Introduction

At the age of 19 Chelsea Manning made a fateful and in many ways unlikely decision which transformed her life. The US Army was a strange choice not least because to be openly gay or transgender was an offense under its don't ask don't tell policy. She had skills in computing and data analysis which the military was very keen to use. Within three years she was sent to Iraq at the height of the insurgency against the US occupation. Her job was to collate and interpret vast amounts of data and intelligence. It provided access to a vast store of confidential information about the US wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan going back years. So Manning downloaded this intel trove and sent it anonymously to Wikileaks. Was arrested