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-Short Attention Span Theater-

First, The Good News: Chelsea Manning Makes Second Suicide Attempt In Us Prison . . .

2016-11-06

Sigh. Well, third time's the charm . . . .
Imprisoned transgender US soldier Chelsea Manning tried to commit suicide last month while serving time in solitary confinement for a first attempt in July, her representatives said Friday.

Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst sentenced to 35 years in prison for handing classified documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, tried to kill herself on October 4, according to a statement she dictated to supporters by phone 11 days later and released by The New York Times.

American Civil Liberties Union rights group attorney Chase Strangio confirmed the attempt on Twitter.

"After her July suicide attempt, I watched her begin to piece her life and spirit back together only to have that shattered by the disciplinary proceedings brought against her and then the unannounced initiation of her term of punishment last month," Strangio said.

Manning's four-page statement, addressed to the inspector general of the intelligence community, indicates she attempted to commit suicide on the evening she was placed in solitary without prior notice.

She was later placed on suicide watch in a special housing area.
Should have staffed it with narcoleptics.
Much of the statement described strange events that she said took place on the night of October 10, less than a week after the suicide attempt. These included a simulated attack on the prison and a mock rescue attempt, in which she refused to participate.

The events could not immediately be independently verified.
That's understandable. Lots of what he has to do with can't be independently verified.
Manning, 28, who was previously known as Bradley, was convicted in 2013.

Manning ended a five-day hunger strike in September after the Army agreed to provide surgery to treat her gender dysphoria.
Try that refeeding thing. It's supposed to work miracles.
She was arrested in 2010 while serving as an intelligence analyst at a US base near Baghdad after sending 700,000 documents -- military war logs and US diplomatic cables -- to WikiLeaks.

Manning has repeatedly decried her treatment at a men's military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
What? I would think she would have liked being around a bunch of manly men. Take the new 'nads out for a spin.
The soldier has been hailed by supporters as a hero for exposing what they see as US abuses in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but denounced by prosecutors as a traitor who put country and comrades at risk.

Posted by:gorb

#16 "I think the trigger incident that led her..."

*HIM*

This person was born male, and will die male. Any surgical mutilation that happens in the mean time will not change that fact.

Posted by: Rob Crawford 2016-11-06 20:13

#15 We should do everything we can to save its life. Take all that Manning has - replace it with one fashionable paper gown, allow him to have a mattress for eight hours a day and put a camera on that cell 24 hours a day. Play stupid games and be rewarded with your stupid prize. Nothing to see here - move along, move along.

Posted by: Tennessee 2016-11-06 19:21

#14 Frank G: If we were not distracted by Saudi money we would have confronted Islamism - and that mean we would not have invaded Iraq at a cost of what, more than a trillion of taxpayer dollars?

Iran is just as bad as Saudi, both are theocracies, both we should recognise as enemies. Instead obama flies in money.

Foreign influence at the highest levels.

Posted by: anon1 2016-11-06 19:17

#13 The longitudinal studies Johns Hopkins scientists and others have done

First read that as longitudinal sins. Speed reading without enough coffee.

Posted by: SteveS 2016-11-06 16:44

#12 I am long past giving a rodent's rump what happens to Manning.

Posted by: Abu Uluque 2016-11-06 16:34

#11 If you cant do the time then dont do the crime.

Posted by: Flolugum Snaiper4150 2016-11-06 10:46

#10 You are correct,trailing wife,re the treatment implications of Manning's post-modern problem. The NYT narrative suggests the release of classified info was an irrational act caused by sexual identify "stressors" feed by a homophobic military culture. It was in fact a carefully calculated action which required several steps that imply harmful intent. In addition, Manning was not sentenced to solitary confinement for a suicide attempt. He/she was placed in protective custody for observation and treatment in a single cell most likely on a behavioral management unit. This no doubt standard procedure.

Posted by: Alpha2c 2016-11-06 10:24

#9 TW and anon1 are correct. Hey I'm pissed that the eminently F'ed Up Manning did what he did. Released Top Secret docs. Doesn't matter what you think of the motivations.
That being said, the over-riding concern here is the message not the messenger. The Magic Kingdom bastards are up to their towels in terrorism and should be dealt with accordingly

Posted by: Warthog 2016-11-06 10:17

#8 Let's go back another step: Manning is not a female whose body needs to be adjusted to match. Manning is a fully adult male with a severe case of maltreated body dysmorphic disorder. The longitudinal studies Johns Hopkins scientists and others have done show that giving such people the sex change surgeries they demand does not make them happier for very long, and has no significant impact on their anxiety, depression, or rate of suicide attempts and completions.

Posted by: trailing wife 2016-11-06 09:52

#7 Saudi Money, shmaudi money, Manning, that is BRADLEY did what it did. It was and remains a crime and one that strikes at all Americans. As for the great over flow of it's emotions, who the Hell cares? Criminals have all kinds of imbecilic back rationalizations as to why they screwed up that all have the same characteristics...they were so pure and the rest of the world so dirty, oh woe. Hang him, yes H-I-M and be done with it.

Posted by: Cesare 2016-11-06 09:36

#6 And try consolidating your editorials, please.

tl:dnr.

Posted by: Pappy 2016-11-06 09:14

#5 Manning has approximately ZERO to do with your Saudi hobbyhorse

Posted by: Frank G 2016-11-06 08:36

#4 i can understand why you'd be angry with manning for releasing classified info

I think the trigger incident that led her to release information was telling, and she was motivated by empathy and the belief that she was trying to do the right thing.

She didn't do it for money or prestige. She was not selling her country out in order to hurt it or to be a traitor.

motivations aside though, far greater damage has been and is being done to the US by the influence that foreign money has been allowed to buy at the highest levels in Washington.

how many lives have been damaged and lost, money wasted in this exercise of never ending middle east adventurism, all of which has been and always was going to be futile.

When Islamists flew planes into buildings on 9/11 they did so because of Saudi oil money spreading their ideology around the world

Without the influence that Saudi money had bought perhaps we would never have been in Iraq in the first place.

The Islamist goal was to remove secular governments and replace with sharia.

The Saudis pretended to be our allies against "terrorists" that have "nothing to do with islam" though the most cursory glance at their society would easily show them to be otherwise.

They lied. They are not our allies. They are the source of the problem, and their money clouded our strategic thinking at the highest levels.

I get the logic of going into Iraq. If they could have pulled it off it would have been magic. It's a keystone state between Saudi and Iran, the two problem theocracies. If it had been made a prosperous democratic state, it would have solved the problem of backwards Islamism with the threat of a good example of how Muslims can prosper.

But that could never have worked and the reason is Islam.

Islam turns every democracy into either a secular dictatorship or a theocracy over time, because of the nature of the belief system.

But our policy makers and strategists were not allowed to consider this because the cult of "nothing to do with Islam" was promoted and opposition censored and crushed.

And why did that happen?

Saudi money

The reason we fail and have wasted so much for so long is Saudi influence

It is like those zombie ants you see with the fungus growing out of their heads. The fungus is now controlling the ants. Not good for the ants. Not good for us.

So I understand why you are angry at Chelsea manning

but she is not your real problem.

Posted by: anon1 2016-11-06 08:33

#3 Bzzzzt. Wrong. Manning is a traitor and a freak

Posted by: Frank G 2016-11-06 08:17

#2 Chelsea Manning is not the villain here

A government that acted in the best interests of Saudi Arabia and not of the citizens of the US thanks to large donations is the problem.

Had that foreign influence not been buying policy since the Bush era, then invasion of Iraq would not have happened, since the issue of the Saudis using oil money to spread Islamist theocratic fascism would have been dealt with.

When the cold war ended so too should our alliance with Saudi Arabia

the only ethical stance was not to make alliance in the first place with theocratic human-rights graveyards and that kingdom is run by sharia.

During the cold war it was necessary to ally against the greater evil as communism did pose an existential threat.

But so does theocratic Islamism.

If only the intel agencies looked at that ideology and saw as big a threat as China perhaps we would not have seen the dark days we have or the worse ones we undoubtedly will be forced to suffer in future

and the still the Saudi money pours in unchecked.

Posted by: anon1 2016-11-06 07:25

#1 extra long shoelaces and over-prescribe meds...(s)he's a failure at suicide too

Posted by: Frank G 2016-11-06 06:45

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