Bradley Manning accused of aiding al-Qaida

FORT MEADE, Md., March 15 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors say alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning aided al-Qaida by leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and military reports.

Politico said the information revealed Thursday at a hearing at Fort Meade, Md., was no great surprise, although there had been some speculation the "enemy" in the charges against Manning was the Web site WikiLeaks.

Manning, a U.S. Army private first class and an intelligence analyst, was arrested at a military base near Baghdad in May 2010 on 22 counts of aiding the enemy in an alleged leak of state secrets.

At the hearing Thursday, prosecutors appeared to suggest they did not plan to argue Manning broke into government computers but instead used his own password to download information to be sent to WikiLeaks, Politico said.