WASHINGTON – The US army private suspected of giving classified data to WikiLeaks is being flown to a state-of-the-art prison where Pentagon officials said more extensive mental, emotional and physical healthcare will be available.
The Pentagon said Pte Bradley Manning was en route to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
His transfer from the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, comes a bit more than a week after a UN torture investigator complained he was denied a request for an unmonitored visit with him.
Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer, said the move did not suggest that Pte Manning’s treatment at the base south of Washington was inappropriate.
Pte Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, wrote on his blog that his client’s treatment at Quantico was substandard: “While the defence hopes that the move to Fort Leavenworth will result in the improvement of Manning’s conditions of confinement, it nonetheless intends to pursue redress at the appropriate time for the flagrant violations of his constitutional rights by the Quantico confinement facility.”
Mr Johnson, however, said “the fact that we have made a decision to transfer this particular pre-trial confinee . . . should not be interpreted as a criticism of the place he was before”.
Lieut Col Dawn Hilton, who is in charge of the medium-security detention facility at Leavenworth, said Pte Manning would undergo a comprehensive evaluation of whether he is a risk to his own or others’ safety.
The 150 inmates there – including eight who are awaiting trial – are allowed three hours of recreation per day, she said, and three meals a day in a dining area.
The facility, which opened in January, was designed for long-term detention of pre-trial inmates. Officials agree that Pte Manning’s case, which involves hundreds of thousands of highly sensitive and classified documents, is complex and could drag on for months, if not years. He faces nearly two dozen charges, including aiding the enemy, a crime which can bring the death penalty or life in prison. – (AP)