Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
U.S. military officials tell NBC News that investigators have been unable to make any direct connection between a jailed army private suspected with leaking secret documents and Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The officials say that while investigators have determined that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, there is apparently no evidence he passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.
[...]
Military officials said Brig Commander James Averhart did not have the authority to place Manning on suicide watch for two days last week, and that only medical personnel are allowed to make that call.
The official said that after Manning had allegedly failed to follow orders from his Marine guards. Averhart declared Manning a "suicide risk." Manning was then placed on suicide watch, which meant he was confined to his cell, stripped of most of his clothing and deprived of his reading glasses — anything that Manning could use to harm himself. At the urging of U.S. Army lawyers, Averhart lifted the suicide watch.
Comments
Also, it should be noted again that they are talking about "tens of thousands" of documents. Not hundreds of thousands of documents.
In the evidence disclosed to the public, charges actually filed and now confirmed through leaks - all of it centers around a document count significantly less than the number in either the War Diaraies or the recent State Department leaks ... let alone both. To date, the only thing we can honestly say of Manning is that he appears to have been the source of the "Collateral Murder" video. There is no other Wikileaks release where the data records materially match the descriptions (as publicly disclosed) of data Manning is charged with acquiring and passing on.
by kgb999 on Sat, 01/29/2011 - 4:24am
"Suicide Watch" imposed by the Brig Commander as punishment for failing to follow orders from his Marine guards?
What's next? Perhaps a "watched suicide" imposed by the brig commander for failing to cooperate?
There's a reason we decided long ago that it is necessary for all in authority to follow the Rule of Law. The longer this "security trumps the Constitution" bullshit is allowed to continue, the more apparent it becomes that we were right in the first place in declaring that human rights are to remain inviolate under any circumstances.
I thought the Cheney/Bush abuses were aberrations that would most certainly be corrected by a civil society. How distressing it is to see the ways that Obama has instead legitimized them and, in fact, has doubled-down on this abuse of authority. Shameful.
by SleepinJeezus on Sat, 01/29/2011 - 9:26am