Patrick Semansky / AP file

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning steps out of a security vehicle as he is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., on Nov. 29, 2012, for a pretrial hearing.

FORT MEADE, Md. – A military judge on Thursday accepted guilty pleas by  Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 10 lesser charges against him, leaving the ex-intelligence analyst to face 12 other counts for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of government documents to the WikiLeaks website. 

The acceptance of the "naked guilty pleas" -- meaning there is no agreement between the government and the defense that would limit the sentence – at a pre-trial hearing means that Manning faces up to 20 years in prison, even if he is ultimately acquitted of the most-serious charges against him. 

Col. Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the case, also accepted Manning’s “not guilty” pleas to the remaining charges, including "aiding the enemy." His court martial on those charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, is scheduled to begin on June 3. 

During the day-long pre-trial hearing, Manning acknowledged that his actions were a discredit to the service and that he knew WikiLeaks was not authorized to have the information he provided. 

At one point when Lind asked him whether he knew what he was doing was wrong, he answered simply, "Yes, your honor."

More than an hour of Thursday's hearing was consumed by Manning's composed reading of a 35-page prepared statement that offered his first public explanation of his motives for leaking the government documents to WikiLeaks. He said he did so to “spark domestic debate” on foreign policy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Manning painted himself as a young man with an "insatiable thirst for geopolitical information" and a desire for the world to know the truth about what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he said he became increasingly disillusioned after being sent to Iraq by actions that "didn't seem characteristic" of the U.S., the leader of free world.

Manning said under oath that the first documents he sent to WikiLeaks in early 2012 were the combined information data network exchanges for Iraq and Afghanistan, which he described as the daily journals of the "on-the-ground reality" of the conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan. 

He said he sent the information while on leave and staying at his aunt's house in Potomac, Md., using a public computer at a Barnes & Noble store in Rockville or North Bethesda. He said included a brief note calling the information the most significant documents of our time, and closing with, "Have a good day." 

He said he tried to send the information to the Washington Post and the New York Times before turning to WikiLeaks.  He said he later sent information to WikiLeaks eight other times from his personal laptop at Contingency Base Hammer in Iraq. 

Manning is facing 22 criminal charges that include "aiding the enemy" and could face a life sentence if convicted of the most serious charges. 

Manning said he decided to release the first batch information because he was depressed and frustrated, and felt "a sense of relief" when he returned to Iraq. He said he finally had a "clear conscience" because someone else knew what was happening. 

His most detailed explanation involved the release of aerial weapons team video showing airstrikes that killed some Iraqi civilians and several Reuters journalists.

“It was troubling to me" that the U.S. military in Iraq wouldn't release the video, he said. Also disturbing was the "seemingly delightful blood lust" exhibited when members of the air crew referred to the civilians as "dead bastards" and congratulated one another on their ability to kill large numbers of people. He said he was encouraged by the public response, that others were "as troubled" as he was.

In addition to the charge of aiding the enemy, Manning pleaded not guilty to counts alleging theft of U.S documents or videos -- including allegations that he stole the list of all of the emails and phone numbers of U.S. military and personnel in Iraq at the time -- unauthorized access of that information and downloading unauthorized software onto government computers.

The charges to which he pleaded guilty included intentionally causing intelligence information to be published on the Internet, improper handling of classified information and counts of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.

Specifically, Manning acknowledged that he had unauthorized possession of information, that he willfully communicated it, and that he communicated it to an unauthorized person. However, he only acknowledged that for nine specific files or pieces of information, including: 

• Combat engagement video of a helicopter gunship;
• Two Army intelligence agency memos;
• Certain records of the combined information data network exchange Iraq (which tracks all significant acts and patrol reports);
• Combined information data network exchange Afghanistan records;
• Some SOUTHCOM files dealing with Guantanamo Bay;
• An investigation into an incident in a village in Farah, Afghanistan; 
• Some Department of State cables.

Related story: WikiLeaks case: Bradley Manning seeks first public statement on motive

At his court martial, Manning’s defense is expected to argue that he considered himself a "whistleblower" and released the documents with "no malicious intent" or the intent to do "any harm to anyone." The government contends the release of the documents put some lives at risks, including the names of Afghans who were working with the U.S. military and intelligence.

Jim Miklaszewski is NBC News’ Chief Pentagon Correspondent and Courtney Kube is NBC News’ National Security Producer.  

This story was originally published on Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:00 AM EST

Nasser Nasser / AP

An mural in Cairo depicts ousted president Hosni Mubarak, right, and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, left, with Arabic that reads "before the revolution, let them be amused, after the revolution, let them be paralyzed."

CAIRO, Egypt — Liberals and other opponents of the Islamist government in Egypt have called for the military to resume control of the country if its dire economy continues to worsen amid ongoing political turmoil.

On Tuesday, a coalition of leftist and liberal parties known as the National Salvation Front announced it would boycott upcoming parliamentary elections, claiming President Mohammed Morsi is driving through an Islamist agenda and breaking a promise to govern on behalf of all Egyptians.

Without the NSF’s participation, many fear Islamist parties led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the more conservative Salafist parties will sweep the elections and dominate the House of Representatives. This would give them near complete control of the executive and legislative branches of government.

Amid the political strife, Egypt’s economy is on the brink of economic collapse —  the government announced earlier this month it had run out of money to continue to pay for fuel subsidies.

Former United Nations nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who now leads the moderate Dustour party, was recently quoted by Foreign Policy magazine as saying that if “Egypt is on the brink of default [on its international debts], if law and order is absent, [the army] has a national duty to intervene.”

"I am sure they are as worried as everyone else. You cannot exclude that the army will intervene to restore law and order," he told reporters.

'Act of deception'
Referring to the forthcoming election, ElBaradei also said he would "not be part of an act of deception" in a message on Twitter. 

"Absence of law & order, due process & cascade of Fatwas & 'legal' investigations vs opposition fast tracks Egypt towards a Kafkaesque state," he wrote in another tweet.

Slideshow: Egypt's revolution and the fall of Mubarak

Ahmed Youssef / EPA

Eighteen days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.

Launch slideshow

While liberals supported the revolution against former strongman Hosni Mubarak, some now see the idea of a military regime as a lesser of two evils if the alternative is the country's collapse.

Opposition newspapers, including el-Dostoor and el-Masry el-Youm, have highlighted the failures of Morsi's government with several pundits suggesting the military may have to intervene if the situation continues to deteriorate.

And on Monday, dozens of people rallied in Cairo at the tomb of former President Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated by Islamist soldiers in 1981, to demand the military reassume control of the country and remove the Muslim Brotherhood from power.

The demonstration may have been relatively small, but the call for a return to military rule has created waves of anxiety across the country.

In the past few weeks, Morsi and his office have constantly sought to reassure the public that there is no tension between him and the military.

The president has denied local press reports that he was on the verge of sacking his defense minister.

Abir Abdullah / EPA, file

An Egyptian works in a factory in Cairo on Feb. 18. The IMF has refused the country's requests for a loan, citing the need for economic reforms.

But the military has fueled some of the tension by issuing warnings of collapse and statements of tacit disapproval of the current political stalemate.

Even the dates of the parliamentary election — to be held over three months — have been cause for controversy.

The date of the first round of voting originally fell on Easter weekend. In a country with nearly a 10 percent Christian population, the dates seemed at best bizarre, at worst offensive. The presidency quickly retracted the election announcement and declared new dates.

Fragile
Islamist parties have dismissed the opposition’s election boycott, saying because they can’t win at the ballot box, they are boycotting the process and thus are jeopardizing Egypt’s fragile democracy.

All this adds to the pressure on its equally fragile economy.

Egypt has been desperately seeking to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which would give it a cash injection that would only Band Aid the problem, not solve it.  

So far, the IMF has refused, citing the need for economic reforms. But the government has struggled to get the political backing it needs to take such drastic steps as cutting subsidies that could trigger broad street protests among those who would be affected the most.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the country experienced one of its worst tourist accidents on Tuesday when 19 people were killed when a hot air balloon caught fire.

The accident near the ancient city of Luxor raised fears that the country’s decimated tourism industry would be dealt another blow because of increased concerns about safety standards as well as the security of foreigners visiting Egypt.

In a country once beaming with hope and optimism, where its revolution was celebrated for its unity, a newly divided and tumultuous reality has now firmly taken root.

Related:

Meet Omar, the face of Egypt's 'unfinished revolution'

Egypt could 'collapse,' army chief warns as violence continues

Egyptians fear decades of Muslim Brotherhood rule, warn Morsi is no friend of US

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

Damage such as this, seen Friday in Aleppo, has been frequently blamed on Syrian fighter jets firing missiles at rebels. The military is now firing Scud missiles, as well, NATO says.

President Bashar Assad's military has fired more Scud missiles inside Syria, NATO officials said on Friday, more than a week after the Western alliance first detected such arms being used on rebel targets.

"I can confirm that we have detected the launch of Scud-type missiles. We strongly regret that act," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, calling the launches "acts of a desperate regime approaching collapse."

A NATO source said there had been multiple launches of Scud-type missiles inside Syria on Thursday morning.

On Dec. 12, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski that the Assad government had been launching the missiles at rebel fighters in the north of the country. The officials said that as many as eight Scud missiles had been fired over several days from launchers in the suburbs surrounding Damascus at areas considered rebel strongholds. According to one official, the United States has tracked the Scuds by radar.

Rasmussen used the Scud launches to justify NATO's decision to dispatch Patriot anti-missile systems to NATO ally Turkey — a deployment criticized by Syria, Iran and Russia.

"The fact that such missiles are used in Syria emphasizes the need for effective defense protection of our ally Turkey," he told reporters after talks at NATO headquarters with Djibouti Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita.

"The recent launch of missiles has not hit Turkish territory, but of course there is a potential threat and this is exactly the reason why NATO allies decided to deploy Patriot missiles in Turkey, for a defensive purpose only," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

A look back at the violence that has overtaken Syria.

Launch slideshow

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Harvard student Edan Razinovsky spent the weekend agonizing over whether he should book a ticket to Tel Aviv, as the Israeli army was calling up reservists from around the country, including Razinovsky's former unit, for a possible ground invasion into Gaza. 

Razinovsky, 26, moved to the U.S. from Israel when he was a toddler, and voluntarily joined the Israeli army two years ago for an 18-month stint. He remains officially registered as a reservist although as a student living abroad he isn’t obligated to return.

“When you are in the army, you train for conflict and you are prepared, but to actually go in is somewhat surreal,” said Razinovsky. “My former commander left me a voice mail the other day, saying the unit had been called up, and I have been going back and forth as to whether I should go or not.”

Razinovsky isn’t the only American caught up in the chaos. Americans both inside and outside of Israel have had their lives turned upside down in the last week and a half, from reservists who have felt the need to return to Israel, to brides-to-be forced to alter wedding day plans. There are no official figures as to how many American Jews live in Israel, but around 2,000 Americans move to Israel every year.

In southern Israel, support grows for action in Gaza

Razinovsky is now waiting to see how the conflict develops, and feels strongly that if his unit needs him, he will fly over, even if it means sacrificing the semester at Harvard.

Last week, the Israeli Defense Forces called up around 31,000 reservists with authorization to mobilize up to 75,000. Anecdotal reports suggest that quite a few Americans who have served in the Israeli army have now returned to serve in the current conflict.

Daily life thrown
Avi Schwartz, who grew up in Silver Spring, Md., is used to juggling the off-again, on-again clashes, having lived in Israel for more than 10 years. But as the operator of a tour company, the current conflict has forced him to think of ways to reposition his business.

“About half of a women’s group we were expecting to come this week cancelled,” said Schwartz, 34, as an air raid siren went off in Jerusalem. “There are still groups that want to come despite the violence, and now we are trying to find and organize tours for those that want to show their support for Israel.”

When Debbie Shuval moved to Israel from Manhattan in August to attend business school, she didn’t count on having to explain a war to her three young kids.

Clinton heads to Mideast on peace mission, Hamas remains defiant

“The kids see soldiers all the time, and my 3-year-old son often tells me that when he’s big he will also go to the war,” said Shuval. “The most difficult part of this flare up has been hearing about friends who have been called up. It makes the conflict feel so much more real; living in Jerusalem, the relative quiet can give you a false sense of calm.”

A wedding to remember
While Razinovsky was busy staying in contact with his commanders, Pnina Weiss spent the weekend reorganizing her wedding with just a few days to go. Rockets raining down from Gaza into the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, where her wedding hall was located, had thrown her plans into disarray.

Fewer than four days later, and thanks to the generosity of friends, family and strangers, Weiss was able to rearrange her affair to take place in a hall 16 miles north of Tel Aviv, closer to her parents’ home in Raanana, where tree-lined streets are more reminiscent of Southern California than the Middle East.

She has yet to taste the food, and will be using centerpieces and decorations donated by a friend of a friend who is getting married the night before.

Despite the quick turnaround, Weiss’ wedding will be a smaller affair than originally planned. She had organized the wedding for Thanksgiving weekend to make it easy for friends and family in the U.S. to attend. At least 11 family members from America have cancelled with another 30 or so from Ashkelon also too nervous to travel on unprotected roads or to leave their kids alone.

“Putting off the wedding wasn’t an option,” said Weiss, who moved to Israel from Dallas when she was four. “I’m 34 and I’ve waited many years for this so what does the rest matter? I know on Thursday I’m getting married. It will definitely be a wedding that no one will forget.”

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KABUL, Afghanistan -- United States military officials have suspended the training of Afghan Local Police (ALP) in the wake of a deadly series of so-called ‘green on blue’ attacks by Afghan soldiers and police on their international allies.

In a statement late Saturday, Col. Thomas Collins, US Forces Afghanistan spokesperson, said the training has been put on hold in order to carry out intensified vetting procedures on new recruits, and 16,000 existing ALP recruits will be re-vetted.

“While we have full trust and confidence in our Afghan partners, we believe this is a necessary step to validate our vetting process and ensure the quality indicative of Afghan Local Police," he said in the statement.

What's leading Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?

Many of the 'insider' incidents might have been prevented if existing security measures had been applied correctly, according to the Washington Post which first reported the training suspension.

The newspaper said already-trained recruits would also be re-vetted.

"Current partnered operations have and will continue, even as we temporarily suspend training of about 1,000 new ALP recruits while re-vetting current members," said the statement. “Despite the recent rise in insider attacks, they are relatively rare."

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Hoshang Hashimi / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Forty-five allied troops have been killed in 34 ‘insider’ attacks this year alone. The Afghan army is implicated in 19 of those attacks, but their training will not be halted.

Last week, an Afghan soldier shot and killed two American soldiers on Monday during a dispute in Laghman province in Afghanistan. 

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Aug 19 to express concern over the issue, urging him to work with U.S. commanders to ensure more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits. Panetta’s intervention followed the 10th death of a U.S. service member at the hands of Afghan recruit in the space of just two weeks.

ALP training is a U.S. mission, carried out by Special Forces. Training of uniformed police and army personnel is done under the banner of the NATO operation.

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Louai Beshara / AFP - Getty Images

Syrian Vice President Farouk Al-Sharaa (C) on Sunday greets a member of the delegation of the Iranian Shura Council's Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security who are on an official visit to Damascus.

Syrian Vice President Farouk Al-Sharaa has made his first public appearance in several weeks, ending rumors that he defected.

Al-Sharaa was last seen at the funeral of four top Syrian government officials who were killed in a blast in Damascus on July 18. Since then, speculation has circulated that he defected to Jordan in what would have been a blow to Bashar Assad's regime.

Jordan and Al-Sharaa's office repeatedly denied he defected.   On Sunday, reporters saw Al-Sharaa exit his car and walk to his office for a meeting with Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran's powerful parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said Al-Sharaa looked serious and steered away from reporters covering the meeting. He did not make a statement.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

After months of protests and violent crackdowns, a look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

Syria's state news agency echoed that report, said Al-Sharaa met a parliamentary delegation from Iran, led by Borougerdi.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

Schoolgirls walk in the village of Istalif north of Kabul in May, 2012. Afghan girls have been legally free to attend school since the Taliban was toppled in 2001. But vicious militant attacks, a lack of adequate facilities and teachers, and a tradition which holds that girls belong in the home are some of the obstacles which they need to overcome.

Leaders of the Afghan Taliban have pledged to promote women's education as part of an apparent attempt to restart peace talks with the West, according to a document seen by a British newspaper.

"Women are also a big part of our human society," the document shown to The Sunday Times states. (Newspaper operates behind a paywall).

"The Islamic emirate will create a level ground for women's education in light of its constitution," according to the document written in Pashto, the language spoken by the vast majority of the Taliban's members, the newspaper reported.

During its years in power, the austere and deeply conservative Sunni Muslim Taliban shuttered girls' schools and stopped women from working outside the home.  Now, millions of Afghan girls attend school, but vicious militant attacks, a lack of adequate facilities and teachers, and a tradition that holds that girls belong in the home stop many others from getting an education. 

The paper obtained by The Times could not be independently verified and it was not thought to be directly linked to peace talks.  However, it did show current thinking among the leaders of the group, according to the newspaper.

The newspaper reported that a go-between who claimed to have links to the Quetta shura -- the Taliban's leadership council based in neighboring Pakistan -- had provided it the policy paper. 

Afghan police commander leads defection to Taliban

Last week, the Obama administration, in a move aimed at reviving Afghan peace talks, reportedly sweetened a proposed deal under which it would transfer Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. prisoner of war who is being held by Taliban allies in Pakistan.

The revised proposal, a concession from an earlier U.S. offer, would alter the sequence of the move of five senior Taliban figures held for years at the U.S. military prison to the Gulf state of Qatar, sources familiar with the case told Reuters.

Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

 The three-page document shown to the Times also seemed to be making assurances to the Afghan army, which has received extensive training from the United States, saying it was effective in "guaranteeing national security," the Times said. 

It did warn that a Taliban-led government would "prohibit" the military from meddling in politics, the newspaper added.

Afghan bomber kills senior Army leader, 2 majors

According to the Times, the paper "shows a clear desire by the Taliban to enter a political process when NATO combat troops complete their withdrawal at the end of 2014, and sets out a plan for an electoral system which, it says, would ensure fair representation for minority ethnic groups." 

Minority ethnic and religious groups -- in particular Shiite Hazaras -- were brutally oppressed by the Taliban, which was ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces 2001.   

The document also said the Taliban opposed terrorist groups such as al-Qaida, which it sheltered in the years leading up to the 9/11 attacks on the United States. 

Karzai: a ‘prisoner in his palace’?

"We condemn terrorism ... and consider it our duty to fight terrorism and corruption," the document stated, according to the newspaper.

"Our poor nation is the victim of this terrorism," the paper added.

Afghanistan is not only one of the world's poorest nations despite billions in foreign aid spent there since the Taliban was toppled, it is also considered to be one of the most corrupt, according to Transparency International. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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