Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. At the age of 19, my guest

today made a fateful and in many ways unlikely decision which transformed her life.

Back then in 2007, Manning was troubled, rebellious, jobless, sporadically homeless and desperate

to make a fresh start. The US army was a strange choice,

not least because to be openly gay or transgender was an offence under its don't ask, don't tell

policy. But Manning 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 U.S. occupation. Manning's job was

to collate and interpret vast amounts of data and intelligence. It provided access to a vast store

of confidential information about the U. the US wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan

going back years. So Manning downloaded this Intel trove and sent it anonymously to WikiLeaks.

The material made global headlines around the world, embarrassing the US.S. government and, according to the Pentagon,

compromising vital security interests. Within months, Manning was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually

put on trial charged with 22 offenses. The result, a 35-year prison sentence. Chelsea Manning

fought a long battle to get her gender transition recognized whilst inside prison.

President Obama gave her clemency in 2017, and she is now a digital activist and advocate for transparency and equality.

Can transparency ever be a justification for spilling state secrets?

Well, Chelsea Manning joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thanks for having. It's a great pleasure to have you. If I may, I want to begin with the decision that

really changed and transformed your life. That is the decision to sign up to the U.S. military.

Right. Why did you do it? So in 2007, my father and I had a falling out,

and I was living in Maryland, and I had just been houseless for about a year. And I decided

that, you know, working in various jobs and, you know, trying to go to school was, you know, wasn't enough for me.

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