WikiLeaks whistleblower's fears laid bare

Newly revealed logs of chat-room conversations between Bradley Manning, the US Army private facing court martial for leaking secret cables to the WikiLeaks organisation, and a self-described journalist in California show a young man panicking about his mental state and the trouble he is getting himself into.

They also show him personally discussing a "crazy white haired aussie" whom he also identifies as Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to whom he had given the secret cables.

I have "lost all of my emotional support channels... family, boyfriend, trusting colleagues... im a mess, im in the desert, with a bunch of hyper-masculine trigger happy ignorant rednecks as neighbors... and the only safe place i seem to have is this satellite internet connection... im sorry, im a total mess right now," Mr Manning, then serving in Iraq, typed during one internet conversation with Adrian Lamo.

As it turned out, the internet was the least safe place for him because Mr Lamo, having suggested to Mr Manning that he would consider the conversations, some of which were highly personal and confidential, was soon afterwards to approach the FBI with what he had found out.