December 17, 1987 Bradley Manning is born in Crescent, Oklahoma to an American father and Welsh mother
November 2001 Manning and his mother move to Haverfordwest in Wales after his parent’s divorce. The teenager shows an aptitude for computers at school, but returns to the U.S. to live with his father in 2005
October 2007 At 19, joins the U.S. army. His father had served as an intelligence analyst.
October 2009 Manning is sent to Iraq, where he has access to top-secret information. He is isolated and unhappy.
November 2009 Makes contact with WikiLeaks for the first time after it leaked 570,000 pager messages from 9/11
January 2010 Downloads the Iraq and Afghan war logs
April 2010 WikiLeaks posts a video of Iraqi civilians and journalists being killed by a U.S. helicopter gunship some time in July 2007.
May 21, 2010 Manning contacts hacker Adrian Lamo online, saying he is the source of the leaks. Lamo records the chats and hands them over to the U.S. Defence department and Wired.com
May 29, 2010 Manning is arrested in Kuwait
June 5, 2010 Charged with leaking classified information
July 25, 2010 A series of reports on the Afghan war, based on U.S. military internal logs, are published by the Guardian, the New York Times and other media groups
July 29, 2010 Manning is moved to Quantico in the U.S., where he is held in a solitary cell
October 22, 2010 Iraq war logs published, detailing civilian deaths, torture, summary executions and war crimes
November 28, 2010 U.S. embassy cables are published, revealing what diplomats really think about their postings
January 2011 Amnesty International denounces Manning’s treatment at Quantico
March 11, 2011 Manning’s charges updated to 22 violations, including ‘aiding the enemy’
March 2011 U.S. State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley calls Manning’s treatment ‘ridiculous and counterproductive’, and later resigns
April 2011 The Guantanamo files are released, containing U.S.’ secret assessments of detainees
July 2011 Wired.com publishes chat logs between Manning and Lamo
December 16, 2011 The first pre-trial hearing begins, and 4/5ths of defence witnesses are barred
March 2012 U.N. says Manning ‘subjected to cruel, degrading treatment’
August 2012 Prosecution reveals evidence of Manning’s treatment ordered by a higher command
December 17, 2012 Manning turns 25, his third birthday in prison without trial
February 28, 2013 Pleads guilty to leaking military information
June 3, 2013 Court martial begins
July 30, 2013 Cleared of ‘aiding the enemy’ but guilty of five espionage charges
— © Guardian News & Media 2013
