The Bradley Manning Support Network reports today that a coalition of journalists is challenging the Manning trial secrecy in civilian court; And the Nobel Peace Prize petition continues to draw signatures, 50,000+ at last count. Signed it yet?
Julian Assange and coalition of U.S. journalists sue military over transparency in Bradley Manning’s case. Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman, and the Nation magazine join the WikiLeaks editor in a lawsuit against the Department of Defense seeking access to basic filings in Manning’s case. This suit seeks recourse in a civilian federal court, following a military appeals court’s rejection of the same lawsuit last month.
Military judge Col. Denise Lind ruled to close the court during trial for 24 of the government’s witnesses because they’re expected to divulge classified information.
That’s rich: so these witnesses are going to divulge classified information in the courtroom during the pretrial hearing of a man accused of aiding the enemy by releasing a massive amount of documentation – most of which was not itself classified…
This suit is especially important given the Pentagon’s half-hearted – to put it generously – attempt to make some documents public. In late February, the DOD established a FOIA Reading Room dedicated to publishing legal filings in Manning’s case. But it has only made 85 of the 500+ documents public, hasn’t added any new ones since March 15, and has not made any of the most newsworthy or legally significant rulings available.
- KBOO