Frequently throughout the long and drawn out process that has become the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning, reporters covering proceedings have complained or expressed frustration about the lack of access to court records. But, finally, the military has decided to allow a smidgen of transparency in the court martial to possibly avoid a major First Amendment ruling in a military appeals court that could find the United States military should be granting the press and public access to court martial records in the same way the press and public have access to federal court records.

Watching Mai Iskander’s film Words of Witness as the reports filtered in of the Egyptian presidential election results was somewhat surreal, a word the film’s Heba and her family also find descriptive of the situation in their homeland as the initial joy of Mubarak’s resignation becomes the much longer struggle to build democracy – or perhaps to continue wresting democracy from the hands of the regime.

Snap presser called on pentagonchannel.mil. Joining this in progress. . . .

DoD General Counsel Jeh Johnson, LTC Dawn Hilton, and Dr. Joseph Westphal, US Under Secretary of the Army, adress the press.

As we reported, Pfc. Manning will be transferred from the brig at Quantico to a pretrial confinement facility at Levenworth.

Bradley Manning is set to be moved to the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the only maximum security prison for members of the military, and the home to the military’s Death Row. The Pentagon is expected to announce the move tomorrow.