Soldier admits leaking classified documents

FORT MEADE, Md. -- Bradley Manning, the Army private arrested in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history, pleaded guilty yesterday to 10 charges that could send him to prison for 20 years, saying he was trying to expose the American military's "bloodlust" and disregard for human life in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military prosecutors said they plan to move forward with a court-martial on the 12 remaining charges against him, including aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.

"I began to become depressed at the situation we found ourselves mired in year after year. In attempting counterinsurgency operations, we became obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists," the 25-year-old former intelligence analyst in Baghdad told a military judge. He added: "I wanted the public to know that not everyone living in Iraq were targets to be neutralized."

It was the first time Manning directly admitted leaking the material to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and detailed the frustrations that led him to do it.

The slightly built soldier from Oklahoma read from a 35-page statement through his wire-rimmed glasses for more than an hour. He spoke quickly and evenly, showing little emotion, even when he described how troubled he was by what he had seen.

The judge, Col. Denise Lind, accepted his plea to violating military regulations.

Manning admitted sending hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, State Department diplomatic cables, other classified matter and two battlefield video clips to WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010. He said he did not believe the release of the information would harm the United States.

He said he was appalled by a 2007 video of an assault by a U.S. helicopter that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer. The Pentagon concluded the troops mistook the camera equipment for weapons.

"The most alarming aspect of the video to me was the seemingly delightful bloodlust the aerial weapons team happened to have," Manning said.

He said he sent the battlefield reports to WikiLeaks after contacting The Washington Post and The New York Times. He said he felt a reporter at the Post didn't take him seriously, and a message he left at The Times was not returned. Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said yesterday: "This is news to us."

The Obama administration has said the release of the documents threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments.

The soldier said he corresponded online with someone he believed to be WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. WikiLeaks has been careful never to confirm or deny whether Manning was the source of the documents it has posted on the Web.

Assange told British television Thursday that Manning is "America's foremost political prisoner," and "all those involved in the persecution of Bradley Manning will find cause to reflect on their actions." Assange remains under investigation by the United States and has been holed up in Ecuador's Embassy in London for the better part of a year to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex-crimes allegations.