by Jason Ditz 

 A new video from LiveLeaks shows an AH64 Apache attack helicopter targeting farmers in the Wardak Province, Afghanistan while they were planting poppy seeds. The pilot cheerfully sings a little tune after firing a Hellfire missile at them.

By Dennis Loo

Newsflash: While this article was being prepared, news came from London that Julian Assange managed to escape from his house arrest and formally requested political asylum at Ecuador's Embassy in London on June 19, 2012. Given the fact that Assange had just lost his legal appeal before the British Supreme Court to block his extradition to Sweden, discussed in part in the following article, to face what for all the world appears to be reactionary, politically motivated sex abuse charges as a prelude to possibly extraditing Assange to the U.S., and the fact that he has already been openly targeted for assassination by various high U.S. public officials and pundits (perhaps by drones), Ecuador's comments sympathetic to Assange's request is good news.

*****

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' founder and leader, the international whistle-blower who has devoted himself to uncovering damning secrets that governments try to—and must—conceal from their citizens in order to carry forth with their dirty deeds, is facing an extremely serious court case that could cripple his work and that of WikiLeaks. 

At stake is not only Julian Assange's personal fate: should he lose, the ripples of his case (perhaps waves would be the better metaphor) both legal and political, will have profound effects on everyone who seeks justice, transparency, and fairness. What Assange is on trial for, in essence—his dastardly crime in authorities' eyes—is doing what journalists are supposed to do—tell the truth and reveal to the public corruption, malfeasance and criminal behavior, especially by those on high who have the greatest power to commit towering crimes and who have the most extensive ability to conceal their deeds in the absence of investigative journalism.

This article first appeared on the site Revolution:

Revolution: Can you first give our readers an overview of the case?

Gosztola: Pfc. Bradley Manning is an intelligence analyst in the military who allegedly leaked nearly half-a-million documents to WikiLeaks. He's accused of one of the most significant, far-reaching and impactful leaks of classified government documents in U.S. history.

These documents include the Collateral Murder video, Afghanistan War Logs, Iraq War Logs, U.S. State Embassy cables and Gitmo Files releases. The Collateral Murder video shows a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in which two Reuters journalists were gunned down. A "Good Samaritan" with his two children pulled up with a van and tried to save those wounded. He was shot and killed and his two children were severely wounded.

By David Coombs 

Over the past two years, thousands of individuals have either donated to the defense fund or given freely of their time to support PFC Bradley Manning.  The support provided has come in many forms:

1)  Signing petitions (standwithbrad.org);
2)  Standing up to say “I am Bradley Manning” (iam.bradleymanning.org);
3)  Writing to military/government authorities;
4)  Writing letters to the editors of local and national newspapers;
5)  Attending marches, rallies, and other public events to raise awareness about Bradley Manning;
6)  Using social media to write about the case and the events of every hearing;
7)  Contacting government representatives;
8)  Sending messages of support to my law office;
9)  Donating to the legal defense fund; or
10)  Volunteering with the Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist.

by Kevin Gosztola

The trial for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, has now been moved from September to November or January of next year. The judge moved the trial date because of “discovery issues” in the court martial. This was entirely predictable. All along, the military prosecutors and government have been engaged in a secrecy games that have made it nearly impossible for the defense to obtain evidence that could be material to the guilt or innocence of Manning or that could help reduce his sentence if he was convicted for his alleged leaks.

by Ed Pilkington 

The US government is in possession of 250,000 pages of documents relating to the transmission of state secrets to whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which it is refusing to disclose to defence lawyers representing the alleged source of the leaks, Bradley Manning.

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