The prosecution's closing arguments included more than 20 direct references to Mr Assange and many more to WikiLeaks which was characterised as a group of ''information anarchists'' rather than a traditional media organisation.

The prosecution's case draws on records of online chats, allegedly between Mr Assange and Private Manning, that computer forensic examiners discovered on the soldier's personal Apple Mac laptop.

The texts of the chats have not been released by the military court and only fragments have been placed on the public record.

Major Fein charged that Private Manning ''knew that WikiLeaks, and specifically Julian Assange, considered themselves the first intelligence agency for the general public'' because it did ''everything an intel[ligence] agency does''.

''What is obvious is that Manning pulled as much information as possible to please Julian Assange in order to get that information released and Julian Assange found the right insider to mine [classified] databases,'' the prosecutor said.