I haven't been blogging about this because it's just too sputter-inducing outrageous, but in case you didn't know, the soldier who turned over some of the State Department material to Wikileaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning, is being kept in a Marine brig in Virginia. He's essentially being tortured: prolonged periods of forced nudity, sleep deprivation, isolation.

Of this, Obama has said:

With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are. I can't go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning's safety as well.

Pentagon says it's ok, so i guess it's ok. The whole 'safety' thing is bullshit. They've put him on a fake suicide watch, which means they can wake him up every time he falls asleep to 'make sure' he's still alive, etc. Everyone knows this. It's the same things they've done to all of the Guantanamo prisoners.

Well, on Friday, State Department spokeperson P.J. Crowley said this in response to a question:

Charlie deTar: There's an elephant in the room during this discussion: Wikileaks. The US government is torturing a whistleblower in prison right now. How do we resolve a conversation about the future of new media in diplomacy with the government's actions regarding Wikileaks?

Crowley: I spent 26 years in the air force. What is happening to Manning is ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid, and I don't know why the DoD is doing it.

I was impressed with that. I thought maybe there was disagreement between State and Defense and there was going to be some internal pressure to treat Manning like a human being, despite Obama's statement.

Turns out i was being too hopeful again, however:

P.J. Crowley abruptly resigned Sunday as State Department spokesman over controversial comments he made about the Bradley Manning case.

Sources close to the matter said the resignation, first reported by CNN, came under pressure from the White House, where officials were furious about his suggestion that the Obama administration is mistreating Manning...

Glenn Greenwald reminds us of this quote from Obama:

I don't want to have people who just agree with me. I want people who are continually pushing me out of my comfort zone.

Not this time, apparently.