Boing Boing » manning

Veil of secrecy around Manning case makes a public trial "a state secret in plain sight"

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:52:33 +0000

New York Times media columnist David Carr has a piece out today about how reporters covering the pretrial hearings for Pfc. Bradley Manning over the past year have encountered roadblocks in accessing even the most basic information. Even such routine items as "dockets of court activity and transcripts of the proceedings" have been withheld by the government.

"A public trial over state secrets was itself becoming a state secret in plain sight," Carr writes.

In response to a flood of FOIAs from reporters and pro-transparency advocates, the court finally agreed at the end of February 2013 to release 84 of the ~400 documents filed in the case; but even those grudgingly-released documents were redacted in ways "that are mystifying at best and at times almost comic," notes Carr. "One of the redacted details was the name of the judge, who sat in open court for months."

As an aside, this was the whole point of what Freedom of the Press Foundation was trying to do here.

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

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 01:38:41 +0000

"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.

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

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:59:58 +0000

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."

"I invoke."

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:36:07 +0000

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]

Ellsberg on Manning

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:38:24 +0000

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

Army: Manning asked Assange to help crack password

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:28:47 +0000

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.”

Bradley Manning Had Secrets

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:14:55 +0000

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

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:21:17 +0000

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).

U.S. government seeks to block Manning defense witnesses

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:03:27 +0000

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