Between November 2009 and May 2010, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning downloaded and transmitted approximately 750,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, including the 'Collateral Murder' video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack that killed 11 people in Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists. In May 2010, Manning initiated an online chat with Adrian Lamo, a former hacker known for penetrating corporate networks, and confided details of the leak. Lamo contacted the FBI within days. Manning was arrested on May 27, 2010, at Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq, and eventually sentenced to 35 years in military prison—the longest sentence ever imposed for a leak in United States history.
Private First Class Bradley Manning—who later identified as Chelsea Manning—arrived at Forward Operating Base Hammer in October 2009 with a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance and an assignment as an all-source intelligence analyst with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. At 22 years old and standing barely five feet tall, Manning worked 14-hour shifts in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility processing intelligence reports from across Iraq. The facility housed multiple classified computer systems, including terminals connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System.
Defense testimony during Manning's 2013 court-martial revealed the chaotic operational environment at FOB Hammer. Analysts routinely brought recordable media—CDs, DVDs, and SD cards—into the SCIF despite regulations prohibiting unauthorized storage devices. Security protocols were inconsistently enforced. Manning had access to databases containing millions of classified documents, including diplomatic cables stored on the State Department's Net-Centric Diplomacy system. The workload was crushing: small teams of analysts sifting through massive volumes of intelligence data with minimal supervision.
Manning later testified that she became disillusioned with the war after analyzing intelligence reports that documented civilian casualties, torture by Iraqi security forces, and what she perceived as a military culture that valued enemy kills over protecting civilian lives. In February 2010, Manning contacted WikiLeaks through an encrypted chat system, initially sending encrypted diplomatic cables to test whether the organization would publish classified material. When WikiLeaks successfully decrypted and began preparing the material for publication, Manning continued downloading documents.
On April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks published a 39-minute video titled "Collateral Murder"—classified cockpit footage from two US Army Apache helicopters during an operation in Baghdad on July 12, 2007. The video showed aerial gunnery that killed approximately 11 people, including Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40. The footage included radio communications between helicopter crews requesting and receiving permission to engage targets the crews believed were armed insurgents.
The video's audio captured crew commentary including "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards" and "Nice" after firing 30mm cannon rounds. After the initial engagement, when a van arrived to evacuate wounded individuals, helicopter crews again requested permission to fire. The van was later discovered to contain two children who were wounded but survived. The Pentagon defended the engagement as consistent with the rules of engagement, stating crews believed they had identified armed insurgents and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
"If you had access to classified networks and you saw incredible things, awful things, things that belonged in the public domain and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington, DC, what would you do?"
Chelsea Manning — Court Statement, February 28, 2013Reuters had filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the footage beginning in 2007, seeking to understand how its journalists had been killed. The requests were denied or went unanswered for three years. WikiLeaks obtained the video from Manning, who had found it on a military network while searching for material documenting civilian casualties. The publication immediately became international news, generating millions of views and intense debate about the conduct of the Iraq War.
On July 25, 2010, WikiLeaks published the Afghanistan War Logs—91,731 field reports covering January 2004 to December 2009. The documents were Significant Activity Reports filed by military units documenting combat engagements, civilian casualties, intelligence assessments, and operational details. WikiLeaks coordinated the release with The Guardian, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel, which had teams of journalists spending weeks analyzing the data.
The Afghanistan logs revealed previously unreported information including the existence of Task Force 373, a classified Special Operations unit hunting high-value Taliban and al-Qaeda targets. The reports documented 144 incidents in which coalition forces killed civilians—far more than had been publicly acknowledged. The logs also showed Taliban fighters had acquired heat-seeking missiles capable of targeting coalition aircraft.
The Iraq War Logs, published three months later, contained even more explosive revelations. The reports documented systematic torture and abuse by Iraqi security forces, including electric shocks, cigarette burns, and sexual assault. US military personnel had witnessed or received reports of this abuse but frequently did not intervene, operating under a "no-blood, no foul" policy that discouraged interference in Iraqi custody operations. The logs also revealed the US military maintained detailed body counts despite years of public statements claiming no such tallies were kept.
On May 20, 2010, Bradley Manning sent an instant message to Adrian Lamo using AOL Instant Messenger. Manning had read a recent Wired magazine article by Kevin Poulsen about Lamo's psychiatric hospitalization and involuntary commitment following erratic behavior. Manning apparently felt some connection to Lamo's struggles with mental health and reached out to someone she believed might understand her situation.
Over five days, Manning confided extensive details about the classified leaks. The chat logs—later published by Wired—show Manning describing her access to classified networks, her disillusionment with military policy, and her decision to provide documents to WikiLeaks. Manning told Lamo she had leaked "roughly 260,000 State Department cables" and that "Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack." She described downloading the files onto CD-RW discs labeled "Lady Gaga" to avoid suspicion while removing them from the SCIF.
"I was actively involved in something that I was completely against... I'm not sure you'd understand."
Chelsea Manning to Adrian Lamo — AOL Instant Messenger Chat, May 21, 2010Adrian Lamo contacted federal authorities on May 22, 2010—just two days after Manning's first message. Lamo has given varying accounts of his decision. In some interviews, he stated he believed Manning might have endangered lives by revealing the identities of intelligence sources. In others, he suggested he had "no choice" once he learned the scope of the leaks. Lamo contacted former Wired reporter Kevin Poulsen, who had written the article that prompted Manning's initial contact, and separately reached out to Army Criminal Investigation Command and the FBI.
The decision to report Manning split the hacker community. Many viewed Lamo as a traitor who had violated an implicit code by betraying someone who had confided in him. Others argued Lamo had a duty to report what he reasonably believed was ongoing criminal activity that could endanger lives. Lamo maintained until his death in 2018 that he had acted correctly, though he acknowledged the decision haunted him.
Special agents from the US Army Criminal Investigation Command arrived at Forward Operating Base Hammer on May 27, 2010. Manning was taken into custody and interrogated. Investigators had reviewed access logs from classified computer systems showing Manning had systematically searched databases for specific types of documents, downloaded enormous quantities of files, and transferred them to removable media. The chat logs provided by Lamo gave investigators direct confession evidence in Manning's own words.
Manning was initially held at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait before being transferred to the Marine Corps Base Quantico brig in Virginia on July 29, 2010. At Quantico, Manning was placed in maximum custody under Prevention of Injury watch—a classification typically reserved for prisoners at risk of self-harm. For the next nine months, Manning was held in solitary confinement in a 6-by-12-foot cell for 23 hours per day, prohibited from exercising in her cell, and required to surrender all clothing except underwear at night.
In January 2011, Juan Méndez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, formally requested private access to Manning to assess whether the confinement conditions constituted torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international law. The Pentagon denied the request. Méndez later issued a formal opinion stating the conditions were "cruel, inhuman and degrading" and potentially rose to the level of torture.
Public pressure eventually led to Manning's transfer to medium-security confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on April 20, 2011. The military judge presiding over Manning's eventual court-martial, Colonel Denise Lind, later ruled that the Quantico conditions had been "more rigorous than necessary" and credited Manning 112 days against her eventual sentence as compensation.
On November 28, 2010—six months after Manning's arrest—WikiLeaks began publishing the State Department diplomatic cables in coordination with five major newspapers: The Guardian, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and El País. The 251,287 cables dated from 1966 to February 2010 and originated from 274 US embassies, consulates, and diplomatic missions worldwide. Approximately 11,000 were classified Secret, 100,000 were Confidential, and the remainder were Unclassified or For Official Use Only.
The revelations sparked international incidents. Cables showed US diplomats collecting intelligence on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other UN officials in apparent violation of international treaties. Other cables documented US pressure on countries not to accept Guantanamo detainees, candid assessments describing Afghan President Hamid Karzai as "driven by paranoia," and evidence that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah had repeatedly urged the US to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program.
WikiLeaks initially published redacted versions of the cables, working with its media partners to remove names of sources and informants who might be endangered by disclosure. However, in August 2011, The Guardian published a book about WikiLeaks that inadvertently included the encryption password for the complete unredacted cable archive. Within days, the password was circulating online, and by September 2011, the complete unredacted archive was publicly available on multiple mirror sites.
Manning's court-martial proceedings began in June 2012 at Fort Meade, Maryland, presided over by Colonel Denise Lind. The government charged Manning with 22 offenses including violations of the Espionage Act, theft of government property, computer fraud, and aiding the enemy—a capital offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice that could have resulted in a death sentence or life imprisonment without parole.
On February 28, 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges, acknowledging she had leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks but denying she intended to aid the enemy. In a statement read to the court, Manning explained her motivation: "I believed that if the public, particularly the American public, had access to the information, this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general."
"I felt I had accomplished something that might actually make a difference."
Chelsea Manning — Court Statement, February 28, 2013The prosecution argued Manning had indiscriminately downloaded and disclosed classified information without regard for the consequences, potentially endangering intelligence sources and providing valuable intelligence to al-Qaeda and other enemy organizations. The government called 80 witnesses including intelligence analysts who testified about the damage caused by the leaks and the resources required to assess which sources might be at risk.
Defense attorney David Coombs presented 38 witnesses and argued Manning was a whistleblower motivated by conscience rather than malice. Coombs highlighted evidence that Manning had attempted to contact The Washington Post and The New York Times before turning to WikiLeaks, suggesting she wanted the material reviewed by professional journalists rather than simply dumped online. The defense also presented evidence about Manning's troubled mental state, including gender dysphoria that Army supervisors had been aware of but failed to properly address.
On July 30, 2013, Judge Lind announced her verdict. Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge—aiding the enemy—but convicted on 20 counts including six Espionage Act violations, theft, and computer fraud. The acquittal on the aiding the enemy charge was significant: it rejected the government's theory that leaking classified information to a publisher constitutes directly aiding adversaries, a theory that press freedom advocates warned would criminalize investigative journalism.
On August 21, 2013, Colonel Lind sentenced Manning to 35 years in military prison, reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge. After crediting time served and adjustments for her treatment at Quantico, Manning faced approximately 32 years before eligibility for parole. The sentence was the longest ever imposed for leaking classified information—far exceeding sentences in previous espionage cases including Daniel Ellsberg (charges dismissed), Samuel Morison (two years), and Lawrence Franklin (10 months).
The day after sentencing, Manning announced she identified as female and would be seeking hormone therapy treatment. The Army initially refused to provide transition-related medical care, leading to years of litigation and a suicide attempt in 2016. Manning's case became a focal point for advocates addressing the treatment of transgender inmates in military and civilian custody.
In the final weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama commuted Manning's sentence on January 17, 2017, reducing it to approximately seven years total confinement. Obama cited the length of Manning's sentence compared to other leakers, the harsh pretrial confinement conditions, and Manning's acceptance of responsibility in his decision. Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth on May 17, 2017.
Adrian Lamo died on March 14, 2018, at age 37 in Wichita, Kansas. The Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center listed the cause of death as undetermined. Lamo had lived as a semi-transient for years, struggling with mental health issues and never escaping the controversy surrounding his decision to report Manning. In his final years, Lamo gave interviews reflecting on the decision, at times defending it and at times expressing regret about how events unfolded.
Julian Assange remained in Ecuador's London embassy from June 2012 until April 11, 2019, when British police arrested him after Ecuador revoked his asylum. The US Justice Department subsequently unsealed an 18-count indictment charging Assange with conspiracy to receive, obtain, and disclose classified information—the first time in US history that a publisher faced espionage charges for publishing leaked documents. As of 2024, Assange continues fighting extradition to the United States from British custody.
The Manning leaks fundamentally changed the landscape of government secrecy and whistleblowing. The leaks demonstrated that massive quantities of classified information could be extracted from government networks by a single individual with authorized access. They revealed systematic failures in information security protocols—particularly the ability to download and remove vast quantities of sensitive data without triggering alerts. And they established WikiLeaks as a publisher capable of processing and publishing unprecedented volumes of leaked material in coordination with traditional news organizations.
The debate over Manning's actions continues to divide observers. Supporters view her as a courageous whistleblower who exposed war crimes and diplomatic misconduct, sacrificing her freedom to inform the public about policies conducted in their name without their knowledge. Critics argue she recklessly disclosed information without adequate understanding of the potential consequences, potentially endangering intelligence sources and damaging US diplomatic relationships.
What remains undisputed is the scope of what Manning disclosed and the systematic nature of the information security failures that made it possible. A junior intelligence analyst with less than two years of military service downloaded approximately 750,000 classified documents over six months, burned them to CD-RW discs labeled with pop music titles, carried them out of a secure facility without challenge, and transmitted them to a publisher that coordinated with international news organizations to expose their contents to global scrutiny.
The Manning-Lamo-WikiLeaks chain of events established precedents that continue to shape debates about classified information, whistleblower protections, and the role of publishers in national security matters. Edward Snowden cited Manning's prosecution when explaining his decision to flee the country before revealing NSA surveillance programs in 2013. Reality Winner was sentenced to five years for leaking a single NSA document in 2017. Daniel Hale received 45 months for leaking documents about the drone assassination program in 2021.
The architecture Manning exposed—the vast classified networks, the massive over-classification of government documents, the gap between public rhetoric and classified reality—remains largely unchanged. The consequences of her decision to share that information with Adrian Lamo, and Lamo's decision to report her to federal authorities, continue to reverberate through discussions about government transparency, digital security, and the boundaries of loyalty between individuals who share secrets.