Persuading Private Manning

TO WHAT END is Bradley Manning being tortured?

American officials view persuading Pte Manning to give evidence that Mr Assange encouraged him to disseminate classified Pentagon and State Department files as crucial to any prospect of extraditing [Assange] for a successful prosecution. [The Independent]

“Persuading!” Soooo rich.

To what end is Julian Assange to be prosecuted?

…as any journalist knows—and I’ve been in the business for more than 30 years—when a whistleblower comes to you and says, “Look, I have important information,” the first thing you do is say, “Well, I would need some documentation of what you’re alleging. You’ve got to—can you get some emails, can you get some documents, that will back up your assertions?” And so, to now say that that is colluding with the whistleblower, to get this information illegally from the government, would really create a major problem for journalists in this country and around the world. [Juan Gonzalez]

People are illegally collecting evidence of our rulers’ illegal acts! Feeling threatened, and being rulers, it’s a simple matter of manipulating the rule of law to make disseminating the evidence illegal.