Defense lawyers for the alleged U.S. Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning are accusing the U.S. government of withholding key evidence that could help Manning’s defense at a pretrial hearing next week. Manning’s attorneys say U.S. officials are refusing to hand over internal government documents that assessed the impact of the release of thousands of diplomatic cables that Manning allegedly passed on to WikiLeaks. The U.S. government’s own analysts reportedly concluded the leaking of the cables posed little or no threat to national security. Manning’s hearing is set for December 16.