Wikileaks informant Bradley Manning's guards deny intimidating him in retaliation for protests

• Comes days after Manning testified about the treatment he received both in Kuwait holding area and once he returned to Virginia in the U.S.
  
• Said he remembered thinking: 'I'm going to die, I'm stuck inside this cage'

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 23:42 EST, 1 December 2012 | UPDATED: 02:42 EST, 2 December 2012

A Marine who guarded Bradley Manning has denied intimidating the Army private while he was held in a brig after being arrested for allegedly sending U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks in the biggest security breach in American history.

Jonathan Cline recounted an incident where Manning had an apparent anxiety attack while being escorted to a recreation area - but said his own behaviour had nothing to do with the breakdown, adding that he was surprised to be told that 'we intimidated him or something like that'.

However, he also admitted that guards had become annoyed when a protest in Manning's favour stopped them returning home on time, though another guard insisted this had not changed the way they treated the prisoner.

The defense claims the nine months Manning - who is charged with sending U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks in the biggest security breach in American history - spent in virtual isolation, sometimes without clothing, amounted to illegal pretrial punishment.

His turn on the stand: Bradley Manning seen arriving at a courthouse at military base Fort Meade, Maryland before testifying about the treatment he received during his two-years in prison

Manning and his attorneys want all the charges dismissed.

Cline testified on the fifth day of a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade, near Baltimore.

He was called as a prosecution witness to talk about a Jan. 18, 2011, incident in which Manning hid behind an exercise machine and wept after he was scolded by another guard for failing to respond properly to a command.

Later that day, the brig commander, Chief Warrant Officer 4 James Averhart, added 'suicide risk' to Manning's maximum-custody conditions. That was after they had what Manning described as a heated argument about the incident.

Cline testified that some brig workers were annoyed that a pro-Manning protest a day earlier had closed Quantico's main gate, forcing them to take alternate routes home.

Goal: Manning is trying to avoid trial in the WikiLeaks case by arguing he was punished enough when he was locked up alone in a small cell for nearly nine months at a brig in Quantico, Virginia, and had to sleep naked for several nights

Cline said he wasn't personally affected by it. Defense attorney David Coombs has implied the guards took out their irritation on Manning by bullying him.

Cline and another former guard, Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Tankersly, both testified that except for the Jan. 18 incident, Manning was always compliant and respectful.

Another former brig worker, Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. William Fuller, testified that Manning was often uncommunicative and withdrawn, possibly signaling a suicide risk.

Fuller testified that before Jan. 18, he had considered recommending to Averhart that Manning be removed from 'prevention-of-injury,' or POI, status because of his improved behavior. Manning was on either POI or even more restrictive 'suicide risk' status during his entire stay at Quantico in maximum custody.

His behavior Jan. 18 'gave us cause for concern,' Fuller said. 'That kind of reset things, unfortunately.'

The noose: This artist rendering shows Army Pfc. Bradley Manning being shown a bedsheet as he testified in his pretrial Wikileaks hearing

Manning was at Quantico from July 2010 to April 2011. Then he was moved to pretrial confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He has been held in medium custody since arriving there.

The 24-year-old native of Crescent, Okla., worked as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010. He is charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy and violating federal espionage and computer security laws. He could get life in prison.

He is accused of sending to the website WikiLeaks more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, classified memos, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, Guantanamo Bay prison records and a 2007 video clip of a U.S. helicopter crew gunning down 11 men.

It was later determined that one of those men was a news photographer. The Pentagon said its troops mistook camera equipment for weapons.

Taking the stand on Thursday, Manning said that he lost all hope when he was detained for weeks in a segregation tent in Camp Arifjan, an Army installation in Kuwait where he was stationed.

Smile: Manning was decidedly more excited when he appeared in court for the first time on Tuesday (pictured)

Manning said he remembers thinking 'I'm going to die, I'm stuck inside this cage.'

Wearing his dress uniform, he appeared nervous, stuttering over his words as he tried to answer questions from a defense attorney about his arrest in Baghdad in May 2010. He was testifying only about his arrest and confinement and not about how he leaked classified documents to Wikileaks.

Seated in the witness booth, he swiveled back and forth and gestured with his hands as he described the layout of his confinement quarters overseas.

'I was in a pretty stressed situation...I was getting very little information' from his attorney while he was being held, he said, noting that he felt increasingly ‘hopeless’.

'I had pretty much given up. My world had just shrunk,' Manning said, explaining how he had suicidal thoughts while being held by authorities.

Manning is trying to avoid trial in the WikiLeaks case by arguing he was punished enough when he was locked up alone in a small cell for nearly nine months at a brig in Quantico, Virginia, and had to sleep naked for several nights.

Controversial: Supporters stood outside the Maryland military courthouse where he was due to appear Tuesday

'I totally started to fall apart,' the 24-year-old said.

The military contends the treatment was proper, given Manning's classification then as a maximum-security detainee who posed a risk of injury to himself or others.

Earlier Thursday, a military judge accepted the terms under which Manning would plead guilty to eight charges for sending classified documents to the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website.

Colonel Denise Lind's ruling doesn't mean the pleas have been formally accepted. That could happen in December.

But Lind approved the language of the offenses to which Manning would admit.

She said those offenses carry a total maximum prison term of 16 years.

Manning made the offer as a way of accepting responsibility for the leak.

Make or break: If a judge rules he was tortured then the entire trial could be abandoned, though that is not expected to happen

Government officials have not said whether they would continue prosecuting him for the other 14 counts he faces, including aiding the enemy. That offense carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Under the proposal, Manning would admit to willfully sending the following material: a battlefield video file, some classified memos, more than 20 Iraq war logs, more than 20 Afghanistan war logs and other classified materials. He would also plead guilty to wrongfully storing classified information.

Meanwhile, Manning's lawyers are arguing that the charges against the soldier should be dismissed because of how he was treated while confined at Quantico.

Other prospective witnesses include a military psychiatrist who examined Manning at Quantico, and the former commander of the confinement facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Manning was later moved there, re-evaluated and given a medium-security classification.