Guards testify on Army GI's time at Quantico brig

[December 01, 2012]  FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- Some former guards at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., are testifying against an Army private charged with sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website.

The guards are prosecution witnesses in a pretrial hearing that resumes Saturday morning for Pfc. Bradley Manning. He's seeking dismissal of the case, contending his nine months in isolation at Quantico amounted to illegal punishment.

The military maintains the restrictions were to prevent Manning from killing or hurting himself.

A former guard testified Friday that Manning partly collapsed and started whimpering one day in January 2011 after jailers admonished him about this attitude.

He says Manning seemed to strike at his own head during an argument later that day, causing the brig commander to place him on suicide watch.

[Associated Press; By DAVID DISHNEAU]

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