Army private 'pressured to implicate Assange' (Australia)

[Matilda]

Top ABC current affairs program, "Four Corners" will tonight air a program on the treatment of Army leaker Bradley
Manning, alleging that "the White House is trying to break the young solider".

"His supporters have told the ABC's Four Corners program the US government is pressuring him to implicate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the theft of the documents.

"The Four Corners investigation has also discovered a fierce debate within WikiLeaks over whether it was in Manning's best interest to publish the cables.

(snip)

"To date, there is no evidence Mr Assange directly helped or conspired with Manning to take the classified material.

"Supporters of Manning say his prison conditions are designed to break the 23-year-old and force him to implicate Assange."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/14/3137816.htm


This isn't news on DU, but I doubt that mainstream Australia has ever heard of Bradley Manning, and Four Corners is noted for its willingness to name names and point the finger at highly-placed people when necessary.

I'll bet the American Ambassador will be watching tonight.

And what's on Four Corners on Monday night is often front-page news on The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Tuesday - the only influential non-Murdoch papers in the country.

[defendandprotect]

1. k/r