Free Talk Live

The feds war on whistle blowers continues with an anonymous hacker that faces life in prison.

Protests are expected in dozens of cities today as part of an effort to call attention to the harsh conditions faced by accused U.S. Army whistleblower Bradley Manning. Manning is expected to testify about conditions during his imprisonment at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, as part of a pre-trial hearing today at Fort Meade, Maryland. The testimony will be Manning’s first public comments since his arrest more than two year ago.

Jake Tapper, the White House correspondent for ABC News, pointed out that the administration had lauded brave reporting in distant lands more than once and then asked, “How does that square with the fact that this administration has been so aggressively trying to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistle-blowers to court?”

William Binney is among a group of N.S.A. whistle-blowers, including Thomas A. Drake, who have each risked everything — their freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships — to warn Americans about the dangers of N.S.A. domestic spying; A top-secret program he says is broadly collecting Americans' personal data.

Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of being behind the biggest leak of state secrets in US history, is being denied a fair trial because the army is withholding from him crucial information that might prove his innocence or reduce his sentence, his defence team is arguing. With Manning's court-martial approaching in September, his legal team has released details of what they claim is a shocking lack of diligence on the part of the military prosecutors in affording him his basic constitutional rights.

This week marks two years since U.S. Army private Bradley Manning was detained on allegations of leaking classified documents to the online whistleblower WikiLeaks. Manning faces up to life imprisonment in a military trial set to begin in September. "It’s important to remember that what Bradley Manning is alleged to have done ... was an act of incredible nobility, bringing immense amounts of transparency to the U.S.

An Article about the absolutely despicable conditions of Bradley Manning's detention by Glenn Greenwald. FREE BRADLEY MANNING!

The news of Manning’s transfer to Kansas comes after several international groups, including Amnesty International, stepped up criticism of Manning’s treatment at the Marine jail. The detention conditions caused State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley to describe the treatment as “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.” Crowley was forced to resign days later but has stood by his statement.

In his most extended interview in months, Julian Assange speaks from inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has been holed up for nearly six months. Assange vowed WikiLeaks would persevere despite attacks against it. "The Pentagon is maintaining a line that WikiLeaks inherently, as an institution that tells military and government whistleblowers to step forward with information, is a crime. They allege we are criminal, moving forward," Assange says.