From Computer Geek to Prime Suspect: The Bradley Manning Story

Bradley Manning was 23 when he became the most famous alleged leaker in American history. He had enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2007 and become an intelligence analyst in Iraq, sifting through classified information for up to 14 hours a day at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad.

Born in the small town of Crescent, Oklahoma, Manning had spent part of his childhood in Wales, attending secondary school in his mother's hometown of Haverfordwest from the age of 13 before returning to America for his final school years. Fellow pupils remembered him as a "computer geek." In Iraq, the young soldier — who is gay and had complained of feeling socially isolated in the military — is said to have grown increasingly disillusioned with U.S. foreign policy, once describing "military intelligence" as an oxymoron.

Manning tracked down Adrian Lamo, a well-known former computer hacker in the U.S., believing Lamo would help him get information out. Lamo instead alerted the authorities, handing over their online exchanges. Manning was alleged to have told Lamo he had found "incredible, awful things that belonged in the public domain and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington, DC" — and to have boasted of downloading classified material onto blank CDs while pretending to be listening to Lady Gaga.

His clearance gave him access to the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), the military's classified data system. Investigators were still trying to establish whether he acted alone. Lamo claimed Manning spoke of at least one other person in the military accessing databases without authorization.

The timeline is well documented. In April 2010, WikiLeaks released the "Collateral Murder" footage of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed two Reuters news staff. Manning was arrested the following month and charged with "transferring classified data" and "delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source" — offenses carrying a maximum of 52 years. After WikiLeaks' subsequent releases of hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan war documents, the Pentagon described Manning as a "person of interest" in the hunt for the source. WikiLeaks has refused to confirm or deny his involvement.

The case had already generated its own subplot: two weeks ago, David House, a 23-year-old supporter who had visited Manning at the Quantico brig, said he was detained by the FBI at Chicago's O'Hare airport, questioned extensively, and had his laptop confiscated.

Later context: In 2013, Manning publicly identified as a woman and took the name Chelsea Manning.