Two lawyers question the ability of the prosecution to prove Bradley Manning leaked anything
at all. After observing Bradley Manning’s article 32 ‘pretrial’ hearing the two civilian lawyers present several glaring issues with the case. For one, the computer had been manipulated after Bradley
Manning had been taken into custody, and before the forensic examiner was given access to it. The computers were also not password protected as they should have been. Further, Adrian Lamo, the governments key informant is a convicted felon. Finally, “without a warrant, the military took possession of various computer files stored on various devices found in Manning’s aunts home”. They conclude that “Manning should be freed immediately”. (Read more)

Isolation is torture. Evelyn Leopold writes about two US cases where prisoners have been abused with extended solitary confinement. Bradley Manning spent ten months in solitary, and recently a
US judge resigned “after being accused of… jailing offenders in solitary confinement without access to lawyers.” These cases highlight the need for someone to “watch the watchers”, as there are few institutional practices in place to guard against these kinds of abuse. The UN is one organization working to monitor prisoner abuse, but the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez has repeatedly been denied access to confidentially visit Bradley Manning. We will continue to pressure the Obama administration to allow Juan Mendez access to Bradley Manning so that he can report on the treatment Bradley received. (Read more)

In the midst of all of this serious news, we thought you might like to hear this tidbit: Julian Assange is scheduled to do a guest spot on the Simpson’s, in which he plays himself. This news comes after the news that he will be hosting is own talk show on Russia Today, beginning in March.