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States Dep’t spokesman slams treatment of alleged Wikileaker Bradley Manning

(Moral Low Ground) – US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley slammed the military’s treatment of its most well-known American prisoner, alleged Wikileaker Bradley Manning, at an event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology yesterday. The small gathering, on on “the benefits of new media as it relates to foreign policy,” was hosted by the Center for Future Civic Media. Prominent British journalist Phillipa Thomas was there, and she blogged about Crowley’s stunning comments:

    Around twenty of us were sitting around the table listening to his views on social media, the impact of the Twittersphere, the Arab uprisings, and so on, in a vast space-age conference room overlooking the Charles River and the Boston skyline. And then, inevitably, one young man said he wanted to address “the elephant in the room”. What did Crowley think, he asked, about Wikileaks? About the United States, in his words, “torturing a prisoner in a military brig”? Crowley didn’t stop to think. What’s being done to Bradley Manning by my colleagues at the Department of Defense “is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He paused. “None the less Bradley Manning is in the right place”. And he went on lengthening his answer, explaining why in Washington’s view, “there is sometimes a need for secrets… for diplomatic progress to be made”…A few minutes later, I had a chance to ask a question. “Are you on the record?” I would not be writing this if he’d said no. There was an uncomfortable pause. “Sure.” So there we are.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."