Bradley Manning, Accused of Aiding WikiLeaks, Will ...

Bradley Manning, Accused of Aiding WikiLeaks, Will ...

Private Accused of Aiding WikiLeaks Appears in Military Court

FORT MEADE, Md. – Bradley Manning, the Army private accused in the most famous leak of government secrets since the Pentagon Papers, makes his first appearance in a military courtroom here Friday to face charges that could send him to prison for life.

Private Manning, who turns 24 on Saturday, is accused of aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act by providing the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks with hundreds of thousands of confidential diplomatic cables, military field reports and war videos. His supporters, some of whom plan to demonstrate today outside Fort Meade, hail him as a whistleblower who sought to expose wrongdoing.

The evidentiary proceeding, known as an Article 32 hearing and expected to last about a week, will determine whether the charges proceed to a court martial or are dismissed. Both prosecutors and Private Manning’s attorney will present evidence, and the public could learn new details of the origins of the disclosures that shook governments and embarrassed politicians around the world.

“This is one of the most interesting military cases of the last 20 years,” said Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale University. Mr. Fidell said the case comes at the intersection of advancing technology, making it possible to lay bare a truckload of secrets on the Web with the click of a mouse, and the culture of the Facebook era in which nothing stays secret for long.

The hearing could shed light not just on Private Manning’s conduct but on the possible role of WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange, and other WikiLeaks activists, in soliciting the material or facilitating the leak. A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., is considering whether WikiLeaks leaders broke the law, though there has never been a successful prosecution of disseminating leaked secrets, as opposed to leaking them in the first place.

Reporters from around the world have signed up to cover the hearing, with a small number taking turns in the courtroom and most following the proceedings on a video link from an adjacent media center. Security is tight at the sprawling Army base, which houses the National Security Agency, the intelligence agency that eavesdrops on foreign communications.

Private Manning’s treatment during 19 months of incarceration set off a major controversy. At the jail on the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., he was held in isolation and forced to strip off his clothing and sleep in a tear-proof smock, a measure military officials said was necessary because he might be a suicide risk. After an outcry – including sharp criticism from the State Department’s top spokesman, who was fired as a result – Private Manning was moved to a new military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where his attorney, David Coombs, said his treatment was better.

Bradley Manning, Accused of Aiding WikiLeaks, Will ...