The Obama administration's recent bullying of journalists might create sympathy for the WikiLeaks secret spiller, who is being aggressively prosecuted by DoJ

Depending whom you ask, Pfc. Bradley Manning is either a heroic whistleblower scapegoated by the Obama administration or a traitor with blood on his hands who deserves the death penalty.

Conservatives have generally belonged in the latter category. But one wonders whether the recent Obama scandals might changeconservatives' perception, making them more sympathetic to Manning's plight.

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After all, conservatives today see governmental overreach in the scandals surrounding the Justice Department's snooping on journalists at the AP and Fox News. Plus, Obama has invoked the Espionage Act to punish people who aid U.S. enemies six times. Before Obama, the law had only been invoked three times.

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Might that change how conservatives view the government's treatment of Manning?

To be sure, this is not a perfect analogy. For one thing, Manning is not a journalist. And he clearly broke his military oath. It's hard to see how a nation can long survive when its rank-and-file enlisted men and women get to unilaterally decide what classified information remains secret, and what doesn't.

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But with Manning due to stand trial on June 3, and with a new documentary about WikiLeaks out, it is perhaps time to reexamine the secret spiller's story. (Note: It's fair to point out that some libertarian-leaning conservatives have been supportive of Manning. For example, Ron Paul was defending Manning and Julian Assange a year ago. And Paul hasn't let up.)

My question is whether recent events might have changed the context of how Manning is perceived. Should intellectually honest conservatives have voiced more outrage over the way our government reportedly kept him in "inhuman conditions"?

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And might they now support a softer sentence for him? Perhaps the Obama administration's increasingly problematic heavy-handedness with its foes in the media will create new sympathy for another person the White House has been very, very tough on.

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Japan-India summit aims at nuke technology talks

Japan-India summit aims for progress on nuke technology, part of Tokyo's 'economic diplomacy'

Associated Press -

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan and India will work toward an agreement on nuclear energy cooperation during a visit this week by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as Tokyo tries to boost exports of atomic technology and other infrastructure to help revive the economy.

"I do hope that we can make progress in civil nuclear energy cooperation," Kyodo News Service quoted Singh as telling reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager to promote sales of Japanese nuclear technology as part of Japan's push to expand exports, especially in emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East that offer stronger growth potential than at home, without the political tensions that plague Tokyo's dealings with mainland China.

Earlier this month, Japan and India signed a set of agreements on economic cooperation and investment, including multibillion-dollar plans for industrial corridors between New Delhi and Mumbai, and between Chennai and Bangalore. The two sides are also expected to discuss closer military ties.

Singh originally had planned his visit for late last year. He postponed it due to a parliamentary election in December that returned Abe's Liberal Democratic Party to power. The Indian prime minister arrives in Tokyo on Monday and departs Thursday.

Despite both sides' hopes for closer ties, trade between Japan and India has not yet taken off. Japan's exports to India fell nearly 5 percent in the fiscal year that ended in March to 842.1 billion yen ($8.25 billion) — one-thirteenth of the amount Japan shipped to China — while imports rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier to 579.1 billion yen ($5.7 billion), according to Japanese figures.

But with India due to invest about $1 trillion in infrastructure in 2012-2017, Singh said he sees an "enormous role" for Japanese industry in helping build up his country's manufacturing sector.

Highlighting that focus, Singh is due to address Japan's powerful Keidanran business group during his stay in Tokyo, said India's foreign secretary, Ranjan Mathai.

He said the two sides would also discuss possible exports of Japan's high-speed rail technology.

Japan's sales to India of nuclear equipment and technology have been hampered by sensitivity inJapan over India's past atomic tests and refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

India has announced a moratorium on further nuclear testing, but Japan also wants a clearer commitment from New Delhi. The two sides are also working to decide on consequences should India conduct another nuclear test.

Discussions with Japan on nuclear technology are only at the "very preliminary stage," Mathai said, adding that India hopes to see progress on an agreement later in the year.

Japan's nuclear power plants are mostly stalled at home due to safety concerns following the March 2011 disaster in Fukushima. So big companies like Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are desperate to offset lost business at home through sales overseas.

It's a lucrative prospect, given the dozens of nuclear reactors due to be constructed worldwide in coming years. The pro-nuclear Liberal Democrats also contend that Japan should restart reactors closed down for tightened safety checks to help keep the industry internationally competitive.

Japan's first nuclear export deal since the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant came during a visit by Abe to Turkey, which chose a Japanese-French partnership to build a nuclear reactor on its Black Sea coast.

The two sides also signed a nuclear cooperation agreement, as Abe reassured his hosts that Japan has learned from the disaster and is offering technology with the highest safety standards.

During that overseas tour, Abe also signed nuclear agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. He is also aiming at nuclear exports to Eastern Europe, with local reports saying he plans to visit Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in June.

UK police arrest 10th suspect in soldier's slaying

Police officers drag two counter demonstrators, United Against Fascism's supporters, away from a confrontation with English Defence League's supporters at Whitehall, London Monday, May 27, 2013. EDL supporters marched to Downing Street to protest in support of the British armed forces, after the brutal killing of an off-duty British soldier in a London street last week.(AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The mother of killed Drummer Lee Rigby, Lyn Rigby, centre, holds onto a teddy bear as she joins his stepfather Ian, and other family members looking at floral tributes outside Woolwich Barracks as they visit the scene of his murder in Woolwich, south-east London, Sunday May 26, 2013. Family members laid flowers at the Woolwich Barracks where the 25-year-old soldier of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Lee Rigby was attacked and killed by two men in broad daylight Wednesday May 22, and where hundreds of floral tributes have been left by public well wishers. (AP Photo / John Stillwell, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

LONDON (AP) — British police arrested a 10th suspect Monday in connection with the vicious street killing of a soldier in London, an apparent Islamic extremist attack that has horrified the country and heightened racial tensions.

The 50-year-old man was detained in Welling, east of London, on suspicion of conspiring to murder 25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby, Scotland Yard said. Police gave no further information about the suspect's identity.

The latest arrest came as more details trickled out about the background of Michael Adebolajo, 28, one of the two main British suspects in Wednesday's slaying. He and Michael Adebowale, 22, were shot and wounded by police at the scene.

Rigby, an off-duty soldier who had served in Afghanistan, was run over by a vehicle and repeatedly attacked with meat cleavers Wednesday afternoon near his barracks in southeast London.

British officials say the two main suspects had been known to them for some time, but revelations that Adebolajo had been arrested inKenya in 2010 — and claims that British security officials had tried to recruit him as an informer after that — have fueled questions about whether U.K. authorities could have done more to prevent last week's killing.

Adebolajo and Adebowale remain under armed guard in separate London hospitals. Four other men and the suspect arrested Monday remain in custody at a London police station, while one other man has been released on bail. Two women were released without charge in the case.

On Monday, a London-based rights group that lobbies on behalf of suspected terrorists said Adebolajo and his family had contacted it about six months ago complaining about harassment from Britain's MI5 domestic spy service. A case worker who spoke with him said he appeared "paranoid and erratic," the group said.

"His sister contacted the office to complain about constant harassment from MI5, which extended to Michael, his brother, and his father also," said Moazzam Begg of the London-based group CagePrisoners.

"They were all being approached in different ways," Begg told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "One of them, he lived and worked abroad. He'd been approached by MI6 (Britain's external espionage agency) at his workplace and had been offered some money. They wanted him to work for them."

Begg said Adebolajo told the caseworker he had been tortured and threatened with rape while in Kenya, and that he had been interrogated for several hours upon his return to London. At first, British intelligence services let him be, Begg said, but in March 2012 they met with him and offered him a job as an informant. Adebolajo refused, he said.

Kenyan officials on Sunday said Adebolajo was arrested in Kenya in 2010 with five others near the country's border with Somalia. Police believed that Adebolajo was going to work with the Somali Islamic militant group al-Shabab.

Kenyan government spokesman Muthui Kariuki told the AP that Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was taken to court before he was handed over to British authorities in Kenya.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that Adebolajo was arrested in Kenya in 2010 and said the agency "provided consular assistance."

It was not clear how Adebolajo came to be arrested and how he returned to London. Kenyan officials have denied allegations that he was tortured under interrogation. On Monday, Kenya's police chief David Kimaiyo added confusion by contradicting earlier claims and saying that Adebolajo had "never been arrested in Kenya."

Earlier, hardline Muslim leaders described Adebolajo as a British citizen of Nigerian descent who converted to Islam and attended demonstrations and lectures organized by British radical group al-Muhajiroun.

Rigby's killing and Adebolajo's apparent links to radical Islam have fed a spike in anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain, with police and activists reporting a surge in hate crimes, violence and vandalism.

Around 1,000 supporters of the far-right group English Defense League marched through central London on Monday to protest the soldier's killing, clashing with a smaller group of anti-fascist demonstrators and scuffling with riot police. Police arrested 13 people, mostly on suspicion of causing public disorder.

A mosque in the northern England town of Grimsby was firebombed Sunday night, according to the mosque's chairman, Diler Gharib. Police said they arrested two people and the fire was extinguished without injuries.

In the West Midlands, police charged two people with racially aggravated public order offenses following a weekend protest.

___

Associated Press writer Raphael Satter in London and Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

Protests over murdered British soldier, pressure on Cameron

'English Defence League ' demonstrators shout during a protest in Whitehall, organised following the recent killing of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, in London May 27, 2013. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

'English Defence League ' demonstrators shout during a protest in Whitehall, organised following the recent killing of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, in London May 27, 2013. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

By Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) - Around a thousand far-right protesters shouting "Muslim killers, off our streets" marched through centralLondon on Monday against a backdrop of swelling anti-Muslim feeling following the killing of a British soldier last week.

Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old soldier, was hacked to death in broad daylight in a south London street by two men who said they killed him in the name of Islam. The attack has shocked Britain and stirred an anti-Muslim backlash, including attacks on mosques.

In a tense but largely peaceful demonstration, supporters of the far-right English Defence League (EDL) rallied in London outsidePrime Minister David Cameron's residence waving placards and shouting anti-Islamic obscenities.

"Islamic extremism is probably the number one threat to Britain," said one protester, Ben Gates. Other demonstrators chanted "Muslim bombers off our streets".

Another protester, Samuel Hames, said, of Rigby: "He survived his tour of foreign lands and comes home to his family and what happened to him is disgusting."

Nearly 2,000 people marched at a similar demonstration in the northern city of Newcastle on Saturday. Two men were arrested overnight for throwing firebombs at an Islamic cultural center in Grimsby, in the northeast of England. Similar attacks were recorded last week.

As anti-racist groups warned there could be more reprisals, Cameron came under intense pressure on Monday for going on holiday, with pictures of him relaxing in Ibiza prompting newspapers to question his leadership at a time of unease.

"Is Ibiza chillaxed (relaxed) enough for you, Prime Minister?" asked the right-wing Daily Mail newspaper.

Faith Matters, a charity working to defuse religious tensions, said it had registered a spike in reports of Islamophobic attacks in calls to its hotline, describing incidents as "very focused, very aggressive attacks".

Two war memorials in London were vandalized with red graffiti overnight, including the word 'Islam' spray-painted onto one monument.

Suspects Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, allegedly ran over Rigby with a car near his army barracks and butchered him with knives. Police shot the two, and they remain under armed guard in separate London hospitals.

In a dramatic video clip shot by an onlooker and shown on British television, one of the two men, his hands bloodied, says he killed the soldier in retaliation for the deaths of Muslims killed by British troops in faraway lands.

Police have arrested 10 people in connection with the murder. Three people have been released on bail.

The attack prompted an emotional outpouring of sympathy in Britain, with well-wishers laying hundreds of flowers in the street where Rigby was killed. But some were openly angry.

"We've had enough of our soldiers being abused... We'd had enough of the plots and the violence," EDL wrote on its website.

In an attempt to counter the right-wing rally, anti-fascist group Unite Against Racism held its own demonstration nearby but was heavily outnumbered by EDL protesters.

A handful of far-right demonstrators threw bottles and coins at the anti-fascist rally. Police vans and officers blocked the two groups from approaching each other.

"They are a minority and a very scary growing minority," an anti-EDL protester who gave her name as Clara said. "I feel ashamed to be a Londoner today. This is disgusting."

(Editing by Maria Golovnina and Michael Roddy)

US, Russia discuss peace plan for worsening Syria

Associated Press/Jim Young, Pool - US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, as he sits next to Israeli president Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre, at the Dead Sea May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Jim Young, Pool)

PARIS (AP) — The top U.S. and Russian diplomats met Monday to try to accelerate frustratingly slow peace efforts in Syria, where the signs point only to a worsening conflict.

Capping off an eight-day trip to the Middle East and Africa, Secretary of State John Kerry flew into the French capital to see Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and exchange updates on their respective diplomatic efforts.

The United States and its Arab allies are attempting to secure the participation of Syria's fractured opposition at an international peace conference in Geneva, planned for next month. Russia is pledging to deliver Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to the talks.

But despite claims of progress by both, there is little evidence to suggest either side is ready to halt more than two years of violence that has killed more than 70,000 people. President Barack Obamahas demanded that Assad leave power; Russia has stood by its closest ally in the Arab world.

The one-on-one Paris meeting between Kerry and Lavrov, to be immediately followed by a dinner that includes French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, comes as Sen. John McCain slipped into Syria Monday to meet with rebels and at an increasingly dangerous time for the country.

For the past week, regime troops and allies from Lebanon's Hezbollah — and even some Iranian fighters — have waged an offensive in Qusair, gaining ground against the rebels behind intense bombardments of the strategic western Syria town.

Hezbollah's enhanced role poses an assortment of concerns for the Obama administration, with the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowing over the weekend that his militants would back Assad to victory.

Beyond providing powerful reinforcements to Assad's regime, Hezbollah's involvement increases the risk of spillover into Lebanon, a country as ethnically divided and fragile as Syria. Two rockets struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut on Sunday, raising fears that the country could be plunged back into civil war.

And any conflict with Hezbollah threatens to drag in Israel, which has proven with airstrikes it won't tolerate large-scale and advanced weapons transfers to its northern border. Lebanon's state-run news agency reported one missile fired from that area toward the Jewish state on Sunday night.

For Kerry and other would-be peacemakers, the confluence of developments only reaffirms the need for a serious peace process to begin.

The Americans have stressed that any talks be carried out in good faith and lead to the full transfer of power to an interim government. Logic, they say, compels that this government not include Assad or other members of his government culpable in widespread abuses.

Getting to the talks hasn't been easy. Kerry is waiting for Syria's Sunni-led opposition coalition to unearth itself from a mountain of internal divisions, from adding new representatives to determining how Islamist or how secular to define their movement.

Opposition leaders met among themselves Monday in Istanbul for the fifth straight day. And while they've grappled for unity, they haven't given a firm yes to the peace strategy outlined by Kerry and Lavrov earlier this month.

McCain spokeswoman Rachel Dean confirmed the Arizona Republican met with rebels in Syria. She declined further comment. McCain has been a leading proponent of arming the rebels and other aggressive military steps against the Assad regime.

Russia has achieved, rhetorically at least, greater success. The Syrian government said Sunday it agreed "in principle" to send delegates to Geneva, strengthening Moscow's hand ahead of any direct — and potentially proxy — U.S.-Russian diplomatic negotiations.

With Syria's opposition scrambling politically and militarily, some European countries are looking to change the equation. However, the bloc remained divided Monday on whether to scrap its arms embargo to allow Britain and France to provide the rebels with military aid.