Ego-Down
by digby
Marcy Wheeler has a post up about the new "smock" that Quantico has given Bradley Manning. It's quite the outfit:
This is used for people on suicide watch. But Manning isn't under suicide watch so you have to wonder why they are doing this.
There are some precedents for putting prisoners in a silly get-up for other reasons, however:
From Maj. Gen. George Fay's investigation:
"There is also ample evidence of detainees being forced to wear women's underwear, sometimes on their heads. These cases appear to be a form of humiliation, either for [Military Police] control or for [Military Intelligence} 'ego down.'"
[...]
The investigation notes: "There is no record of an Interrogation Plan or any approval documents which would authorize these techniques. The fact these techniques were documented in the Interrogation Report suggests, however, that the interrogators believed they had the authority to use clothing as an incentive, as well as stress positions, and were not attempting to hide their use.
What's "ego down"?
Pride-and-ego down is a US Army term that refers to techniques used by captors in interrogating prisoners to encourage cooperation, usually consisting of "attacking the source's sense of personal worth" and in an "attempt to redeem his pride, the source will usually involuntarily provide pertinent information in attempting to vindicate himself."
The government needs to realize that these cutesy responses to criticism are leading more and more people to the conclusion that they are behaving suspiciously like the Rumsfeld regime. It would certainly appear that the military didn't learn much of a lesson from their excesses over the past decade. And this time they don't even have a violent terrorist attack to provide an unconvincing excuse for their actions.
Manning is an accused whistleblower not a terrorist. (And that's not to say that they should be treated in these ways either...) The administration sanctioning the arrogant mistreatment of this man in these highly suspect ways is a disgrace.
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