Guards testify on Army GI’s time at Quantico brig

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 resumed 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 guard testified Saturday, confirming testimony from a day earlier that Manning was crying and put his hands over his face one day in January 2011 after being scolded by jailers.

During cross-examination, Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Tankersly said that except for that one incident, Manning was courteous and respectful.