Wikileaks ‘spy’ Manning out of prison after 7 years
Print Edition
CHELSEA Manning walked out of a US military prison, seven years after being arrested for passing secrets to WikiLeaks in the largest breach of classified information in US history.
Manning, 29, was released from the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, yesterday.
The former military intelligence analyst, once known as Private First Class Bradley Manning, is likely to become a transgender advocate following her release, said Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who has represented her.
Manning was convicted of providing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a target of criminal investigations in Sweden and the United States, has promised to accept extradition if Manning was freed. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said Assange’s arrest is a priority.
Manning said in 2014 that she chose to disclose the classified information to expose truths about the civil war in Iraq “out of a love for my country.”
Before he left office, President Barack Obama commuted the final 28 years of Manning’s 35-year sentence. The decision angered national security experts who say Manning put US lives at risk, but it won praise from transgender advocates who have embraced her transition to a female gender identity.
Manning announced her gender transition while the US Army kept her in the men’s prison. Her lawyer said she twice tried to commit suicide and faced long stretches of solitary confinement as well as denial of healthcare.
Last year, the US Defense Department lifted a long-standing ban against transgender men and women serving openly in the military.
Although transgender people still complain of widespread discrimination in education, employment and medical care, awareness of the issue has exploded since Manning went to jail. Transgender celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox have become part of the mainstream.
“As I rebuild my life, I remind myself not to relive the past,” Manning said. “The past will always affect me, and I will keep that in mind while remembering that how it played out is only my starting point not my final destination.”
WikiLeaks began revealing secrets in 2007 and then burst onto the wider public consciousness three years later with a series of releases, including material gathered by Manning while she was an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.
Among the material from her was a 2007 gunsight video of a US Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Iraq, killing a dozen people.
More recently, WikiLeaks published Democratic National Committee e-mails prior to the US presidential election. US intelligence agencies believe the e-mail accounts were hacked by Russian intelligence to influence the election.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
