Impact of Manning case on media: "Death to Whistleblowers?" —

"If successful, the prosecution will establish a chilling precedent: national security leaks may subject the leakers to a capital prosecution or at least life imprisonment. Anyone who holds freedom of the press dear should shudder at the threat that the prosecution’s theory presents to journalists, their sources and the public that relies on them." Floyd Abrams and Yochai Benkler, in a NYT op-ed published today. — Xeni •

Manning pleads guilty to lesser charges, with 20 years max sentence, but not to aiding enemy —

Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to "10 lesser charges", and will read out a 35-page statement on the leak of diplomatic cables to Wikileaks and the motivations behind it, according to The Guardian's Ed Pilkington. Pilkington reports that the charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years, "but #BradleyManning pleads NOT guilty to the big government charge - 'aiding the enemy' - that could see him jailed for life." — Rob •

"I invoke." —

This text file purports to be a transcript of David House's grand jury testimony. House is a friend and supporter of Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of sending secret documents to Wikileaks, and hence to the press. [via @Glinner and @azzamckazza] — Rob •

Ellsberg on Manning —

"[President Obama] is involved in a war against leakers, against whistle-blowers." — Xeni •

Army: Manning asked Assange to help crack password —

Wired’s Kim Zetter, reporting from Army Pvt. Bradley Manning’s first hearing on charges of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks: “Manning asked “Nathaniel Frank,” believed to be Assange, about help in cracking the main password on his classified SIPRnet computer so that he could log on to it anonymously. He asked “Frank” if he had experience cracking IM NT hashes (presumably it’s a mistype and he meant NTLM for the Microsoft NT LAN Manager). 'Frank' replied yes, that they had 'rainbow tables' for doing that. Manning then sent him what looked like a hash.” — Rob •

Adam Butcher's short film is a portrait of Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of sending thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks. With dialog based on the chatlogs that incriminated him, and pixel-art rotoscoping of live footage, the overall effect is strangely dehumanizing—an echo of what happens when secrets private and political come to define one's predicament.

Bradley Manning Pre-Trial Hearing under way in Maryland —

Kevin Gosztola at FireDogLake is live-blogging/live-tweeting the Bradley Manning Pre-Trial Hearing at Fort Meade today. The military's statement announcing the hearing is here (PDF). — Xeni •

U.S. government seeks to block Manning defense witnesses —

The government seeks to block every defense witness named by alleged wikileaker Bradley Manning's defense team. [Threat Level, Wired] — Rob •