CHELSEA MANNING (WIKI)
| Chelsea Manning | |
|---|---|
Manning in April 2012
| |
| Born | Bradley Edward Manning December 17, 1987 Crescent, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Soldier |
| Known for | Classified document disclosures to Wikileaks |
| Criminal charge | Violating the Espionage Act, stealing government property, violation of theComputer Fraud and Abuse Act, multiple counts of disobeying orders[1] |
| Criminal penalty | 35 years in prison, reduction in rank to private (private E-1 or PVT), forfeiture of all pay and allowances,dishonorable discharge[2] |
| Parent(s) |
|
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Service/branch |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 2007–present (on active duty appellate leave) |
| Rank | Private (E-1)[3] |
| Unit | 2nd Brigade Combat Team,10th Mountain Division(former) |
| Awards |  National Defense Service Medal Global War on Terrorism Service Medal Army Service Ribbon |
| Signature | |
 | |
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning[4] (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly three-quarters of a million classified or unclassified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents.[5] Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years' imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in the eighth year, and to bedishonorably discharged from the Army.[2] Manning is a trans woman who, in a statement the day after sentencing, said she had felt female since childhood, wanted to be known as Chelsea,[6] and desired to begin hormone replacement therapy.[7] From early life and through much of her Army life, Manning was known as Bradley; she was diagnosed withgender identity disorder while in the Army.[8]
Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010, she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance. Lamo informed Army Counterintelligence, and Manning was arrested in May that same year. The material included videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables;[9] and 482,832 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War Logs[10] and Afghan War Diary.[11] Much of the material was published by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010.[12]
Manning was ultimately charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy, which was the most serious charge and could have resulted in a death sentence.[13] She was held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico in Virginia, from July 2010 to April 2011 under Prevention of Injury status—which entailed de facto solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused domestic and international concern—before being transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she could interact with other detainees.[14] She pleaded guilty in February 2013 to 10 of the charges.[15] The trial on the remaining charges began on June 3, 2013, and on July 30 she was convicted of 17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others, but was acquitted of aiding the enemy.[1] She is serving a 35-year sentence at the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.[16]
Reaction to Manning's disclosures, arrest, and sentence was mixed. Denver Nicks, one of her biographers, writes that the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, and that Manning was viewed as both a 21st-century Tiananmen Square Tank Man and an embitteredtraitor.[17] Reporters Without Borders condemned the length of the sentence, saying that it demonstrated how vulnerablewhistleblowers are.[18]
SONG FOR CHELSEA MANNING (David Rovics)
Private Manning was an analyst if what they say is true
She was paid to read reports and find the patterns sifting through
As she read the data the patterns did emerge
Patterns that were clear both before and since the Surge
Patterns of abuse of the most horrific kind
Gunning down civilians out of view and out of mind
Gunning down the opposition in the middle of the night
Sending off the scholars to be tortured out of sight
Sometimes you need desperate measures when you live in desperate times
And Private Manning saw she was looking at war crimes
She wondered what to do to allow the dead to speak
She finally decided to contact Wikileaks
Now it's all out on the table and everybody knows
The emperor is naked, he's not wearing any clothes
Now Adrian Lamo has to live within his skin
He stabbed Chelsea in the back, called the cops and turned her in
But not before the soldier took half a million files
If you printed all the pages they'd stretch on for miles
Evidence against the state right from the horse's mouth
Machinations in the west, bombings in the south
A treasure trove of details for all the globe to see
How much they need to lie and kill for democracy
How many drone strikes have hit villages leaving everyone to die
They blamed on someone else -- the official line, "Not I"
How many coups have been plotted by ambassadors who say
That free and fair elections be the order of the day
Now the Genie's out of the bottle and they're trying to stuff it back
And stop it from illuminating everything we lack
Such as the rule of law or playing by the book
Look you can read it, it's right here, the ship of state is run by crooks
And they vilify the messengers, call them every name
For daring to blow the whistle on the nature of their game
The game of taking lives and endangering the rest
In order for the wealthy few to do what they do best
Dominate the world for the corporate elite
But now their cover's blown from their head down to their feet
And now the stars and stripes is looking much more like a rag
The lid is off the box, the cat's out of the bag
SONG FOR CHELSEA MANNING (David Rovics)
Private Manning was an analyst if what they say is true
She was paid to read reports and find the patterns sifting through
As she read the data the patterns did emerge
Patterns that were clear both before and since the Surge
Patterns of abuse of the most horrific kind
Gunning down civilians out of view and out of mind
Gunning down the opposition in the middle of the night
Sending off the scholars to be tortured out of sight
Sometimes you need desperate measures when you live in desperate times
And Private Manning saw she was looking at war crimes
She wondered what to do to allow the dead to speak
She finally decided to contact Wikileaks
Now it's all out on the table and everybody knows
The emperor is naked, he's not wearing any clothes
Now Adrian Lamo has to live within his skin
He stabbed Chelsea in the back, called the cops and turned her in
But not before the soldier took half a million files
If you printed all the pages they'd stretch on for miles
Evidence against the state right from the horse's mouth
Machinations in the west, bombings in the south
A treasure trove of details for all the globe to see
How much they need to lie and kill for democracy
How many drone strikes have hit villages leaving everyone to die
They blamed on someone else -- the official line, "Not I"
How many coups have been plotted by ambassadors who say
That free and fair elections be the order of the day
Now the Genie's out of the bottle and they're trying to stuff it back
And stop it from illuminating everything we lack
Such as the rule of law or playing by the book
Look you can read it, it's right here, the ship of state is run by crooks
And they vilify the messengers, call them every name
For daring to blow the whistle on the nature of their game
The game of taking lives and endangering the rest
In order for the wealthy few to do what they do best
Dominate the world for the corporate elite
But now their cover's blown from their head down to their feet
And now the stars and stripes is looking much more like a rag
The lid is off the box, the cat's out of the bag
CHELSEA MANNING (AMNESTY)
At Amnesty, we’re calling on US authorities to free Chelsea immediately.
She is spending decades in prison because she shared information that she thought could shed a light on potential abuses and prompt meaningful public debate on the conflict. Prevented from using this in her defence at her tribunal and overcharged as a warning to others, Chelsea has been punished over the odds for actions.
Meanwhile, the US government has not investigated the abuses she exposed – while Chelsea has paid a high price for putting that information in the public realm.
BIOGRAPHY
THE WAR YOU DON'T SEE (John Pilger)
SUPPORT NETWORK
THE TORTURE OF BRADLEY MANNING
"To Keep You Silent" (RYAN HARVEY)
They'll keep you in solitary confinement
For who knows for how long
It's the only way to keep you silent
But your silence is strong
They who are so skilled at torture
At terrorizing faith
Who striped your body naked
To degrade and humiliate
They who are so skilled at killing
Under the banner of peace
Who killed two million in Korea
And four million Vietnamese
They'll keep you in solitary confinement
For who knows for how long
It's the only way to keep you silent
But your silence is strong
They who rode through the Powder River
With the machine gun and the flame
Who shot Crazy Horse in prison
And stormed the Philippines
They who flew the air of the Condor
Where the Madres dared to talk
Who killed thousands in Santiago
You heard it's echoes in Iraq
They'll keep you in solitary confinement
For who knows for how long
It's the only way to keep you silent
But your silence is strong
They who would have you die in prison
And suffer this life through
They act not without reason,
They know there's other just like you
Who would push back against the killing
For some future greater good
Who would give of themselves, willing
As so many of us should.
Immediately upon his arrest on May 26, 2010, Manning was transferred to an 8’ x 8’ x 8’ wire mesh cage in Kuwait with just a toilet and a shelf to keep him company. He had confessed online to a supposed confidant earlier in the week that he had submitted compromised intelligence to WikiLeaks, only for that correspondence to be handed to the FBI.
“Hypothetical question: If you had free reign over classified networks for long periods of time ... say, eight to nine ... and you saw incredible things, awful things ... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC ... what would you do?” Manning is alleged to have asked in an AOL chat with Adrian Lamo, a hacker whom the private had never met.
“I was the source of the 12 July 07 video from the Apache Weapons Team which killed the two journalists and injured two kids.”
Within hours, the soldier was shackled and succumbing to what he described in court as a complete and total breakdown.
“I just thought I was going to die in that cage. And that’s how I saw it – an animal cage,” he told the judge as he testified for the first time.
The remainder of this blog post was contributed by Scott F, (Edinburgh, Scotland)
SONG FOR CHELSEA MANNING
RYAN HARVEY-TO KEEP YOU SILENT
THE RADICALISATION OF BRADLEY MANNING
LEAKED RAW VIDEO FOOTAGE
REPORTS FROM INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
SIXTH CHRISTMAS IN PRISON
FREE CHELSEA MANNING
