Military trial for Bradley Manning begins raising secrecy issues

Today, the pretrial for Army Analyst Bradley Manning opened at Fort Meade, Maryland under tight security and limited media access. Manning, who turns 24 tomorrow, has been kept away from the public since his detention in May 2010. He is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of government documents to Wikileaks. The documents and videos shed light on a wide range of subjects, including civilian deaths in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, torture of detainees, and the US role in the Middle East. Manning’s charges could bring the death penalty, but military prosecutors say they will seek life in prison without the possibility of parole, if convicted. For more, we’re joined by Elizabeth Goitein. She’s the Co-Director of the Liberty & National Security Program at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice and has written extensively about secrecy, security and the Bradley Manning case.