Despite claiming he had never met Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange jumped to the jailed U.S. Army intelligence analyst's defense in an interview with Cenk Uygur on MSNBC.
While discussing Manning -- who is said to have provided WikiLeaks with access to the confidential documents which continue to emerge online -- Assange responded, "If we are to believe the allegations, then this man [is] a political prisoner in the United States." On reports that Manning is being kept in solitary confinement with limited access to exercise and even sleep, Assange went on to note, "He's been a political prisoner without trial...this is serious business."
Currently being kept on house arrest in England, where a court battle is being waged over rape charges filed by two Swedish women, Assange also shot back at critics such as Joe Biden, who called the WikiLeaks founder a "high-tech terrorist," and Sarah Palin, who suggested Assange be pursued with the same urgency as al Qaeda.
"It's clear that whoever the terrorists are here, it's not us," Assange said, calling the growing U.S. case against him "arguably unconstitutional." He then added, "All members of the press and all the American people who believe in freedom and the good founding principles of the Revolutionary fathers have got to pull together and resist this attack on the First Amendment."
Watch the full interview here:
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