Chelsea Manning: majority of prison sentence commuted by Obama
The whistleblower, who has been imprisoned for six years for leaking state secrets, is now set to go free on 17 May
Chelsea Manning, the US army soldier who became one of the most prominent whistleblowers in modern times when she exposed the nature of modern warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who then went on to pay the price with a 35-year military prison sentence, is to be freed in May as a gift of outgoing president Barack Obama.
In the most audacious ? and contentious ? commutation decision to come from Obama yet, the sitting president used his constitutional power just three days before he leaves the White House to give Manning her freedom. She will walk from the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 17 May, almost seven years to the day since she was arrested in a base outside Baghdad for offenses relating to the leaking of a vast trove of US state secrets.
When will the US government stop persecuting whistleblowers?
Nancy Hollander, Manning?s lawyer, spoke to the Guardian before she had even had the chance to pass on to the soldier the news of her release. ?Oh my God!? was Hollander?s instant response to the news which she had just heard from the White House counsel. ?I cannot believe it ? in 120 days she will be free and it will all be over. It?s incredible.?
Manning, who is a columnist for the Guardian, was the face of one of the harsher aspects of the Obama administration, as an official leaker who suffered under his approach a longer custodial than any other whistleblower of modern times. She was one of several leakers who were prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act ? with more individuals falling foul to that anti-spying law than under all previous US presidents combined.
The soldier has experienced some very hard times while in military prison. In 2010 she was transferred from Iraq and Kuwait to the military brig at Quantico, Virginia, where she was put through prolonged solitary confinement.
She has also endured recent challenges with her morale and mental health, having attempted suicide on at least one occasion last year. The US military responded to that attempt by punishing her with further solitary confinement.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/17/chelsea-manning-sentence-commuted-barack-obama
The whistleblower, who has been imprisoned for six years for leaking state secrets, is now set to go free on 17 May
Chelsea Manning, the US army soldier who became one of the most prominent whistleblowers in modern times when she exposed the nature of modern warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who then went on to pay the price with a 35-year military prison sentence, is to be freed in May as a gift of outgoing president Barack Obama.
In the most audacious ? and contentious ? commutation decision to come from Obama yet, the sitting president used his constitutional power just three days before he leaves the White House to give Manning her freedom. She will walk from the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 17 May, almost seven years to the day since she was arrested in a base outside Baghdad for offenses relating to the leaking of a vast trove of US state secrets.
When will the US government stop persecuting whistleblowers?
Nancy Hollander, Manning?s lawyer, spoke to the Guardian before she had even had the chance to pass on to the soldier the news of her release. ?Oh my God!? was Hollander?s instant response to the news which she had just heard from the White House counsel. ?I cannot believe it ? in 120 days she will be free and it will all be over. It?s incredible.?
Manning, who is a columnist for the Guardian, was the face of one of the harsher aspects of the Obama administration, as an official leaker who suffered under his approach a longer custodial than any other whistleblower of modern times. She was one of several leakers who were prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act ? with more individuals falling foul to that anti-spying law than under all previous US presidents combined.
The soldier has experienced some very hard times while in military prison. In 2010 she was transferred from Iraq and Kuwait to the military brig at Quantico, Virginia, where she was put through prolonged solitary confinement.
She has also endured recent challenges with her morale and mental health, having attempted suicide on at least one occasion last year. The US military responded to that attempt by punishing her with further solitary confinement.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/17/chelsea-manning-sentence-commuted-barack-obama
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