The US State Department’s official spokesman resigned yesterday after calling the Pentagon’s treatment of the alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower “ridiculous, counter-productive and stupid”.
Philip Crowley, who had been Hillary Clinton’s most senior spokesman for the past two years, became the biggest US casualty of the WikiLeaks affair after making critical remarks last week at the suffering reportedly inflicted on Private Bradley Manning, who is being held in a US Marine Corps jail in Virginia.
President Obama refused to offer Mr Crowley his support at a press conference on Friday, appearing to seal his fate. Mr Crowley’s resignation was accepted “with regret” by the Secretary of State but is unlikely to end the furore surrounding the treatment of Private Manning.
The soldier, accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified US documents, has been detained in solitary confinement at a base since June.
He is allowed out of his cell for only an hour a day, according to his lawyer. Private Manning, who is awaiting a court martial, has reportedly been stripped of possessions including his glasses and has been forced to sleep naked.
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Private Manning’s alleged treatment has prompted formal inquiries by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and complaints from Democratic politicians that his plight is comparable to that of Abu Ghraib prison inmates during the Iraq war.
Mr Crowley was liked by journalists for his sometimes undiplomatic candour. His comments on Private Manning were made at a seminar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr Crowley, who was consistently scornful of WikiLeaks’ motives since its release of thousands of US diplomatic cables, was said to have become concerned that mistreatment of Private Manning would undermine the case against him at trial.
Mr Obama takes a dim view of government whistleblowers. He said on Friday that he had asked the Pentagon if Private Manning’s confinement conditions were “appropriate and meeting our basic standards”. He was assured that they were.