I'm a Heathen

6:48PM EST December 2. 2012 - FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — An Army private charged with sending U.S secrets to the website WikiLeaks had a history of suicidal thoughts and aloof behavior that outweighed a psychiatrist's opinion that he was no risk to himself, two former counselors testified Sunday.

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Jordan and Marine Master Sgt. Craig Blenis testified on the sixth day of a pretrial hearing for Pfc. Bradley Manning at Fort Meade, near Baltimore. The hearing is to determine whether Manning's nine months in pretrial confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., were so punishing that the judge should dismiss all charges. The 24-year-old intelligence analyst is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the secret-spilling website in 2009 and 2010 when he was stationed in Baghdad.
 

I must be a heathen.  It has always occurred to me that we should load up a prisoner's cell with sharp implements and ropes on the outside chance that said inmate would take care of business if they so desired.  I'm not sure where the attitude of protecting the inmate came from...especially if they don't wish to be taken care of.  Granted, there are those who are mentally ill beyond any thoughts of self-preservation.  But, this doesn't seem to be the case here. 

I say, put a long rope in Manning's cell and a reference book on historical high seas knot tying.  The choice, then, is his and not some half-ass defense strategy trying to make someone who allegedly released hundreds of thousands of classified documents to some creepy Australian guy appear to be the victim.