Bradley Manning trial: 10 revelations from Wikileaks …

Bradley Manning trial: 10 revelations from Wikileaks documents on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Europe. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted as he leaves a military court at Fort Meade, Md., on Monday.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

In 2010, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was detained in Iraq on suspicion of passing classified U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks. On Monday, after more than three years in military jail, his trial finally began at Fort Meade, Md.

Ryan Gallagher is a journalist who reports on surveillance, security, and civil liberties.

The 25-year-old intelligence analyst admitted earlier this year to passing documents to the whistle-blowing website, though he denies the charge of aiding the enemy, an offense that carries a life sentence or the death penalty. Manning said at a pretrial hearing in February that he leaked information, including diplomatic cables and U.S. military war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, in order to spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy.

Below is a list of 10 revelations disclosed by Mannings leaked documents that offer insight into the breadth and scope of what he revealed, help explain his motivation for leaking, and provide context for the ongoing trial. The list, in no particular order, is far from comprehensive but encompasses some of the most significant information brought to light by the leaked documents.

Although Mannings disclosures totaled some 720,000 recordsthe largest security breach in U.S. historythe leak still amounted to less than 1 percent of the almost 77 million documents reportedly classified by U.S. government agencies in 2010. The soldiers actions are at the center of an ongoing debate about a spike in extreme state secrecy in the U.S. since Sept. 11an issue regularly covered here on Future Tensethat has resulted in several aggressive leak investigations and surveillance of journalists. During the first day of Mannings trial, the government accused the soldier of indirectly assisting al-Qaida and leaking the information to gain the notoriety he craved. Mannings defense attorney described him as young, naive, but good intentioned, passing documents to WikiLeaks in a bid to make the world a better place.

Mannings trial is expected to last through the summer.

Future Tenseis a partnership ofSlate,New America, andArizona State University.

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