WikiLeaks 'traitor' Bradley Manning wants to be a woman

HE IS the soldier branded as a "traitor to his country" for "gleefully" releasing thousands of military secrets to WikiLeaks for his personal notoriety.

He is also a young man who sometimes calls himself Breanna, who had a troubled childhood and wants to undergo gender reassignment to become a woman.

As US authorities appear poised to imprison WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning to a heavy sentence, perhaps life, in a military prison, the court battle between his defence lawyers and military counsel centres on just who he is.

Is Manning a wilful traitor or vulnerable misfit?

With Manning's trial about to enter its last day of submissions, military lawyers have been intent on demonising the slight 25-year-old as a self-interested egotist searching for "worldwide notoriety".

At the hearing in Fort Meade Maryland, half an hour from the US capital, Washington DC, prosecutor Major Ashton Fein portrayed Manning as a man bent on causing deliberate and maximum harm to his country.

Manning had proceeded with the "wholesale and indiscriminate compromise'' of sensitive information, in order to "guarantee his fame".'

Major Fein said Manning knew that Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and its affiliate in Iraq used the inteet to gather information on the United States.

With this knowledge, the soldier had given hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, therefore putting "himself before his country".

He said Manning communicated with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about editing the video for maximum impact.

Major Fein described Manning as arrogant and disloyal.

The facts of Manning's acts have not been in dispute during his eight-week court martial.

The young soldier has acknowledged giving WikiLeaks diplomatic cables, war reports and gunfight video footage of a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed civilians in Baghdad.

He faces conviction for violating the Espionage Act, and aiding the enemy. The second charge carries a sentence of life in prison.

Manning has said he leaked the materials in 2009 and 2010 to provoke broader understanding and wider debate on U.S. foreign and military policy.

His lawyers say he was well-intentioned but naive.

They have also painted a picture of a young soldier troubled by the actions of the United States in Iraq and struggling with gender identity disorder.

Facts have emerged about Manning's background and sexuality which has gained the army private enormous sympathy among online and gay and transgender communities.

His vulnerability made him a target for bullying and unfit to serve in Iraq, soldiers have told US media.

Manning grew up an isolated house on the edge of the tiny conservative town of Crescent, Oklahoma.

His father was "difficult".

Manning was high-strung, highly intelligent and, like his Welsh-bo mother, physically small.

As an adult, he reached 157cm and weighed 47kg, and excelled at the saxophone, science, and computers.

While a teenager he became increasingly reclusive, staying indoors to use the inteet.

After his father announced he was leaving the family, Manning and his mother moved into town.

Some time after, he told a school friend he would be moving to Wales with his mother and, also, that he was gay.

After finishing high school in the UK, Manning moved back to the US and undertook a series of menial jobs before satisfying a long held desire to join the military.

He entered in a relationship with another young man and posted on his Facebook page the motto "Take me for who I am, or face the consequences!", as well as links to gay and transgender sites.

He attended a gay rights movement rally and told a reporter, "I've been living a double life".

While in army barracks, he posted messages to his boyfriend on Facebook, "Bradley Manning is in the barracks, alone. I miss you Tyler!" and, "Bradley Manning is glad he is working and active again, yet heartbroken being so far away from hubby."

In 2009, he was posted to Iraq, where he became lonely and isolated.