10:40 AM — Captain Barclay Keay testified telephonically from parts unknown (though where he was at it was about 3 am.) Keay was in the Tenth Mountain Division with Manning. He was a captain in the S2 shop until he was transferred. He was there for about three weeks.

Keay was in charge of a few soldiers and worked as the Night OIC. He had a “skeleton crew.” There were three on the night shift. Manning was one of them.

The night shift had no non-commissioned officer. Coombs pressed Keay on this and asked why. Keay said the primary focus was daytime duty. Everything was happening in the day and the key leaders in the brig were awake then so that was when most intelligence analyst work.

He did see soldiers listening to music and watching ” stupid little funny clips that were being passed around.”

Asked about games being on computers, he said, “I don’t think I ever caught anybody with their hand in the cookie jar playing video games.”

Keay gave a sworn statement where he stated to a Secretary of the Army investigator that he did not find it appropriate to have media in the SCIF (music, movies and games). He thought having the media in the SCIF would be looked at as “negative.” He thought it was something the military “shouldn’t be so liberal about.”

He commented, “You shouldn’t be listening to music while the soldier is doing the reading and figuring out their job.” Then, after being asked if Manning wanted to be a good soldier, he said, “I do feel like he wanted to be a good solider.” He tried to and did do good analytical work.

Keay was the final witness called to the stand in the hearing. This concluded the defense’s side of the case at 9:38 AM EST.

10:51 AM — Looking at the time. The math is off. Defense only rested its case about fifty minutes after it began its side of the case. Prosecution presented its case over four days and the defense presented its case over fifty minutes.

10:31 AM — For an example of the routine questions prosecution asked all witnesses in the military—

Cpt. Angel Overgaard cross-examined Padgett for the prosecution and asked if he learned about operation security and its importance. She asked if he learned about information security and its importance. She asked if he went through “scenarios” during training on “enemies of the United States and if he learned the consequences of releasing classified information.

Overgaard also asked what he used at the SCIF at FOB Hammer. He said DCSG-A machine, programs like CIDNE, Tigernet and other analytical tools. She then asked if he ever used CIDNE Afhanistan, Netcentric Diplomacy or WGET. He said no to each. She wondered if he had ever burned classified information on to a CD for personal use. No, he answered.

Finally, she wondered if he signed a non-disclosure agreement reminding him to “safeguard classified information.” He answered no. “But you already knew that because of your training as a 35FOX?” Overgaard replied. Correct, he said. “Whose job is it to safeguard classified information?” Yes, soldiers especially those with security clearances are expected to safeguard classified information.

10:33 AM — IO Almanza cross-examined Padgett for a short-period. He wanted to know if music was authorized and whether it was on the shared drive in the SCIF. He asked if movies were present. He wanted to know if there were games on the shared drive too. Padgett testified there were no movies present in the SCIF. Music was on the shared drive and at one point soldiers were authorized to bring in music CDS but not rewriteable CDs.

10:25 AM Sgt. Daniel Padgett, who served in the SCIF with Manning, testified for the defense. Particularly of interest was Padgett’s testimony on Manning being late for duty in December 2009. Padgett had a counseling session with Manning.

Manning turned the table upside down. A radio and a few government computers crashed to the ground. Manning was restrained by one of the officers in the S2. They wanted to keep Manning from going toward a weapons rack. As Padgett stated, he didn’t see Manning go toward the rack but “I wanted him to be away from anything that could harm” him. Manning was restrained in a “full nelson” by a CW2 officer and then he was sat down on a bench in the room until he calmed down.

Padgett could not remember talking to Sgt. Paul Adkins. He couldn’t remember talking to commanding officers on the incident. There was no UCMJ disciplinary action as a result.

10:14 AM Accused has to be arraigned within 120 days of being detained. There are excluded dates. The request for the 706 Board, which ended April 18, and then the dates in November are all excluded from this timeline. This is what the legal expert briefing press is outlining. (Hoping to get more information on this.)

Col. Coffman is, by the way, the special court martial convening authority. All of this is going to be presented to him and he makes a recommendation to the general court martial convening authority.

10:12 AM Report on the hearing does not have to be issued by IO Paul Almanza until January 16. But, Almanza can request a delay.

10:03 AM The government refuses to allow the hearing to wrap today. The government refused to give their closing statement today. They claimed they could not be ready because Coombs just entered evidence into the record and they received a copy of it too late yesterday. Coombs objected to this justification and said this is evidence from the government and they have had it in their possession for the past 18 months. The defense suggested the hearing reconvene at 3:00 or 4:00 PM. The prosecution or IO was not about to let this happen.

Put on the record that one of the conference sessions dealt with a scheduling. They had already agreed that they would break and begin tomorrow. Coombs suggested the government is building a PowerPoint for their closing statement. So, they likely have to rehearse.

9:51 AM Only two witnesses are called by the defense to testify. Only two were allowed to testify too. The IO, probably lobbied by the prosecution or government, denied numerous witnesses prior to today.

There is officially no more evidence to be presented and no more witnesses to testify in the hearing.

The prosecution spent about 4 days presenting evidence and entering testimony from witnesses into the record. The defense spent one and a half hours presenting evidence and entering testimony from witnesses into the record.

8:49 AM As the defense begins today, I will note how Manning supporters would likely want the defense to proceed. First, they would like to see the defense bring up how Manning was treated in pre-trial confinement. They then would like to see the “whistleblower defense” made, meaning the defense should discuss the information and how its contents depicted war crimes, military incidents, political corruption, etc, and provided necessary transparency.