Obama: Treatment of alleged WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning is 'appropriate and meeting our basic standards'

So much for that pesky torture thing; Obama says we're not doing it.

For me, that's the story. The story that prompted the story is this (h/t John Cole):

P.J. Crowley, the state department spokesman, stepped down Sunday after saying publicly that treatment of Wikileaks suspect Pfc. Bradley Manning in military detention has been “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.”

In a statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote that she accepted his resignation with regret. ...

The remark by Mr. Crowley last week to a small audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first reported by the blogger Philippa Thomas, was rejected by none other than President Obama at a press conference on Friday. Mr. Obama said that he had been assured the treatment of Private Manning was “appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.”

Amnesty International begs to differ:

[T]he conditions inflicted on Bradley Manning . . . amount to inhumane treatment by the US authorities [and] appear to breach the USA’s human rights obligations.

Did you notice the weasel by Obama? Go back to the last sentence in the first quote and read carefully.

Yep — 'Obama said that he had been assured ...' As in, 'Well, shucks, I don't personally know, you understand; but what I hear is, it's all good. And me, just passing that on.'

I won't dignify the weasel by the Times writer, who 'under-characterizes' Manning's condition, with a quote. Feel free to find it yourself. The writer is Michael D. Shear, and he probably needed to get his Access Pass re-stamped.

Obama's weasel is the tell — he knows. To which I say, one of us has a conscience, sir, and a line in the sand. See you in ... you know.