Bradley Manning Hearing Continuing With WikiLeaks Disclosure

Manning Set To Tell Big Secret
FILE - Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, right, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Monday, June 25, 2012, after a pretrial hearing. The U.S. Army private charged with sending thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks secrets-sharing website faces a pretrial hearing Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013 about whether his motivation matters in the largest leak of classified material in the country's history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
FILE - Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, right, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Monday, June 25, 2012, after a pretrial hearing. The U.S. Army private charged with sending thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks secrets-sharing website faces a pretrial hearing Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013 about whether his motivation matters in the largest leak of classified material in the country's history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

By BEN NUCKOLS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- An Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history is set to tell a military judge how he did it and why.

Pfc. Bradley Manning will answer questions Thursday from the judge who is considering whether to accept his offer to plead guilty to some charges.

Manning's only public explanation for giving classified material to WikiLeaks can be found in logs of an online chat with a confidant-turned-government informant. In those chats, Manning wrote that he engineered the leak because "information should be free" and he wanted "people to see the truth."

Even if a judge accepts his guilty plea, prosecutors can still pursue more serious charges against Manning. One charge is aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.

Before You Go

Abuse Of Prisoners

Guantanamo Bay Revelations From WikiLeaks

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