As reported in the press, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Philip J. Crowley, had to submit his resignation under pressure from White House Officials who, obviously, did not like his frank and honest statement about the inhuman treatment meted out to Private Bradley Manning. Crowley made the indiscretion of calling ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid the treatment of Bradley Manning, who is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of secret documents to Wikileaks. Allegedly, during his pre-trial detention, Manning is subjected to 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement and is prevented from exercising in his cell by Military officials. Moreover, suicide watch restrictions have been imposed on him against the recommendations of psychiatrists and he is also subjected to prolonged forced nudity. We hear that the US President Barack Obama who, through his noble speeches, fooled the organizers into awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize, and who is unfolding his true character bit by bit, rushed to defend Mannings confinement. Now, if the US officials can do all this to one of their own people, and in mainland America, one shudders to think what would they do to lesser beings in obscure facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere? No wonder the number of America-haters is increasing in geometric progression. S.R.H. HASHMI, Karachi, March 14.