Hero or traitor? Bradley Manning finally goes on trial
Soldier who has split a nation faces life in prison as he goes on trial accused of aiding the enemy by releasing secret cables and war logs
From a swivel chair and a small desk in a military courtroom in Maryland, Bradley Manning has for more than a year heard government lawyers outline why he should be jailed for life.
By recently admitting he was the source of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables and war logs regarding Afghanistan and Iraq, later published by WikiLeaks, he appears certain to be found guilty at a trial beginning today.
Manning, who faces a possible 154-year jail sentence, has offered to plead guilty to several offences. But he denies prosecutors' most serious charge - that he knowingly aided the enemy, chiefly al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
The trial follows an exhaustive series of preliminary hearings that outlined the government's case against Manning, 25, over leaks of diplomatic cables and war logs that caused huge embarrassment to the US and its allies.
The soldier's supporters say he shone a light in the darkest corners of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and exposed the reasoning behind foreign policy decisions taken in the American public's name. His opponents contend he is a traitor whose behaviour wantonly endangered lives, including US citizens, around the world.
"Manning was trained and trusted to provide intelligence," prosecutor Army Captain Ashden Fein said during an earlier hearing, a transcript shows, adding that "he used that training to defy our trust, to systematically and indiscriminately harm the United States during a time of war and while deployed".
