WikiLeaks' Founder Julian Assange Comments on Bradley Manning Case & US Use of Grand Juries

DemocracyNow.org - In one of his first public events since being held under house arrest, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in London Saturday for a conversation with Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, moderated by Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman. They discussed the impact of WikiLeaks on world politics, the release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and Cablegate — the largest trove of classified U.S. government records in history. Goodman asked Assange to comment on the case of U.S. Army Private Manning, who has been held without charges in military prison for his alleged role in leaking classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. In June, the FBI served a subpoena on David House, one of the founders of the Bradley Manning Support Network who helped publicize the oppressive conditions of Manning's solitary confinement at the Quantico Marine Corps Base. House testified before a grand jury last week investigating WikiLeaks and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Assange comments on Manning's case, the use of secret grand juries in the U.S. legal system.

"By all reports this is a young man of high moral character, and when people of high moral are pressured in a way that is illegitimate they become stronger, not weaker, and that seems to be the case with Bradley Manning," Assange says. "And that seems to have been the case with Bradley Manning and he has told U.S. authorities, as far as we know, nothing about his involvement." (See the complete transcript below.)

This is an excerpt from a 2hour conversation, which can be seen in its entirety here

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