Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning supporters
Soldier Bradley Manning on Wednesday told a military court "I'm sorry" for giving war logs and diplomatic secrets to the WikiLeaks website three years ago, the biggest breach of classified data in U.S. history.
"I'm sorry I hurt people. I'm sorry that I hurt the United States," the 25-year-old U.S. Army Private First Class told the sentencing phase of his court-martial. "I'm apologizing for the unexpected results of my actions. The last three years have been a learning experience for me."
Manning faces up to 90 years in prison for providing more than 700,000 documents, battle videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, hurling the pro-transparency website and its founder, Julian Assange, into the world spotlight.
Defense lawyers making a case for a milder sentence sought to show the judge that the soldier's superiors ignored signs of mental stress, with an Army psychologist testifying that Manning felt isolated because he was wrestling with his gender identity.
"I should have worked more aggressively within the system. Unfortunately, I can't go back and change things," Manning, wearing his dress uniform and glasses, his hair in a crew cut, said from the witness stand.
He did not appear to be reading from notes and looked at the judge and around the room as he spoke.
"I understand I must pay a price for my decisions," Manning continued in his first lengthy public statement since February. "I want to be a better person, to go to college, to get a degree and to have a meaningful relationship with my sister and her family."
Manning was convicted of 20 charges, including espionage and theft, on July 30. He was found not guilty of the most serious count, aiding the enemy, which carried a life sentence.
A military spokesman said Judge Colonel Denise Lind would most likely sentence Manning next week at the earliest.
The prosecution will be given an opportunity to rebut the defense case. Manning's main lawyer, David Coombs, was expected to finish his case on Wednesday at Fort Meade, Maryland, asking for a lenient sentence after calling a dozen witnesses.
'HYPER-MASCULINE ENVIRONMENT'
Captain Michael Worsley, who treated Manning from December 2009 to May 2010 during his deployment in Iraq, testified that the stress Manning had felt from his job as a low-level intelligence analyst was compounded by being in a "hyper masculine environment" of a combat zone.
"Being in the military and having a gender identity issue does not exactly go hand in hand," Worsley said. "You put him in that kind of environment, this hyper masculine environment if you will, with no coping skills, the pressure would have been incredible."
That pressure reached a peak when Manning punched another soldier, Worsley said. He said he had met infrequently with Manning and had no input from his superiors until the punching incident.
Testifying for the defense, Navy Reserve Captain David Moulton, a forensic psychiatrist, said he had diagnosed Manning as having gender dysphoria, or wanting to be the opposite sex, as well as narcissism and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Those problems were compounded by the unraveling of a romantic relationship, the isolation and stress of serving in a combat base in Iraq and post-adolescent idealism, Moulton said.
"Manning was under the impression that the information he was giving was going to change the way the world saw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and future wars, actually," said Moulton, who interviewed Manning for about 21 hours and spent more than 100 hours on the case. "This was an attempt to crowd-source an analysis of the war."
'NO WAR WAS WORTH IT'
The psychiatrist said Manning thought it "would lead to a greater good. Society as a whole would come to the conclusion that the war wasn't worth it, that no war was worth it."
Manning's sister, Casey Major, 36, of Oklahoma City, testified about how her parents' alcoholism and infighting compelled her to play a lead role in raising her brother.
She recounted their early days together in Crescent, Oklahoma, reviewed family photos, and said, "I just hope he can be who he wants to be. I just hope he can be happy."
The material Manning released that shocked many around the world was a 2007 gunsight video of a U.S. Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Baghdad. A dozen people were killed, including two Reuters news staff. WikiLeaks dubbed the footage "Collateral Murder."
Prosecutors argued that Manning was an arrogant soldier who aided al Qaeda militants and harmed the United States with the release of the documents.
His attorneys have countered that the Army ignored his mental health problems and violent outbursts and that computer security at Manning's base was lax. They contended that Manning was naive but well-intentioned and suffering from a sexual identity crisis in Iraq.
Manning, described by his superiors as an Internet expert, faces the prospect of decades of monotonous prison life - with no online access - once he is sentenced.
(Additional reporting by Tom Ramstack; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool)
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