The US treatment of the man accused of leaking secret cables to Wikileaks is "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid", US state department spokesman PJ Crowley has said.
Mr Crowley made the remarks about Bradley Manning to an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Lemme tell you what's stupid: being a whiny, self-centered, attention-seeking PFC in a job you don't like but on which people to depend to stay alive, and deciding to stick it to "the man" by splashing classified cables all over the world's media like you're some sort of political savior.
Hey State Department - get with the program. Your dirty laundry is flapping in the breeze, too.
Follow-up:
Crowley is out.
Chief State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley quit on Sunday after causing a stir by describing the Army's treatment of the suspected WikiLeaks leaker as "ridiculous" and "stupid," pointed words that forced President Barack Obama to defend the detention as appropriate.
"Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation" to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a department statement attributed to the office of the spokesman. In a separate statement released simultaneously, Clinton said she had accepted the resignation "with regret."
Crowley's comments about the conditions for Pfc. Bradley Manning at a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., reverberated quickly, from the small audience in Massachusetts where Crowley spoke, to a White House news conference Friday where Obama was asked to weigh in on the treatment of the 23-year-old believed responsible for the largest leak of classified American documents ever.
Manning is being held in solitary confinement for all but an hour every day, and is stripped naked each night and given a suicide-proof smock to wear to bed. His lawyer calls the treatment degrading. Amnesty International says the treatment may violate Manning's human rights.
Crowley, who retired as colonel from the Air Force in 1999 after 26 years in the military, was quoted as telling students at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology seminar on Thursday that he didn't understand why the military was handling Manning's detention that way, and calling it "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid." Crowley also said "Manning is in the right place" in military detention.
By: Brant
Yeah, that was a really weird statement by Crowley. My understanding is he made it quite clear he was speaking for himself and not State at the talk, but still really odd.
ReplyDeleteManning deserves everything he gets and then some. That is what happens when you get a TS clearance and then abuse it.
While PFC Manning may deserve everything he has coming, it's not up to his jailers or the general public to make that decision. I think the major problem many have with his 'treatment' is the controversial conditions of his confinement. The young man hasn't been tried and convicted, yet is being treated as if already found guilty. In my opinion, that is a ridiculous, counterproductive, and stupid break down of the justice system.
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