Bradley Manning: An Inconvenient Truth

At last some good news about Bradley Manning.
Well, good and bad...
At a lecture at Massachusets Institute Of Technology on Thursday, US State Department spokesman P J Crowley, said he thought the treament of Bradley Manning was "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."
Fagburn would have called them cruel and barbaric, but coming from a key member of the Obama administration this was quite something.
The remarks were first reported by blogger Philippa Thomas;
"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 [the questioner's] 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'".
Crowley confirmed this when contaced by Foreigh Policy's online magazine The Cable on Friday;
"What I said was my personal opinion. It does not reflect an official USG policy position. I defer to the Department of Defense regarding the treatment of Bradley Manning."
This led to President Obama to make what is - unbelievably - his first statement about Manning, saying that he'd been assured by the Pentagon that his treatment was "appropriate and meeting our basic standards"
If the US takes Guantanamo as the benchmark of its basic standards, yes...
Sadly last night P J Crowley announced his resignation, in a statement released by the Pentagon he said;
"Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation."
Was Crowley's crime admitting an inconvenient truth?
Or speaking truth to power?

• Global Bradley Manning Support Action Days, March 19th and 20th.

• The tide really must be turning in Manning's favour - today Pink News finally filed their first story about him.
Surprised? Well, it wasn't written by the clueless Jessica Geen (of course), but they have a new reporter James Park. Great news that Pink News has now got someone writing for them who knows what's going on...