Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking classified material to website Wikileaks, is appearing in court today, beginning a two day pre-trial motion hearing in Fort Meade, near Baltimore. During this hearing, military judge Col Denise Lind will announce the date of Manning's trial.

 

According to Associated Press, military prosecutors are now saying that Manning aided al-Qaida through the act of leaking military documents online.

Kevin Gosztola at Firedoglake writes:

“Sunlight is always the best disinfectant,” [Manning’s defense lawyer, David Coombs] said. Acknowledging that Manning had released a lot of information that was probably classified for no good reason, it would appear that Manning’s case calls upon us to wonder about the scale of government secrecy in this country. If we decide that the government bureaucracy is such a beast and that it will relentlessly work to keep important information secret (e.g. water contamination that can cause childhood cancers at Camp Lejeune), we then must consider that breaking the law as Manning is accused of doing—violating a military code—may have some justification in the end because of the good that the release can and in some cases has produced.