Stop the Inhumane Treatment of Bradley Manning: Letter

Stop the Inhumane Treatment of Bradley Manning: Sign Our Letter
Bradley Manning is the 23-year-old Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks. For the last five months, he has been detained in solitary confinement enduring conditions that are cruel, inhumane, and bordering on torture.

Bradley Manning deserves humane treatment while he awaits trial.
Please add your name to our letter urging the Marines to lift the heavy restrictions of Manning’s unnecessary “Prevention of Injury” order.
Bradley's friend, David House, will deliver your letter to the Commanding Officer at the Quantico Marine Base brig when he next visits Bradley Manning.

Letter to Commanding Officer James Averhart, US MCB Quantico Brig:

Pfc. Bradley Manning has been held for five months under “maximum custody” at Quantico Marine Corps Base under your supervision. Pfc. Manning is under a “Prevention of Injury Order” (POI) that puts him in severe isolation

• Manning stays in his cell for 23 hours a day
• Guards must check on him every 5 minutes, and he must respond each time
• He is not allowed to sleep between 5am and 8pm
• Substantive exercise is not allowed beyond walking, potentially in chains
• Communication with other people in the brig is banned, and he cannot write to people outside beyond the few a list approved by the brig commander; any unapproved letters he receives are destroyed.
• He has not been allowed to read newspapers or watch international news during TV time
• Comfortable sleep is impossible; he must surrender his clothes each night, has only a heavy “suicide blanket” akin to an x-ray vest, and guards must be able to see his face at all times.

A psychologist has said Manning isn’t a danger to himself or others, and the POI order is unnecessary. His lawyer has also been unable to have the POI order lifted. But it is clear that Bradley Manning has been subjected to inhumane and unnecessary punishment without being convicted of a crime.

The severe isolation is already having negative effects on Pfc. Manning’s health, according to his attorney and a friend. And his psychologist says he is of no danger to himself or others, making the longstanding POI order unnecessary.

The conditions of Pfc. Manning’s detention are cruel, inhumane, and disproportionate for the crime with which he has only been charged. We urge you to lift Pfc. Manning’s POI order and allow him to exercise, communicate, and sleep as allowed under maximum custody

(if Outside the US, you may sign the letter using zip code 00000)