FORT MEADE, Md. - The pretrial hearing for the U.S. soldier accused of leaking government secrets to the WikiLeaks website is bogged down in a dispute over the impartiality of the presiding officer.
David Coombs, the civilian defence lawyer for the accused leaker, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, is arguing that Army Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, is biased and therefore should step aside.
Almanza refused, and Coombs then asked that the proceedings be suspended while he initiates an appeal of that decision.
The hearing is to determine whether Manning will face a court-martial on charges that he aided the enemy by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.
