www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/10096961/WikiLeaks-trial-Bradley-Manning-worked-closely-with-Julian-Assange.htmlTelegraph.co.uk
Monday 03 June 2013
WikiLeaks trial: Bradley Manning 'worked closely with Julian Assange'
A US soldier was acting as an agent of WikiLeaks as he "systematically harvested" hundreds of thousands of classified files, prosecutors have said.
In this courtroom sketch, Army Pfc Bradley Manning watches at left as his defence attorney, David Coombs, right, speaks in front of military judge Army Col. Denise Lind on the opening day of Manning's court martial in Fort Meade, Maryland. Photo: WILLIAM HENNESSY/AP
By Raf Sanchez, Fort Meade, Maryland8:48PM BST 03 Jun 2013
On the opening day of his court martial today, the US government challenged Private First Class Bradley Manning's claim to be a solitary whistleblower who was "young, naive but good-intentioned" as he carried out the largest intelligence leak in American history.
Prosecutors alleged instead that the 25-year-old plotted with Julian Assange, WikiLeaks's founder, and worked to fulfil a "most-wanted list" of documents desired by the anti-secrecy website.
They also claimed the leaked files had directly aided al-Qaeda in its struggle against the US and that Osama bin Laden himself had made use of the WikiLeaks releases.
"This is a case about a soldier who systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of documents from classified databases and then dumped the information on to the internet and into the hands of the enemy," said Captain Joe Morrow, for the prosecution.
Pfc Manning faces life imprisonment if the government successfully argues that he knew the leaked documents would aid American's enemies.
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The defence painted a starkly different picture, describing Pfc Manning as an idealistic young man who wanted to "lift the fog of war" and show the US the "true nature" of its campaigns in the Middle East.
David Coombs, for the defence, said the then-22-year-old had been unable to get over an incident on Christmas Eve 2009, when a roadside bomb went off in Iraq.
Nearby US troops escaped unharmed, but the blast hit an Iraqi family of five, killing one and wounding four. "He could not forget the life that was lost on that day," said Mr Coombs. "From that moment on Pfc Manning was struggling."
The defence also Pfc Manning said was wracked by an "internal struggle" over with his homosexuality and gender identity issues.
Prosecutors said the soldier's cooperation with WikiLeaks was far more extensive than previously disclosed and that he started aiding the website "within two weeks" of being deployed to Iraq in November 2009.
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