Pvt. Manning, widely accused of committing "biggest security breach" in the nation's history, spoke about harsh psychological treatment the same week another senator, Diane Feinstein, the Democrat from California, released to the public the typically trenchant work of the General Accountability Office. Asked to determine where the 167 or so Gitmo prisoners could safely be sent within the United States should the Cuban facility be closed, the federal fact-finders came back with an answer-- 104 places!-- but also a stern and timely reminder to lawmakers and bureaucrats that our federal prison system already is 38 percent overcrowded.

Pvt. Manning, who is in the process of pleading guilty to seven of the charges against him, spoke about mental illness under confinement the same week a federal judge in Denver was poised to issue a critical pretrial ruling in two important civil rights lawsuits over the deplorable conditions and the mental health mistreatment of inmates at the Bureau of Prison's infamous "Supermax" facility near Florence, Colorado. U.S. District Judge Richard Match soon will decide whether to require the Obama Administration to make prison officials and their records available for review by the plaintiffs in those pending cases.

Pvt. Manning, in custody now since May 2010 while Wikileaks founder Julian Assange nurtures his asylum, spoke about going mad, and trying to stay sane, in captivity the same week a federal trial judge in Miami granted Jose Padilla extra time before his re-sentencing on terror conspiracy charges. You remember Jose Padilla, don't you? He is the U.S. citizen who was once called the "dirty bomb" suspect and then subjected to Bush-era interrogation tactics which then drove him into madness. When it came time for the feds to prosecute Padilla, however, it was for a bush-league conspiracy supported by barely any evidence.

Pvt. Manning, against whom prosecutors plan to introduce newly declassified evidence from Osama bin Laden's computer, spoke about excessive detention measures the same week Department of Defense General Counsel Jeh Johnson gave an important speech in England in which he suggested that our war against Al Qaeda ultimately may reach "a tipping point" after which the terror organization will "no longer" be "able to attempt or launch a strategic attack against the United States." Whether that happy day is five years away, or 20, or 100, Johnson could not say.

Pvt. Manning is no hero to me. But the treatment he allegedly endured by his military captors-- without yet being found guilty of anything-- is deeply troubling for what it says about the Obama Administration's core values as the war on terror enters its second decade. The power of Manning's tale of woe isn't just that this physical and psychological abuse allegedly happened to him. The power is that the allegations he raises have been raised consistently recently by less famous criminal defendants all over the nation. These stories, taken as a whole, suggest America's arc of justice is bending away from respect for basic human rights.