Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur On Torture, talking to The Guardian.
His findings have been published as an addendum to the Report Of The Special Rapporteur On Torture, And Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment.
This means he has formally accused the US of violating the United Nation's Torture Charter.
For more on Juan Mendez vs the Pentagon - who have consistently refused to let him interview Manning in private - see Bradley Manning Support Network.
Bradley's next pre-trial hearing is on Thursday March 15th.
Update: Broad coalition of US media outlets, from ABC News to the Washington Post, send Pentagon open letter protesting censorship of Manning trial documents.
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When I read posts like this concerning the UN I always get a laugh. Sorry, but anyone who takes the UN seriously on issues of human rights is simply not to be taken seriously. The UN's Human Rights Council (or whatever they are calling it these days)is comprised of some of the worst human rights abusers on the face of the planet. Having that group lecture anyone on human rights is like a neo-Nazi organization lecturing on the evils of anti-Semitism (and discussions of the UN's Human Rights Committee may be one of the only times Nazi analogies can actually be used without making one look foolish). The Security Council counts among its permanent members a nation, China, that is governed by the most oppressive regime in the annals of human history. It should come as no surprise that China is a member of the UN's Committee against Torture. UN peace keepers have been pulled out of various nations on more than one occasion because they have raped countless teenaged women. And of course there was the Oil-for-Food scandal; the list of scandals goes on and on and on.
ReplyDeleteFrankly , I am surprised the UN and its human rights organs took enough time off from singling out Israel to even mention Manning. The aforementioned Human Rights Council is so anti-semitic it refuses to condemn suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, yet it manages to condemn Israel for every action it is forced to take against such terrorists. The UN has condemned Israel more than any other nation on Earth. That fact alone is breathtaking, particularly when you consider that the majority of Israel's neighbors are governed by murderous theocrats who wouldn't know the definition of human rights if they had a dictionary in their hands.
Throughout the course of its existence, the UN has done little more than legitimize tinpot dictators and genocidal tyrannies. That it is supported in this country almost entirely by the left is yet more evidence that most people view it as useful for one purpose and one purpose only: a would-be check on American power. And I use the term would-be because more and more Americans and their elected representatives believe we should just ignore it and its ridiculous, increasingly irrelevant, pronouncements. That anyone can take the UN, and its committees composed of serial human rights offenders, seriously on the issue of human rights is almost surreal. That anyone can think the American public is going to care what the most corrupt institution on Earth has to say on the issue of human rights, a topic about which that institution knows nothing, is nothing short of hilarious.
Is Manning being treated inhumanely? Perhaps. However, having the UN decry his treatment is an exercise in hypocrisy so breathtaking it almost rises to the level of parody.