Bradley Manning The US military held gay WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning under strict "suicide watch" partly because his gender identity struggle and alter-ego 'Breanna' showed he was mentally "not stable," a witness at his pre-trial hearing says. Manning, a 24-year old former army intelligence analyst in Iraq, is accused of the biggest intelligence leak in American history for allegedly passing classified documents to Julian Assange's anti-secrecy website. His lawyers say the case should be dismissed, citing alleged "unlawful punishment" endured by the Manning during nine months of solitary confinement. They also argue that prison authorities displayed "intolerance and homophobia" in their treatment of Manning Master Sergeant Craig Blenis, a counselor at the military base where manning was detained, said the gender issue was a factor that determined his stringent "prevention of injury" detention status. Amongst other measures he was kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and stripped of his clothes at night. It "shows he's not stable," Blenis told the court.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 3rd December 2012 - 9:01pm