US Army sergeant Robert Bales admits killing 16 Afghan civilians but there's anger over a plea deal to avoid execution. Bradley Manning: hero or traitor? AFTER three years in military confinement, Bradley Manning was finally put on trial for the largest intelligence leak in US history. But who is this person and why should you care? Manning leaked the "Collateral Murder" video You may recall seeing a video that showed a group of civilians killed by helicopter fire during an attack in Baghdad. The video was released on April 5, 2010 but the actual attack occurred in 2007. Why did it take so long to come out? That's because US Army officials allegedly tried to bury the footage. Then intelligence analyst, Manning, leaked the tapes after the army claimed it had lost the footage. He claimed he found the video in a "Judge Advocate's directory." The tape became known as the "Collateral Murder" video and Julian Assange aired it during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC on the April 5, 2010. Manning leaked the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs Manning leaked 91,731 documents - most of which were classified - detailing military activities between 2004 and 2009 including an air strike that killed up to 147 civilians. The documents contained information regarding the death of civilians, and Taliban attacks, and contained evidence that Pakistan and Iran had assisted the air strikes. They also showed that North Korea sold weapons to Osama bin Laden. The documents showed that the US military had been paying Afghanistan news outlets to run stories that favoured the US insurgents. It also showed that contractors working for the US Department of Defense had hired child prostitutes Did Manning endanger informants? In 2011, the Pentagon and President Barack Obama raised concerns that the documents exposed the names of Afghani informants, however the Pentagon then admitted to the Washington Post that it had yet to see any harm come to anyone "that we can directly tie to exposure in WikiLeaks documents." The American Associated Press concurred. Despite this, prosecution lawyer Captain Joe Morrow said that Manning knew the dangers of revealing documents to WikiLeaks but chose to ignore them. The prosecution argue that Manning knowingly and wilfully exposed intelligence that could expose undercover agents, compromise diplomats and put soldiers in areas like Afghanistan and Iraq in danger. Prosecutors said they would show the 25-year-old Army intelligence analyst effectively put US military secrets into the hands of the enemy, including Osama bin Laden. They said they will present evidence that bin Laden requested and obtained the Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department cables published by WikiLeaks. An online chat put Manning in jail On May 20, 2010 Manning contacted a former hacker who had been convicted of accessing the computer networks of the New York Times, Adrian Lamo, admitting to him that he was the person that provided WikiLeaks with the documents that put them on the map. The two exchanged online chats. "If you had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months, what would you do?," he is quoted as saying in the chat. "I'm in the desert, with a bunch of hyper-masculine trigger happy ignorant rednecks as neighbours ... and the only safe place I seem to have is this satellite internet connection," (sic) he wrote. Manning admitted to struggling with his "gender identity" and said it had cost him his job. Hypothetical question: if you had free reign [sic] over classified networks for long periods of time ... say, 8-9 months ... 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?: Manning told Lamo that he was talking to him "as someone who needs moral and emotional f***ing support." Lamo passed on the chat to the FBI who then arrested Manning on May 29, 2010. He was charged with leaking classified information. Links to Julian Assange Manning also implied in the online chat that "someone he knew intimately" had been hacking into US classified networks and mining its data. It is assumed he is talking about Julian Assange or someone at Wikileaks. "Let's just say *someone* I know intimately well, has been penetrating US classified networks, mining data like the ones described, and been transferring that data from the classified networks over the 'air gap' onto a commercial network computer, sorting the data, compressing it, encrypting it, and uploading it to a crazy white haired aussie who can't seem to stay in one country very long (sic)," he wrote. Manning is also suspected of leaking the files detailing the torture of suspects in Guantánamo Bay jails who were held without charge for years. Manning claims he was tortured In a hearing last year Manning claimed that he was being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, deprived of any kind of bedding or personal possessions. Amnesty International and the UN have objected to his "unnecessarily severe" treatment. The military denied mistreating Manning and said that he had been held in "maximum custody" because of the threat he posed to national security and also to ensure he was prevented from hurting himself. But a judge disagreed and in January this year ruled that Manning had been illegally held in solitary confinement and 112 days were taken off any future sentence. Charged with aiding the enemy On January 18 last year Manning was charged with aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence information to be published online, transmitting national defence information. In February he was charged with theft of public property. Manning plead guilty to 10 of the 22 charges. Manning made a statement to the court describing "the delightful bloodlust" of the US soldiers featuring in the Collateral Murder video. "They dehumanised the individuals they were engaging and seemed to not value human life by referring to them as 'dead bastards' and congratulating each other on the ability to kill in large numbers," he said. You can hear an audio recording of his statement here. Manning's lawyer described Manning as "young, naive and well intentioned" if not somewhat emotionally disturbed as a result of his service. Manning is "young, naive, well intentioned" Manning's defence attorney David Coombs said Manning was completely misunderstood, not having had media access for the last two years he has been incarcerated, the public has been left to form their own opinion of the man, The Verge reported. Coombs referred to Manning as a "young, naive but well intentioned" man that was emotionally troubled and said he let his conscience be his guide when he leaked documents he believed were in the public's interest. Julian Assange has referred to the Manning trial as "a show of wasteful vengeance."