Oh, Woops, Sorry

The US government has held Bradley Manning in solitary confinement since July while they tried to build a conspiracy case showing that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had gotten Manning to turn over classified documents.

This just in. MSNBC has it:

U.S. military officials tell NBC News that investigators have been unable to make any direct connection between a jailed army private suspected with leaking secret documents and Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The officials say that while investigators have determined that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, there is apparently no evidence he passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.

...
Assange told msnbc TV last month that WikiLeaks was unsure Army PFC Bradley Manning is the source for the classified documents appearing on his site.

"That's not how our technology works, that's not how our organization works," Assange said. "I never heard of the name of Bradley Manning before it appeared in the media."

He called allegations that WikiLeaks had conspired with Manning "absolute nonsense." NBC: U.S. can't link accused Army private to Assange

If Manning committed a crime he should be arraigned and tried like anybody else. If he is dangerous or is a flight risk a judge may deny bail. There is no condition where a nonviolent person not convicted of a crime should be held in solitary confinement and denied visitors for this long. Manning is an American political prisoner and his incarceration is a national embarrassment.