Bradley Manning's defense lawyers play a gay card at his hearing

Bradley Manning's legal team spent his 24th birthday in court at Fort Meade, MD arguing that before the repeal of DADT, his sexual orientation played an important role in his actions, saying that as a gay soldier in a hostile environment, the Army should have denied him access of sensitive material and that most of the information classified by the Pentagon didn't pose a risk.

Maj. Matthew Kemkes, a defense lawyer, asked Special Agent Toni Graham, an Army criminal investigator, whether she had talked to people who believed Pfc. Manning was gay or found evidence among his belongings relating to gender-identity disorder. The condition often is described as a mental diagnosis in which people believe they were born the wrong sex.

     Agent Graham said such questions were irrelevant to the investigation. "We already knew before we arrived that Pfc. Manning was a homosexual," Agent Graham said.

     Prosecutors objected several times to the questions. Maj. Kemkes responded that if the government can argue that Pfc. Manning intended to leak secrets, "what is going on in my client's mind is very important."

The Wikileak most damaging to the military was the infamous video taken from the cockpit of an Apache helicopter which killed two journalists and wounded children. The gunners could be heard laughing and referring to the men as "dead bastards."

Maj. Kemkes, one of Pfc. Manning's lawyers, asked Agent Graham whether she knew the video was unclassified. She said she didn't. "In fact, it was an unclassified video," Maj. Kemkes said.

     At the time the video was posted by WikiLeaks, the Pentagon called it a breach of national security and it was believed to be secret.