Simon_Jester wrote:Serafina wrote:You know, some years ago, i spoke to a man for several hours who was imprisoned like that.
He was a political prisoner of the Stasi, held in their most infamous prison. And i would argue that he was better treated than Manning is right now - he was allowed to wear clothing and to exercise properly. However, the other stuff could be copied 1:1 - he was not allowed to have any private time, he was not allowed to sleep properly at night (btw. sleep deprivation is a form of torture), he had to endure constant inquiries.
And before anyone complains that this is just another quip at the USA: I am comparing facts here.
What was he imprisoned for? General suspicion of doing something the Stasi didn't like, or something more specific?
I don't recall the exact details, but IIRC he read some capitalist books (standard economics stuff, since he was studying economy), some Stasi-Spitzel told on him and claimed that he was part of some anti-communist circle and he just got dragged away on the street and imprisoned in a prison of whom most people did not even the location (despite being in the middle of Berlin) - the infamous Stasi-prison Hohenschönhausen.
His treatment was a highly developed form of torture in order to get him to expose the other conspirators (and it was classified by the Stasi as torture).
He was in solitary confinment all the time. He never saw another prisoner despite being there for years, they had a specific system to ensure that prisoners could not even meet on the corridors while transported from one location to another. His clothes were deliberately made to be unfomfortable and itchy. He was only allowed to sleep with his arms folded above the bedsheet - a completely unnatural sleeping position. Guards checked on that every ten minutes, if he was out of that position (which happens when you sleep) he was woken up immedeately.
No one, not even the guards or his interrogators, used his name - he was assigned a number instead. The guards never responed to questions - the only people he could talk to were his interrogators, which were switched when he got accustomed to them sometimes.
He could ask for books if he kept talking at least half an hour during interrogations, but he often did not get the books he asked for and instead communist propaganda - which we still read, since he had nothing else to do during those times.
He was kept fit and healthy at all times, got proper medical treatment, good food and was allowed exercise in an actual gym. This rule was only broken when he got into "solitary confinment" (despite that being the case anyway), where he was locked inside a padded room without any human contact at all for days or weeks.
He was allowed to write letters, but they were always intercepted - and his relatives/friends were allowed to send letters who got intercepted as well. Both were taken by professional forgers and forgerd letters were made - he got discouraging letters "from outside", his friends got similary forged letters.
I could go on like this for a long time. I'm not saying that Manning is treated like this, but there are several crucial similarities, such as the sleep deprivation, which was an essential part of that torture process.
