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There is NO excuse or justification for TORTURE, Obama
by Patrick Martin via gan - wsws Saturday, Mar 12 2011, 7:35pm
international / human rights / other press

Puppet President defends criminal Pentagon

An otherwise desultory press conference Friday morning featured the first public questioning of President Obama about the abusive treatment of Bradley Manning, the Army private who faces 34 criminal charges, some bearing the death penalty, for allegedly leaking to WikiLeaks evidence of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as State Department cables revealing US diplomatic intrigues.

Manning is jailed at the Quantico Marine Corps base near Washington DC, under conditions that have been denounced by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations as tantamount to torture. He has been held in solitary confinement there for more than seven months. In the last week he has been deprived of all clothing during sleeping hours, then compelled to stand naked for inspection every morning.

If another country were meting out similarly sadistic treatment to a captured American POW, the Pentagon and the American media would be howling about war crimes. But Manning’s treatment has been largely blacked out of the corporate-controlled mass media. Friday’s question was the first time the subject has been raised by the White House press corps.

The inquiry by Jake Tapper of ABC News was the second and subordinate part of a question that began with the Japanese earthquake and its effect on Japanese nuclear power facilities. Tapper then continued as follows:

“And then, a second question--the State Department spokesman, PJ Crowley, said the treatment of Bradley Manning by the Pentagon is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid. And I’m wondering if you agree with that. Thank you, sir.”

Obama answered the question about Japan, then added:

“With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are. I can’t go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning’s safety as well.”

This answer is a cowardly example of stonewalling, undoubtedly crafted in advance after consultation with the Pentagon brass. Obama does not actually say that Manning is being treated appropriately, only that unnamed military officials “assure me that they are.”

He then wraps the whole issue in secrecy, with the suggestion that Manning is somehow being protected from himself rather than subjected to sadistic abuse in order to break him psychologically and pressure him into becoming a government witness against WikiLeaks.

Able to follow up, Tapper went for the most trivial aspect of the issue, asking, “Do you disagree with PJ Crowley?” Obama responded, “I think I gave you an answer to the substantive issue.”

No other reporter sought to follow up the subject.

Crowley, having served as chief spokesman for the National Security Council during the Clinton administration before working for Hillary Clinton in the current administration, is a veteran apologist for the crimes of US imperialism, including the Kosovo War and the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

At a public discussion Thursday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before an audience of 20 people, Crowley was asked about the treatment of Manning, which the questioner described as the military “torturing a prisoner in a military brig.”

A career Air Force officer before he became a government spokesman, Crowley replied, “What’s being done to Bradley Manning by my colleagues at the Department of Defense is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He went on, however, to defend Manning’s incarceration and condemn the WikiLeaks revelations.

Obama’s endorsement of the torture of Manning follows his order Monday to resume the drum-head military tribunals at Guantanamo and hold 48 of the 172 remaining detainees under indefinite detention without any form of legal process. He is, no less than his predecessor, an accomplice in the sadistic abuse and torture of prisoners both at Guantanamo and on the US mainland

© 2011 World Socialist Web Site

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under reported facts
by Al Saturday, Mar 12 2011, 8:37pm

hardly mentioned in any news reports is the fact that Manning is a HOMOSEXUAL (hence the emphasis) as is David House, his primary advocate and 'friend.'

I have no issue with poofs, after all, Alexander the Great was a raging fag, as were most of his young generals and other fighting Greeks of the time. It's a matter of cultural context.

However, we do note that the poofs of old were NOT limp-wristed effeminate fags like so many GENDER CONFUSED non-entities today! That point aside I have derived much satisfaction from the fact the US military victimised Manning for reasons unclear at this stage, which resulted in Manning's alleged leaking of privileged data; Manning was probably facing a discharge of some sort while he was allegedly supplying data to WikiLeaks.

The US military is not short of poofs and dykes in its ranks so one can only wonder why Manning was singled out; perhaps it was his obvious sensitivity and his abhorrence of the torture and crimes committed by the US military that he witnessed while he was stationed in Iraq that tipped him over the edge, who knows?

A painful irony today is the fact that puppet president Obama is also a poof or bisexual with a decided preference for male fellatio.

So what should we learn from these INJUSTICES, double standards and searing American HYPOCRISIES? You ask yourselves cos I/we already know -- it is our job to determine all the weaknesses of any culture, nation or person and use that information in OUR fight for JUSTICE, TRUTH and the restoration of LAW and representative democracy. You see, what we have today masquerading for democracy is minority rule by plutocratic CRIMINAL elites. A situation easily rectified by simply electing YOUR community leaders -- people you KNOW -- to office in every election. The two-party system is a FRAUD, as is easily seen today.

A final note to the Pentagon brass; think twice before victimising homosexuals in the future you dumbarse bunglers. Those really responsible for the leaks are actually Manning's superiors for not assessing the situation correctly in the FIRST INSTANCE, in Oz it's called 'contributory negligence.'

The Manning affair is simply more evidence of TORTURE and ineptitude from a nation in MORAL tail-spin. You're going down Uncle, and it's a pleasure assisting those fighters with moral convictions and and a sense of fair play and JUSTICE.

Puppet poof, Obama
Puppet poof, Obama


 
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