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While incarcerated people are on partial lockdown and denied outdoor time in a bid to limit their exposure to one another, they nonetheless congregate in the dining hall and share telephone rooms that are not cleaned between uses.

On Thursday afternoon, a District Court judge in Virginia ordered that Chelsea Manning be released from jail, where she has been held since last May for refusing to testify before a grand jury.

“In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time...

It is the very definition of torture to submit a person to physical and mental suffering in an effort to force an action from them. Since May, Manning has been held in a Virginia jail for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury...

Historically, the government has used the (grand jury) process to gather information, surveil and disrupt movements by creating paranoia and fear.

Reader Comments: Impeachment, Obfuscation, Political Corruption; Benjamin Netanyahu; International Solidarity- Bolivia, Chile; Puerto Rico; Vietnam War, My Lai Massacre; Whistleblowers, Amazon; workers rights-Climate Crisis, #MeToo; book sale; more.

There is a history of presidential criminals and whistleblowers. Nixon declared that the chief My Lai perpetrator was “probably a good soldier ... getting a bum rap.” He ordered a secret task force to undermine press stories of the massacre.

Bernie Sanders on Socialism, Taxes and Criminal CEOs. NYC Bids Adieu to Donald Trump (In Song). Trump and GOP Allies Try to Out Ukraine Whistleblower. AI Learns to Play Hide and Seek. Voting Machines.

Crime that transcends borders cannot be fought by a single country. A new EU law passed in April and formally adopted this month protecting those who speak up will have benefits worldwide.