U.N. official criticizes U.S. over Bradley Manning

It’s not just P.J. Crowley — the Guardian reports: A senior United Nations representative on torture, Juan Mendez, issued a rare reprimand to the US government on Monday for failing to allow him to meet in private Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of being the WikiLeaks source and held in a military prison. It ...

It's not just P.J. Crowley -- the Guardian reports:

It’s not just P.J. Crowley — the Guardian reports:

A senior United Nations representative on torture, Juan Mendez, issued a rare reprimand to the US government on Monday for failing to allow him to meet in private Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of being the WikiLeaks source and held in a military prison. It is the kind of censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes around the world.

Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said: "I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr Manning."

[…]

Mendez told the Guardian: "I am acting on a complaint that the regimen of this detainee amounts to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or torture … until I have all the evidence in front of me, I cannot say whether he has been treated inhumanely."

Meanwhile, as Politico reports, Crowley’s replacement as U.S. State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, isn’t having a much easier time than his predecessor explaining the Manning situation to reporters.

Charles Homans is a special correspondent for the New Republic and the former features editor of Foreign Policy.

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