Military prosecutors said arrogance drove the US soldier who went on trial accused of the biggest leak of classified information in US history through the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website three years ago.
But at the opening of the court-martial of Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, his defense lawyer portrayed him as a naive young soldier who had leaked the documents, combat videos and other data because he wanted to reveal the human cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Manning case has pitted civil liberties groups who want more transparency in military and diplomatic affairs against the government, which accuses Manning of endangering lives and damaging diplomacy by leaking classified information.
Manning, a former intelligence analyst, faces a possible life sentence without parole if convicted at his court-martial in Fort Meade, Maryland, for leaking more than 700,000 secret documents in 2010.
«This is a case of what happens when arrogance meets access to classified networks,» lead prosecutor U.S. Army Captain Joe Morrow said in his opening statement. «This had great interest to our adversaries and to our enemies.»
The slightly built Manning, wearing dress uniform, sat between his lawyers at the defense table. He faces 21 counts, including the most serious one of aiding the enemy, and prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917. Manning pleaded guilty in February to 10 lesser charges, but prosecutors rejected the pleas and are pursuing their original charges.