WikiLeaks, U.S. group share leak defense cost

[unhappycamper]

WikiLeaks, U.S. group share leak defense cost
By David Dishneau - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Aug 3, 2010 17:21:33 EDT

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — The whistle-blower website WikiLeaks would bear about half the $100,000 cost of a civilian attorney for an Army intelligence analyst charged with leaking classified information, a support group for the soldier said Tuesday.

Army Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is being held at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., will likely choose by next week a civilian attorney to supplement the military lawyers he has been assigned, said Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist in Oakland, Calif.

“We have an understanding that WikiLeaks will contribute a good chunk of change, somewhere around $50,000,” Paterson said.

WikiLeaks didn’t immediate reply to an Associated Press e-mail seeking verification of the amount but its editor-in-chief, Australian Julian Assange, said previously that WikiLeaks would contribute to Manning’s defense even though it hasn’t acknowledged him as the source of any U.S. secrets it has posted.

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Courage to Resist, which runs the Bradley Manning Support Network, provides legal assistance to U.S. military members who go absent without leave, seeking conscientious objector status or a discharge, or speak out against perceived military injustice.