Day Two at the Bradley Manning Pre-Trial

Colonel Robert Oltman said that he didn't make the decisions, but he passed all information up the line of command.

He testified at the pre-trial that superior officers seemed pre-occupied with how the treatment of Bradley Manning would play out in the press.  But they never recommended that his restrictions be lessened.

Col. Oltman did have the authority to alter Manning's status though. The private had been placed on suicide watch, within the remit of Prevention of Injury (POL) status. 

It was this which allowed him to be kept in solitary confinement without his possessions.

Oltman had been advised, by psychiatrists, that Bradley Manning was not at risk of suicide. But he chose to dismiss the recommendation to take him off POL status.  His rationale was that a prisoner named Captain Webb had committed suicide in Quantico earlier in the year. That individual had also been deemed unlikely to do so by the base's forensic psychiatrist Captain William Hoctor.

"I did not have the utmost confidence in Captain Hoctor," Oltman told the court.

But Hoctor wasn't the only person saying this. A second mental health professional, Captain Kevin Moore supported his colleague, but was ignored. 

Furthermore, Corrections official Colonel Wright had sent word that it was inappropriate to remove the clothes of any detainee at risk of suicide. “This is not the way we do business," Wright had warned.

Oltman felt that even this directive could be dismissed, as it came from '30,000ft'.  In short, as Wright wasn't there, with information from the ground, his views should not be considered.

However, he had taken the highlighted regulations seriously enough to hunt for a loophole. A series of emails passed back and forth between himself and Officer in Charge Barnes to secure a legal justification.

They found it.  The rules of POL status allowed for detainees to be stripped, as long as it wasn't in response to fear of suicide.  They just didn't use that reason when justifying the action in official reports. 

It was a source of anger and frustration for Captain William Hoctor, that his advice about Manning's mental health was simply dismissed.

As a forensic psychiatrist for the US military, Captain Hoctor had examined Bradley Manning and proclaimed him sane. He also judged that the prisoner was not suicidal.

This was not a view which anyone wanted to hear.

"I had been a senior medical officer for 24 years at the time, and I had never experienced anything like this." Hoctor told the pre-trial court. "It was clear to me they had made up their mind on a certain course of action, and my recommendations had no impact."

Captain Hoctor had made his report to Colonel Robert Oltman, the Security Battalion Commander at Quantico. Manning need not be under suicide watch nor stuck in POL status. Col. Oltman had replied, "We’ll do what we want to do."

In Hoctor's professional opinion, the treatment of Bradley Manning would undoubtedly result in 'harm', as 'everyone has their limits'.

When confronted with the fact, gleaned from the earlier witness testimony, that Col. Oltman had no confidence in Hoctor's assessments, the captain was scathing. He pointed out that, if that was the case, then he should have been replaced with another psychiatrist. The military's faith in him was implicit in the fact that he retained the position throughout this period.

Hoctor continued his weekly recommendations that Manning should be taken off POL status. His overall assessment was summarized for the court as, "(Manning) was not reporting suicidal thoughts, in general he was well behaved."

Moreover, he was impressed by the young private's determination. "Most people would have found it very difficult, being watched every five minutes, but he did better than expected – I think he decided he was going to be strong."

Captain Kevin Moore found intransigence when he recommended that Bradley Manning be taken off POL status.

Another military health professional, Moore has headed medical divisions for the United States Navy in Japan. But he was asked to stop by Quantico to assess Bradley Manning too.

Captain Moore was appalled by what he discovered. He told the court that the prisoner was held in worse conditions than civilians on Death Row. Moore had started his career caring for them.

He feared that Manning's isolation and other factors would wear down his mental health.

Moore told the pre-trial court that his recommendations were ignored by Quantico's commanders. He was surprised by this, as his advice is usually enacted within days in all other circumstances.