(Adds witness testimony)
By Ian Simpson
FORT MEADE, Md., June 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. soldier accused of passing classified files to the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website had boasted that he could get around any password protection, one of his former Army supervisors told a court-martial on Wednesday.
The soldier, 25-year-old Private First Class Bradley Manning, is charged with providing more than 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks, in the biggest unauthorized release of classified files in U.S. history, in a case that has raised questions about the limits of secrecy and openness.
"He said he felt very fluent with computers. He said he spoke their language," said former Army Specialist Jihrleah Showman, who had been one of Manning's supervisors when he worked as an intelligence analyst at a U.S. Army base in Baghdad in 2010. "He said there wasn't anything he couldn't do on a computer."
WikiLeaks began exposing the U.S. government secrets in 2010, stunning diplomats and U.S. officials, who accused Manning of endangering lives and damaging sensitive diplomacy. Manning has been in confinement since he was arrested in May 2010.
In opening arguments of the trial, which began on Monday, prosecutors argued that Manning had been driven by arrogance. But lawyers for Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, portrayed him as naive but well intentioned in wanting to show the American public the reality of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Manning could be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted. He faces 21 charges, including the most serious one of aiding the enemy, and prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917.
The trial is expected to run until at least late August. (Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Gevirtz)
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