A military court will examine the case to prove that Al-Qaedadirectly benefitted from access to the classified diplomatic cablesleaked by the 25-year-old soldier. Private Manning was arrested inMay 2010 and accused of leaking the documents to whistleblowingwebsite WikiLeaks.
The new possible witness in the case was identified as ‘JohnDoe,’ and referred to as "the operator who actually collectedthe evidence in Abbottabad and handed it to an FBI agent inAfghanistan,” the Guardian reported.
‘John Doe’ will also be permitted to testify away from themilitary court where the case is being heard, upon theprosecution’s request.
British media has speculated that due to the secrecy surroundingthe testimony, the military officer may be one of those who tookpart in the 2011 killing of Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden.
Col. Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the case,has yet to rule on whether any evidence associated with bin Ladenshould be allowed in the trial, which is scheduled to begin inJune.
On Tuesday, an army court ruled that Manning would remain in amilitary prison while awaiting trial, following the refusal of aseparate request to dismiss the charges against the allegedwhistleblower.
It was also revealed that Manning wrote a personal statementfrom 24 to 35 pages in length, according to different sources. Inthe document, Manning supposedly explained why he leaked theclassified documents to WikiLeaks.
The US government has attempted to block Manning from readingthe statement, saying that large portions of it are irrelevant tothe court proceedings, the Telegraph reported.
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