2012-03-17 #WikiLeaks News Update: #Assange4Senate; #Manning's motion hearing; Other news

WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 470 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 467 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 665 days.

WikiLeaks News:

• Mainstream Media organizations have been misquoting and misinterpreting our purpose and work here at WL Central. Please note that we are an organization wholly independent of WikiLeaks.

• Stratfor hired Robert D. Kaplan, longtime national correspondent with The Atlantic, as their chief geopolitical strategist to help them bounce back after WikiLeaks began releasing their emails.

• Andy Worthington released Part 33 of his 70-part in-depth series covering the WikiLeaks Guantanamo Files.

• World Socialist Web Site published a new interview with Julian Assange in which he discusses the attacks on WikiLeaks and his upcoming Supreme Court verdict.

• BBC Two will air a new program, "WikiLeaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower," on March 21 at 9PM. The program will focus on what Cablegate has revealed about struggles within US diplomacy.

• Peter Van Buren, a US State Department employee, was on The Alyona Show discussing the termination notice he received which was based on eight charges, including linking to WikiLeaks on his blog.

• A panel was held in Brisbane entitled "The War on WikiLeaks" with speakers Christine Assange, Scott Ludlam, Peter Black, and Nicole Jensen. Full video of the panel is available, though the quality is rather low.

Julian Assange News:

• WikiLeaks announced via Twitter that Julian Assange has decided to run for the Australian Senate:

  We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for the Australian Senate while detained. Julian has decided to run.

  — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 17, 2012

  WikiLeaks will also be fielding a candidate to run against Julia Gillard in her home seat of Lalor. The name of this candidate as well as the state Julian Assange will be running for will be announced at a later time.
  
  Shortly after mainstream media picked up on Julian Assange's decision to run, it became a featured topic on Twitter's Discover page.
  
  For further information about how Julian Assange can run for Senate while under house arrest in the UK, see Peter Kemp's article on the subject.

• WikiLeaks is asking supporters to spread an open letter to UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg which brings attention to the issues of the UK's extradition agreements, focusing on the case of Julian Assange.

• German Friends of WikiLeaks has written an open letter to the Australian Ambassador in Berlin urging the Australian Government to provide protection for Julian Assange.

Bradley Manning News:

• Bradley Manning's motion hearing continued into its second and final day. Here are the major developments:
  • Secret conferencing between the prosecution, defense, and judge was held until 1PM. During this time, they agreed upon a protective order for classified information which was signed and submitted to the record
  • The judge denied the defense's motion from yesterday to compel depositions from OCAs (original classification authorities)
  • The next set of pre-trial hearings is scheduled for April 24-26, though the actual trial date is yet to be established
  • For in-depth coverage of Day 2 see Kevin Gosztola's live-blog at Firedoglake and Nathan Fuller's report at the Bradley Manning Support Network

• An under-reported development in Bradley Manning's case is that the prosecution appeared to indicate they do not plan to argue that Manning broke into government computers; he accessed them using his assigned password. This is contrary to previous claims by the government from Manning's hearing in December.

• Kevin Gosztola was on The Alyona Show and RT America discussing the first day of Bradley Manning's motion hearing.
  

• The Young Turks discussed Bradley Manning's motion hearing, commenting that if American mainstream media reports that he aided Al-Qaeda by leaking documents then most Americans will believe it.

• Zack Pesavento of the Bradley Manning Support Network was on RT America discussing Bradley Manning's motion hearing and how he's been punished before trial.

• Ethan McCord, soldier seen on the ground in the 'Collateral Muder' video, wrote an appeal calling for Bradley Manning's defense.

• National Theatre Wales is producing a play about Bradley Manning which will open at Manning's former school, Tasker Milward comprehensive.

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Upcoming Dates & Events:

March 21: "WikiLeaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower" to air on BBC Two, 9PM.

Mid-March: Julian Assange's TV Series to begin airing.

April 5: Beat the Blockade against WikiLeaks by donating at least $5.

April 24: Bradley Manning's next set of pre-trial hearings.

April 25: Kristinn Hrafnsson to speak at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy.

May 23: Julian Assange to speak at Enterprise Information Management Congress 2012 in The Netherlands.

May 27: "Incident in New Baghdad" to air on The Documentary Channel, 8PM.