All but four months of the prison sentence were commuted
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The New York Times reports that President Obama commuted all but four months of Chelsea Manning’s prison sentence drawing both praise and criticism.
Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst was convicted of leaking classified information exposing military and diplomatic activities around the world in 2010.
She accepted responsibility for leaking the material to WikiLeaks and claimed she was doing so to raise public awareness about the effects of war on civilians. Manning also claimed she was suffering from gender dysphoria when she leaked the files while deployed in Iraq.
Prior to the commute, Manning was serving a 35 year sentence of which she had completed 7. She will be released May of this year as opposed to 2045.
The move has been widely criticized by Republicans with speaker Paul D. Ryan calling it outrageous. In a statement, Ryan said “President Obama now leaves in place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes.”
House and Senate armed services committees, Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas and Senator John McCain of Arizona who call Manning’s leak as “espionage” said they had put American troops and the country at risk.
Read more here
Related articles:
Chelsea Manning Ends Hunger Strike Demanding Gender Surgery
Pentagon to Pay for Soldiers’ Sex Change
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I have nothing against transgender people but you cant blame leaking classified information because you were confused about your sex. I do agree that she is clearly in need of a some therapy. Didn’t she try to commit suicide while she was incarcerated? They might as well pardon Edward Snowden too
Yea the pentagon did grant her funding to pay for her sex change. Wonder what happens now that she is getting out
If all else fails she can always come to Thailand and get her surgery. Maybe she’ll even find herself a man down here like so many others do and luckily for her she wont need to go to the trouble of hiring a western lawyer in Thailand to obtain a US fiancee visa as she’s already a US citizen. Haha