that was never going to happen. I have no idea why anybody would think it would. He is far too public for that.

Really?

There is at least one politician, who's name completely escapes me at the moment but she was either a rep in the EU parliament or the swedish one, who confirmed that extradition to the US from Sweden was the entire point of the circus.

And Bradley Manning is still being tortured in military prison right now.

I haven't seen anything to make this seem ridiculous or even unlikely. If he was convicted of treason, as he would be, I can't imagine being public would mean anything other than more media attention.

edit: as pyre pointed out by torture i mean extended solitary confinement. I call it torture because everyone who studies it calls it so. However it is true that people think the hypothetical Joe "ignorant american voter stereotype" Average disagrees. If you feel my use of the word "torture" was unfounded then do look at the literature and read the statements of people who have experienced both extended solitary confinement/sensory deprivation and physical torture. I am very certain you will agree with me afterwards.

  > Bradley Manning is still being tortured in
  > military prison right now.

Until more people consider solitary confinement a form of torture, you're not going to win in-roads with this, as people equate torture with physical violence.

> Bradley Manning was stripped and left naked in his cell for seven hours.

This was according to the New York Times[1] in March of 2011 and it took place at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va.

Might not be torture by most standards (though personally I think solitary confinement is torture) but I would hardly consider it proper conduct.

Also, who can say what really happens at Guantanamo...

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/us/04manning.html

I happen to agree that solitary confinement is a form of torture regardless of whether or not he was stripped and left naked for 7 hours. My point was that the 'average Joe' pictures medieval torture devices (or someone tied to a chair and being beaten), when they hear talk of torture. So trying to claim that he was tortured because he was left naked for a few hours (or is in permanent solitary confinement) isn't going to win over anyone in that respect.

I'd venture that the internal monologue goes something like:

  " Tortured? He's just left in a birthday suit for a bit,
    and doesn't get to socialize. How bad could that be?
    Jack Bauer resists being beaten while tied to a chair
    every other episode, and still has the strength to
    save that day! This Bradley Manning guy is just a
    pussy. "

7 hours?

That's friendly considering the later reports. According to the UN special rapporteur on torture he was kept in solitary 23 hours a day for 11 months.

I wouldn't be so sure. The US government have been doing whatever the hell they want lately, civil liberties and public opinions be damned.

Lately?

There's been a bumper crop of stupid comments on HN this year, but yours should win the county fair.

Is there a particular era you are thinking of that was that much better than now in this respect?

I'll say it this way: Americans have never been so privacy deprived and frightened of their government as they have been in the last decade.

No one expects Obama to defend your civil liberties. He's invisible most of the time. A middle man to the oligarchy. Some say he is a great "centerist", but I say he's a man with no morals.

Since I find the kill list/drone strikes/unaccountable assassination of civilians issue particularly troubling I can see where you are coming from.

I'm just not convinced that this is a shift in terms of the "US government have been doing whatever the hell they want lately, civil liberties and public opinions be damned" statement. The specifics are different now and the tools for manufacturing consent or controversy are always shifting but the lack of concern for civil liberties or public opinion (beyond what's necessary for horse-race politics) seems like a "new boss, same as the old boss" type thing to me.

Now there is the refined argumentation I come to HNN for. Well done, son.