

PFC. Bradley Manning is accused of being the whistleblower responsible for releasing critical information about wrongdoings in the Iraq War to Wikileaks. According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on our foreign policies, and most recently contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all U.S.troops from the failed occupation in Iraq.



But for 10 months, Manning was held in solitary confinement, cut off from nearly all human contact and even subjected to forced nudity.Bradley’s conditions were apparently so bad that the UN’s torture investigator asked the US Government for private access to Manning to find out if Manning was tortured. But the US wouldn’t let the UN official speak to Bradley without listening in and recording their meeting -- they’d even be able to use what Bradley said to the UN against him in court.



I served my country as a US Marine in Iraq. It pains me to think that fellow Marines were ordered to effectively torture a soldier who, by blowing the whistle on the killing of innocent civilians in Iraq, helped end that war.



Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is new to the Pentagon, and wasn’t a part of his department’s earlier refusal to deny Juan Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur for Torture, access to Bradley Manning. I’m asking Secretary Panetta to finally let Mendez have a private visit to Bradley Manning.



(You can find out how else to help Bradley with the Bradley Manning Support Network on Facebook)