It is nearing the end of Bradley Manning Trial and there seems very little coverage.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/02/us/manning-court-martial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/10/bardley-manning-defence-rests-wikileaks
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/02/us/manning-court-martial
Supporters of Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused in the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history, have adopted the phrase: "I am Bradley Manning."
But who is Manning? A whistle-blower? Or someone who aided the enemy in the midst of war?
Those and other questions go to trial Monday as Manning's court-martial is scheduled to begin at Maryland's Fort Meade.
Gallery: Key WikiLeaks figures as trial begins
In February, Manning, 25, pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him and faces up to two decades in jail.
He did not plead guilty to the most serious charge -- that of aiding the United States' enemies, which carries the potential for a life sentence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/10/bardley-manning-defence-rests-wikileaks
I think this should have been titled Snowden Shouldn't Distract Us From Bradley Manning
Having called just 10 witnesses over the space of three days, the defence phase of the trial was brought to a close far quicker than expected. The defence had indicated in earlier hearings that it intended to call more than 40 witnesses, although many may yet still be presented in court during the post-verdict sentencing stage of the court martial.
By contrast, the prosecution took 14 days to make its case, drawing on 80 witnesses.
On Wednesday, the defence team lead by the civilian lawyer David Coombs, focused its attentions on the most serious charge facing the Army private – that he "aided the enemy" by transmitting information to WikiLeaks knowing that it would be accessible to enemy groups notably al-Qaida. Manning faces a possible sentence of life in military custody with no chance of parole under this single charge.
The final defence witness called, the Harvard law professor Yochai Benkler, delivered blistering testimony in which he portrayed WikiLeaks as a legitimate web-based journalistic organisation. He also warned the judge presiding in the case, Colonel Denise Lind, that if the "aiding the enemy" charge was interpreted broadly to suggest that handing information to a website that could be read by anyone with access to the internet was the equivalent of handing to the enemy, then that serious criminal accusation could be levelled against all media outlets that published on the web.
Benkler, who is co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, was accepted by the court as an expert on the future of journalism in the digital age, despite prosecution attempts to have him disqualified. Under defence questioning, according to a transcript of the court proceedings provided by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Benkler roundly dismissed any connection between WikiLeaks and terrorist organisations and damned as "a relatively mediocre effort" a counter-intelligence report titled "Wikileaks.org – An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups?".