The pressure pays off

Bradley Manning, the whistle-blower currently awaiting trial in the U.S. has finally been moved from the Quantico Marine Base to a military prison. The serviceman who is accused of leaking embarrassing state secrets to the Wikileaks website, had been held in conditions amounting to 'torture'. A concerted campaign by human rights organisations, national newspapers and individuals has helped highlight the disgraceful behaviour of the U.S. authorities and the pressure has led to him enjoying more humane conditions in the run-up to his trial.

Thank goodness for the watchers

The Guardian newspaper had kept a spotlight aimed at Manning's treatment, which has included incarceration in his cell for 23 hours a day, shackled exercise in a small room (only allowed to perform figure of eights), solitary confinement, forced to sleep naked, sleep deprivation and tightly controlled visitation rights (with visits cancelled or hampered by the authorities on a regular basis). All of this was aimed to break a man who has not yet been tried, or found guilty, though the U.S. authorities have refused to accept that any of this was designed to be 'punitive'.

Manning - Tortured but not broken

He is now in Fort Leavenworth Military Prison, where he is able to associate with other prisoners. The fact that reporters have been shown the conditions in which he will now await trial demonstrates the power of public pressure. One has to wonder how many other whistle-blowers, who have not enjoyed publicity, have been left to rot in conditions amounting to torture. Manning's alleged 'crime' is exposing the genuine documented crimes of the U.S. authorities - crimes against civilisation - and yet it is he who they are attempting to punish. Regardless of this latest twist, a dark stain remains on the reputation of the U.S. - to add to all the other dark stains it has been accumulating over the years.

The U.S. - a disgrace to civilisation