Manning pleads guilty to classified leaks Bradley Manning, the army private accused in the biggest leak of classified material in US history, has pleaded guilty to 10 of 22 charges that he illegally acquired and transferred government secrets to whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The 25-year-old soldier, who was due to read a statement explaining his actions later on Thursday, admitted guilt in court for the first time since his arrest more than 1,000 days ago. Mr Manning is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, state department diplomatic cables, classified documents and two battlefield video clips to WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010 while he worked as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad. Although Mr Manning has pleaded guilty to lesser charges - in violation of military regulations but not in violation of federal espionage laws - that include unauthorised possession and wilful communication of sensitive material, he has denied the most serious charge against him: that he "aided the enemy." The judge, Colonel Denise Lind, must decide whether to accept the guilty pleas, which could carry a sentence of 20 years in prison. But prosecutors may still pursue a court-martial on the remaining charges that could see him confined to military prison for the rest of his life. The Obama administration has said Mr Manning's actions threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained the nation's relations with foreign governments. But others consider him a whistleblower whose actions exposed the secrecy and alleged crimes of the US government and even credit some of the leaked information for helping produce the Arab uprisings. Mr Manning's lengthy pre-trial proceedings have included testimony from the soldier about how he was deprived of his clothing and told to stand at attention naked while on suicide watch at the maximum-security military prison in Quantico, Virginia. The judge has agreed to take 122 days off any eventual sentence due to the poor treatment he received.