“Ridiculous and Counterproductive and Stupid”

“What I said was my personal opinion. It does not reflect an official USG policy position,” P. J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, told Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin. (“USG” is Crowley’s employer, the U.S. government.) That personal opinion, expressed at an event at M.I.T., was that the treatment of Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of giving classified files to WikiLeaks, was “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He added, “Nonetheless, Bradley Manning is in the right place.” If he’s in the right place, does that mean that the officials overseeing his detention are in the wrong ones? Hard to say; Crowley, in confirming the remarks, told Rogin, “I defer to the Department of Defense regarding the treatment of Bradley Manning.”

Given the news lately, it’s almost remarkable that this wasn’t said on Twitter, or to someone with a hidden camera posing as an improbable figure. (Who would have been the character best positioned to elicit this from Crowley—fake David Koch to his Scott Walker, pretend Muslim Brotherhood associates to his NPR executive?) The event was sponsored by M.I.T.’s Center for Future Civic Media, and Philippa Thomas, one of the attendees, who first blogged about this, wrote,

A few minutes later, I had a chance to ask a question. “Are you on the record?” I would not be writing this if he’d said no. There was an uncomfortable pause. “Sure.” So there we are.

There we are. (Jeffrey Toobin and I spoke a bit about the Manning case during our Political Scene podcast this week.) And where is Obama? Jake Tapper, of ABC News, asked the President about it at his news conference Friday:

Tapper: The State Department spokesman, PJ Crowley, said the treatment of Bradley Manning by the Pentagon is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid. And I’m wondering if you agree with that….

Obama: With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are. I can’t go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning’s safety as well.

Tapper: Do you disagree with PJ Crowley?

Obama: I think I gave you an answer to the substantive issue.

So the State Department spokesman, in whatever capacity, said that something was stupid, but the Pentagon said it was appropriate. Does that get at the “substantive issue”?