WikiLeaks Suspect's Backers Confront Obama

By EVAN PEREZ

Activists trying to build sympathy for the Army private accused in the WikiLeaks case made a splash Thursday by confronting President Barack Obama with a song of protest at a fund-raiser they had paid more than $100,000 to attend.

Pfc. Bradley Manning faces a court martial on charges including aiding the enemy, for allegedly leaking thousands of government documents to operators of the WikiLeaks website. They allegedly included military war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from embassies around the world.

Twenty-one members of the Bradley Manning Support Network—some donning shirts that read "Free Bradley Manning"—interrupted the president's speech at a $5,000-a-seat event at the St. Regis hotel in San Francisco.

They broke into a song protesting his treatment in military custody: "Alone in a 6x12 cell sits Bradley / 23 hours a day is night / The 5th and 8th Amendments say this kind of thing ain't right / We paid our dues, where's our change?"

Several of the protesters were asked to leave but others remained. Mr. Obama later spoke with some of them and defended the government's handling of the case, saying the release of the documents caused damage to diplomatic sources, according to the activists. Another person who witnessed the exchange offered a similar account.

The interruption was part of a campaign that has emerged in recent months attempting to raise Mr. Manning's profile and portray him as a dissident being wrongfully prosecuted by the government. Mr. Manning's supporters, including 1971 Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, have held several protests in his defense.

Mr. Manning's defenders have played up reports that he was required to sleep naked and spend nearly all day in solitary confinement at a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. He has since been moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Col. David Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, said activists had misinformed the public about Mr. Manning. "He is not, as is widely reported, in solitary confinement. Except for a brief period about a month ago, and for reasons of Manning's own physical safety, Manning does not sleep naked. Nor is Manning awakened every five minutes by brig personnel," he said.

A senior Defense Department official said government officials have been "marveling in disbelief in the transformation in Bradley Manning's story line: from being denounced for the largest security breach in history, to being lionized and a declared a hero."

The activists aren't denying that Mr. Manning is the leaker, and his defense team has done little to dispute the central allegation that he violated military rules and was responsible for one of the biggest leaks of government secrets.

Instead, organizers of the campaign say their aim is to mitigate his sentence. Military prosecutors have said they wouldn't seek the death penalty on what could be capital charges, but the possibility technically remains because, under the military system, the court-martial's convening authority—a high-ranking military official who oversees the trial—can overrule prosecutors.

"I do think that if we unfold this campaign and build pressure, there is a basis for the military to respond accordingly," said Jeff Paterson, one of the organizers of the Bradley Manning Support Network. He said that success would be a sentence of "five to 10 years instead of life."

The anti-war group Courage to Resist, which assists conscientious objectors in the military, is one of the groups behind the Manning network. Mr. Paterson says the network has raised about $280,000 for the cause, of which more than $60,000 remains. Thursday's protest was conducted in coordination with a satirical group called the Fresh Juice Party, which on its website says it wants to draw attention to Mr. Obama and Democrats not meeting the promises on which Mr. Obama was elected.

Military justice experts differ on whether the publicity campaign will help or hurt.

Eugene Fidell, a Yale law professor and president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said, "The more he elects to be a poster child for Amnesty, the more likely he is to be hammered when it comes to sentencing."

Richard Rosen, a Texas Tech law professor and former Army judge advocate general, said the campaign itself wouldn't likely affect the military trial, but reports of his treatment could become important. "It might influence the convening authority on the sentence he gets," said Mr. Rosen.

While Mr. Manning awaits trial, Justice Department prosecutors are pursuing a separate probe against WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange and other activists associated with the group. Government officials contend that Mr. Assange and others violated U.S. law by possessing classified documents.

Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com