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The pre-trial hearing of Bradley Manning, accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified government cables to Wikileaks in 2010, has entered its 5th day. Yesterday, in a military court at Fort Meade, Maryland, the first evidence of communication between Wikileaks Julian Assange and Manning was presented. At Wired.com Kim Zetter reports a digital forensics expert testified that 14 – 15 pages of chat logs with a person believed to be Assange were found on Manning’s laptop, as well as an Icelandic phone number for Assange. On Sunday a military forensic expert testified that a military computer used by Manning contained 100,000 State Department cables in a corrupted file, and 10,000 diplomatic cables. However under cross examination on Monday Manning’s Defense disputed the assumptions made about the files. Forensic expert Spec. Agent David Shaver with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command testified that he did not match any of the cables with those passed to Wikileaks, nor could he verify the files had been shared at all. Shaver also affirmed that it would not be possible to prove who downloaded the files.The Bradley Manning Support Network yesterday condemned media blackouts of testimony deemed to be classified because discussion centers around the files leaked to Wikileaks. The group cites internal government assessments that found the materials do not pose a threat to national security. Manning and his attorneys were made to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of being present during closed door testimony. The Defense has accused the official presiding over the trial of bias. The prosecution has been allowed 10 witnesses while out of 38 witnesses requested by the defense, only two were approved.This hearing will determine whether Manning faces a military court martial on over 20 criminal charges.

GUEST: Greg Mitchell, award-winning author whose writes a daily blog on WikiLeaks for The Nation magazine, author of Bradley Manning: Truth and Consequences, and The Age of Wikileaks

Read Greg Mitchell’s work here: http://www.thenation.com/authors/greg-mitchell