From the Bradley Manning Support Network:
Berkeley, California 16 November 2011 — On Tuesday, November 15th, the Berkeley City Council passed, with an 8-1 vote, a resolution urging President Obama to order the army to allow Bradley Manning to have “official” visits with Juan E. Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Congressperson Dennis Kucinich, member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Amnesty International. All have been denied “official,” private visits, free of monitoring or audio or video surveillance and recording, with Bradley Manning.
On October 18 2011, UN chief investigator on torture issues, Juan Mendez, confirmed that the Department of Defense has blocked his requests for an unmonitored meeting with PFC Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower. Mendez requested the meetings so that he could investigate what occurred during the nine months that Bradley Manning was kept isolated in the military brig at Quantico, VA, under conditions condemned as illegal by 300 top legal scholars, including Harvard Law School Professor, Laurence H.Tribe. Tribe was President Obama’s Constitutional Law professor. Neither the President nor the army have provided a reason for not granting these official private visits to Bradley Manning.
The Berkeley City Council, in February of this year, passed an earlier resolution to obtain humane treatment and conditions of pre-trial confinement and human rights for Pfc. Bradley Manning while he was still incarcerated under torturous conditions at the Marine Brig in Quantico, Virginia.
This article originally appeared on the site of the Bradley Manning Support Network.