Government 1, Bradley Manning 0

Bradley Manning is a 23-year-old U.S. Army soldier from Oklahoma who was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of passing classified information to WikiLeaks, the website that publishes documents politicians and government bureaucrats don't want us to see. He's cooling his jets in "maximum custody," whatever that means, at a Marine Corps Brig at Quantico, Virginia.

According to the New York Times, "For an hour a day, he is allowed to walk around a room...He is forced to remove all his clothes every night. And every morning he is required to stand outside his cell, naked, until he passes inspection and is given his clothes back."

WikiLeaks is bad, the government says, because it exposes classified information, harms national security and compromises international diplomacy. Almost a year ago, WikiLeaks published footage showing a 2007 Apache helicopter air strike in Baghdad which killed Iraqi civilians and journalists. Julian Assange, the Australian Liam Neeson look-alike who serves as the face of WikiLeaks, has been under fire ever since. He's been forced to go on the run and defend himself against trumped-up sexual assault charges, among other attacks.

Some people believe government transparency and accountability are good things and support the idea of WikiLeaks keeping politicians honest. WikiLeaks has won awards from The Economist and Amnesty International and was hailed as first among websites "that could totally change the news," and Assange was named the Reader's Choice for TIME's "Person of the Year" in 2010. The government's "WikiLeaks is Satan" position is a classic example of trying to silence and discredit someone for revealing seamy secrets.

Apparently, President Obama condones Private Manning's treatment. He said at a recent news conference that the Pentagon assured him the terms of Manning's confinement "are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards." How many people wanna bet that the Pentagon's basic standards aren't the same as Private Manning's? (Kudos to Philip Crowley, by the way. He was a State Department spokesman who said Manning's treatment was "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." Then he resigned.) I really didn't need another reason to be disappointed in you, Mr. Obama, but thanks.

As long as Bradley Manning is locked up and abused while Rush Limbaugh is free to spew his bile and haul his corpulent derriere wherever he likes, I refuse to salute the flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance or remove my baseball cap at the sound of the national anthem. I have my basic standards too.



Sources: "The abuse of Private Manning," New York Times, March 14, 2011; New York City's Daily News