Reid Report: Bradley Manning's Father says his son looks good

[dennis4868]

The Bradley Manning saga gets still more intriguing. Brian Manning, Bradley Manning’s father and himself a military veteran, has told PBS’ “Frontline” that he has visited his son “8 or 9 times” (we have previously been led to believe that Manning supporter David House and Manning’s lawyer David Coombs have been his only visitors) … and that from what he’s seen and heard from his son, the young Army private is “doing fine.” It’s a flat contradiction of the torture claims that have taken hold in the media and pro-Manning online community.
Other tidbits from the “Frontline” interview with David Manning (which you can watch above or at the foregoing link):

- The elder Manning says he essentially forced his son to join the military because Bradley was “aimless.”

- Brian Manning says that what he knows of Bradley’s “humiliation” he “read in a statement from” his son’s attorney.

- He says he “looked his son in the eye” and “asked him a direct question” about how he was being treated, and was told by his son that he was being treated “fine.”

http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/03/curious-bradley-mannings-father-contradicts-house-coombs-says-doing-well/

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Unless a video camera were put in his cell and commode so the world

could view him 24/7 (which would be a violation) people who believe he is tortured will just say the father was not telling the truth.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. I give Obama a C in most things. Don't hate the man. Just think he could do much better...

and I find things like this should change minds because it proves the lawyers are liars. If people can't re evaluate their decisions on an event when new evidence proves them wrong, they are following a religion not trying to establish fact.

[vaberella]

5. Basically and some on this board have subscribed to that idea.

They go as far as to suggest because his father is military---he may disregard any unfair treatment of his son.

[Hissyspit]

8. Because he may?

My father was in the military. Many of my friends fathers were in the military.

Anyway, this is a really old item.

[vaberella]

10. I think we had this debate already.

And again I don't buy into presumptions that basically attack the man due to his military background.

[grillo7]

4. Good to hear! I'm not above re-evaluating evidence as it appears...

[vaberella]

7. This was mentioned a month or so ago in an interview.

If you do a search on DU you'll find the interview with Bradley Manning's father.

[KoKo]

13. This article is Old...from March 13th and already posted with video here...

:eyes: Why would you try to push an old article to stir folks up when we don't know Manning's current situation?

[vaberella]

20. I have no clue why the OP posted this, but it's whatever now.

No new information has been brought to light since then. And what I've noticed is that many on the MSM run with the idea Manning is fine or not fine and both ends ignore interviews with the mother or father---or ultimately they both declined interviews since the father's rather disastrous last interview.

[robinlynne]

6. his father has always said that from the beignning.interestingly enough his mother says they would

not let her see him. So who knows if the father actually got in. His father is very very very pro-military. he has been the voice supporting the Us military from the get go.

[vaberella]

9. How is the father able to see Manning but the mother is not?

Someone therefore has to be lying---I'd like to know who? Look...don't sit there and insinuate things you don't know as fact. Are you personal family to them to know how far the father will go? You know why I have problems with this. By saying what you're saying you're labeling the father as not only a bad father---because even if his son is being "tortured" he's so pro-military he'd allow his son to be abused.

That's a dangerous game and the worst kind of move anyone can make. These arguments are especially disgusting from a liberal. What if the mother did see his son--and I'm going by the belief that she has not been able to see her son---and she would suggest her son looks fine. Would you then say that the mother is probably under the finger of the pro-military father?

You need to back off these presumptions. It doesn't make your argument stand water but look like personal attacks against someone you don't know.

[robinlynne]

14. I'm not attacking. i'm saying the father has said that for months. And the mother

gave an interview saying she was not allowed to see him. yes, obviously someone is lying. Since the UN torture commissision is unable to interview Bradley Manning and they have stated that publicly, I would guess it is the father that is lying, wouldn't you?

[vaberella]

17. Hardly for months.

This is the rehashing of the one interview he gave. No I wouldn't. What are the regulations behind why the torture commission is unable to go? I think you maybe ignoring major factors into why some people are given clearance and some people are not. And again you're running on the belief the father is a liar and I think you need to back off. You are not personally embroiled in this story to know the full facts. There are facts on both sides of the issue ---and you're running on empty. This is like when many on DU told me that they were not aware that Manning was on suicide watch and/or the reasons behind it. When his own lawyers said he was and gave the reason he was under scrutiny. I think you should hold back on your accusations just because it allows you to get your liberal feelings riled. Until more information is released you're living in the dark.

[robinlynne]

30. In the first few months the father said it was all fine. nothing new.

[vaberella]

40. Aye...this article that was posted is old news. That's what I was referring too.

And as of earlier on...not the case. This his "coming out" video. Since he said he "heard" a lot of information but he has been to see him recently that week or month and talked about. But he wasn't in the "know" early on as to what was going on. He was getting information based on the news and the lawyer was telling him.

[quiller4]

42. The mother was not approved as a visitor but several other family

members and family friends were approved. The mother has a criminal history that caused her rejection.

[msanthrope]

45. She saw him in February, according to her--

apparently the aunt and uncle she traveled with didn't gain entry, though.


"“I was very distressed by seeing Bradley. Being in prison, and being held in the conditions which he is, is having a damaging effect on him physically and mentally. I am worried that his condition is getting worse. I would like someone to visit him who can check on his conditions. If Bradley’s being a British national means that someone from the British embassy can visit him, then I would like to ask if you can make that happen. I do not believe that Bradley is in a position to be able to request this himself, so I am asking as his mother on his behalf.”"

http://wikilinksnews.com/wikileaks-news/bradley-manning-needs-consular-visit-mother-tells-william-hague

[robinlynne]

15. Well, watching forntline for 5 minutes you learn that bradley and hsi father do not like each other.

Bradley is gay. father was abusive during childhood according to bradley's friends. Father admitted to frontline that he lied to frontline (about something else, a phsyical altercation between father and son, but he got caught lying in public already...).

[vaberella]

18. Conjecture.

The man has not publicly made any statement that he is gay nor stated any connection to the LGBT community. I'm tired of this crap. The internet runs the gamut on misinformation. They have started rumors or suspicion that he is gay, bisexual, and transgendered. I don't know how he got into the military by being transgendered. But that is one of the rumors. So if "frontline" gave you that information they are sorely mistaken. Until the kid's lawyer confirms these suggestions you're running on lies. It has never been confirmed but you're selling this as though it's fact. This is again my point.

Making stuff up because it holds water to your rhetoric is not functional in selling an argument. Until you provide facts, you're presuming, assuming and basically selling falsehoods as truths.


Again, people need to take a step back and wait until they get all the information before they accuse someone as being a liar, part of the LGBT community, or being tortured by their own government.

[Smarmie Doofus]

22. Does this advice apply to the gov't too?

>>>Again, people need to take a step back and wait until they get all the information before they accuse someone as being a liar, part of the LGBT community, or being tortured by their own government.>>>

If so... what's he doing in pretrial custody in the first place? (leaving aside the question of whether or not he's being abused there; n.b.: he IS... as any child that's followed the case should be able to tell you; but leaving that aside for the moment.)

If not... why not?

[vaberella]

36. Hardly...Why? Because a department of government is directly associated with the case.

You are not working for the department that is involved. This is actually one of the key problems. Before there ever was CourtTV you would hear a verdict. People would hear the information against the culprit and then would make up conclusions of the bits of evidence they came to know about from the media. However, the bulk of the case is unknown to them as a whole. Many of these cases and trials can go on and on for years without the public knowing the full details.

However, this is a case involving a former government employee releasing the secrets of the government. If I were to mention my own presumption (and I could be wrong) the person who put Manning in charge was fired from his position. That being said, because he's presumed in a regular court of law --his incarceration doesn't play out this way.

However, his military. Military people are placed under another strict code of ethics and dare I say "laws" particular to them. They give up a lot and hence the reason they aren't tried in a regular court of law but a military based one and don't go to regular prisons (this is based on my limited knowledge of the procedures). So when there is a case of something that is almost treasonous, they are a bit stricter than normal. We'd have to look at the law pertaining to military men and Leavenworth's role and how the Department of Justice's role in this.

That being said. To actually make a comparison of information is a bit absurd. How can one claim the American people, public citizens would have more or less knowledge than the US government and the government body included. There's no similarity here.

[QC]

34. It's not a vicious slander to say someone is gay,

especially when that person does not make a particular secret of it.

[vaberella]

35. Please that was NOT the point of my post.

But it is conjecture when the person hasn't publicly come out and stated, "I am gay." <---People are making the conclusion based on things they "associate" as being gay or in some way could be the plight of people in the LGBT community.

No one here knows it, but there are people on DU touting it as though it's fact.

[xchrom]

47. you might want to read this article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7918632/Bradley-Manning-suspected-source-of-Wikileaks-documents-raged-on-his-Facebook-page.html

Mr Manning, who is openly homosexual, began his gloomy postings on January 12, saying: "Bradley Manning didn't want this fight. Too much to lose, too fast."

At the beginning of May, when he was serving at a US military base near Baghdad, he changed his status to: "Bradley Manning is now left with the sinking feeling that he doesn't have anything left."

Five days later he said he was "livid" after being "lectured by ex-boyfriend", then later the same day said he was "not a piece of equipment" and was "beyond frustrated with people and society at large"


the new york times article on manning is viewed by the lgbtiq community as a smear campaign on the level of a 19th century psychoanalysis of him -- but here it is again:
http://www.towleroad.com/2010/08/nyt-on-wikileaks-pfc-bradley-mannings-troubled-gay-past.html

i use towelroad in this instance because i don't want to support the nyt description.

[robinlynne]

31. Well, it definitely looks like he was a bad father. As a child, the son was terrified of him.

see the interview with Bradley's best friend on frontline. I watched it through your link. not an insinuation. Bradley went away to England to live with his mother for years. When he came back, the father kicked him out of the house. the police were called because of the physical altercation between father and son. Does that help?....Why is is to important to you that his father is telling the truth/ he admitted on television in that same interview that he lied, when he came up with one story, and frontline confronted him with facts. So what's with your attacks and your standing on a soapbox to defend this man? Is he a friend? a trusted source?

[vaberella]

39. Oh Lordy...right.

Bradley didn't go away to live with his mother for years. His mother and most of the "real" news on it says that he WAS raised with his mother until he was 13 or so and then he went back to America to be with his father. You're making it out as though the boy took a plane on his own to escape to be with his mother---which is false.

And it's hardly important the father is telling the truth. I'm tired of people twisting information out there and making up their own. There is no counter evidence you can provide against the father but creating a story. Please provide the link of the bestfriend who said all this. I did massive search on the father to see if there was this police altercation. Nothing comes up. And even in the interview with the man, the interviewer didn't ask about any altercation. Which says to me it's made up. Because that would be something you would bring up in the interview.

I find that you're spending a lot of time trying to brandish the man as a liar when you are making up stories.

"Attacks and soapbox" <----Yes because when I call for facts in a story that is full of different point of views---it's attack and soap box. Ugh. A friend is a trusted source? Send me the link please---and there is much more information disregarding the friend than anything else. Even the website dedicated to helping him get out of prison only talks about David House who went to see him and David House didn't talk about his family life that I can see.

[msanthrope]

37. His mother is allowed to see him, but she isn't allowed to bring in

cameras. She's also been very ill, so I'm not surprised if she's unable to travel. (Prior stroke.)

His mother has demanded that Bradley have a 'consular' visit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/bradley-manning-mother-william-hague

Since he's not a British citizen, I don't know what she thinks this will do.

[vaberella]

41. Yup.

I read that. Yeah. He's not. They did say something that because he was born of British citizen, then therefore shares some rights of a British citizen. I'm not sure how it works in America. Let's ask you, if your mum is a citizen and you were born and raised outside the country does your mum have to declare you to the US government to be a citizen or can you raised as a citizen of another nation.

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. This part is interesting:

MARTIN SMITH: And what will you say if it turns out that he leaked these documents?
BRIAN MANNING: I don’t know. I mean, I’m not even — I’m not even letting those thoughts come into my head. I’m thinking positively.
MARTIN SMITH: Is that always easy to do?
BRIAN MANNING: Yes.


I'm not sure Manning Sr. would make the best witness.



And there's this:

MARTIN SMITH: You don’t think it’s possible he — he could have had this kind of intent?
BRIAN MANNING: I don’t know why he would do that. I — I really don’t.
Smith went on to ask Brian Manning whether his son is “patriotic,” and that led to a strange formulation in which the father seemed to imply that Bradley Manning essentially has (or had) no ideologically moorings at all, either pro- or anti-American, and that he essentially twisted his son’s arm to get him to join the service, because he was “aimless.” (Brian

"No ideological moorings." What about the Lamo transcripts... in which Manning Jr. elaborately... and eloquently, I might add... describes a highly developed and highly "ideological" case for releasing the murder video, etc. ? Is their authenticity now in doubt?

The Manning in the transcripts is unquestionably political and uber-ideological. Yet Dad is unaware of this?

What gives?

[robinlynne]

26. Bradley and his Dad do not get along. The DAd and stepmother kicked him out of the house.

they were estranged.

[jefferson_dem]

12. Who gives a fuck what his dad says!

I'll await the official word from some random know-it-all blogger who courageously updates us via his new macbook..and a comfy pair of pjs...

[Hissyspit]

16. You mean like The Reid Report?

[vaberella]

19. Agreed.

People are under this belief that Bradley Manning is gay without any confirmation and based entirely on speculation. I'd wait for an announcement, if that even comes out.

[robinlynne]

27. frontline has an itneview with his best friend who tells the story of his coming out.

The father's interbiew alos tells the sotyr of hsi coming out. So i dont think Bradley was ever trying to hide being gay. Why would that be an issue?

[vaberella]

38. Again. Until it comes from the man himself it is conjecture.

Anyone can say anything and anyone can claim anything. There was a chick running around, who even had interview with US Today talking about that kid who shot the Congresswoman in Arizona. She was his classmate but barely ever talked to him.

As for hiding he was gay...I don't think I ever said he was hiding. But it has never been stated by him but by everyone else who involved themselves in the story. Mainly those who take up the status of the left---claim he's was disillusioned with the government because he was gay and he was fed up with DADT he retaliated by doing this. Another story says he was transgenders and forced to go into the military and because of this he gave away secret information. Another story says he was gay and he was just a disillusioned public servant who wanted to do the right thing. <----Three different stories. And there are more out there.


So people are running with him being gay. And he could very well be. But until he says so himself, there is no reason to go around suggesting it as though it's fact. This is something that is on fire in the blogosphere.

[Freddie Stubbs]

24. Where exactly do we get "the official word?"

[Vattel]

21. Solitary confinement isn't so bad.

Studies that show otherwise are just studies and probably part of some agenda. I for one would love to have that kind of peace and quiet. Plus his father says he looks good. And Obama says that the Pentagon assured him that there is no problem. I mean, come on, how could the Pentagon be wrong? So at this point any objections to Manning's treatment are just the usual whining we've come to expect from major "human rights groups": "Wah, wah, why doesn't he get butter instead of margerine on his morning blueberry muffin?"

[robinlynne]

28. Thank-you.

[Mimosa]

44. ^ the usual whining we've come to expect from major "human rights groups" ^

Above quote from Vattel is yet more evidence how D.U. has shifted to the right. :(

A few years ago that wouldn't have been said here by anybody.

[bitchkitty]

46. So how long were you in the hole?

And did you forget your sarcasm tag?

[Bluenorthwest]

23. This is from last month. So it is not up to date and has already

been discussed. Interesting tactic, posting it as if it was another visit by his father, as oppose to the same one from last month. What's the point in that?

[KoKo]

25. That's what it seemed to me, also.

[robinlynne]

29. the poster is really really adamant that there is no torture. could be a visitor.

[dennis4868]

33. I believe his father.....

why would a father lie about this?

[polichick]

32. How awful that the father forced him into the military.

[EFerrari]

43. This is the worst out of context bs I've seen in a long, long time.

See a VIDEO clip of Manning's father talking to Frontline here and then tell me he says his son is fine and being treated well:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/03/exclusive-bradley-mannings-father-discusses-sons-incarceration-with-frontline.html