The US messenger behind the WikiLeaks : Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning, US Army intelligence analyst was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad. He served as an intelligence analyst with a Top Secret/SCI clearance and access to classified networks, including SIPRNET, the Army’s secret-level wide area network.

Manning reportedly read about Adrian Lamo's hacking exploits in a Wired magazine profile, and decided to contact him through instant message and email. Adrian Lamo, a former hacker has turned Manning in after striking up an online relationship with the soldier and learning the extent of his illegal downloads. Bradley Manning discussed personal issues with Lamo that got him into trouble with his superiors and left him socially isolated, and said he had been demoted and was headed for an early discharge from the Army.

Sometime after Thanksgiving 2009, Manning reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, after WikiLeaks published 500,000 pager messages from the 24-hour period surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The Army alleges that Manning illegally downloaded to unsecured computer equipment more than 150,000 secret diplomatic cables, in addition to video of a classified military operation near Baghdad. Manning had access to two classified networks from two separate secured laptops: SIPRNET, the Secret-level network used by the Department of Defense and the State Department, and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System which serves both agencies at the Top Secret/SCI level.

Manning allegedly claimed credit for leaking the WikiLeaks video, but when he said he had also leaked classified diplomatic cables, Lamo decided to report him. So Manning came to the attention of the FBI and Army investigators.

Manning was arrested by the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command in May 2010 and detained without charge for over a month in a military jail at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Julian Assange told The Guardian that WikiLeaks had hired three US criminal lawyers to defend Manning but that they had been denied access to him.