Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning ( born Bradley Edward Manning , December 17 , 1987 ) is a United States Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses , after releasing the largest set of classified documents ever leaked to the public . Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to confinement for 35 years and to be dishonorably discharged from the Army . This was reduced by 112 days for harsh treatment received during pre - trial confinement at Marine Corps Brig , Quantico . Credit for other pre - trial confinement and good behavior could result in her release on parole after eight years . While in the Army , Manning was known as Bradley and diagnosed with gender identity disorder . In a statement the day after sentencing , Manning said she felt female since childhood , wanted to be known as Chelsea , and requested hormone replacement therapy . Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst , Manning had access to classified databases . In early 2010 she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo , an online acquaintance . Lamo informed Army Counterintelligence , and Manning was arrested in May that same year . The material included videos of the July 12 , 2007 Baghdad airstrike , and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan ; 250 , 000 U . S . diplomatic cables ; and 500 , 000 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs . Much of the material was published by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010 . Manning was ultimately charged with 22 offenses , including aiding the enemy , the most serious charge . She was held at the Marine Corps Brig , Quantico in Virginia , from July 2010 to April 2011 under Prevention of Injury status — which entailed " de facto " solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused domestic and international concern — before being transferred to Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , where she could interact with other detainees . She pleaded guilty in February 2013 to 10 of the charges . The trial on the remaining charges began on June 3 , 2013 , and on July 30 she was convicted of 17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others , but was acquitted of aiding the enemy . She will serve her sentence at the maximum - security U . S . Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth . Reaction to Manning ' s disclosures , arrest , and sentence was mixed . Denver Nicks , one of her biographers , writes that the leaked material , particularly the diplomatic cables , was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010 , and that Manning was viewed as both a 21st - century Tiananmen Square Tank Man and an embittered traitor . Reporters Without Borders condemned the length of the sentence , saying that it demonstrated how vulnerable whistleblower s are . Background . Early life . Born Bradley Edward Manning in 1987 in Crescent , Oklahoma , she was the second child of Susan Fox , originally from Wales , and Brian Manning , an American . Brian had joined the United States Navy in 1974 at the age of 19 , and served for five years as an intelligence analyst . Brian met Susan in a local Woolworth ' s while stationed in Wales at Cawdor Barracks . Manning ' s sister was born in 1976 . The couple returned to the United States in 1979 , moving first to California , then to a two - story house outside Crescent , with an above - ground swimming pool and of land where they kept pigs and chickens . Manning ' s sister Casey , 11 years her senior , told the court - martial that both their parents were alcoholics , and that their mother had drunk continually while pregnant . David Moulton , a Navy psychiatrist and captain , told the court that Manning ' s facial features showed signs of fetal alcohol syndrome . Casey became Manning ' s principal caregiver , waking at night to make the baby a bottle . The court heard that Manning was fed only milk and baby food until the age of two , and was always small for her age ; as an adult she reached just and weighed around . Manning ' s father took a job as an information technology ( IT ) manager for a rental car agency , which meant he had to travel . The family lived several miles out of town and Manning ' s mother was unable to drive . She spent her days drinking , while Manning was left largely to fend for herself , playing with Lego s or on the computer . Brian would stock up on food before his trips , and leave pre - signed checks that Casey mailed to pay the bills . A neighbor said that whenever Manning ' s elementary school went on field trips , she would give her own son extra food or money so he could make sure Manning had something to eat . Parents ' divorce , move to Wales . Those who knew Manning said that even as a child , she always had a mind of her own . She was an atheist who was openly opposed to religion , for example , remaining silent during the part of the Pledge of Allegiance that refers to God . In a 2011 interview Manning ' s father said , " People need to understand that he ' s a young man that had a happy life growing up . " He also said that Manning excelled at the saxophone , science , and computers , creating her first website at the age of ten . Manning taught herself how to use PowerPoint , won the grand prize three years in a row at the local science fair , and in sixth grade , took top prize at a statewide quiz bowl . A childhood friend of Manning ' s , speaking about a conversation they had when Manning was 13 , said " he told me he was gay . " Around this time , Manning ' s parents divorced , and she and her mother Susan moved out of the house to a rented apartment in Crescent , Oklahoma . Susan ' s instability continued and in 1998 she attempted suicide ; Manning ' s sister had to drive them to the hospital , with Manning sitting in the back of the car trying to make sure their mother was still breathing . Manning ' s father remarried in 2000 , the same year as his divorce . His new wife was also named Susan and had a son from a previous relationship . Manning apparently reacted badly when the son changed his surname to Manning too ; she started taking running jumps at the walls , telling her mother : " I ' m nobody now . " In November 2001 , Manning and her mother left the United States and moved to Haverfordwest , Wales , where her mother had family . Manning attended the town ' s Tasker Milward secondary school . A schoolfriend there told Ed Caesar for " The Sunday Times " that Manning ' s personality was " unique , extremely unique . Very quirky , very opinionated , very political , very clever , very articulate . " Manning ' s interest in computers continued , and in 2003 , she and a friend set up a website , angeldyne . com , a message board that offered games and music downloads . Manning became the target of bullying at the school because she was the only American and was viewed as effeminate ( she was living as a boy at that time ) . Manning had identified to two friends in Oklahoma as gay , but was not open about it at school in Wales . The students would imitate her accent , and apparently abandoned her once during a camping trip ; her aunt told " The Washington Post " that Manning awoke to an empty camp one morning , after everyone else packed up their tents and left without her . Return to the United States . Manning feared that her mother was becoming too ill to cope , so in 2005 ( at the age of 17 ) Manning returned to the United States . She moved in with her father in Oklahoma City , where he was living with his second wife and her child . Manning got a job as a developer with a software company , Zoto , and was apparently happy for a time , but was let go after four months . Her boss told " The Washington Post " that on a few occasions , Manning had " just locked up , " and would simply sit and stare , and in the end communication became too difficult . The boss told the newspaper that " nobody ' s been taking care of this kid for a really long time . " Manning was by then living as an openly gay man . Her relationship with her father was apparently good , but there were problems between Manning and her stepmother . In March 2006 , Manning reportedly threatened her stepmother with a knife during an argument about Manning ' s failure to get another job ; the stepmother called the police and Manning was asked to leave the house . Manning drove to Tulsa in a pickup truck her father had given her , at first sleeping in it , then moving in with a friend from school . The two of them got jobs at Incredible Pizza in April , then Manning spent time in Chicago before running out of money and again having nowhere to stay . Her mother arranged for Brian ' s sister , Debra , a lawyer in Potomac , Maryland , to take Manning in . Nicks writes that the 15 months Manning spent with her aunt were among the most stable of her life . Manning had a boyfriend , took several low - paid jobs , and spent a semester studying history and English at Montgomery College , but left after failing an exam . Military service . Enlistment in the Army . Manning ' s father spent weeks in the fall of 2007 asking her to consider joining the Army . Hoping to gain a college education through the G . I . Bill , and perhaps to study for a PhD in physics , she enlisted in September that year . She told her Army supervisor later that she had also hoped joining such a masculine environment would resolve her gender identity disorder . Manning began basic training at Fort Leonard Wood , Missouri , on October 2 , 2007 . She wrote that she soon realized she was neither physically nor mentally prepared for it . Six weeks after enlisting , she was sent to the discharge unit . She was allegedly being bullied , and in the opinion of another soldier , was having a breakdown . The soldier told " The Guardian " : " The kid was barely five foot . . . He was a runt , so pick on him . He ' s crazy , pick on him . He ' s a faggot , pick on him . The guy took it from every side . He couldn ' t please anyone . " Denver Nicks writes that Manning , who was used to being bullied , fought back — if the drill sergeants screamed at her , she would scream at them — to the point where they started calling her " General Manning . " The decision to discharge her was revoked , and she started basic training again in January 2008 . After graduating in April , she moved to Fort Huachuca , Arizona , where she trained as an intelligence analyst , receiving a TS / SCI security clearance ( Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information ) . According to Nicks , this security clearance , combined with the digitization of classified information and the government ' s policy of sharing it widely , gave Manning access to an unprecedented amount of material . Nicks writes that Manning was reprimanded while at Fort Huachuca for posting three video messages to friends on YouTube , in which she described the inside of the " Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility " ( SCIF ) where she worked . Move to Fort Drum , deployment to Iraq . In August 2008 , Manning was sent to Fort Drum in Jefferson County , New York , where she joined the 2nd Brigade Combat Team , 10th Mountain Division , and trained for deployment to Iraq . It was while stationed there in the fall of 2008 that she met Tyler Watkins , who was studying neuroscience and psychology at Brandeis University , near Boston . Watkins was her first serious relationship , and she posted happily on Facebook about it , regularly traveling 300 miles to Boston on visits . Watkins introduced her to a network of friends and the university ' s hacker community . She also visited Boston University ' s " hackerspace " workshop , known as " Builds , " and met its founder , David House , the MIT researcher who was later allowed to visit her in jail . In November 2008 , she gave an anonymous interview to a high - school reporter during a rally in Syracuse in support of gay marriage , saying , " I was kicked out of my home and I once lost my job . The world is not moving fast enough for us at home , work , or the battlefield . I ' ve been living a double life . . . . I can ' t make a statement . I can ' t be caught in an act . I hope the public support changes . I do hope to do that before ETS [ Expiration of Term of Service ] . " Nicks writes that Manning would travel back to Washington , D . C . , for visits , where an ex - boyfriend helped her find her way around the city ' s gay community , introducing her to lobbyists , activists and White House aides . Back at Fort Drum , she continued to display emotional problems and , by August 2009 , had been referred to an Army mental - health counselor . A friend told Nicks that Manning could be emotionally fraught , describing an evening they had watched two movies together — " The Last King of Scotland " and " Dancer in the Dark " — after which Manning cried for hours . By September 2009 her relationship with Watkins was in trouble ; they reconciled for a short time , but it was effectively over . After four weeks at the Joint Readiness Training Center ( JRTC ) in Fort Polk , Louisiana , Manning was deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer , near Baghdad , arriving in October 2009 . From her workstation there , she had access to SIPRNet ( the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network ) and JWICS ( the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System ) . Two of her superiors had discussed not taking her to Iraq ; it was felt she was a risk to herself and possibly others , according to a statement later issued by the Army — but again the shortage of intelligence analysts held sway . A month later , in November 2009 , she was promoted from Private First Class to Specialist . Contact with gender counselor . In November 2009 Manning wrote to a gender counselor in the United States , said she felt female , and discussed having sex reassignment surgery . The counselor told Steve Fishman of " New York Magazine " in 2011 that it was clear Manning was in crisis , partly because of her gender concerns , but also because she was opposed to the kind of war in which she found herself involved . She was by all accounts unhappy and isolated . Because of the military ' s " Don ' t ask , don ' t tell " policy ( known as DADT and repealed in September 2011 ) , Manning was unable to live as an openly gay man without risk of being discharged , although she apparently made no secret of it : her friends said she kept a fairy wand on her desk . When she told her roommate she was attracted to men , he responded by suggesting they not speak to each other . Manning ' s working conditions , which consisted of 14 - to 15 - hour night shifts in a dimly lit , secured room , did not help her emotional well - being . On December 20 , 2009 , during a counseling session with two colleagues to discuss her poor time - keeping , Manning was told she would lose her one day off a week for persistent lateness . She responded by overturning a table , damaging a computer that was sitting on it . A sergeant moved Manning away from the weapons rack , and other soldiers pinned her arms behind her back and dragged her out of the room . Several witnesses to the incident believed her access to sensitive material ought to have been withdrawn at that point . The following month , January 2010 , she began posting on Facebook that she felt hopeless and alone . Release of material to WikiLeaks . Manning said her first contact with WikiLeaks took place in January 2010 , when she began to interact with them on IRC and Jabber . She had first noticed them toward the end of November 2009 , when they posted 570 , 000 pager messages from the September 11 attacks . On January 5 , 2010 , Manning downloaded the 400 , 000 documents that became known as the Iraq War logs . On January 8 she downloaded 91 , 000 documents from the Afghanistan database , the Afghan War logs . She saved the material on CD - RW , then copied it onto her personal laptop , a MacBook . The next day she wrote a message in a readme . txt file " ( see right ) " , which she told the court was initially intended for the " Washington Post " . Manning copied the files from her laptop to an SD card for her camera so that she could take it with her to the United States while on R & R leave . Army investigators later found the SD card in Manning ' s basement room in her aunt ' s home in Potomac , Maryland . On January 23 Manning flew to the United States via Germany for two weeks of leave . It was during this visit that she first went out dressed as a woman , wearing a wig and makeup . After her arrest , her former partner , Tyler Watkins , told " Wired " that Manning had said during the visit that she had found some sensitive information and was considering leaking it . Manning contacted the " Washington Post " and " New York Times " to ask if they were interested in the material ; the " Post " reporter did not sound interested and the " Times " did not return the call . She decided instead to pass it to WikiLeaks , and on February 3 sent them the Iraq and Afghan War logs via Tor . She returned to Iraq on February 11 , with no acknowledgement from WikiLeaks that they had received the files . On or around February 18 she passed WikiLeaks a diplomatic cable , dated January 13 , 2010 , from the U . S . Embassy in Reykjavík , Iceland . They published it within hours , which suggested to Manning that they had received the other material too . She found the Baghdad helicopter attack ( " Collateral murder " ) video in a Judge Advocate ' s directory , and passed it to WikiLeaks on or around February 21 . In late March she sent them a video of the May 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan ; this was the video later removed and apparently destroyed by Daniel Domscheit - Berg when he left the organization . Between March 28 and April 9 she downloaded the 250 , 000 diplomatic cables , and uploaded them to a WikiLeaks dropbox on April 10 . Manning told the court that , during her interaction with WikiLeaks on IRC and Jabber , she developed a friendship with someone there , believed to be Julian Assange ( although neither knew the other ' s name ) , which she said made her feel she could be herself . Army investigators found 14 to 15 pages of encrypted chats , in unallocated space on her MacBook ' s hard drive , between Manning and someone believed to be Assange . She wrote in a statement that the more she had tried to fit in at work , the more alienated she became from everyone around her . The relationship with WikiLeaks had given her a brief respite from the isolation and anxiety . Email to supervisor , recommended discharge . On April 24 , 2010 , Manning sent an email to her supervisor , Master Sergeant Paul Adkins — with the subject line " My Problem " — that she was suffering from gender identity disorder . She attached a photograph of herself dressed as a woman and with the filename " breanna . jpg " . She wrote : This is my problem . I ' ve had signs of it for a very long time . It ' s caused problems within my family . I thought a career in the military would get rid of it . It ' s not something I seek out for attention , and I ' ve been trying very , very hard to get rid of it by placing myself in situations where it would be impossible . But , it ' s not going away ; it ' s haunting me more and more as I get older . Now , the consequences of it are dire , at a time when it ' s causing me great pain in itself . . . Adkins discussed the situation with Manning ' s therapists , but did not pass the email to anybody above him in his chain of command ; he told Manning ' s court - martial that he was concerned the photograph would be disseminated among other staff . Captain Steven Lim , Manning ' s commander , said he first saw the email after Manning ' s arrest , when information about hormone replacement therapy was found in Manning ' s room in Baghdad ; at that point Lim learned that Manning had been calling herself Breanna . Manning told Adrian Lamo that she had set up Twitter and YouTube accounts as Breanna to give her female identity a digital presence , writing to Lamo : " I wouldn ' t mind going to prison for the rest of my life , or being executed so much , if it wasn ' t for the possibility of having pictures of me . . . plastered all over the world press . . . as [ a ] boy . . . the CPU is not made for this motherboard . . . " On April 30 she posted on Facebook that she was utterly lost , and over the next few days wrote that she was " not a piece of equipment , " and was " beyond frustrated " and " livid " after being " lectured by ex - boyfriend despite months of relationship ambiguity . . . " On May 7 she seemed to spiral out of control . According to Army witnesses , she was found curled in a fetal position in a storage cupboard ; she had a knife at her feet and had cut the words " I want " into a vinyl chair . A few hours later she had an altercation with a female intelligence analyst , Specialist Jihrleah Showman , during which she punched Showman in the face . The brigade psychiatrist recommended a discharge , referring to an " occupational problem and adjustment disorder . " Manning ' s supervisor removed the bolt from her weapon , making it unable to fire , and she was sent to work in the supply office , although at this point her security clearance remained in place . As punishment for the altercation , she was demoted from Specialist ( E - 4 ) to Private First Class ( E - 3 ) three days before her arrest on May 27 . Ellen Nakashima writes that , on May 9 , Manning contacted Jonathan Odell , a gay American novelist in Minneapolis , via Facebook , leaving a message that she wanted to speak to him in confidence ; she said she had been involved in some " very high - profile events , albeit as a nameless individual thus far . " On May 19 , according to Army investigators , she emailed Eric Schmiedl , a mathematician she had met in Boston , and told him she had been the source of the Baghdad airstrike video . Two days later , she began the series of chats with Adrian Lamo that led to her arrest . Publication of leaked material . WikiLeaks . WikiLeaks was set up in late 2006 as a disclosure portal , initially using the Wikipedia model , where volunteers would write up restricted or legally threatened material submitted by whistleblowers . It was Julian Assange — an Australian Internet activist and journalist , and the " de facto " editor - in - chief of WikiLeaks — who had the idea of creating what Ben Laurie called an " open - source , democratic intelligence agency . " The open - editing aspect was soon abandoned , but the site remained open for anonymous submissions . According to Daniel Domscheit - Berg , a former WikiLeaks spokesperson , part of the WikiLeaks security concept was that they did not know who their sources were . " The New York Times " wrote in December 2010 that the U . S . government was trying to discover whether Assange had been a passive recipient of material from Manning , or had encouraged or helped her to extract the files ; if the latter , Assange could be charged with conspiracy . Manning told Lamo in May 2010 that she had developed a working relationship with Assange , communicating directly with him using an encrypted Internet conferencing service , but knew little about him . WikiLeaks did not identify Manning as their source . Army investigators found pages of chats on Manning ' s computer between Manning and someone believed to be Julian Assange . Nicks writes that , despite this , no decisive evidence was found of Assange offering Manning any direction . Reykjavik13 . On February 18 , 2010 , WikiLeaks posted the first of the material from Manning , the diplomatic cable from the U . S . Embassy in Reykjavík , a document now known as Reykjavik13 . On March 15 WikiLeaks posted a 32 - page report written in 2008 by the U . S . Department of Defense about WikiLeaks itself , and on March 29 it posted U . S . State Department profiles of politicians in Iceland . Baghdad airstrike . WikiLeaks named the Baghdad airstrike video " Collateral Murder , " and Assange released it on April 5 , 2010 , during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington , D . C . The video showed an American helicopter firing on a group of men in Baghdad , one of them a journalist , and two other Reuters employees carrying cameras that the pilots mistook for anti - tank grenade launchers ( RPG - 7 ) . The helicopter also fired on a van that had stopped to help the injured members of the first group ; two children in the van were wounded and their father was killed . " The Washington Post " wrote that it was this video , viewed by millions , that put WikiLeaks on the map . According to Nicks , Manning emailed a superior officer after the video aired and tried to persuade her that it was the same version as the one stored on SIPRNet . Nicks writes that it seemed as though Manning wanted to be caught . Afghan War logs , Iraq War logs . WikiLeaks and three media partners — " The New York Times " , " The Guardian " , and " Der Spiegel " — began publishing the 91 , 731 documents that became known as the Afghan War logs on July 25 , 2010 . This was followed on October 22 , 2010 , by 391 , 832 classified military reports covering the period January 2004 to December 2009 ; these became known as the Iraq War logs . Nicks writes that the publication of the former was a watershed moment , the " beginning of the information age exploding upon itself . " Diplomatic cables , Guantanamo Bay files . Manning was also responsible for the " Cablegate " leak of 251 , 287 State Department cables , written by 271 American embassies and consulates in 180 countries , dated December 1966 to February 2010 . The cables were passed by Assange to his three media partners , plus " El País " and others , and published in stages from November 28 , 2010 , with the names of sources removed . WikiLeaks said it was the largest set of classified documents ever released into the public domain . The rest of the cables were published unredacted by WikiLeaks on September 1 , 2011 , after David Leigh and Luke Harding of " The Guardian " inadvertently published the passphrase for a file that was still online ; Nicks writes that one Ethiopian journalist had to leave his country and the U . S . government said it had to relocate several sources . Manning was also the source of the Guantanamo Bay files leak , obtained by WikiLeaks in 2010 and published by " The New York Times " on April 24 , 2011 . Granai airstrike . Manning said she gave WikiLeaks a video , in late March 2010 , of the Granai airstrike in Afghanistan . The airstrike occurred on May 4 , 2009 , in the village of Granai , Afghanistan , killing 86 to 147 Afghan civilians . The video was never published ; Julian Assange said in March 2013 that Daniel Domscheit - Berg had taken it with him when he left WikiLeaks , and had apparently destroyed it . Manning and Adrian Lamo . First contact . On May 20 , 2010 , Manning contacted Adrian Lamo , a former " grey hat " hacker convicted in 2004 of having accessed " The New York Times " computer network two years earlier without permission . Lamo had been profiled that day by Kevin Poulsen in " Wired " magazine ; the story said Lamo had been involuntarily hospitalized and diagnosed with Asperger syndrome . Poulsen , by then a reporter , was himself a former hacker who had used Lamo as a source several times since 2000 . Indeed it was Poulsen who , in 2002 , had told " The New York Times " that Lamo had gained unauthorized access to its network ; Poulsen then wrote the story up for " SecurityFocus " . Lamo would hack into a system , tell the organization , then offer to fix their security , often using Poulsen as a go - between . Lamo said Manning sent him several encrypted emails on May 20 . He said he was unable to decrypt them but replied anyway and invited the emailer to chat on AOL IM . Lamo said he later turned the emails over to the FBI without having read them . Chats . In a series of chats between May 21 and 25 , Manning — using the handle " bradass87 " — told Lamo that she had leaked classified material . She introduced herself as an Army intelligence analyst , and within 17 minutes , without waiting for a reply , alluded to the leaks . Lamo replied several hours later . He said : " I ' m a journalist and a minister . You can pick either , and treat this as a confession or an interview ( never to be published ) & enjoy a modicum of legal protection . " They talked about restricted material in general , then Manning made her first explicit reference to the leaks : " This is what I do for friends . " She linked to a section of the May 21 , 2010 , version of Wikipedia ' s article on WikiLeaks , which described the WikiLeaks release in March that year of a Department of Defense report on WikiLeaks itself . She added " the one below that is mine too " ; the section below in the same article referred to the leak of the Baghdad airstrike ( " Collateral Murder " ) video . Manning said she felt isolated and fragile , and was reaching out to someone she hoped might understand . Manning said she had started to help WikiLeaks around Thanksgiving in November 2009 — which fell on November 26 that year — after WikiLeaks had released the 9 / 11 pager messages ; the messages were released on November 25 . She told Lamo she had recognized that the messages came from an NSA database , and that seeing them had made her feel comfortable about stepping forward . Lamo asked what kind of material Manning was dealing with ; Manning replied : " uhm . . . crazy , almost criminal political backdealings . . . the non - PR - versions of world events and crises . . . " Although she said she dealt with Assange directly , Manning also said Assange had adopted a deliberate policy of knowing very little about her , telling Manning : " lie to me . " Lamo again assured her that she was speaking in confidence . Manning wrote : " but im not a source for you . . . im talking to you as someone who needs moral and emotional fucking support , " and Lamo replied : " i told you , none of this is for print . " Manning said the incident that had affected her the most was when 15 detainees had been arrested by the Iraqi Federal Police for printing anti - Iraqi literature . She was asked by the Army to find out who the " bad guys " were , and discovered that the detainees had followed what Manning said was a corruption trail within the Iraqi cabinet . She reported this to her commanding officer , but said " he didn ' t want to hear any of it " ; she said the officer told her to help the Iraqi police find more detainees . Manning said it made her realize , " i was actively involved in something that i was completely against . . . " She explained that " i cant separate myself from others . . . i feel connected to everybody . . . like they were distant family , " and cited Carl Sagan , Richard Feynman and Elie Wiesel . She said she hoped the material would lead to " hopefully worldwide discussion , debates , and reforms . if not . . . than [ sic ] we ' re doomed as a species . " She said she had downloaded the material onto music CD - RWs , erased the music and replaced it with a compressed split file . Part of the reason no one noticed , she said , was that staff were working 14 hours a day , seven days a week , and " people stopped caring after 3 weeks . " Lamo approaches authorities , chat logs published . Shortly after the first chat with Manning , Lamo discussed the information with Chet Uber of the volunteer group Project Vigilant , which researches cyber crime , and with a friend who had worked in military intelligence . Both advised Lamo to go to the authorities . His friend reported the conversation to United States Army Counterintelligence , and Lamo was contacted by counterintelligence agents shortly thereafter . He told them he believed Manning was endangering lives . He was largely ostracized by the hacker community afterwards . Nicks argues , on the other hand , that it was thanks to Lamo that the government had months to ameliorate any harm caused by the release of the diplomatic cables . Lamo met with FBI and Army investigators on May 25 in California , and showed them the chat logs . On or around that date he also passed the story to Kevin Poulsen of " Wired " , and on May 27 gave him the chat logs and Manning ' s name under embargo . He met with the FBI again that day , at which point they told him Manning had been arrested in Iraq the day before . Poulsen and Kim Zetter broke the news of the arrest in " Wired " on June 6 . " Wired " published around 25 percent of the chat logs on June 6 and 10 , and the full logs in July 2011 , after the material about Manning ' s gender identity disorder had appeared elsewhere . Legal proceedings . Arrest and charges . Manning was arrested on May 27 , 2010 , and transferred four days later to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait . She was charged with several offenses in July , replaced by 22 charges in March 2011 , including violations of Articles 92 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice ( UCMJ ) , and of the Espionage Act . The most serious charge was " aiding the enemy , " a capital offense , although prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty . Another charge ( of which Manning was found guilty ) read that Manning " wantonly [ caused ] to be published on the internet intelligence belonging to the US government , having knowledge that intelligence published on the internet is accessible to the enemy , " which in the opinion of independent journalist Alexa O ' Brien and " Democracy Now ! " ' s Amy Goodman , was an " unprecedented charge in military law " and which Manning ' s defense called a " made up offense . " Detention . While in Kuwait , Manning was placed on suicide watch after her behavior caused concern . She was moved from Kuwait to the Marine Corps Base Quantico , Virginia , on July 29 , 2010 , and classified as a maximum custody detainee with Prevention of Injury ( POI ) status . POI status is one stop short of suicide watch , entailing checks by guards every five minutes . Her lawyer , David Coombs , a former military attorney , said Manning was not allowed to sleep between 5 am ( 7 am on weekends ) and 8 pm , and was made to stand or sit up if she tried to . She was required to remain visible at all times , including at night , which entailed no access to sheets , no pillow except one built into her mattress , and a blanket designed not to be shredded . Manning complained that she regarded it as pre - trial punishment . Her cell was 6 × 12 ft ( 1 . 8 x 3 . 6 m ) with no window , containing a bed , toilet and sink . The jail had 30 cells built in a U shape , and although detainees could talk to one another , they were unable to see each other . Her lawyer said the guards behaved professionally , and had not tried to harass or embarrass Manning . She was allowed to walk for up to one hour a day , meals were taken in the cell , and she was shackled during visits . There was access to television when it was placed in the corridor , and she was allowed to keep one magazine and one book . Because she was in pre - trial detention , she received full pay . On January 18 , 2011 , after an altercation with the guards , the commander of Quantico classified her as a suicide risk . Manning said the guards had begun issuing conflicting commands , such as " turn left , don ' t turn left , " and upbraiding her for responding to commands with " yes " instead of " aye . " Shortly afterwards , she was placed on suicide watch , had her clothing and eyeglasses removed , and was required to remain in her cell 24 hours a day . The suicide watch was lifted on January 21 after a complaint from her lawyer , and the brig commander who ordered it was replaced . On March 2 she was told that her request for the removal of her POI status had been denied . Her lawyer said Manning joked to the guards that , if she wanted to harm herself , she could do so with her underwear or her flip - flops . The comment resulted in her having her clothes removed at night , and she had to present herself naked one morning for inspection . The detention conditions prompted national and international concern . Juan E . Mendez , a United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture , published a report saying the detention conditions had been " cruel , inhuman and degrading . " In January 2011 Amnesty International asked the British government to intervene because of Manning ' s status as a British citizen by descent , although Manning ' s lawyer said Manning did not regard herself as a British citizen . The controversy claimed a casualty in March that year when State Department spokesman Philip J . Crowley criticized Manning ' s treatment and resigned two days later . In early April , 295 academics ( most of them American legal scholars ) signed a letter arguing that the treatment was a violation of the United States Constitution . On April 20 the Pentagon transferred Manning to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility , a new medium - security facility in Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , where she was placed in an 80 - square - foot cell with a window and a normal mattress , able to mix with other pre - trial detainees and keep personal objects in her cell . Evidence presented at Article 32 hearing . In April 2011 , a panel of experts ruled that Manning was fit to stand trial . An Article 32 hearing , presided over by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Almanza , was convened on December 16 , 2011 , at Fort Meade , Maryland ; the hearing resulted in Almanza recommending that Manning be referred to a general court - martial . She was arraigned on February 23 , 2012 , and declined to enter a plea . During the Article 32 hearing , the prosecution , led by Captain Ashden Fein , presented 300 , 000 pages of documents in evidence , including chat logs and classified material . The court heard from two Army investigators , Special Agent David Shaver , head of the digital forensics and research branch of the Army ' s Computer Crime Investigative Unit ( CCIU ) , and Mark Johnson , a digital forensics contractor from ManTech International , who works for the CCIU . They testified that they had found 100 , 000 State Department cables on a workplace computer Manning had used between November 2009 and May 2010 ; 400 , 000 military reports from Iraq and 91 , 000 from Afghanistan on an SD card found in her basement room in her aunt ' s home in Potomac , Maryland ; and 10 , 000 cables on her personal MacBook Pro and storage devices that they said had not been passed to WikiLeaks because a file was corrupted . They also recovered 14 to 15 pages of encrypted chats , in unallocated space on Manning ' s MacBook hard drive , between Manning and someone believed to be Julian Assange . Two of the chat handles , which used the Berlin Chaos Computer Club ' s domain ( ccc . de ) , were associated with the names Julian Assange and Nathaniel Frank . Johnson said he found SSH logs on the MacBook that showed an SFTP connection , from an IP address that resolved to Manning ' s aunt ' s home , to a Swedish IP address with links to WikiLeaks . Also found was a the text file named " Readme " , attached to the logs and apparently written by Manning to Assange , which called the Iraq and Afghan War logs " possibly one of the most significant documents of our time , removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare . " The investigators testified they had also recovered an exchange from May 2010 between Manning and Eric Schmiedl , a Boston mathematician , in which Manning said she was the source of the Baghdad helicopter attack ( " Collateral Murder " ) video . Johnson said there had been two attempts to delete material from the MacBook . The operating system had been re - installed in January 2010 , and on or around January 31 , 2010 , an attempt had been made to erase the hard drive by doing a " zero - fill , " which involves overwriting material with zeroes . The material was recovered after the overwrite attempts from unallocated space . Manning ' s lawyers argued that the government had overstated the harm the release of the documents had caused , and had overcharged Manning to force her to give evidence against Assange . The defense also raised the issue of whether Manning ' s gender identity disorder had affected her judgment , and whether the " don ' t ask , don ' t tell " policy had made it difficult for her to serve in the Army . Guilty plea , trial , sentence . The judge , Army Colonel Denise Lind , accepted terms in December 2012 that would allow Manning to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for a maximum sentence of 16 years . Colonel Lind ruled in January 2013 that the sentence be reduced by 112 days because of the treatment Manning received at Quantico . Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges on February 28 . Reading for over an hour from a 35 - page statement , she said she had leaked the cables " to show the true cost of war . " Prosecutors pursued a court - martial on the remaining charges . The trial began on June 3 , 2013 . Manning was convicted on July 30 , 17 of the 22 charges in their entirety , including five counts of espionage and theft , and an amended version of four other charges ; she was acquitted of aiding the enemy . The sentencing phase began the next day . Captain Michael Worsley , a military psychologist who had treated Manning before her arrest , testified that Manning had been left isolated in the Army , trying to deal with gender - identity issues in a " hyper - masculine environment . " Captain David Moulton , a psychiatrist who saw Manning after the arrest , said Manning had narcissistic traits , and showed signs of both fetal alcohol syndrome and Asperger syndrome . He said that , in leaking the material , Manning had been " acting out [ a ] grandiose ideation . " On August 14 , Manning apologized to the court : " I am sorry that my actions hurt people . I ' m sorry that they hurt the United States . I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions . When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people , not hurt people . . . . At the time of my decisions I was dealing with a lot of issues . " Manning ' s offenses carried a maximum sentence of 90 years . The government asked for 60 years as a deterrent to others , while Manning ' s lawyer asked for no more than 25 years . She was sentenced on August 21 to 35 years ' imprisonment , reduction in rank to Private , forfeiture of all pay and allowances , and a dishonorable discharge . She was given credit for 1 , 293 days of pre - trial confinement , including 112 days for her treatment at Quantico , and will be eligible for parole after serving one - third of the sentence . There may also be additional credit for good behavior , which means she could be released after eight years . She is incarcerated at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . Request for presidential pardon . On September 3 , 2013 , Manning ' s lawyer applied for a presidential pardon for his client . Coombs filed a Petition for Pardon / Commutation of Sentence to President Obama through the pardon attorney at the Department of Justice and Secretary of the Army John M . McHugh . The petition was filed with the legal name " Bradley Manning , " used male - gender pronouns , and asked that Manning be pardoned outright or the sentence reduced to time served . Coombs contended that Manning ' s disclosures did not cause any " real damage , " and that the documents in question did not merit protection as they were not sensitive . The request for a pardon included a supporting letter from Amnesty International which said that Manning ' s leaks had exposed violations of human rights . Coombs ' s letter touched on Manning ' s role as a whistleblower , asking that Manning be granted a full pardon or that her sentence be reduced to time served . Reaction to disclosures . The publication of the leaked material , particularly the diplomatic cables , attracted in - depth coverage across the globe , with several governments blocking websites that contained embarrassing details . Alan Rusbridger , editor of " The Guardian " , said : " I can ' t think of a time when there was ever a story generated by a news organisation where the White House , the Kremlin , Chávez , India , China , everyone in the world was talking about these things . . . . I ' ve never known a story that created such mayhem that wasn ' t an event like a war or a terrorist attack . " Denver Nicks wrote that Manning ' s name " appended like a slogan to wholesale denunciations and exultations alike . " United States Navy Admiral Michael Mullen , then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , said the leaks had placed the lives of American soldiers and Afghan informants in danger . Journalist Glenn Greenwald argued that Manning was the most important whistleblower since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 . President Barack Obama commented too , saying that Manning " broke the law " ; Eugene Fidell of the National Institute of Military Justice called the remark " unlawful command influence . " Manning and WikiLeaks were credited as catalysts for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010 , when waves of protesters rose up against rulers across the Middle East and North Africa , after the leaked cables exposed government corruption . Heather Brooke writes that , in Tunisia , where the uprisings began on December 17 with the self - immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in protest at being unable to make a living , one of the cables — published around 10 days earlier — showed that the President ' s daughter and her husband had their ice cream flown in from Saint - Tropez . As " TIME " magazine designated " the protester " as its 2011 person of the year , Brooke writes that WikiLeaks came under tremendous pressure , experiencing distributed denial - of - service attacks that shut down their servers , and finding themselves unable to receive donations when PayPal , banks , and credit - card companies refused to process them . A " Washington Post " editorial asked why an apparently unstable Army private had been able to access and transfer sensitive material in the first place . According to Nicks , Manning ' s sexuality came into play too , with Manning illustrating for the far right that gay people were unfit for military service , while the mainstream media presented her as a gay soldier driven mad by bullying . Gender transition . On August 22 , 2013 , the day after sentencing , Manning ' s attorney issued a press release to the " Today " show announcing that she is a female , and asked that she be referred to by her new name ( Chelsea ) and feminine pronouns :