Counselor: Bradley Manning's past showed self-harm risk

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted to a security vehicle outside of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, after attending a pretrial hearing. Manning is charged with aiding the enemy by causing hundreds of thousands of classified documents to be published on the secret-sharing website WikiLeaks. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) / Patrick Semansky

FORT MEADE, Md. An Army private charged with sending U.S secrets to the website WikiLeaks had a history of suicidal thoughts and aloof behavior that outweighed a psychiatrist's opinion that he was no risk to intentionally hurt himself, a former counselor testified Sunday.

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Jordan testified on the sixth day of a pretrial hearing for Pfc. Bradley Manning at Fort Meade, near Baltimore. The hearing is to determine whether Manning's nine months in pretrial confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., were so punishing that the judge should dismiss all charges. The 24-year-old intelligence analyst is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the secret-spilling website in 2009 and 2010.

Jordan, a former counselor at Quantico, sat on a board that recommended to the brig commander in January 2011 that Manning remain in maximum custody and on injury-prevention status — conditions that kept him confined to his cell 23 hours a day.

Jordan said under cross-examination by defense attorney David Coombs that besides the mental-health report, he considered evidence that Manning had contemplated suicide six to eight months earlier after his arrest in Iraq. The evidence included a noose Manning had fashioned from a bedsheet while confined in Kuwait, and a written statement he made upon arrival at Quantico in July 2010 that he was "always planning and never acting" on suicidal impulses.

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Jordan acknowledged Manning had been a polite, courteous and nearly trouble-free detainee at Quantico.

"Wouldn't his past six months of performance be an indicator of his potential for future behavior?" Coombs asked. But Jordan maintained that Manning's unwillingness to converse with him and other brig staff was a warning sign he was at risk of self-harm.

Jordan said he considered the opinion of the brig psychiatrist, Navy Capt. William Hocter, that Manning was no longer at risk of self-harm. But Jordan said the weight he gave to Hocter's views was diminished because another detainee had recently killed himself after his custody status was reduced on Hocter's advice.

"I would consider it, but I would always consider it with care, sir," he told Coombs.

Earlier Sunday, the military judge said Manning's trial, previously set to begin Feb. 4, would be pushed back to sometime in March due to lengthy pretrial proceedings.

The hearing on Manning's confinement was to recess Sunday and resume Wednesday.

Manning is charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

[daddycrc-2009]

He is a TRAITOR during war time, He sjould have ALREADY faced the firing squad. Letting him hang himself would not be fair to the soilders lives he put at risk, Let the TURKS question him for 2 weeks he will tell all he knows, Then put him in front of the firing squad, He is as guilty as the Ft Hood shooter, Shoot them both at the same time, Ill be on the Squad.

[ttipbc]

He should have done it, not just thought about doing it.

[brwing]

It is time to execute the traitor and get it over with.

[micmac666]

The counselor's diagnosis is the result of standardized psychological tests that can be purchased from ads in the back of "Popular Psychology" type magazines. The result would term him a "Basic Psychzoid" type personality. Its BS with no credibility. Over half the population would qualify. Look it up on Webmd.com .

[michaelz06]

and your particular area of expertise, other than ignorant sarcasm, might be???

[micmac666]

Psychiatry, Psychology, Neurology, Proctology (no charge).

[josephp5]

The military's mistreatment of Manning came first. They did everything they could to affect his mental state and make him act erratic. They then claim that it was because of erratic behavior that Manning was put in such inhumane conditions.

[rwsmith29456]

Are you saying that they mistreated him before he leaked the documents??

[josephp5]

They mistreated him before he exhibited the behavior that the military claims was the cause of his inhumane solitary confinement. Manning was kept naked and without any blankets or pillow; he was kept awake constantly by being forced to answer every hour, under 24 hour watch with the light on, and without access to his lawyer or any outside contact. The military claims (after initially denying it) that they were forced to treat him this way because he was suicidal. But really it was about destroying Manning's mental state before he was brought to trial.

[taxed01]

The traitor "thought" about suicide. Wow, that must have been really rough for him. Shoot him and get it over with, stop wasting the taxpayers money.

[josephp5]

I'll bet you have not even seen the video that Manning leaked. Look it up and watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 . Then come back and tell me that you are proud of what your country was doing in Iraq. This video was not secret for any reason due to national security. There is no news in the video to Al Qaeda---they already knew what was going on. The reason the video was classified was to keep it from the American people in whose name this was being done and whose tax money was paying for it.

[michaelz06]

josephp5, looked up your video....so what? The fact is this clown has admitted to leaking large numbers of files, without really knowing what all was in them. That takes it well beyond whistleblowing (which would have been a weak argument anyway), and straight to treason during a time of war.