Concern regarding the long detainment and mental health of Army PFC Bradley Manning at Quantico brig was a significant factor in the Defense Department’s decision to move him to Joint Regional Correctional Facility Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas, according to senior Army and Defense officials.

Defense Department’s General Council Jeh Johnson  and Under Secretary of the Army Joseph Westphal told reporters at a Pentagon press conference late Tuesday that Manning, who spent the past eight months at the Quantico Marine facility, needed to be moved because Quantico was not designed to hold pre-trial detainees for longer than two months.