Roger That: Former intelligence analyst faces solitary confinement for alleged prison rules violations

Convicted national security leaker Chelsea Manning could be placed in solitary confinement indefinitely for allegedly violating prison rules by having a copy of Vanity Fair with Caitlyn Jenner on the cover and an expired tube of toothpaste, among other things, her lawyer said Wednesday, according to Military Times.

The former intelligence analyst, who is a transgender formerly known as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 of espionage and other offenses for sending more than 700,000 classified documents while working in Iraq. She is serving a 35-year sentence at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, for leaking reams of war logs, diplomatic cables and battlefield video to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in 2010.

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The U.S. government paid the Church of Scientology $633,677 in 2009 to study whether therapeutic techniques devised by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard can help veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome, according to the Daily Beast.

Crystal Grant, the project coordinator, said the study is in its home stretch, despite delays, and that some 90 percent of participants are reporting health gains. The Hubbard method involves a blend of sauna detox, aerobic exercise and Vitamin B3, but some question whether the improvements are just the outcome of a healthier lifestyle.

“Critics say the soldiers are merely reaping the benefits of plain old exercise and perspiration, and that Scientologists plan to use the skewed results to validate Hubbard’s quack theories—and even push for a Nobel Prize,” reports The Daily Beast. “Caught in the middle are the veterans and their advocates, who are asking themselves a simple and perplexing question: Does it matter where an idea comes from if it manages to ease their pain?”

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Friday marks the 70th anniversary of V-J Day, i.e., Victory over Japan, effectively ending World War II — history’s bloodiest conflict.

The day also serves as a reminder of the dwindling population of American World War II veterans. More than 16 million American men and women served in uniform during World War II, but an estimated 855,000 remain alive, with 500 of those survivors dying each day, according to Stars and Stripes.

World War II was by far the deadliest conflict, as well as the most traumatic. Estimates of people who died from war-related causes range from 50 million to 80 million, with the higher number derived from deaths caused by famine and illness. At least 21 million of those deaths were military personnel, including five million prisoners of war.

A recent story in the Washington Post focuses on the question of how long World War II’s trauma will live on after its last survivors have passed away. The story considers the horrors of the Holocaust and how long the pyschological legacy will likely extend beyond the first generation of victims.

“But the trauma also lives on in people who were not even born when the events of World War II occurred,” according to the story. “These are the children or even grandchildren of the era’s survivors, and the events still resonate in their lives, creating a deep cloud that can last a lifetime.”

The takeaway: You can be traumatized by something you didn't personally experience. The term “secondary traumatization” was invented to describe the trauma passed on by victims to their children. “Transgenerational trauma” describes trauma experienced by future generations.

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Roger That: Former intelligence analyst faces solitary confinement for alleged prison rules violations."