Prosecution wraps up Wikileaks case in court-martial

ARROGANCE

Military prosecutors have sought to portray Manning as a loner who boasted of his expertise with computers and ability to crack passwords. They contend that arrogance drove Manning to leak the information.

Manning's attorney, David Coombs, has said the soldier from Crescent, Oklahoma, believed the leaked material would not harm US interests since it lacked operational value.

Coombs contends Manning, who is gay, was struggling with his sexual identity when he arrived in Iraq and was conflicted by his exposure to war and a trove of military data.

Dressed in a dark uniform, the slightly built Manning has sat silently throughout the trial so far, dwarfed by his taller defense attorneys and listening with a chin on his fist or slumped in his chair.

As the case has ground on, the onlookers that filled the small courtroom in the early days dwindled to about a half dozen by Tuesday. About a dozen reporters were following the trial through closed-circuit television, far fewer than the crowds when the case opened.

The testimony at Fort Meade outside Washington, home of the ultra-secret National Security Agency, has portrayed a laid-back atmosphere at the outpost east of Baghdad where Manning worked.

He and other analysts often listened to music, played video games or watched movies while they were on duty, supposed to be tracking insurgents and al Qaeda, witnesses have said.

WikiLeaks returned to headlines last month when it helped organize the departure of fugitive former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow.

Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for the past year to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning about allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Assange, an Australian, says the charges are reprisal for WikiLeaks' publication of information embarrassing to the US and other governments.