In case you missed: Bradley Manning has a voice

The Freedom of the Press Foundation (of which I'm a board member) this week released surreptitiously recorded audio leaked from the Bradley Manning military pre-court martial hearing at Fort Meade. For the first time, you can now hear Manning's statement in his own voice. I do not know who recorded it or leaked it, but I do know that it is significant. If you haven't listened, you should, no matter whether you believe what Manning did was right or wrong.

In a statement responding to the leaked audio, the US Army said, "The US Army Military District of Washington has notified the military judge presiding over the United States vs. Pfc Bradley Manning court-martial that there was a violation of the Rules for Court. The US Army is currently reviewing the procedures set in place to safeguard the security and integrity of the legal proceedings, and ensure Pfc Manning receives a fair and impartial trial."

tl;dr: To ensure justice, we must keep the trial secret.

I do not know where or how the recording was made, but media reporters covering the leak note that it "appears to have been made inside of the court room itself, rather than the media center where journalists usually watch the proceedings over a live video feed."

More coverage around the web: PRI's The World, USA Today, CNN, LA Times, Frontline, International Business Times, Politico, Wired, Telegraph UK, The Guardian, UPI, Foreign Policy, Associated Press, and many other newspapers and prominent blogs.

Notably absent: The New York Times is *not* on it.

That's especially odd, so soon after their public editor's major column just this past Sunday imploring them to do more to stick up for whistleblowers, and fight secrecy-creep in America. And as she has previously written, by not sending a reporter to Manning's trial, the NYT missed the boat.