Manning Acknowledges He Made a Noose in Custody

Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing continued today, with a prosecutor showing the court a knotted noose that the Army private made after he was charged with giving classified documents to WikiLeaks. Manning admitted that he contemplated suicide soon after his arrest in Iraq, but he said those feelings quickly subsided and were no longer present by the time he was transferred to the Quantico military brig in Virginia, reports the Guardian and AP.

His state of mind is critical in this particular hearing: Manning is arguing that charges should be dropped or reduced because he was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment while at Quantico. The military, though, says extreme measures were necessary because it feared Manning was going to kill himself. Despite the seriousness of the hearing, Manning managed to draw laughter a few times from the courtroom, including once when he was asked why he requested new underwear while at Quantico. "They still smelled of Iraq," he said. Click for more. (More Bradley Manning stories.)