The Army has declared Pfc. Bradley Manning mentally competent to stand trial on a host of charges stemming from his alleged leaking of government secrets to WikiLeaks.  ”There will probably be an announcement regarding a date for the Article 32 pre-trial hearing sooner than later now that this formality is complete,” explains Jeff Paterson of the Bradley Manning Support Network. Demonstrations should be planned worldwide for those hearing dates.

Time Magazine 1971

Although Fort Leavenworth hosted an open media day earlier this week, at which reporters were told that Bradley will be taken out of solitary confinement, Congressman Dennis Kucinich offered a strong critical response yesterday.  Kucinich points out that the military has still failed to address how Bradley was treated at Quantico, or to grant official visits for himself or the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Yesterday, the White House threatened to exclude the San Francisco Chronicle from pooled coverage of Bay Area events because the Chronicle posted a video from last Thursday’s protest at Obama’s fundraiser.  Senior political reporter Carla Marinucci was invited to attend the event, on the condition that she create a print-only report to share with reporters who could not attend.  However, when the protesters and other audience members began filming the protest on their phones, Marinucci joined in.

Chronicle Editor Ward Bushee comments:

“The White House should re-examine its guidelines that segregate print and video, Bushee said, in an era when all news outlets use multimedia platforms. To do otherwise, he said, would ban journalists from reporting on events that non-journalists are free to cover… The San Francisco event last week was “in a public place with hundreds of people… The White House policy regarding video, he said, “is objectionable and just is not in sync with how reporters are doing their jobs these days.’”

The Bradley Manning Support Network has released a compilation video of both last Thursday’s protest and Obama’s comments on Bradley Manning at the end of the fundraiser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViWtnjRw9bM.

Former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, Ann Wright, who is known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War writes:

“The challenges to President and Commander-in-Chief Obama and his administration on the treatment of Bradley Manning continue, particularly on Obama’s pre-trial statement of guilt that Manning ‘broke the law.’  Can a military court-martial consider the Commander-In-Chief’s comment on Manning’s guilt as government malfeasance similar to the conduct of President Nixon when he authorized the break-in of the psychiatrist office of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg?  Nixon called Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America.”

From Josh Gerstein’s blog on Politico:

Federal prosecutors have dropped two misdemeanor traffic charges filed against a friend of Wikileaks suspect Bradley Manning in connection with a visit the friend, David House, tried to pay to manning at the Quantico, Va. brig in January.