◼ During a Friday conference call with reporters WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg sketched an apocalyptic vision of journalism's future if Pfc. Bradley Manning is convicted of aiding the enemy. - US News & World Report
...Manning's conviction would "forever change the ability of journalists to reveal the most important crimes of the state," Assange said. "It is an attempt to redefine how journalism is done."
...Assange says President Barack Obama is deliberately seeking to expand the use of the Espionage Act to cover journalists reporting on leaked material.
"There's a harmonization of approach to get up this new legal theory regarding the Espionage Act," he said, referencing the involvement of Fox News reporter James Rosen and New York Times reporter James Risen in criminal leak probes as part of "an extremely worrying path the Obama administration has gone down."
The Australian-born secret-spiller predicted the U.S. Supreme Court may ultimately invalidate parts of the Espionage Act.
Using the Espionage Act, Obama is "effectively rewriting the Constitution," Assange said. The First Amendment, he noted, has "no exception for an embarrassed military or an embarrassed White House. What part of 'no' does President Barack Obama not understand?"
