Pfc. Bradley Manning in His Own Words

Back in May 2010, Adrian Lamo, a Bay Area informant for military intelligence and hacker by trade, somehow gained the confidence of 22-year-old Pfc. Bradley Manning, then a computer analyst in eastern Baghdad. Their lengthy correspondence have the feel, on the one hand, of an interrogation of an innocent young man and, on the other, provide an insight into what may have compelled Bradley Manning to share with the world the secrets he was learning from US military files. The excerpts below are from web chat transcripts beginning May 21, 2010.