Documents suggest Bradley #Manning's detention at Quantico played more of a role in its closure than publicly stated

(CN) - Although the Pentagon disavows any relationship between the closing of Quantico prison and international uproar over the brig's treatment of WikiLeaks source, Pfc. Bradley Manning, internal Marine reports call those denials into question, Courthouse News has learned.
     Pfc. Manning, a 25-year-old soldier who recently admitted responsibility for the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history, spent nine months inside a maximum-security cell of Quantico brig, from July 2010 until April 2011, before being transferred to Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.
     Quantico placed Manning in a windowless, 8-by-6 cell for 23 hours a day or longer under prevention-of-injury watch and occasionally suicide-risk status where he faced intense monitoring and other conditions that a United Nations investigator called "cruel, inhuman and degrading."
     A military judge concluded earlier this year ruled Manning endured "unlawful pretrial punishment" at Quantico, but she mostly defended that treatment as an attempt to keep him safe to stand trial.
     Months after Manning's transfer, the Pentagon announced it would be closing the brig, ostensibly for financial reasons.
     Documents that Courthouse News obtained under the Freedom of Information Act nevertheless complicate that rationale.
     The 144-page data dump consists of dozens of reports released in no discernable chronological or procedural order. The authors apparently consisted of members of a "zero-based review" board preparing the brig for closure, but the military redacted their names by claiming exemptions under the Privacy Act.
     In the fusillade of courses of action, panel recommendations, information papers and "wargames," only two pages cite Pfc. Manning by name. Those pages each contain a list of five bullet points on the "background" of the brig's closing.........[...]

https://courthousenews.com