By The Associated Press

Published: Thursday, November 29, 2012, 6:46 p.m.
Updated: Thursday, November 29, 2012

FORT MEADE, Md. — An Army private charged in the biggest security breach in U.S. history testified Thursday that he felt like a doomed, caged animal after he was arrested in Baghdad for allegedly sending classified information to the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks.

Speaking publicly for the first time about his May 2010 arrest and subsequent confinement, Pfc. Bradley Manning testified about his time in a cell in a segregation tent at Camp Arifjan, an Army installation in Kuwait.

“I remember thinking I'm going to die. I'm stuck inside this cage,” Manning said in response to questions from defense attorney David Coombs. “I just thought I was going to die in that cage. And that's how I saw it — an animal cage.”

Manning was sent to a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., in July 2010. His lawyers seek dismissal of all charges, contending his pretrial confinement at Quantico was needlessly harsh.

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.

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