning Sextapes from Marsha Ambrosius.
The only pianist who is as adept as Fonseca in terms of doing one thing with his left hand while his right hand does something completely different is South African maestro Abdullah Ibrahim. While Roberto’s prodigious technique is fascinating, his dramatic sense of form and dynamic progression is even more astounding. Every song builds and builds and reaches ever higher to a bursting point. Whether a ballad, Latin rhythms, or scorching uptempo jazz, Fonseca’s music is always both rousing and arousing.
Book reviews: 'Preaching With Sacred Fire' and 'The Anthology of Rap'
The anthologies look at two very different forms of African American oral tradition but take similar paths to their conclusions about the history and import of the black narrative tradition.
Illustration for the review of "The Anthology of Rap" and "Preaching with Sacred Fire." (Jimmy Turrell / For The Times / December 26, 2010)
By Lynell GeorgeSpecial to the Los Angeles Times
December 26, 2010
Preaching With Sacred Fire
An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present
Two new books, "Preaching With Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present" and "The Anthology of Rap," look at two very different forms of African American oral tradition but take similar paths to their conclusions about the history and import of the black narrative tradition, the sacred and the profound.
For decades, large-scale stories told from an African American point of view were few and far between. Histories, family narratives, parables were passed through generations but were quietly held. Grabbing the mike, so to speak, and reclaiming their own narrative and the vast platform from which to tell it didn't happen until the mid-20th century.
What "Preaching With Sacred Fire" underscores is that though seldom was wider light cast upon it, this oral tradition has flourished for centuries from the pulpit: Men and women who have educated, uplifted and unified their flocks. Here are more than 100 sermons, from both Christian and Muslim traditions, that speak to the pressing issues — slavery, segregation, the war on drugs — of their day. It is a sonorous continuum of voices, prophetic and poetic: John Chavis, the country's first ordained African American Presbyterian preacher; Douglass; Martin Luther King Jr.; Malcolm X; C.L. Franklin; Peter Gomes; Jesse Jackson; Louis Farrakhan; T.D. Jakes and Renita Weems weave a narrative of struggle, resistance and resilience. As Weems tells her flock in her 2004 sermon "Not … Yet": "Right now, this race is not about me and you. It's about generations who are coming after us. It's about little girls and boys in our churches. It's about the little one with the little nappy hair whose mama is on drugs and whose daddy is in jail."
While "Preaching With Sacred Fire" follows the pulpit narrative from slavery to the ascendency of President Obama, there was another set of voices gaining momentum too. These were the voices telling stories of the streets, the stories of what was happening to those people who sat in the pews — or who once did. Some had wandered into something else, something that seemed to speak to their everyday, a resonant soundtrack of sorts. As Public Enemy's Richter-scale tripping Chuck D once put it: "Rap is CNN for black people."
That maxim was more than clever metaphor; it has helped clarify the weight, reach and import of the from-the-sidewalks genre that so many once dismissed as diversion — or worse.
From Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to 2Pac and Jay-Z to Young Jeezy. Thirty years on, the longevity begs the question: What role has rap played in chronicling a slice of social history?
In its early iteration, rap indeed was a form of first-person reportage, a "story of the streets" passed from lips to ears on stoops, in backyards, on mix-tapes, over radio waves. Putting needle to the groove opened a door to a very particular time and place: Imagery, slang and situation. Rap was an extension of the American oral tradition. Its very durability forces deeper consideration.
"The Anthology of Rap," edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois and with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and afterwords by Chuck D and Common, is the first formal anthology of rap lyrics spanning 1978 to the present. More than 800 pages, the book not only carefully distinguishes between the long-tangled definitions of hip-hop and rap but also attempts to situate three decades of witness-bearing — with all of its bravado and blemishes — into historical and literary context. "Hip-hop," writes Gates, "… is an umbrella term to describe the multifaceted culture of which rap is but a part. MCs, hip-hop's master of ceremonies, are its literary artists. They are the poets and rap is the poetry of hip-hop culture." For a book that seeks to elevate the importance of rap lyrics by placing them between two covers, hip-hop heads — old and young — with ears keento the chapter and verse of the rhymes are already calling foul, citing various errors in transcription. All of this was played out quite publicly earlier this fall both in the blogosphere and in a series of pieces in Slate by Paul Devlin, who enumerated some of the more egregious errors he'd encountered (backed up with audio). Bradley acknowledged the transcription errors and said he plans to correct them in future printings. Part of this, even the critics agree, is simply the nature of stories passed down and the trick of the ear, like a game of telephone. Seeing the lyrics on a page, once the errors are untangled, is a way to formally set down the lyric's intent.
While the objective of the book was not to be encyclopedic (this isn't a music form pressed behind glass, it's in motion), it was to be representative: The book's goal is to exhibit a diversity of content, poetry and language. That means you get the corny but contagious boasts of the Sugarhill Gang ("Rapper's Delight") and far down the road, the grainy, documentary insight of the Roots ("Act Two: [The Love of My Life]") and West's internal struggle with temptation ("Jesus Walks"). There is more than a taste of life's highs and lows crowding around the microphone. And this is where these two traditions intersect:
"So many of the debates about rap today miss the point," Common writes in his afterword. "… The myth [is] that MCs rhyme only about money, cars and women. Think I'm lying? Open up the book and see for yourself. Even open it at random and you'll find lyrics about love and comic books and bicycles, about God and nature and fatherhood. You'll find rhymes, in other words, about life and the art of living."
George is a Los Angeles-based journalist and an assistant professor of English and journalism at Loyola Marymount University.
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The seeds of chaos were sown just hours after a skeptical United States issued a statement questioning the preliminary results of Haiti's first presidential runoff elections since the 1986 fall of the dictatorship.
The next day, in the midst of widespread tire burning and destruction, the U.S. Embassy released a more muted message but not before Brazil fired off its own communiqué.
The Brazilians, it turned out, supported the work of an international observer mission, which said while there were serious ``irregularities'' in Haiti's Nov. 28 elections, they were not grave enough to void the vote.
The flip-flop by the United States, and conflicting positions of two of Haiti's most important allies, underscore the split in the international community over Haiti, a country in chaos.
``I don't have an answer,'' Mark Schneider, a longtime Haiti watcher with the International Crisis Group said, uncertain of the next move. ``Somebody has to really take charge.''
The crisis over who should replace President René Préval when he leaves office on Feb. 7 has caused airlines to cancel flights, businesses to shut down and Haiti watchers to once more shake their heads in dismay.
``Political stability is at stake,'' Erik Solheim, Norway's minister for international development, told The Miami Herald. ``It's not clear whether it's [Jude] Célestin or [Michel] Martelly who won the right to be in the runoff for the presidency.''
Also at stake are billions in promised reconstruction dollars to help victims of the devastating January earthquake reclaim their lives. Eleven months after the quake, at least one million Haitians continue to live beneath tarps and tents as both reconstruction and the suppression of a deadly cholera outbreak take a backseat to the current crisis.
``This election is a sad and unfortunate step backward for Haiti's political process,'' said Robert Maguire, a Haiti expert at Trinity University in Washington, D.C. ``Candidates who assume they can decide things in the streets; the incredible hypocrisy of all of the candidates....It's all about the individuals, `All about me.' ''
As a special commission of Haitians and foreigners met Saturday to work out a review of the disputed tallies, a national observation group continued its refusal to participate unless elections officials invite all 19 presidential candidates to be a part of the review.
Mirlande Manigat and Martelly, among the leading vote getters, also refused to participate, saying they lack faith in the process.
Both were among a dozen presidential candidates -- of 17 candidates on the ballot -- who disrupted the vote on Election Day, demanding it be canceled. The two accused President René Préval's INITE (UNITY) coalition of engineering ``massive fraud'' to install Célestin, the former head of the government road construction agency. They later back-tracked.
After election officials announced that Célestin, 48, had edged out Martelly, 49, by fewer than 7,000 votes to join Manigat in a runoff, Martelly's supporters took to the streets, burning tires and destroying businesses, chanting that the vote had been stolen. The protests have paralyzed the capital and the southwest city of Les Cayes as the international community appeals for calm -- and Préval and Célestin, for now, hold back their supporters in the slums.
``You are in a situation where things can really degenerate into a civil war. People just fighting in the streets, complete chaos,'' said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia. ``You clearly don't have a consensus in the international community. All of the Haitian actors are playing on that.''
Fatton said there is nothing surprising about the days of paralyzing street demonstrations. It is something the international community, which paid most of the $29 million election bill, should have envisioned -- and planned for in a country where it has become common to take political battles to the streets.
In recent days, key actors in the international community have each floated their own proposals: Brazil pushed a three-person runoff that would involve Manigat, Célestin and Martelly. The United Nations suggested that Célestin withdraw. The United States asked for a true recount with foreign experts going through not just the tally sheets but checking the actual ballots against the partial voter lists. Canada floated cancellation and new elections under an interim government.
``The international community cannot reach an agreement,'' said Fatton.
The lack of a unified voice has also raised suspicions among Haitians as to what the international community is really after.
``What are their interests? What is their agenda?'' said Manigat, 70, lamenting the fact that since the elections no foreign diplomat has contacted her to be part of a solution. Ready for the runoff, she could very well be among the biggest losers as the elections turn into a battle between her rivals.
``Elections are an alternative to revolution. If you want change, you make your voice heard with your ballot,'' she said. ``But ever since the 1987 constitution in Haiti, every election has been an occasion for problems because there is always an effort by those in power or a particular group to manipulate the vote.''
Some fear as all sides dig their heels in, from Préval to the candidates to elections officials, the international community may be left with no other choice but to cancel elections or come up with a political solution that the opposition would not accept unless it involves the departure of Préval.
``People are fed up with him and if anything the election has shown that he has lost credibility in the eyes of Haitians,'' Fatton said of Préval. ``If the international community is not prepared to push for three candidates in a runoff...what else do you do? You cancel, tell him he remains president until Feb. 7 and have new elections.''
Cancellation and new elections would involve a transitional government, a move opposed by some like Manigat and, for now, the United States, which has said it wants to have Préval replaced by an elected president and legislature.
The fear is that with countries already reluctant to ante up nearly $11 billion in promised aid, a non-elected government would make it even more difficult to help Haiti rebuild and lure investors.
Martelly, despite protests, has yet to formally contest the preliminary results, the electoral council's spokesman said. His continued refusal to participate in the process could lead to the beleaguered elections council proceeding with the review without him, deciding that Célestin did indeed edge him out, and moving to a Jan. 16 runoff.
In that case, whichever candidate wins the second round, Manigat or Célestin, would come into office under a cloud of suspicion.
``President Préval should remember he is the president of all Haitians before he is the head of INITE and he should be able to look at the national interests of the country and make a decision,'' said Michel Eric Gaillard, a political analyst in Haiti. ``He doesn't have any more political capital. He spent it on Jan. 12 [the date of the earthquake]. There was a complete lack of leadership that weakened his status.''
Gaillard said the international community is looking for a political solution to what is a technical question in the face of general outcry by Haitians that something went terribly array on Nov. 28.
``To have Jude withdraw is not the answer. He cannot do that. You either have to say the results are good, or the results are bad. What if they are correct?'' he said. ``What they would need to do is an audit of the election ballots, a document tracing.''
But with Martelly refusing to take part in the process -- and Manigat demanding a real recount -- it remains unclear what will happen even as the commission begins its review of the tally sheets.
``Usually in the past somebody has come out of the Haitian election scenario smelling good. I don't see anybody coming out of this looking good, including the international community,'' Maguire said.
Cuba was the first to come into Haiti with medical aid when the January 12, 2010, earthquake struck. Among the many donor nations, Cuba and its medical teams have played a major role in treating Haiti’s earthquake victims. Public health experts say the Cubans were the first to set up medical facilities among the debris and to revamp hospitals immediately after the earthquake struck. Their pivotal work in the health sector has, however, received scant media coverage. “It is striking that there has been virtually no mention in the media of the fact that Cuba had several hundred health personnel on the ground before any other country,” said David Sanders, professor of public health from Western Cape University in South Africa.
Student Researcher: * Sarah Maddox (Sonoma State University) Faculty Evaluators: * José Manuel Pestano Rodríguez and José Manuel de Pablos Coello (University of La Laguna, Canary Islands) * William Du Bois (Southwest Minnesota State University)
The Cuban team coordinator in Haiti, Dr. Carlos Alberto Garcia, said the Cuban doctors, nurses, and other health personnel worked nonstop, day and night, with operating rooms open eighteen hours a day. During a visit to La Paz Hospital in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Dr. Mirta Roses, director of the Pan American Health Organization, which is in charge of medical coordination between the Cuban doctors, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and a host of health sector nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), described the aid provided by Cuban doctors as “excellent and marvelous.”
Haiti and Cuba signed a medical cooperation agreement in 1998. Before the earthquake struck, 344 Cuban health professionals were already present in Haiti, providing primary care and obstetrical services as well as operating to restore the sight of Haitians blinded by eye diseases. More doctors were flown in shortly after the earthquake as part of the rapid response. “In the case of Cuban doctors, they are rapid responders to disasters, because disaster management is an integral part of their training,” explains Maria Hamlin Zúniga, a public health specialist from Nicaragua. Cuban doctors have been organizing medical facilities in three revamped hospitals, five field hospitals, and five diagnostic centers, with a total of twenty-two different care posts aided by financial support from Venezuela. They are also operating nine rehabilitation centers staffed by nearly seventy Cuban physical therapists and rehabilitation specialists, in addition to Haitian medical personnel. The Cuban team has been assisted by one hundred specialists from Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and Canada, as well as seventeen nuns.
However, in reporting on the international aid effort, Western media have generally not ranked Cuba high on the list of donor nations. One major international news agency’s list of donor nations credited Cuba with sending over thirty doctors to Haiti, whereas the real figure stands at more than 350, including 280 young Haitian doctors who graduated from Cuba. A combined total of 930 Cuban health professionals make Cuba’s the largest medical contingent on the ground in Haiti. Another batch of 200 Cuban-trained doctors from twenty-four countries in Africa and Latin American, and a dozen American doctors who graduated from medical schools in Havana, went to Haiti to provide reinforcement to existing Cuban medical teams. By comparison, the internationally renowned Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) has approximately 269 health professionals working in Haiti. MSF is much better funded and has far more extensive medical supplies than the Cuban team.
But while representatives from MSF and the ICRC are frequently in front of television cameras discussing health priorities and medical needs, the Cuban medical teams are missing in the media coverage. Richard Gott, the Guardian’s former foreign editor and a Latin America specialist, explains, “Western media are programmed to be indifferent to aid that comes from unexpected places. In the Haitian case, the media have ignored not just the Cuban contribution, but also the efforts made by other Latin American countries.” Brazil is providing $70 million in funding for ten urgent care units, fifty mobile units for emergency care, a laboratory, and a hospital, among other health services. Venezuela has canceled all of Haiti’s debt and has promised to supply oil, free of charge, until the country has recovered from the disaster. Western NGOs employ media officers to ensure that the world knows what they are doing. According to Gott, the Western media has grown accustomed to dealing with such NGOs, enabling a relationship of mutual assistance to develop. Cuban medical teams, however, are outside this predominantly Western humanitarian-media loop and are therefore only likely to receive attention from Latin American media and Spanish language broadcasters and print media.
There have, however, been notable exceptions to this reporting syndrome. On January 19, a CNN reporter broke the silence on the Cuban role in Haiti with a report on Cuban doctors at La Paz Hospital. Cuban doctors received global praise for their humanitarian aid in Indonesia. When the US requested that their military planes be allowed to fly through Cuban airspace for the purpose of evacuating Haitians to hospitals in Florida, Cuba immediately agreed despite almost fifty years of animosity between the two countries.
Although Cuba is a poor, developing country, their wealth of human resources—doctors, engineers, and disaster management experts—has enabled this small Caribbean nation to play a global role in health care and humanitarian aid alongside the far-richer nations of the west. Cuban medical teams played a key role in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami and stayed the longest among international medical teams treating the victims of the 2006 Indonesian earthquake. They also provided the largest contingent of doctors after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. In the Pakistan relief operation, the US and Europe also dispatched medical teams. Each had a base camp with most doctors deployed for a month. The Cubans, however, deployed seven major base camps, operated thirty-two field hospitals, and stayed for six months.
A Montreal summit of twenty donor nations agreed to hold a major conference on Haiti’s future at the United Nations in March 2010. Some analysts see Haiti’s rehabilitation as a potential opportunity for the US and Cuba to bypass their ideological differences and combine their resources—the US has the logistics while Cuba has the human resources—to help Haiti. “Potential US-Cuban cooperation could go a long way toward meeting Haiti’s needs,” says Dr. Julie Feinsilver, author of Healing the Masses, a book about Cuban health diplomacy, who argues that maximum cooperation is urgently needed. Feinsilver is convinced that “Cuba should be given a seat at the table with all other nations and multilateral organizations and agencies in any and all meetings to discuss, plan and coordinate aid efforts for Haiti’s reconstruction.” In late January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanked Cuba for its efforts in Haiti and welcomed further assistance and cooperation. In Haiti’s grand reconstruction plan, Feinsilver argues, “There can be no imposition of systems from any country, agency or institution. The Haitian people themselves, through what remains of their government and NGOs, must provide the policy direction, and Cuba has been and should continue to be a key player in the health sector in Haiti.”
Comment submitted: The following article appeared in April 2010: “Cuban Medical Aid to Haiti: One of the World’s Best Kept Secrets,” by Professor John Kirk of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada and Emily Kirk, graduate student at Cambridge University. The article appears on the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network here:http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/node/347. There are many additional articles on the same website about Cuba’s medical assistance to Haiti, including: * Cuba Presents Bold Plan for a Comprehensive Health Care System in Haiti (April 2010).http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/node/397 * Haiti: Underdevelopment and Genocide, By Fidel Castro.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (December 21, 2010)–Materials Management Relief Corps (MMRC), a nonprofit corporation that provides humanitarian aid to the people of Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake, is very concerned about the health of its co-founder Paul Waggoner who is being held in the notoriously dangerous National Penitentiary.
Waggoner is accused of kidnapping a child last February despite witnesses and affidavits stating that the child had died. A death certificate exists for the child.
Although food and water can be delivered to Waggoner, contacts who have recently seen him express concern over his declining physical and mental health.
Waggoner is currently sharing a small cell with two other prisoners and is, at this time, considered safe from the general population. However he is very fearful for his future and disease is rife in the prison. Haiti is also currently battling a cholera epidemic, a disease which can be deadly if not treated promptly.
Despite reports to the contrary, the US Embassy has not visited him since his transfer to the National Penitentiary on December 16 2010. It has been confirmed that Embassy staff is working with the US Diplomatic Security Service as a liaison with the Haitian National Police. It is vital to Paul Waggoner, his supporters, and his family, that the Embassy take a stronger stance in securing his immediate release.
MMRC is urging Americans to contact US government officials demanding Waggoner’s release.
The child in question died at Haitian Community Hospital in Petionville February 23, 2010, while Waggoner was organizing supplies at the hospital. Waggoner did not administer any medical care to the infant. Despite the fact that a board-certified, US physician has signed an affidavit stating that the child in question was deceased, and the father viewed the body, the father has accused Waggoner of kidnapping the child. The doctor’s affidavit also acknowledges that the father declined to take the child’s body as he did not have the resources to bury it, instead allowing the hospital to dispose of the body.
“We have a signed affidavit from a US doctor proving that the child in question was, in fact, deceased and that Paul showed tremendous care and sympathy toward the child’s grieving father,” MMRC Director Nanci Murdock said. “Since racing to Haiti in the wake of devastation caused by the January 2010 earthquake, Paul has worked selflessly to save thousands of lives.”
Waggoner’s father died when he was child and his mother died when he was 21. He was then left with the responsibility to raise his younger sister. Waggoner is well known and well respected in Haitian circles for his humanitarian work in local orphanages and hospitals. He also has assisted in the re-building of various structures within Haiti.
MMRC Global, members of the Waggoner family, various non-government organizations within Haiti, and friends from around the globe stand in solidarity behind Waggoner and are working tirelessly towards his release and exoneration from these false accusations.
American businessman Jack Aronson, founder of Michigan-based Garden Fresh Gourmet, a $90-million company specializing in fresh salsa, recently worked alongside Waggoner in Haiti. Aronson staunchly stands by Waggoner and the admirable work he has done in the still-ravaged country. “Since arriving in Haiti, Paul’s work has been phenomenal. I spent time working beside him and personally witnessed his extraordinary care for this country’s children,” Aronson said. “I saw how dedicated and altruistic this man is. He risks life and limb to rescue Haitian orphans.”
The start of Haiti’s most recent crisis came with ample warning. Most Port-au-Prince residents scurried to their homes mid-afternoon last Tuesday, certain of the violence and chaos which would ensue once the electoral council announced which two presidential candidates would make it to the run-offs. The trouble-makers didn’t wait until the 8:00 p.m. announcement, but started throwing rocks and erecting barricades by late afternoon for good measure. By nightfall, gunfire ricocheted around the capital and other towns. Through Friday, the black smoke of burning-tire barricades rose above the small crowds who rampaged through towns, destroying shops and other structures, burning cars, and occasionally shooting people. Haitian Radio Metropole reported five deaths.
The electoral council’s results were as transparentlyfraudulent as the vote itself. The only candidate with popular appeal, Michel Martelly, was excluded from the run-off. The widely hated president René Préval’s chosen successor, Jude Célestin, was inserted into the January 16 run-off along with Mirlande Manigat.
Scrambling to get itself out of its jam, the electoral council announced a recount, but both Martelly and Manigat have rejected this option. Cancellation of the vote is a distant option. The council’s routes through which to backpedal appear blocked.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called for President Obama to withhold aid to the Haitian government and suspend travel visas of senior Haitian officials until “necessary steps” are taken to guarantee a democratic result. And yesterday, the United Nations, Organization of American States, European Union, American, and four other ambassadors in Haiti urged the government on to the next legal step, requesting that the 72-hour period in which parties may contest the results begin today.
The weekend brought calm - partial on Saturday and broader on Saturday. Some ventured out hesitantly after days spent house-bound to stock up on food or view the destruction, but still motor vehicles and pedestrians remained scarce. This morning dawned as just another Haitian day, except that schools remain officially closed. But there are more electoral council announcements on the horizon. No one knows what the coming week will bring, but calm is not high on the list of options.
The only ones who stand to gain from the current upheaval are the candidates vying for victory, and the demonstrators and agitators they have paid. Some acts of violence and construction of road barricades appeared to be random, enacted by thugs who control various neighborhoods or others who were perhaps simply bored. Those grassroots organizations who normally sponsor demonstrations against Préval sat this week out; these are not the activities of an organized pro-democracy movement.
As always, it is the poor who have paid the heaviest cost. For starters, those who live from the informal economy have lost days of the miniscule incomes which barely keep their families alive. The small army of vendors of phone cards who congregate at gas stations, the men who peddle long-expired medications from red buckets on their heads, the women who sell imported corn flakes or second-hand underwear, and all the rest were not to be found on the deserted streets from Wednesday through the weekend, meaning that their families lost the few cents they make on each sale.
Those living in shantytowns where much of the violence was concentrated could not leave their homes out of fear. Neither could those living under plastic tarps or tents on the streets or in internally displaced peoples’ camps in volatile neighborhoods; they, moreover, could not even retreat behind walls or lock their door. Numerous women in these settings, among a circle who call me whenever they can buy cell phone minutes, reported that their meager supplies of food and water ran out after a day or two. With no means to buy more even if they could have gone to the market, they ran to neighbors’ homes in calmer moments to try to collect small gifts to sustain their children – sometimes with more success than others. Hunger, every woman told me, has been the norm since Wednesday.
Yesterday morning, for example, one of my daily calls was from Dieuveut Mondestin. She is a widow who lives with four children and an infant in a tarp-covered lean-to in the shantytown of Martissant. She has no nearby relatives, no job or other source of support, no source of free or nearby water, and no electricity. Dieuveut had just returned from two days in the hospital, where she was watching over her dead husband’s father who had cholera. I ask how she’s made out these last few days. “I can’t suffer anything I haven’t already suffered, so I still have hope. But it’s been hard, hard, hard, I tell you. There was so much shooting in my neighborhood, there was nowhere to run. I haven’t had anything to feed my kids. They’re so skinny, even little Larissa; you remember she was chubby. They’re just sticks now.”
This past week has also provided the perfect conditions for a spike in cholera, what Partners in Health calls “a disease of poverty” which impacts those without safe drinking water. With roads blocked and all but a valiant few health care and sanitation workers at home, much of the humanitarian coordination effort in Port-au-Prince and other parts of Haiti was in “lock-down,” a high-level cholera response worker told me on Friday. My inbox brought an urgent call for anyone who could travel to ten camps to deliver the cholera-prevention essentials of water purification tablets and bleach. Clean drinking water, another essential, also ran out in many places early on in the days of mêlée.
Because sanitation workers could not get to the camps, toilets and garbage overflowed to extremes. (For a chilling account, see Sascha Kramer's recent article in Counter Punch.) The sporadic rains throughout the week, moreover, spread contaminated water and sewage, perfect vectors for the disease.
One eye-witness told me that the group controlling the burning tires on the central Champs de Mars Boulevard refused to let medical transport vehicles through. The street barricades and lack of available drivers limited possibilities of the cholera-struck to get to health care centers during the window in which healing is possible, which in extreme cases is as short as four hours. Lack of drivers for medical vehicles also meant that corpses of many cholera victims remained in camps, bringing serious risk of contamination.
The socially and economically marginalized will gain nothing for their troubles, as no president sympathetic to their cause is forthcoming from these elections. None of the 19 candidates has been outspoken or active on behalf of the needs of survivors languishing in camps, or on behalf of a reconstruction process or economic model which prioritizes the most vulnerable. The unknown Célestin, from the party that has failed the citizenry, is so clueless about state responsibility that he even told a campaign crowd, “To counteract this illness [cholera] is a matter of hygiene more than anything. Hygienic measures, the state can’t assume that… It’s a personal and individual matter.” [1] The right-wing intellectual Mirlande Manigat briefly served as first lady in 1988 to the figurehead civilian president of a military dictatorship, but is otherwise undistinguished. Michel Martelly has made public no policy agenda, though it’s hard to imagine that he could effectively push through any policies. His notoriety stems being a buffoon and carrousing musician, known for such non-presidential antics as flashing his bare backside in public.
A vote for Martelly, several people interviewed for this article said, was a vote against the standard political elite. Human rights lawyer Patrice Florvilus said, “The [people] don’t know if Martelly will give them anything different, but they know that they won’t gain anything from the suits who are the current politicians. Martelly is a product of the vacuum of alternatives. People need an alternative to the current conditions of their life but they’ve been totally abandoned.
“So many have been under tents for eleven months with nothing coming to them. They haven’t seen any of the international aid. They’re at the end of their rope with their social problems. It’s such a shame that politicians are using them for their own political profit.”
Regardless of who wins and how, the next president will come in with constitutionally constrained powers. Since the parliament ceded its power in April to the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, a 28-member body whose membership is 50% foreign and whose co-chair is Bill Clinton, the president holds little power over the country’s future beyond the right to veto the commission’s decision. With the World Bank as the group’s fiscal sponsor and all the international muscle around the table, even that veto option is unlikely to translate to much authority. This constraint will remain at least until the commission’s current mandate expires in August 2011.
The electoral debacle appears to have one other beneficiary besides whoever wins the presidency. It is the boys who, for once in this super-dense city with almost no recreational spaces, have had endless open streets on which to play soccer. Block after block is full of fleet-footed kids moving between the broken cinder blocks which serve as goals. On an outing to check out the state of the streets, I called out to one group of boys, “The elections gave you your soccer field. You lucked out!”
One called back, “No way! We’d rather have a free election!”
Many thanks to Allyn Gaestel for her research help.
[1] Campaign speech of Jude Célestin, Port-au-Prince, November 25, 2010, taped by Reuters journalist Allyn Gaestel.
Bradley Manning is suffering inhumane isolation in prison that numerous experts say is a form of real torture.
December 23, 2010
Last week, Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of giving classified materials to Wikileaks, spent his 23rd birthday in the brig of the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. He has been convicted of no crime, but endures the kind of highly restrictive detention that's usually reserved for the most dangerous criminals in America's supermax prisons. He is kept isolated in his cell 23 hours a day, where he is cut off from most human contact, denied reading materials and personal items, prevented by the guards from exercising and regularly awakened from his sleep. He has been at Quantico for five months, following two months of detention in Kuwait.
The circumstances of Manning's detention gained prominence last week after Salon's Glenn Greenwald wrote a scathing exposé of what he called “conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.” As AlterNet's Sarah Seltzer noted, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture has started a probe to determine whether Manning's solitary confinement constitutes torture under international law.
The Pentagon reacted to the story by claiming that Manning is “a maximum custody detainee” who can “receive the same privileges that a detainee classified as general population may receive … [including] daily television, hygiene call, reading and outside physical activity without restraint.” But David House, one of the few people able to visit Manning, said that Manning told him he'd only been allowed outdoors sporadically, and his exercise consisted of being placed in a room where he can only walk around in circles.
Manning also has a “Prevention of Injury” (POI) order that requires him to be constantly monitored by guards, and prevents him from having normal bedding. He has to strip down to his underwear and surrender his clothes to the guards each night before sleeping under a “suicide blanket” – he told House it's “similar in weight and heft to lead aprons used in X-ray laboratories, and similar in texture to coarse and stiff carpet.” Manning “expressed concern that he had to lie very still at night to avoid receiving carpet burns.” According to Greenwald, prison medical officials are administering him antidepressants.
POI orders are usually issued for brief periods of time for inmates who are judged to be suicidal or have not yet undergone a psychological evaluation. Manning has been evaluated, and there is no indication he is a threat to himself or others. He has been, by all accounts, a model prisoner.
Clinical psychologist Jeff Kaye spoke to House after his visit with Manning, and while he stressed that a complete evaluation of Manning's well-being is impossible without personal contact, he predicted that “Solitary confinement will slowly wear down the mental and physical condition of Bradley Manning.”
Solitary confinement is an assault on the body and psyche of an individual. It deprives him of species-specific forms of physical, sensory and social interaction with the environment and other human beings. Manning reported last weekend he had not seen sunlight in four weeks, nor does he interact with other people but a few hours on the weekend. The human nervous system needs a certain amount of sensory and social stimulation to retain normal brain functioning. The effects of this deprivation on individuals varies, and some people are affected more severely or quickly, while others hold out longer against the boredom and daily grind of dullness that never seems to end.
Over time, isolation produces a particular well-known syndrome which is akin to that of an organic brain disorder, or delirium. The list of possible effects upon a person is quite long, and can include an inability to tolerate ordinary stimuli, sleep and appetite disturbances, primitive forms of thinking and aggressive ruminations, perceptual distortions and hallucinations, agitation, panic attacks, claustrophobia, feelings of loss of control, rage, paranoia, memory loss, lack of concentration, generalized body pain, EEG abnormalities, depression, suicidal ideation and random, self-destructive behavior.
According to Kaye, the detention is already having effects on Manning – he appears to have difficulty concentrating and his physical condition is deteriorating.
As Glenn Greenwald notes, prolonged solitary confinement is, “widely viewed around the world as highly injurious, inhumane, punitive, and arguably even a form of torture.”
In his widely praised March, 2009 New Yorkerarticle-- entitled "Is Long-Term Solitary Confinement Torture?" -- the surgeon and journalist Atul Gawande assembled expert opinion and personal anecdotes to demonstrate that, as he put it, "all human beings experience isolation as torture." By itself, prolonged solitary confinement routinely destroys a person’s mind and drives them into insanity. A March, 2010 article in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law explains that "solitary confinement is recognized as difficult to withstand; indeed, psychological stressors such as isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture."
It's important to recognize that Manning is a true whistleblower – according to chat logs obtained by Wired magazine, Manning saw what he viewed as serious crimes committed by U.S. forces in Iraq, and felt compelled to release the information in the hope that it would spark “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.” “I want people to see the truth,” he wrote, “regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.” He succeeded in that – the release of video showing an American helicopter attack on a group of unarmed civilians, and subsequent attack on rescuers rushing to evacuate the survivors, was an eye-opening look at the horrors of war that's never seen in the sanitized footage released by the military.
Given that Manning has not been shown to be suicidal or a threat to others, it's hard to disagree with Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange's claim that “Manning is being held as a political prisoner in the United States.”
Greenwald wrote that what Manning's solitary confinement “achieves is clear.”
Having it known that the U.S. could and would disappear people at will to "black sites," assassinate them with unseen drones, imprison them for years without a shred of due process even while knowing they were innocent, torture them mercilessly, and in general acts as a lawless and rogue imperial power created a climate of severe intimidation and fear. Who would want to challenge the U.S. government in any way -- even in legitimate ways -- knowing that it could and would engage in such lawless, violent conduct without any restraints or repercussions?
Bradley Manning's detention is not comparable with the horrific measures imposed on Jose Padilla, an American citizen who was accused of plotting to detonate a “dirty bomb” and held as an “enemy combatant” for six years before being convicted on a lesser charge. Padilla's attorneys alleged that he was subjected to sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and tortured with psychotropic drugs until he lost his mind. But Manning is also a 23-year-old who, whether he is right or wrong, thought he was doing the right thing, and has now run into the maw of a vindictive American security state.
Fyodor Dostoevsky famously said that"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." The Web site FireDogLake has asked people to sign a letter urging the military to stop its “inhumane” treatment of Bradley Manning. You can add your name here.
Bradley Manning An "Ethical Giant" Manning Speaks About His ConditionsBy David House
December 24, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army private accused of leaking classified information to Wikileaks, has been held in the brig at Quantico Marine Corp Base for five months in inhumane conditions, with severe restrictions on his ability to exercise, communicate, or even sleep. Manning has not been convicted of any crime. Nor is there a date certain for any court hearing.
The conditions of Bradley Manning’s confinement became a top issue in the press last week as bloggers traded blows with US officials over allegations that Manning endures inhumane treatment at the Quantico, VA detainment facility. In the midst of this rush by the Defense Department to contextualize Manning’s confinement, I traveled to see the man himself at the Marine Corps detainment facility in Quantico, VA.
In my visit to see Bradley at the Quantico brig, it became clear that the Pentagon’s public spin from last week sharply contradicts the reality of Bradley Manning’s detainment. In his five months of detention, it has become obvious to me that Manning’s physical and mental well-being are deteriorating. What Manning needs, and what his attorney has already urged, is to have the unnecessary “Prevention of Injury” order lifted that severely restricts his ability to exercise, communicate, and sleep.
My Visits to Manning in Quantico
I am one of the few people allowed to visit Bradley Manning while he is detained in the Quantico brig.
Manning is held in “maximum custody,” the military’s most severe detention policy. Manning is also confined under a longstanding Prevention of Injury (POI) order which limits his social contact, news consumption, ability to exercise, and that places restrictions on his ability to sleep.
Manning has been living under the solitary restrictions of POI for five months despite being cleared by a military psychologist earlier this year, and despite repeated calls from his attorney David Coombs to lift the severely restrictive and isolating order. POI orders are short-term restrictions that are typically implemented when a detainee changes confinement facilities and these orders are lifted after the detainee passes psychological evaluation.
Our conversations, which take place in the presence of marines and electronic monitoring equipment, typically revolve around topics in physics, computer science, and philosophy; he recently mentioned that he hopes to one day make use of the GI Bill towards earning a graduate degree in Physics and a bachelors in Political Science. He rarely if ever talks about his conditions in the brig, and it is not unusual for him to shy away from questions about his well-being by changing the subject entirely.
When I arrived at the brig on December 18th I found him to be much more open to lines of inquiry regarding his circumstances, and in a two and a half hour conversation I learned new details about his life in confinement.
Manning’s Conditions Exposed, Pentagon Goes on Defense
The media skirmishes began on December 15th when Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com published an article stating that Manning’s pretrial confinement conditions are equivalent to solitary confinement. Greenwald based his assertions partially upon written and verbal statements made by Quantico brig official Brian Villiard. The Quantico information office reacted the next day by publishing a statement on Greenwald’s blog entitled “Safety and Security = Job #1 at the Brig” which defended the nature of Manning’s “maximum custody” detainment and distanced his conditions from those of solitary confinement.
The statement reads in part:
A maximum custody detainee is able to receive the same privileges that a detainee classified as general population may receive. … A maximum custody detainee also receives daily television, hygiene call, reading and outside physical activity without restraint.
The Quantico information office also posted a text transcript of Greenwald’s interview with Villiard as purported evidence that Greenwald had misrepresented the facts of Manning’s confinement; this transcript includes Villiard’s official statement regarding Manning’s confinement with particular focus paid to details surrounding Manning’s access to news, adequate exercise, and proper bedding:
Pfc. Manning, as well as every other maximum custody detainee, is allotted approximately one hour of television per day. He may view any of the available channels. …
Pfc. Manning is allotted one hour of recreation time per day, as is every other maximum custody detainee. Depending on the weather, his recreation time may be spend indoors or outdoors. Activities may include calisthenics, running, basketball, etc. …
Pfc. Manning, as well as all other detainees, is issued adequate bedding.
This transcript and the accompanying statement by the Quantico information office were quickly cited in the press as a riposte to Greenwald’s original piece on the conditions of Manning’s confinement.
The Guardian contacted me for a comment about Bradley’s conditions on December 16th. Apart from his attorney, David Coombs, I am the only person that regularly visits Brad in the brig. I gave an interview to the Guardian in which I made my concerns for Bradley’s health known, based on my observations of a decline in his mental well-being and noticeable changes in his physical health due to a complete lack of exercise (more on that later).
The Guardian article ran the following morning, and in the interim the media coverage of the issue intensified. Early Friday, in a likely reaction to mounting press attention, Pentagon spokesperson Col. David Lapan issued a statement that downplayed the isolation aspect of Manning’s confinement while harping on four circumstances that allegedly separate Manning’s detainment from a situation consistent with solitary confinement.
Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Friday that Manning has the same privileges as all other prisoners held in what the military calls “maximum custody.” He said Manning is in a standard single-person cell and gets exercise, recreation, access to newspapers and visitors.
Manning Detained Beyond “Maximum Custody”
The unusual nature of a longstanding POI order and the consequences it carries (such as 23-hour per day cell confinement with no substantive exercise) has led Manning’s lawyer David Coombs to make an uncharacteristic appeal in the press, to halt what he says is punitive pretrial treatment of his client. Coombs appears in an interview with the Daily Beast, released shortly after (and possibly in response to) Lapan’s statement on Friday:
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.
Both Coombs and Manning’s psychologist, Coombs says, are sure Manning is mentally healthy, that there is no evidence he’s a threat to himself, and shouldn’t be held in such severe conditions under the artifice of his own protection.”
Yes, that was Bradley Manning’s lawyer echoing the concerns of Glenn Greenwald: severe, punitive, solitary treatment under the auspices of protecting Bradley.
Villiard still had one final point to make late last Friday: appearing in the same article as Coombs, Villiard defends Manning’s compulsory alternative bedding, brought about as a condition of the POI, in a statement to the Daily Beast:
First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, an officer at Quantico, said [Manning] is allowed bedding of “non-shreddable” material. “I’ve held it, I’ve felt it, it’s soft, I’d sleep under it,” he told The Daily Beast.
As a final act of public education, attorney David Coombs published a facts-only account of Manning’s detention on his blog last Saturday. The article details a typical day for the Private, and lists the specific conditions that Manning must live under as part of the punitive POI order:
PFC Manning is held in his cell for approximately 23 hours a day.
[]
He is not allowed to have a pillow or sheets. However, he is given access to two blankets and has recently been given a new mattress that has a built-in pillow.
He is not allowed to have any personal items in his cell.
[]
He is prevented from exercising in his cell. If he attempts to do push-ups, sit-ups, or any other form of exercise he will be forced to stop.
He does receive one hour of “exercise” outside of his cell daily. He is taken to an empty room and only allowed to walk. PFC Manning normally just walks figure eights in the room for the entire hour. If he indicates that he no long feels like walking, he is immediately returned to his cell.
When PFC Manning goes to sleep, he is required to strip down to his boxer shorts and surrender his clothing to the guards. His clothing is returned to him the next morning.
This report from Coombs is consistent on each count with the investigative findings of Glenn Greenwald in the December 15 Salon article that broke this story. But there is one potential error: attorney David Coombs’ claim that Manning’s exercise regimen consists of walking circles in an empty room seems to be inconsistent with the Quantico information office’s December 16 statement cited above, which claims that Manning is allowed “outside physical activity without restraint”, and also appears to be inconsistent with Villiard’s December 14 statement that calisthenics, basketball, and running may constitute part of Manning’s exercise. This is likely just some mistake on the part of the brig and Villiard, right?
The only statements I can find from the Department of Defense about this whole issue reinforce the “maximum custody” trope without addressing the administrative solitary confinement that results from the longstanding POI order. Either Brian Villiard, Col. David Lapan, and the Quantico Information Office have somehow never heard of Manning’s POI order, which implies incompetence, or they are skirting around it in the media in order to avoid admitting Manning’s true conditions of confinement, which implies deception. Let’s find out which it is.
Manning’s Reality vs. Pentagon’s Spin
My meeting with Bradley this weekend provided new information to refute the Pentagon’s assertions this week about Bradley’s detention, and that show the Prevention of Injury (POI) order under which Bradley is held and restricted is unnecessary and should be removed.
1 – Ability to View Current Events & Access to Newspapers
“Pfc. Manning, as well as every other maximum custody detainee, is allotted approximately one hour of television per day. He may view any of the available channels.” — Quantico brig official Brian Villiard, Interview with Glenn Greenwald, posted online December 14 2010
“Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Friday that Manning has the same privileges as all other prisoners held in what the military calls “maximum custody.” He said Manning is in a standard single-person cell and gets exercise, recreation, access to newspapers and visitors.” — Col. Dave Lapan, Pentagon Statement released to AP December 17 2010
Manning’s Response
Manning related to me on December 18 2010 that he is not allowed to view international news during his television period. He mentioned that he might theoretically be able to view local news, but his television period is typically from 7pm – 8pm such that no local news is playing in the Quantico, VA area.
Manning told me explicitly on December 18 2010 that he is not, nor has he ever been, allowed newspapers while in confinement. When I said “The Pentagon has stated that you are allowed newspapers”, his immediate reaction was surprised laughter.
Analysis
Villiard skirts the issue of news censorship by playing word games with “available” channels. Two days later Greenwald posts this update to his December 15 2010 Salon article: “I was contacted by Lt. Villiard … he claims that Manning is not restricted from accessing news or current events during the prescribed time he is permitted to watch television.” Although his word games are little more than evasive sophistry, the claim from Villiard to Greenwald that Manning is not denied access to news or current events directly contradicts what Manning clearly related during our December 18 2010 meeting.
Lapan’s December 17 2010 statement encourages the reader that Manning’s conditions are no different than those of anyone else held in maximum custody. In reality, Manning has an extra set of restrictions imposed upon his confinement — the longstanding POI order — that by definition requires Manning to be denied basic exercise and isolated for 23 hours per day. Either Lapan is unaware of the harsh conditions imposed on Manning by a POI, or he is (mistakenly or not) conflating “maximum custody restrictions” with “POI restrictions”, or he is being deceptive to the media and the public about the conditions of Manning’s confinement. Not a lot of good options here.
Lapan’s December 17 2010 statement concludes by claiming outright that Manning has access to newspapers. This contradicts Manning’s explicit statement during our December 18 2010 meeting that he has not, nor has he ever been, allowed newspapers during his time in confinement.
2 – Ability to Engage in Outdoor Recreation
“Depending on the weather, his recreation time may be spend [sic] indoors or outdoors. Activities may include calisthenics, running, basketball, etc.” — Quantico brig official Brian Villiard Interview with Glenn Greenwald, posted online December 14 2010
“A maximum custody detainee is able to receive the same privileges that a detainee classified as general population may receive. … A maximum custody detainee also receives daily television, hygiene call, reading and outside physical activity without restraint.” — Quantico information office Statement posted to Salon.com December 16 2010
Manning’s Response
Manning stated to me on December 18 2010 that he has not been outside or into the brig yard for either recreation nor exercise in four full weeks. He related that visits to the outdoors have been infrequent and sporadic for the past several months.
Analysis
The statement sent by Villiard to Glenn Greenwald on December 14 2010 and later posted to Salon by the Quantico information office implies that Manning has the option to spend time outdoors on days with fair weather. Manning’s assertion in our December 18 2010 meeting that outdoor trips over the last several months have been rare leads me to believe that the claim “Depending on the weather, his recreation time may be spent indoors or outdoors” directly contradicts the reality of Manning’s situation as expressed in his own words.
The statement released by the Quantico information office stating that detainees receive “outside physical activity without restraint” is inconsistent with reports from Manning that outside recreation is sporadic and rare.
3 – Ability to Exercise
“Depending on the weather, his recreation time may be spend [sic] indoors or outdoors. Activities may include calisthenics, running, basketball, etc.” — Quantico brig official Brian Villiard Interview with Glenn Greenwald, posted online December 14 2010
“Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Friday that Manning has the same privileges as all other prisoners held in what the military calls “maximum custody.” He said Manning is in a standard single-person cell and gets exercise, recreation, access to newspapers and visitors.” — Col. Dave Lapan, Pentagon Statement released to AP December 17 2010
Manning’s Response
Manning related to me on December 18 2010 that he does not receive any substantive exercise and cannot perform even basic exercises in his cell. When told of the Pentagon’s statement that he did indeed receive exercise, Manning’s reply was that he is able to exercise insofar as walking in chains is a form of exercise.
Analysis
As Manning stated during our December 18 2010 meeting and as David Coombs confirms in notes on his blog, Manning’s only exercise is walking in an empty room for an hour each day. It is unknown whether Manning’s reference to chains during my meeting with him was meant to imply that he is in chains during his period of circle-walking exercise, or if he was instead referring to the action of wearing chains while being escorted through the halls of the brig. Regardless, it is safe to say that Villiard’s claim of “calisthenics, running, basketball” is every bit as untrue as Lapan’s claim that Manning gets exercise at all — insofar as walking in circles, potentially chained, is exercise.
4 – Conditions of Bedding
Pfc. Manning, as well as all other detainees, is issued adequate bedding.” — Quantico brig official Brian Villiard Interview with Glenn Greenwald, posted online December 14 2010
“…First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, an officer at Quantico, said [Manning] is allowed bedding of “non-shreddable” material.“I’ve held it, I’ve felt it, it’s soft, I’d sleep under it,” he told The Daily Beast.” — Quantico brig official Brian Villard, Interview with Daily Beast, December 17 2010
Manning’s Response
Manning related to me on December 19 2010 that his blankets are similar in weight and heft to lead aprons used in X-ray laboratories, and similar in texture to coarse and stiff carpet. He stated explicitly that the blankets are not soft in the least and expressed concern that he had to lie very still at night to avoid receiving carpet burns. The problem of carpet burns was exacerbated, he related, by the stipulation that he must sleep only in his boxer shorts as part of the longstanding POI order. Manning also stated on December 19 2010 that hallway-mounted lights shine through his window at night. This constant illumination is consistent with reports from attorney David Coombs’ blog that marines must visually inspect Manning as he sleeps.
Analysis
It is apparent from Manning’s description of his bedding and his explicit concern about their propensity to cause carpet burn that Brian Villiard’s statement attesting to the comfort of the bedding is without basis.
It would be useful to determine how many times per night Manning is rousted from sleep as a result of either the blankets, the lights, or the guards. Such an analysis of his sleeping conditions might give insight into his mental state determined by his overall ability to maintain rest in conditions of isolation.
Manning’s POI Order Should Be Lifted Immediately
Based on Bradley Manning’s description of his detention to myself and to his attorney, there are clear, unavoidable contradictions with the Pentagon’s public statements about Manning. Because of the longstanding POI order, Manning is subjected to restrictions far beyond the minimum right of other “maximum custody” prisoners held in the same brig.
Since his arrest Bradley Manning has been neither a threat to himself nor others. Over the course of my visits to see Bradley in Quantico, it’s become increasingly clear that the severe, inhumane conditions of his detention are wearing on Manning. The extraordinary restrictions of Manning’s basic rights to sleep, exercise, and communicate under the Prevention of Injury order are unnecessary and should be lifted immediately.
* Special note: No notepads, pens, phones, tape recorders, or other useful documentation devices are allowed into the brig’s visitation rooms. For this reason the key points of my conversations with Manning, his explicit replies to questions regarding confinement, were temporarily stored mentally through repetition. I am fortunate that many of his replies could be summed up in very few words. When visiting hours conclude I create a voice memo with a brain-dump of the meeting that just took place. I’ll try to get the relevant recordings online in the next few days. Aside from that, I encourage any curious parties to file an FOIA request for the government-curated audio tapes created in brig visitation room #2 on December 18 and December 19 2010 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm. David House is a researcher at MIT who helped set up the Bradley Manning Support Network, a group raising funds for Manning’s legal defense. Glenn Greenwald has an account here of House being harassed at the border, like others associated in one way or another with Wikileaks.
Independent journalist Dahr Jamail spent nine months reporting directly from Iraq, following the US invasion in 2003. His stories have been published by Antiwar.com, Inter Press Service, Truthout, Al-Jazeera, The Nation, The Sunday Herald in Scotland, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, Le Monde Diplomatique, theIndependent, and many others. On radio as well as television, Dahr reports for Democracy Now!, has appeared on Al-Jazeera, the BBC and NPR, and numerous other stations around the globe.
Angola 3 News: On April 4, 2010, WikiLeaks.org released a classified 2007 videoof a US Apache helicopter in Iraq, firing on civilians and killing 11, including Reuters’ photojournalist Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, 40 year old Saeed Chmagh. No charges have been filed against the US soldiers involved.
In sharp contrast, a 22-year-old US Army intelligence analyst named Bradley Manning has been accused of leaking the classified video. Arrested in May and facing up to 52 years in prison for a range of charges, Manning is now being held under what lawyer/journalist Glenn Greenwaldhas termed "inhumane conditions."
Manning’s support websitedeclares that "exposing war crimes is not a crime." Indeed, the Nuremberg Laws, established after the horrors of WWII, declare that soldiers have a legal obligation to resist criminal wars. Let’s please take a closer look at this issue of US war crimes. What do you think are the strongest arguments that have been made for why US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are criminal?
Dahr Jamail: To be clear, while I’ve covered Iraq extensively, I’ve not covered Afghanistan. Thus, I’ll keep all my answers in the context of my expertise, that being Iraq.
That said, the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq could not have more clearly violated international law. Even former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, said in September 2004 that the Iraq war was illegal and breached the UN Charter.
An illegal war is thus the mother of all war crimes, for from that stem all the rest. What I’ve seen in Iraq has been a parade of war crimes committed by the US military: rampant torture, collective punishment (Fallujah is an example), deliberate firing on medical workers, deliberate killing of civilians for "sport," and countless others.
Then, there is the fact that both occupations are so clearly about control of dwindling resources and their transport routes, that the excuses given for them by the US government (both Bush and Obama) are both laughable and insulting to anyone capable of a modicum of critical thought.
A3N: How do you rate the corporate media’s coverage of the Bradley Manning story?
DJ: It’s been a farce. A classic case of "shoot the messenger." When someone becomes a soldier, they swear an oath to support and defend the US constitution by following "lawful" orders. Thus, they are legally obliged by their own oath to not follow unlawful orders. What Manning did by leaking this critical information has been to uphold his oath as a soldier in the most patriotic way. Now, compare that with how he has been raked over the coals by most of the so-called mainstream media.
A3N: How do they address the argument that "exposing war crimes is not a crime?"
DJ: Usually they don’t, because the corporate media, and the government for that matter, avoid the words "war crime" as though they are a plague. Thus, they avoid the issue at all cost.
A3N: In your opinion, how do the corporate media present the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan to the US public?
DJ: With Iraq, the occupation is presented as though it was a mistake, as though the great benevolent US Empire was mistakenly mislead into the war. But since "we" are there, it is good that at least Saddam Hussein has been removed, and now of course the US has only done the best it can in a tough situation.
With Afghanistan, the occupation is presented to the public as the ongoing frontline battle against "terrorism," while in reality, they should call Afghanistan "pipeline-istan" because it’s all about securing the access corridors for natural gas and oil pipelines from the Black Sea, through Afghanistan (the 4 main US bases there are located along the exact pipeline route) to the coast of Pakistan.
A3N: How does the corporate media narrative contrast with what you have seen first-hand in Iraq?
DJ: The difference is night and day. The whitewashing and outright lying by the corporate media is offensive to me. It is repulsive, in fact, when compared to what the reality on the ground is in Iraq. The brutality of the US military there against the civilian population would shock people. More than 1 million Iraqis have been slaughtered because of the US occupation. As you read this you can know that one in every ten Iraqis remains displaced from their homes. Can you imagine that? The US policy in Iraq has been so destructive, that one out of every ten Iraqis is currently displaced from their home, now at more than 7 years into the occupation?
A3N: Returning now to the issue of soldier resistance, what are the various reasons that antiwar soldiers give as motivation for their opposition to the occupations?
DJ: Mostly from what the soldiers see once they arrive in the occupation: the buckets of money being made by the contractors, the lack of goals for the occupation beyond generating huge amounts of profit for war contractors, and that the reasons given for the invasion/occupation were entirely false. So most seem to become antiwar when they see that they’ve been lied to, used, betrayed, and that they are putting their lives on the line so that war contractors can get richer.
A3N: What are some of the ways that antiwar soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have resisted?
DJ: Myriad ways. The most common, and least dramatic, is going AWOL. More than 60,000 soldiers have now taken that route since 11 September 2001. So, often, folks will go do a deployment, come back for a break, then simply not show up when it’s time for their unit to redeploy.
Some of the more interesting means of resistance I’ve found entailed doing what soldiers refer to as "search and avoid" missions. One soldier told me how they would go out to the end of their patrol route in their Humvees, find a big field, and park. They’d call in to base every hour to check in and say, "We’re fine, we’re still searching this field for weapons caches." And they would sit there doing nothing until the time was up for their patrol, and they’d return to base. I met more and more soldiers who shared similar stories, from all over Iraq, during different times of the occupation. That’s when I realized how low morale was and how widespread different kinds of resistance had become.
Other soldiers found out how to manipulate their locator beacon on the GPS unit in the Humvees, so they’d sit and have tea with Iraqis, while someone moved their beacon around so their base thought they were patrolling.
A3N: How has US military leadership responded to this resistance?
DJ: They don’t know about much of it when it’s happening. Although there have been times when a unit has been caught doing something like the aforementioned, and they’ve broken up the unit, but that has been quite rare overall.
With AWOL troops, the military doesn’t have the manpower to send their MPs after them, so they let them go, wait for them to get a traffic ticket, for example, then the cops hand them over to the MPs who throw the AWOL soldier in the brig to await a court-martial. Then, often, the soldier is told he/she can go back to Iraq/Afghanistan, or they will be court-martialed.
A3N: In your book The Will To Resist, you document many different cases of soldiers that faced criminal charges for their opposition to US wars. We discussed Bradley Manning’s case earlier in this interview, but can you please tell us about any other recent, ongoing cases that have begun since the publication of your book in 2009? How can our readers best support these soldiers?
DJ: Most of those I followed that took place after my book was published have been completed, time served by the soldiers, and then their release into freedom from the military. Two cases of this type really stand out: Victor Agosto and Travis Bishop. Both of these men stood up and refused to be deployed, were court-martialed, served their time, and are now free.
There will be more to come as these occupations persist. A group to follow who regularly supports these resisters is Courage To Resist . They are based in Oakland and are run by Jeff Paterson, himself a resister to the first Gulf War. They do a great job of tracking resisters and what folks can do to support them. Support includes donations, but also making phone calls, writing letters, and other forms of activism.
A3N: In the months leading up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the antiwar movement in the US was relatively strong, but since the invasion began, the antiwar movement seems to have lost considerable momentum and strength. On a practical level, what do you think the US antiwar movement needs in order to be re-energized and finally end these wars?
DJ: At the risk of sounding like a cynic when I feel I’m making an honest assessment, I don’t feel there will be a mass organization of an antiwar movement. We already live in a police state. What is left of the antiwar movement is completely infiltrated, and is being torn apart by sectarianism and profiteering (the peace-industrial-complex).
In addition, I feel that the main reason for the failure of the antiwar movement is that most folks involved in it still believe they can work within the system to generate change, when the system is completely corrupted already. By "system," I mean the federal government. That apparatus is broken beyond repair, it is completely corrupted, and needs to be dissolved. Thus, any movement that seeks to work within the parameters set by the system (such as weekend permitted demonstrations, thinking you can effectively pressure your representative, etc) is doomed before it begins, because it is still playing by the rules set out by those in power. Rules guarantee never to jeopardize the loss of power by those who hold it.
Only truly radical actions, meant to subvert the system and shut it down to a point where business as usual is impossible until demands are met, are all that is left.
Angola 3 News is a project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3.
Is the alleged Wikileaks scapegoat being tortured?
Private First Class Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning , who has just turned 23, is the US Army Office who was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice(UCMJ) for “transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system,” and “communicating, transmitting and delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source”. Although not proven, or accepted, it is widely thought that Manning is a Wikileaks source. Circumstantial evidence would suggest that this may be the case as Wikileaks has offered to fund his legal defence. Manning does not go to court martial until sometime in 2011 – in which time he remains in solitary confinement.
Before his arrest it is understood that he wrote that he hoped his actions would lead to “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms”. He is also alleged to have written “I want people to see the truth regardless of who they are because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public”
For someone who has not been found guilty, and is a US citizen, he spends 23 hrs a day in solitary confinement, forbidden to nap or take exercise during the day, and every 5 minutes he must confirm verbally that he is OK. This level of social isolation and sensory deprivation is tantamount to torture. The Military maintain that they are keeping him safe and secure for the trial, and that the conditions are no different to other maximum custody detainess – that does not make it right, or acceptable.
Visitors to Manning have, of late, noticed a deterioration in his psychological condition, which is not surprising given the conditions. It is becoming such an issue that the UN’s anti-torture envoy, Manfred Nowak, is to look into the complaint.
Whilst the US Government may not call it torture, to a reasonable person it is – it is not civilised. It is clearly designed to break him down and to try and get him to confirm that he is the source for Wikileaks, and therefore implicate Julian Assange, amongst others.
Depending on where you sit on this, he is either a state criminal, and should be tried for treason, or a hero. If he is a hero, he is the only one who can take that title. Whilst he is enduring appalling conditions in the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico, Julian Assange is enjoying his stay at Ellingham Hall, Vaughan Smith’s country seat, hoping that Manning does not crack, and ruing the day that his liking for Swedish women got the better of him.
…and where is the liberal, transparent Barack Obama on this – or did that disappear when he was elected?
The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention:
When one exacerbates the harms of prolonged isolation with the other deprivations to which Manning is being subjected, long-term psychiatric and even physical impairment is likely. Gawande documents that "EEG studies going back to the nineteen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing of brain waves in prisoners after a week or more of solitary confinement." Medical tests conducted in 1992 on Yugoslavian prisoners subjected to an average of six months of isolation -- roughly the amount to which Manning has now been subjected -- "revealed brain abnormalities months afterward; the most severe were found in prisoners who had endured either head trauma sufficient to render them unconscious or, yes, solitary confinement. Without sustained social interaction, the human brain may become as impaired as one that has incurred a traumatic injury." Gawande's article is filled with horrifying stories of individuals subjected to isolation similar to or even less enduring than Manning's who have succumbed to extreme long-term psychological breakdown.
and now more confirmation via a blogpost made by his laywer:
A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning
PFC Manning is currently being held in maximum custody. Since arriving at the Quantico Confinement Facility in July of 2010, he has been held under Prevention of Injury (POI) watch.
His cell is approximately six feet wide and twelve feet in length.
The cell has a bed, a drinking fountain, and a toilet.
The guards at the confinement facility are professional. At no time have they tried to bully, harass, or embarrass PFC Manning. Given the nature of their job, however, they do not engage in conversation with PFC Manning.
At 5:00 a.m. he is woken up (on weekends, he is allowed to sleep until 7:00 a.m.). Under the rules for the confinement facility, he is not allowed to sleep at anytime between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. If he attempts to sleep during those hours, he will be made to sit up or stand by the guards.
He is allowed to watch television during the day. The television stations are limited to the basic local stations. His access to the television ranges from 1 to 3 hours on weekdays and 3 to 6 hours on weekends.
He cannot see other inmates from his cell. He can occasionally hear other inmates talk. Due to being a pretrial confinement facility, inmates rarely stay at the facility for any length of time. Currently, there are no other inmates near his cell.
From 7:00 p.m. to 9:20 p.m., he is given correspondence time. He is given access to a pen and paper. He is allowed to write letters to family, friends, and his attorneys.
Each night, during his correspondence time, he is allowed to take a 15 to 20 minute shower.
On weekends and holidays, he is allowed to have approved visitors see him from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.
He is allowed to receive letters from those on his approved list and from his legal counsel. If he receives a letter from someone not on his approved list, he must sign a rejection form. The letter is then either returned to the sender or destroyed.
He is allowed to have any combination of up to 15 books or magazines. He must request the book or magazine by name. Once the book or magazine has been reviewed by the literary board at the confinement facility, and approved, he is allowed to have someone on his approved list send it to him. The person sending the book or magazine to him must do so through a publisher or an approved distributor such as Amazon. They are not allowed to mail the book or magazine directly to PFC Manning.
Due to being held on Prevention of Injury (POI) watch:
PFC Manning is held in his cell for approximately 23 hours a day.
The guards are required to check on PFC Manning every five minutes by asking him if he is okay. PFC Manning is required to respond in some affirmative manner. At night, if the guards cannot see PFC Manning clearly, because he has a blanket over his head or is curled up towards the wall, they will wake him in order to ensure he is okay.
He receives each of his meals in his cell.
He is not allowed to have a pillow or sheets. However, he is given access to two blankets and has recently been given a new mattress that has a built-in pillow.
He is not allowed to have any personal items in his cell.
He is only allowed to have one book or one magazine at any given time to read in his cell. The book or magazine is taken away from him at the end of the day before he goes to sleep.
He is prevented from exercising in his cell. If he attempts to do push-ups, sit-ups, or any other form of exercise he will be forced to stop.
He does receive one hour of “exercise” outside of his cell daily. He is taken to an empty room and only allowed to walk. PFC Manning normally just walks figure eights in the room for the entire hour. If he indicates that he no long feels like walking, he is immediately returned to his cell.
When PFC Manning goes to sleep, he is required to strip down to his boxer shorts and surrender his clothing to the guards. His clothing is returned to him the next morning.
Aside from whether he is guilty or innocent. Aside from whether this falls under torture. Aside from whether the US are breaching the Geneva Convention, display a lack of plain human decency or whatever.
...what happens to a person under those conditions? Will he confess just for the hell of it? To get out of those circumstances? What worth would such a confession have after doing this to a person?
Nobody will believe him even if he confesses after being treated like this.
you make a very valid point, I been watching some discussion on (non english) TV where someone talked about how this can drive people really crazy, effectively insane. Any statement should hold no value at this/that point but I'm afraid this might just not go that way...
But I am sure if it gets to a point where Assange is standing in an American court this is one of the things his lawyers will be arguing.
WikiLeaks suspect 'not mistreated' US military rejects claims that Bradley Manning, suspected of leaking secret documents to website, is being mistreated.
The United States military has denied mistreating an army private suspected of passing hundreds of thousands of classified US documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
Bradley Manning has been held in solitary confinement at a US Marine prison near Washington since July after being charged with eight counts under federal law, including transmitting classified information to a third party, and two counts under military law.
But Colonel Dave Lapan, a US defence department spokesman, said on Friday that Manning has the same privileges as all other prisoners held in what the military calls "maximum custody".
He said Manning is in a standard single-person cell and gets exercise, recreation, access to newspapers and visitors.
Lapan described as "blatantly false" the accusations of mistreatment which have appeared in the US media in recent days.
'Punishment'
The California-based Courage to Resist project has described the conditions in which Manning is being held as "a form of punishment prior to conviction".
Jeff Paterson, the director of the project, which supports troops who refuse to fight, said people who have visited Manning report that he spends at least 23 hours a day alone in a cell no larger than about six square metres.
He told the Huffington Post that Manning is "very annoyed" at the conditions of his confinement.
"He sits in this small box, for the most part only to take a shower - he just sits and eats and four months have gone by."
Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer and author, wrote on Salon.com that the solitary confinement conditions "constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture".
The "accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries," even though he has not been convicted of any crime, Greenwald said when he appeared on the MSNBC television network on Friday.
Firmness and fairness'
But officials at the military brig at Quantico Marine base insisted that Manning was being treated humanely.
WikiLeaks has so far refused to confirm if Manning leaked documents to the website [EPA] "What I will tell you is that he is not treated any differently than any other maximum confinement detainee," First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, a prison spokesman, told the AFP news agency.
Inmates at the brig "are treated with firmness, fairness, dignity and compassion," Villiard said. But, he added: "It's no Shangri-la."
Manning has access to newspapers, is within speaking range of other inmates in his wing, is permitted visitors and chooses from the same food menu as his fellow prisoners.
But under the maximum security rules, Manning is barred from the mess hall and must take his meals in his solitary cell, while prison authorities have decided not to issue him cotton sheets, he said.
Instead, the brig officers have provided two blankets and a pillow made of material that cannot be torn into pieces - as a "precaution," according to Villiard.
Identity unknown
WikiLeaks website has yet to disclose its source for the massive trove of classified US military and diplomatic documents published in recent months, but suspicion has focused on Manning, who worked as an army intelligence analyst.
Julian Assange, the website's founder, said on Friday that he "had never heard of the name Bradley Manning before it was published in the press".
"WikiLeaks technology [was] designed from the very beginning to make sure that we never know the identities or names of people submitting us material."
On Thursday, Assange was released on bail in the United Kingdom where is awaiting an extradition hearing after Sweden requested his arrest over sex abuse allegations.
The WikiLeaks founder has said he believes that the US is preparing an indictment against him.
Former Pentagon officer Karen Kwiatkowski details how Bradley Manning's imprisonment is harsher than 4 convicted spies'
Brad Manning Has Rights!
by Karen Kwiatkowski
"A Few Good Men" dramatically exposes the deformation and distortion of right and wrong that is the very demand of state utilitarianism, which is to say, an action is right if is promotes the state’s happiness, and an action is wrong if it tends to make the state unhappy. Colonel Jessup called for the harsh physical punishment of a "substandard Marine" and thus Corporal Santiago was killed by his comrades. The state, represented by Jessup, explains, "…Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives…."
Charged but not convicted of any crime, American airman Brad Manning is being held largely incommunicado at Guantanamo, without bedding or permission to exercise in his cell. He is purposely deprived of human contact. His current treatment – based on unproven charges – is far harsher than the treatment and sentences of four famous and convicted US federal-level spies.
Very right wing article about Bradley Manning on Newsbusters.
NBC Suggests 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Helped Drive Bradley Manning to Betray America
In a report aired on Sunday’s NBC Nightly News, correspondent Mike Taibbi raised the possibility that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that prevented U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning from being openly gay in the military may have played a role in his decision to acquire and leak classified information to WikiLeaks. Before recounting that some in Manning’s hometown of Crescent, Oklahoma, believe he should be strictly punished for his actions, Taibbi also related: "Back in Manning's hometown, they're wondering if his troubled home life and his service in an Army that would not allow him to be openly gay had an impact on his decision to leak sensitive documents."
A bit earlier in the story, the NBC correspondent had also informed viewers of former hacker Adrian Lama’s account of Manning’s complaints about military service. Taibbi: "And in a dozen online conversations, Manning complained he was 'never noticed,' 'regularly ignored,' 'abused,' and said he became the WikiLeaks source because serving in Iraq he was 'actively involved' in something he was completely against."
David House at FireDogLake with full report on recent visits with Bradley Manning and conditions for him there. "Our conversations, which take place in the presence of marines and electronic monitoring equipment, typically revolve around topics in physics, computer science, and philosophy; he recently mentioned that he hopes to one day make use of the GI Bill towards earning a graduate degree in Physics and a bachelors in Political Science. He rarely if ever talks about his conditions in the brig, and it is not unusual for him to shy away from questions about his well-being by changing the subject entirely.
A few quick quotes (but please read it all at the above link)
Manning on sleeping arrangements
Manning related to me on December 19 2010 that his blankets are similar in weight and heft to lead aprons used in X-ray laboratories, and similar in texture to coarse and stiff carpet. He stated explicitly that the blankets are not soft in the least and expressed concern that he had to lie very still at night to avoid receiving carpet burns. The problem of carpet burns was exacerbated, he related, by the stipulation that he must sleep only in his boxer shorts as part of the longstanding POI order. Manning also stated on December 19 2010 that hallway-mounted lights shine through his window at night. This constant illumination is consistent with reports from attorney David Coombs’ blog that marines must visually inspect Manning as he sleeps.
Manning on exercise:
Manning related to me on December 18 2010 that he does not receive any substantive exercise and cannot perform even basic exercises in his cell. When told of the Pentagon’s statement that he did indeed receive exercise, Manning’s reply was that he is able to exercise insofar as walking in chains is a form of exercise.
Manning on his acces to news:
Manning related to me on December 18 2010 that he is not allowed to view international news during his television period. He mentioned that he might theoretically be able to view local news, but his television period is typically from 7pm – 8pm such that no local news is playing in the Quantico, VA area.
Manning told me explicitly on December 18 2010 that he is not, nor has he ever been, allowed newspapers while in confinement. When I said “The Pentagon has stated that you are allowed newspapers”, his immediate reaction was surprised laughter.
An article by Daphne Eviatar of Human Rights First: link
Coupled with the law that people can be held indefinitely, this is not good news:
Although Coombs has raised the issue with officials at Quantico, he can't actually bring a motion for relief under Article 13 until the case is officially referred for court-martial. So far, although Manning has been charged, the case is still under investigation and court-martial has not yet begun.
Article by Jane Hamsher, called Bradley Manning and the Convenient Memories of Adrian Lamo
So far every piece of evidence against Bradley Manning comes from one source, Adrian Lamo, a hacker who was institutionalized by the police three weeks before he alleges Manning contacted him and confessed he turned over materials to Wikileaks. There are many inconsistencies in Lamo’s many stories, as Marcy Wheeler has documented, yet the normally excellent Charlie Savage lets Lamo serve as sole source for a highly dubious story in the pages of the New York Times:
House appeared on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show, guest-hosted by Jonathan Capehart, to describe his latest visit with alleged WikiLeaks whistle-blower Army PFC Bradley Manning.
he shouldnt admit to ANYTHING. hackers hacked his computer, too his chat program information, and used his name and pretended they were him. the end. innocent until proven guilty.
BBC article which just quotes things from the MSNBC interview with David House.
Misleading article by John Cook in Gawker which plays down the conditions
But the bottom line is that there is nothing even remotely unusual about the conditions under which Manning is currently confined. There are literally thousands of people—by one estimate as many as 20,000 [pdf]—in this country in solitary confinement right now. It is a distressingly routine technique.
Article by bmaz called Gawker Coughs Up a Misleading Hairball On Bradley Manning
Gawker describes 20,000 people in solitary confinement in the US and equates them with Manning without noting the source they are citing is describing only prisoners that have been convicted, and most all of whom have factual circumstances requiring segregation. Manning is being held pre-trial, is presumed innocent and free and should not, according to consistent law, be imposed on or restricted any more than necessary to secure his appearance in court and safety.
And an article by Conor Friedersdorf in the Daily Dish
Sympathetic as I am to attempts at assessing whether torture is happening, I wonder if a focus on the t-word isn't counterproductive. It allows defenders of the status quo to keep the focus on a contentious, politically charged argument about terminology. But torture or not, this treatment is abhorrent and inexcusable, as anyone can see for themselves if they imagine it being done to an innocent person.
Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law.
I greatly appreciate everyone’s support and well wishes during this time. I am also thankful for everything that has been done to aid in my defense. I ask that everyone takes the time to remember those who are separated from their loved ones at this time due to deployment and important missions. Specifically, I am thinking of those that I deployed with and have not seen for the last seven months, and of the staff here at the Quantico Confinement Facility who will be spending their Christmas without their family.
You can also sign a letter to his commanding officer here.
Blacks doubt death in small Southern town is a suicide--they want answers now
By Jesse Muhammad -Staff writer- | Last updated: Dec 16, 2010 - 2:57:58 PM
Family, political leaders, activists want further investigation into hanging death of young man
The body of Frederick Jermaine Carter was found hanging from a tree and local authorities ruled the death a suicide. His family and Blacks, however, don't believe the young man took his own life.
(FinalCall.com) - The idea of a so-called post-racial America was widely discussed, debated and even seen as an achievement by some with Barack Obama's inauguration as president of the United States.
For Blacks in Greenwood, Mississippi, the notion that America has gotten beyond race isn't popular today. Many are angry over the recent mysterious hanging death of Frederick Jermaine Carter.
“This is 2010 and we still have Black people hanging from trees? They're saying he hung himself but I have doubt in my mind that he actually did that. That wasn't his character. This wasn't a suicide, this was a homicide,” said Sunflower, Miss., Mayor Michael Pembleton, Jr. to The Final Call.
The body of Mr. Carter, 26, was found Dec. 3 hanging from an oak tree in the predominately White North Greenwood area of Leflore County. The young man lived in neighboring Sunflower County, located several miles away.
Mr. Carter's stepfather told law enforcement that he was working in the area with his stepson when Mr. Carter wandered off.
County Sheriff Ricky Banks reportedly told the media the young man had a “mental condition and a history of wandering off.” He also publicly stated that he saw no signs at the scene pointing towards it being a crime or murder.
Mr. Banks said evidence shows Mr. Carter dragged an old frame of a nearby table, leaned it against the trunk of the tree and commenced to tying himself to the tree limb.
(L)Photos from the scene of the death, show the deceased and the area around where the body was found. (R) Some Blacks say police did not properly mark off the place where the 26-year-old died and may have allowed for contamination of the scene if foul play occurred.
“The frame probably broke, possibly because Carter kicked it out from under himself,” Mr. Banks told reporters.
The preliminary autopsy results by the Leflore County Coroner's Office declared it a suicide.
The deceased man's family and community leaders don't accept the official explanations and are calling for further investigation.
“Because there has been no investigation on the part of the local officials into this as a crime, we're calling on the federal government to conduct an independent investigation. We want the U.S. Justice department to look into this,” attorney Valerie Hicks Powe told The Final Call in a phone interview on Dec. 13.
Ms. Powe, who is based in Birmingham, Ala., is the spokesperson for the victim's family. “A crime scene was never established. They never roped the scene off and this has not been treated as a crime. There is no reason to believe that he would commit suicide. We appreciate attention being brought to this because we need an outcry from the people,” she said.
Funeral services for Mr. Carter were scheduled for Dec. 18 at Ark of The Covenant Church in Moorhead, Miss.
One of the most gruesome lynchings in U.S history took place in Money, Miss., which approximately 10 miles north of Greenwood. In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was beaten, shot in the head, his eyes gouged out, and thrown into theTallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire after accusations of whistling a White woman. Two White males were acquitted in the case while the boy's mother held an open casket funeral that made national headlines. It was also a watershed moment for the civil rights movement as the horror the Southern violence and brutality was put before the world.
Unanswered questions and appeals for outside help
Loved one and relatives want answers to questions about the death of Mr. Carter and the story thus far does not ring true, they say.“He didn't have a mental problem. His problem was he tended to not defend himself against others in conflict but he wouldn't kill himself. The family is requesting a second autopsy and want to also have an autopsy done by someone out of the state of Mississippi,” says Mr. Pembleton, who is also a cousin of the victim.
State Senator David Jordan was able to obtain gruesome photos of Mr. Carter's body hanging from the tree. He went to the scene himself and is also skeptical of what is being reported.
Photos of the tree and location where Frederick Jermaine Carter was found hung in Greenwood, Miss.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions. He reportedly had rope in his pocket but didn't have anything to cut it with? Why wasn't the scene of the crime blocked off? That tree limb is nearly 12 feet high. I'm 6'2 and I can't see how I could maneuver to do that so how could a boy his height hang himself like that?” asks Mr. Jordan, who is also a Greenwood City Councilman.
Mr. Jordan met with the victim's mother, Brenda Carter, when he obtained the photos of her son. “She told me her son loved life too much to take his life. We want another autopsy now,” he said.
Wendol Lee, president of the Memphis-based Operation Help Civil Rights Group, said some 300 residents petitioned his group to get involved because of “paranoia related to the history of lynching.”
“The area where he was found hanging is an area that Black people do not go into according to what residents have told us. Blacks get harassed and stopped by the police in that area so why would this young man go way over there to kill himself? We believe someone took him over there and killed him,” said Mr. Lee, who also works with the National Action Network.
Mr. Lee's group has been on the ground interviewing residents, who he also says do not believe Mr. Carter would take his own life. “He was a good young man who was seen always helping the children,” he added.
On Dec. 9, Mr. Lee's group led a press conference with the family in Greenwood to express dissatisfaction with the investigation and issue his group's call for a national federal probe.
“We know Whites that are in power in Mississippi have never shown favor to Blacks. We're reaching out to Attorney General Eric Holder to order an investigation on the federal level because we're getting conflicting statements from the police,” said Mr. Lee.
Following the press conference, Mr. Lee said they went back to the scene and found what could possibly be “an extra set of footprints. We're leaning towards that this was a killing because everyone we talked to has never seen Frederick in that area before until his body was found,” he noted.
Ground photo of high tree where Frederick's body was found.
“How did he (Mr. Carter) get out there so far? That's a serious question. I'm concerned about the way the knot was tied around his neck. That's a very particular type of knot that you don't see Black people walking around with,” said Larry Muhammad, Nation of Islam representative in Greenville, Miss.
A major protest in Greenwood maybe brewing, according to Mr. Lee. “This is not the old days. You can't just hang Black people today and think nothing is going to happen. If need be, we're going to invite Al Sharpton to get involved. We going to get ready to shake up this town!” vowed Mr. Lee.
Leflore County Supervisor Preston Ratliff is questioning the reported suicide as well. “I have not made many public statements because I'm still waiting for more information but I do think it is strange that he would hang himself in such a remote area. The mere fact that a Black man is found hanging in a White neighborhood is disturbing based on the history of the Delta,” he said.
According to Mr. Ratliff, Leflore County is approximately 65 percent Black and 35 percent White in population. He doesn't deny the racial problems in his area but points out that it's not as bad as it used to be.
“It's better than people think, but we still have a long way to go. I simply want the truth to come out in this hanging. If it is proven that this is the result of foul play, then those who are responsible need to be found,” said Mr. Ratliff.
“What attracted my attention was that it took place in this big field in a White community. I went to the scene and I didn't see any evidence that a struggle took place. The first autopsy says suicide but nobody believes that is the case,” said Dr. Eddie Carthan, who heads Good Samaritan Ecumenical Church in Tchula, Miss.
“I'm striving to look at this objectively. Right now we're not sure and we're still investigating,” he said.
“There is no sign that we could find whatsoever that anyone else was involved. I haven't seen anything to change my mind, and I'm looking really hard,” said Sheriff Banks to the media.
Blacks in the area don't see it the same way. “We can't have a young, Black man hanging and we just go back to business as usual. We can't sit by and let this go (on). People want stuff like this to get swept under the rug,” countered Mr. Jordan.
We have all seen the devastation caused by the earthquake that hit Haiti, a poor nation in the island of Hispaniola.Countries around the world have pitched in to send rescue teams to Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake, which flattened buildings and killed tens of thousands, leaving countless others homeless.Some Cameroonians around the world have taken it upon themselves to put their effort too for Haiti. A Cameroonian UN representative by the name of Laura Fultang is actually at the fore front assisting with the relief efforts going on.Amabel Niba, editor of African Vibes Magazine set up the 1000 Africans for Haiti cause with all proceeds going to the Red Cross. To join, please go herehttp://www.causes.com/africanforhaiti. Join, contribute and make a difference. YES WE CAN!Denzyl, the most talked about afrobeat newcomer is joining his efforts too. He will be donating all proceeds from the single "So Long - a tribute to Haiti" from his debut album entitled "So Long" to the cause. Sneek peek of the album right here.In France, a collection of artists joined forces to create a heartfelt track/video "Un geste pour Haiti". This collection also featured Camer artists such as Manu Dibango, Les Nubians etc
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