The hearing for an Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking thousands of military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks is scheduled to hear classified evidence from prosecutors in a secret session Monday morning at Ft. Meade, Md. 
 
 The presiding officer for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning's hearing, Lt. Col Paul Almanza, approved the prosecution request Sunday afternoon following a closed-door session where the government apparently laid out what classified evidence it wanted to present and why it was important to the case. When Almanza reopened the courtroom, he explained what he had concluded about the need for the secret evidence. 
 
 "I determined that the classified evidence is properly classified, that protecting classified information is an overriding interest that outweights the value of an open proceeding [and determined] that no lesser means than closure can protect that overriding interest," Almanza said. 
 
 Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, stated that the decision to close the hearing came over the objections of the defense. 
 
 Just after the closure decision Sunday, Almanza heard testimony from an Army investigator who was the first to tie Manning to the leaks in a concrete way. Special Agent David Shaver said data on computers used by Manning at a forward operating base in eastern Iraq showed someone signed in under his user profile performed searches that seemed "out of place," such as searches for Wikileaks, the group's founder Julian Assange, the country of Iceland, the Associated Press reported. In addition, Manning's computer contained 10,000 diplomatic cables as well as evidence of searches for information about Guantanamo, Shaver said according to the AP. 
 
 Manning's supervisors who've testified at the hearing, which began on Friday, have said there would be no work-related reason for most or all of those searches, though one officer said he actually sent Manning and other analysts the link to the diplomatic cable database because it might aid their analysis of threats in Iraq. 
 
 The defense was expected to cross-examine Shaver this morning before the hearing goes into secret session. Blogger Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake.com tweeted Monday that Shaver would be the first witness in the closed session. It was unclear if there might be others. 
 
 The prosecutors, defense attorneys and Manning are allowed in the courtroom during the closed session, Almanza said. He also said representatives of "other government agencies" would be allowed to remain even as the press and public were removed from the courtroom and video feed to a filing center nearby was cut. 
 
 The Army has not responded to a request to identify which agencies have special access to the courtroom. 
 
 Read more about: Iraq, Transparency, First Amendment, Classified Information, Leaks, Army, Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, Military Justice, Courts Martial, Classified Information Procedures Act 

 1 of 5. U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning is seen in a courtroom sketch during his Army Article 32 hearing in the courthouse at Fort Meade, Maryland, December 16, 2011. 
 
 FORT MEADE, MD (Reuters) - A key witness was excused from testifying in the case against Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning on Sunday after he invoked his right against self-incrimination at a hearing about the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history. 
 
 Sergeant First Class Paul Adkins invoked his right against self-incrimination as he began answering questions at a proceeding to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to court-martial the 24-year-old Manning on charges including aiding the enemy, which carries life imprisonment. 
 
 Manning is charged with downloading massive data files from the military's classified network when he was a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, and providing them to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. 
 
 The defense has portrayed Adkins, at the time a master sergeant in charge of security at the facility where Manning worked, as someone who should have recognized the private's troubled emotional state and acted to revoke the security clearance that gave him access to classified U.S. documents. 
 
 Manning's attorney, David Coombs, argued that Adkins should not be excused because he was not under criminal investigation in the case, but the prosecution declined to grant him immunity to testify and he was excused. 
 
 A second intelligence analyst who worked with Manning, Warrant Officer 1 Kyle Balonek, also invoked his right against self-incrimination and was excused from testifying on Sunday. He was one of the most experienced analysts in the unit. 
 
 Coombs argued on Saturday that Manning had displayed warning signs of emotional instability before his alleged wrongdoing and struggled with his gender identity. 
 
 In one incident, Manning "got furious and upset, flipped a table during the outburst" and sent a computer crashing to the ground, Coombs said. Manning had to be restrained over fears he was headed for a weapon. 
 
 Captain Casey Fulton, an Army intelligence officer who worked in the same secure facility as Manning, testified that another time she saw him curled up on the floor with his arms around his knees as Adkins spoke to him. 
 
 SHOULD HAVE BEEN DENIED ACCESS 
 
 Fulton also testified that later that night she overheard a commotion in which Manning allegedly struck a female superior, which was also reported to Adkins and resulted in Manning being moved to work in the supply division. 
 
 As it cross-examined prosecution witnesses on Sunday, the defense team continued to suggest that Manning should not have had access to classified documents, given his emotional state. 
 
 Fulton, who used Manning in her work preparing for the Iraqi election, rejected suggestions that supervision of lower-level analysts like Manning was lax. 
 
 "It's impossible to supervise 100 percent of the time," she said. "There's a limited amount of supervisors and you can't supervise everyone at every second of the day. (You) trust that they'll safeguard the material the way they've been taught." 
 
 Sergeant Chad Madaras, who worked in the same facility as Manning during the day and used the same computer, acknowledged that soldiers regularly used classified computers to play music, movies and video games. 
 
 Those recordings, movies and video games were kept on a classified network drive - where Fulton testified first seeing a helicopter gunsight video released by WikiLeaks last year. 
 
 The video shows a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists. U.S. investigators say they have found a rewritable CD with that video in Manning's possession. 
 
 Captain Thomas Cherepki, an information systems manager who oversaw networks at Manning's facility, said intelligence analysts like Manning had to have the ability to copy information from their classified machines onto discs to share data with each other and with locals. 
 
 DEFENSE FOCUS ON MENTAL STATE 
 
 "There was no technical restriction put in place by me or any of my soldiers to prevent that from happening," he said. "The only thing that would prevent that, in my view is trust that the soldier would do what's right." 
 
 The prosecution has portrayed Manning as a well-trained analyst who understood his responsibilities but violated them. The defense has tried to sidestep the question of blame and focus instead on his mental state. 
 
 Manning's brigade chief, Captain Steven Lim, on Saturday testified that Adkins had received an email in April 2010 in which Manning said he suffered from a gender identity disorder that was affecting his life, work and ability to think. 
 
 The email included a photo of Manning as a woman. Lim said Adkins did not tell him about the email until after Manning's arrest. Manning, it was disclosed during the proceedings, has created a female alter-ego online, Breanna Manning. 
 
 Manning was arrested last year after disclosing his data thefts to former hacker Adrian Lamo, who turned him in to U.S. authorities. 
 
 In Internet chats with Lamo, Manning said he would bring CDs to his workplace and load them with downloaded data from the military's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, known as SIPRNet, Lamo told Reuters in a previous interview. 
 
 In his Web chats with Lamo, Manning appeared to acknowledge giving materials to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 
 
 He wrote to Lamo: "I'm a high profile source ... and I've developed a relationship with Assange," according to details of the chats confirmed by Lamo to Reuters. 
 
 (Writing by David Alexander; editing by Vicki Allen and Todd Eastham) 

 Army investigators found nearly half a million field reports from Iraq and Afghanistan on a computer memory card among the belongings of Pfc. Bradley Manning, with a note suggesting that an unnamed recipient "sit on this information" while deciding how best to distribute it, according to testimony Monday. 
 
 The note called the reports "possibly one of the more significant documents of our time" and said they would remove "the fog of war" and reveal "the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare," Army special agent David Shaver told the officer leading a preliminary hearing at Fort Meade. 
 
 Manning, 24, is accused of giving hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks while serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. He is charged with aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act. 
 
 On the fourth day of the hearing, members of the Army Computer Crimes Investigative Unit described how they examined military and personal computers used by Manning, and what they found. 
 
 Military computers showed evidence of downloads from servers at the State Department and the Defense Department, they said. Investigators found four detainee assessments from Guantanamo Bay under Manning's user profile. 
 
 A personal computer contained logs from chats about releasing government information, IP addresses associated with WikiLeaks and what appears to be contact information for group founder Julian Assange, they said. 
 
 After two days of arguing that Manning was a troubled soldier who should not have been given access to classified materials, his defense team appeared to shift course Monday, suggesting there was no proof that Manning was behind the downloads or the chats. 
 
 Shaver acknowledged that the military computers were secure workstations from which analysts were authorized to view material from the State Department and the Defense Department and that more than one analyst was assigned to the computers. 
 
 He said that more than 100,000 diplomatic cables couldn't be connected to Manning, and that 10,000 that were found on his computer didn't match the cables published by WikiLeaks. 
 
 Investigator Mark Johnson, who examined Manning's personal MacBook Pro, said it was set to boot up without a password — meaning, he acknowledged, he can't say for certain that Manning was responsible for the chats, the IP addresses or Assange's details found on his computer. 
 
 "I cannot put somebody at the keyboard, no," Johnson said. 
 
 Manning, wearing the standard green Army camouflage uniform also worn by prosecutors and his military attorneys, sat quietly through the testimony. He has appeared at ease through the first four days of the hearing, talking with his attorneys, taking notes and occasionally smiling. 
 
 The Army convened the Article 32 hearing to determine whether the case against Manning should proceed to a court-martial. 
 
 Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, the investigating officer presiding over the hearing, will weigh testimony and arguments before making a recommendation to Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, the commander of the Military District of Washington. 
 
 Aiding the enemy is a capital offense, but Army prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty. If convicted, Manning could be sentenced to life in prison. 
 
 Twice on Monday, Almanza cleared the courtroom to hear testimony from Shaver on classified information. 
 
 Among those excluded were an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing WikiLeaks and Assange. 
 
 Baher Azmy, legal director for the New York-based nonprofit, said the hearing has been "more restrictive than those at Guantanamo." 
 
 "We have a compelling interest in monitoring the hearing, given both that Manning stands accused of providing evidence of war crimes to our clients, and that the proceedings are clearly closely linked to a grand jury in Virginia reported to be issuing subpoenas for information on our clients," Azmy said in a statement. 
 
 Manning supporters say footage of an Apache helicopter attack that he is alleged to have released appears to show evidence of a war crime.
– Bradley Manning’s pretrial hearing was closed to the public today, with media and spectators forced out of the courtroom so that an Army special agent who had examined Manning’s computers could testify about classified information. The move drew criticism from WikiLeaks supporters, particularly the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in other cases, the Baltimore Sun reports; the nonprofit’s legal director said the hearing has been "more restrictive than those at Guantanamo." The defense objected to the closure, according to Politico, but the presiding officer said that "protecting classified information is an overriding interest that outweighs the value of an open proceeding." It’s not the first time testimony has gone unheard; yesterday two witnesses took the fifth, according to Reuters, including Sgt. First Class Paul Adkins, who ran security at the facility where Manning worked. The defense has argued that Adkins should have recognized Manning’s disturbed mental state and revoked his clearance.