Obama Says Treatment of WikiLeaker Is 'Appropriate'

President Obama today refuted accusations of the mistreatment of Bradley Manning, the Army private accused of giving documents to WikiLeaks. He said he had "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," reports Politico. "They assured me that they are."

He spoke after a blogger quoted State Department spokesman PJ Crowley telling an audience at MIT that the Pentagon's treatment of Manning at Quantico is "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." (Crowley has since confirmed it.) Manning himself wrote about his treatment, in which he's stripped of his clothes at night. He described his confinement as "unduly harsh." Click for that. (More Barack Obama stories.)