Manning knew enemy would see leaks: US prosecutor

Google – AFP, Dan De Luce (AFP), 25 July 2013

Bradley Manning is escorted by military police on July 25, 2013 at Fort

Meade (Getty Images/AFP, Chip Somodevilla)

FORT MEADE, Maryland — A US military prosecutor on Thursday accused Bradley Manning of betraying his country and uniform by leaking secret files, urging a judge to find him guilty of "aiding the enemy."

In closing arguments in Manning's espionage trial, Major Ashden Fein painted him as a reckless, selfish traitor who knew America's foes would see the trove of classified reports he gave to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

Manning "delivered these documents ready-made for use by the enemy," the prosecutor told the court.

Fein said that, as an army intelligence analyst, Manning had pledged under oath to safeguard sensitive information held by the government then "abused and destroyed this trust."

Displaying a photo of Manning smiling and looking "gleeful" -- allegedly after his document dump to WikiLeaks -- Fein said evidence in the court-martial showed Manning had the intention of wreaking havoc.

Bradley Manning leaves a military court

 on June 6, 2012 in Fort Meade, Maryland

(Getty Images/AFP/File, Alex Wong)

Manning "wasn't interested in oaths," Fein said. "He was interested in making a name for himself."

Working in military intelligence in Iraq, Manning had been trained to know that "terrorists" used the Internet to gather information to help in preparing attacks against the United States.

Citing an instruction session that Manning himself had presented to fellow soldiers, the private listed foreign governments, terrorists and "hackers" as among potential adversaries seeking US secrets, Fein said.

Manning was also aware that WikiLeaks had been identified in three military intelligence reports as a possible threat to national security, as the site sought to expose any classified material, according to Fein.

Manning was not just any soldier leaking secrets, but a competent intelligence analyst who knew that sensitive information released online "would be in the hands of terrorists and other adversaries of this nation," the prosecutor said.

The prosecution depicted Manning as agent for "information anarchists" at WikiLeaks after having corresponded with founder Julian Assange and others in the organization.

From November to December 2009, Manning was "searching for topics related to one mission -- finding and disclosing what WikiLeaks wanted," Fein said.

After speaking for an hour and a half, Fein told the judge his closing argument would last another two hours. The defense will then have a chance to present its closing argument.

Three years after Manning's arrest in Iraq over what officials at the time called the biggest national security leak in America's history, both sides have one last opportunity to make their case before the judge, Colonel Denise Lind, delivers a verdict.

The 25-year-old has already admitted to leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks.

But he has denied the most serious charges against him, including the most serious count that he knowingly "aided the enemy."

That charge carries a possible life sentence, and a guilty verdict could break new legal ground for future leak cases.

Born in Oklahoma to an American father and a Welsh mother who later divorced, the slight, bespectacled Manning has portrayed himself as a truth teller who leaked a cache of diplomatic cables and military intelligence reports to shed light on US foreign policy excesses.

A woman shows her support for Bradley

 Manning during an Independence Day

 parade in Takoma Park, Maryland on

July 4, 2013 (AFP/File, Mandel Ngan)

Manning has told the court he believed the reports he saw in his job "needed to be shared with the world" and that it "would help document the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Manning has pleaded guilty to ten lesser chargers of federal espionage, computer fraud and wrongful storage of classified information, which could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors are trying to prove 12 additional counts, including theft of US property, exceeding authorized access on a government computer and the "aiding the enemy" charge.

Even if he is acquitted of aiding the enemy, Manning faces a possible sentence of 154 years behind bars

Earlier Thursday, the judge refused to drop five theft charges against Manning, saying the government had provided sufficient evidence to allow the counts to remain part of the trial.

The court-martial has taken on new significance in the wake of revelations from another young man working with classified information, Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor who recently blew the lid on US surveillance of phone records and Internet traffic.

The outcome of Manning's trial could have an effect on the case against Snowden, if he is ever extradited to the United States after having fled to Moscow via Hong Kong.