Verdict expected in Manning case

30 July 2013 Last updated at 01:57 GMT Manning has acknowledged disclosing the documents, but his lawyer denies he did it to win notoriety A military judge is set to issue a verdict in the court martial of the US soldier who disclosed reams of secret documents to the Wikileaks website.

Pte Bradley Manning, 25, will hear Judge Col Denise Lind's ruling at 13:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

Pte Manning has acknowledged leaking the documents but denies the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy".

He has already pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges out of 22 total, and faces life in prison if convicted.

'Systematic harvest' Pte Manning, an intelligence analyst, was arrested in Iraq in May 2010. He spent weeks in a cell at Camp Arifjan, a US Army installation in Kuwait, before being transferred to the US.

He was charged with 22 counts including aiding the enemy, unauthorised possession of intelligence material, theft, and violations of computer regulations.

The court martial in Fort Meade, Maryland, opened in early June.

During the trial, prosecutor Maj Ashden Fein argued Pte Manning systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents to offer them to anti-secrecy organisation WikiLeaks.

Pte Manning's supporters rallied outside Fort McNair in Washington on Friday

He argued that with his training as an intelligence analyst, Pte Manning should have known the leaked documents would become available to al-Qaeda operatives.

The prosecution has argued the leaks harmed US national security and endangered American lives and those of foreign intelligence and diplomatic sources, and Maj Fein has said some of the documents eventually made their way to Osama Bin Laden.

Pte Manning's defence lawyer, meanwhile, has argued the young soldier is a well-intentioned whistleblower - and naive and disillusioned after his deployment to Iraq in 2009.

The lawyer, civilian David Coombs, has also said Pte Manning acted without the "general evil intent" that would justify the "aiding the enemy" charge.

In a lengthy statement during a pre-trial hearing in February, Pte Manning said he had leaked the files in order to spark a public debate about US foreign policy and the military.

The BBC's Ben Wright explains the case against Bradley Manning in 80 seconds

Among the items sent to Wikileaks was graphic footage of an Apache helicopter attack in 2007 that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including a Reuters photographer.

The documents also included 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and 250,000 secure state department cables between Washington and embassies around the world.

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Manning judge begins deliberations

26 July 2013 Last updated at 22:57 GMT Pte Manning, shown arriving in court on Friday, has acknowledged disclosing the documents to Wikileaks A military judge has begun deliberating over the charges against a soldier who leaked reams of secret US government documents to Wikileaks.

Judge Col Denise Lind alone will rule on the charges against 25-year-old Pte Bradley Manning.

Pte Manning, of Crescent, Oklahoma, aimed to inform the US public, making him a whistleblower not a traitor, his lawyer said in a closing argument.

The leak is considered the largest-ever of secret US government documents.

On Thursday, a prosecutor called him a "traitor" who betrayed his country.

Pte Manning has already pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges out of 22 total, and could face up to life in prison if convicted of "aiding the enemy", the most serious charge against him.

Judge Lind will give a 24-hour warning before delivering her verdict; the decision could come as soon as this weekend.

'Cross-dressing'

In his arguments at the conclusion of the seven-week court martial, Pte Manning's defence lawyer David Coombs disputed the prosecution's claim that the intelligence analyst hoped to win notoriety as a hacker and intelligence leaker.

Continue reading the main story Rajini Vaidyanathan BBC News

Much of the closing arguments in this case have centred on Bradley Manning's character. On Friday, the defence took the opportunity to try to refute some of the claims the prosecution has made, including accusations Pte Manning leaked sensitive information because he craved notoriety. The defence argued the solider was a young, naive and well-intentioned man, and his motive for leaking was to spark worldwide discussion on US foreign policy.

Pte Manning doesn't deny he leaked hundreds of thousands of documents. Instead, the defence say Bradley Manning was a whistleblower who cared about his country, and that is why he leaked the information. Intent is what much of this boils down to. The defence needs to convince the single military judge hearing the case that even though Bradley Manning broke Army rules of confidentiality and non-disclosure, he didn't show evil intent.

"He's not seeking attention. He's saying he's willing to accept the price" for what he has done, Mr Coombs said.

"That is a whistleblower, period. That is somebody who wants to inform the American public."

The defence lawyer played a video Pte Manning leaked to the Wikileaks anti-secrecy website of an Apache helicopter attack in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in 2007. A dozen people died in the attack, including two Reuters employees.

"You have to look at that from the point of view of a guy who cared about human life," said Mr Coombs.

He also displayed a photo of Pte Manning wearing what appeared to be make-up and a bra.

"What you see there is a young man who is cross-dressing," Mr Coombs said. "Just maybe that person is smiling because he can be himself at that moment."

The prosecution had said the photo showed a man who thought he had finally become famous.

On Thursday, prosecutor Maj Ashden Fein said Pte Manning's mission was to find and disclose classified material to "anarchists" at Wikileaks, while seeking notoriety as a leaker.

He also said Pte Manning, who was trained as an intelligence analyst, must have known that al-Qaeda operatives would see the leaked material once it was posted online.

The BBC's Ben Wright explains the case against Bradley Manning in 80 seconds

And he said some of the documents leaked by Pte Manning were discovered among Osama Bin Laden's belongings.

"WikiLeaks was merely the platform which Pte Manning used to ensure all the information was available for the world, including enemies of the United States," Maj Fein said.

"He was a traitor, a traitor who understood the value of compromised information in the hands of the enemy and took deliberate steps to ensure that they, along with the world, received it."

Pte Manning has not denied his role in the leak, and in February said at a pre-trial hearing he had disclosed the documents to spark a public debate about US military and foreign policy.

Among the files leaked were an estimated 250,000 diplomatic cables, and thousands of battlefield reports from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Military prosecutors maintain the leaks damaged national security and endangered American lives and those of foreign intelligence and diplomatic sources.

Pte Manning was arrested in May 2010 while serving in Iraq.

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