Innocent Warrior
17th May 2017, 14:46
Chelsea Manning Walks Free After Serving 7 Years Of A 35-Year Sentence (May 17, 2017)
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/05/17/ap_106674183314_wide-b3a6d37f29bc04965af02fff1510466ac9d44dc3-s800-c85.jpg
Pvt. Chelsea Manning has left a military prison in Kansas and is returning to civilian life Wednesday, seven years after she was taken into custody for what is seen as the largest leak of classified data in U.S. history.
"After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived," Manning said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past. I'm figuring things out right now — which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me."
Manning tweeted a photo of her sneaker-clad feet, taking her "first steps of freedom" Wednesday morning.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DACH3tDUIAAYfAM.jpg
The 35-year prison sentence Manning received as punishment for that crime was described as unprecedented when it was handed down. Before he left office, President Obama shortened the sentence to seven years.
In court, Manning pleaded guilty to leaking secret information — but she was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, in July of 2013.
On the morning of Manning's release, a fundraising campaign for her post-release expenses met its goal of raising $150,000. The fund was set up by her lawyer, Chase Strangio of the ACLU. Separately, musician Michael Stipe has led the release of a benefit album whose proceeds will go to the former soldier.
See source (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/17/528731790/after-serving-7-years-of-a-35-year-sentence-chelsea-manning-to-walk-free) for more (including links).
* * *
Background -
Assange Statement on the First Day of Manning Trial (June 3, 2013)
As I type these lines, on June 3, 2013, Private First Class Bradley Edward Manning is being tried in a sequestered room at Fort Meade, Maryland, for the alleged crime of telling the truth. The court martial of the most prominent political prisoner in modern US history has now, finally, begun.
It has been three years. Bradley Manning, then 22 years old, was arrested in Baghdad on May 26, 2010. He was shipped to Kuwait, placed into a cage, and kept in the sweltering heat of Camp Arifjan.
"For me, I stopped keeping track," he told the court last November. "I didn’t know whether night was day or day was night. And my world became very, very small. It became these cages... I remember thinking I’m going to die."
After protests from his lawyers, Bradley Manning was then transferred to a brig at a US Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA, where - infamously - he was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of his captors - a formal finding by the UN. Isolated in a tiny cell for twenty-three out of twenty-four hours a day, he was deprived of his glasses, sleep, blankets and clothes, and prevented from exercising. All of this - it has been determined by a military judge - "punished" him before he had even stood trial.
"Brad’s treatment at Quantico will forever be etched, I believe, in our nation’s history, as a disgraceful moment in time" said his lawyer, David Coombs. "Not only was it stupid and counterproductive, it was criminal."
The United States was, in theory, a nation of laws. But it is no longer a nation of laws for Bradley Manning.
When the abuse of Bradley Manning became a scandal reaching all the way to the President of the United States and Hillary Clinton’s spokesman resigned to register his dissent over Mr. Manning’s treatment, an attempt was made to make the problem less visible. Bradley Manning was transferred to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
He has waited in prison for three years for a trial - 986 days longer than the legal maximum - because for three years the prosecution has dragged its feet and obstructed the court, denied the defense access to evidence and abused official secrecy. This is simply illegal - all defendants are constitutionally entitled to a speedy trial - but the transgression has been acknowledged and then overlooked.
Against all of this, it would be tempting to look on the eventual commencement of his trial as a mercy. But that is hard to do.
We no longer need to comprehend the "Kafkaesque" through the lens of fiction or allegory. It has left the pages and lives among us, stalking our best and brightest. It is fair to call what is happening to Bradley Manning a "show trial". Those invested in what is called the "US military justice system" feel obliged to defend what is going on, but the rest of us are free to describe this travesty for what it is. No serious commentator has any confidence in a benign outcome. The pretrial hearings have comprehensively eliminated any meaningful uncertainty, inflicting pre-emptive bans on every defense argument that had any chance of success.
Bradley Manning may not give evidence as to his stated intent (exposing war crimes and their context), nor may he present any witness or document that shows that no harm resulted from his actions. Imagine you were put on trial for murder. In Bradley Manning’s court, you would be banned from showing that it was a matter of self-defence, because any argument or evidence as to intent is banned. You would not be able to show that the ’victim’ is, in fact, still alive, because that would be evidence as to the lack of harm.
But of course. Did you forget whose show it is?
See source (https://wikileaks.org/Assange-Statement-on-the-First-Day.html) to read more.
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/05/17/ap_106674183314_wide-b3a6d37f29bc04965af02fff1510466ac9d44dc3-s800-c85.jpg
Pvt. Chelsea Manning has left a military prison in Kansas and is returning to civilian life Wednesday, seven years after she was taken into custody for what is seen as the largest leak of classified data in U.S. history.
"After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived," Manning said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past. I'm figuring things out right now — which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me."
Manning tweeted a photo of her sneaker-clad feet, taking her "first steps of freedom" Wednesday morning.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DACH3tDUIAAYfAM.jpg
The 35-year prison sentence Manning received as punishment for that crime was described as unprecedented when it was handed down. Before he left office, President Obama shortened the sentence to seven years.
In court, Manning pleaded guilty to leaking secret information — but she was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, in July of 2013.
On the morning of Manning's release, a fundraising campaign for her post-release expenses met its goal of raising $150,000. The fund was set up by her lawyer, Chase Strangio of the ACLU. Separately, musician Michael Stipe has led the release of a benefit album whose proceeds will go to the former soldier.
See source (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/17/528731790/after-serving-7-years-of-a-35-year-sentence-chelsea-manning-to-walk-free) for more (including links).
* * *
Background -
Assange Statement on the First Day of Manning Trial (June 3, 2013)
As I type these lines, on June 3, 2013, Private First Class Bradley Edward Manning is being tried in a sequestered room at Fort Meade, Maryland, for the alleged crime of telling the truth. The court martial of the most prominent political prisoner in modern US history has now, finally, begun.
It has been three years. Bradley Manning, then 22 years old, was arrested in Baghdad on May 26, 2010. He was shipped to Kuwait, placed into a cage, and kept in the sweltering heat of Camp Arifjan.
"For me, I stopped keeping track," he told the court last November. "I didn’t know whether night was day or day was night. And my world became very, very small. It became these cages... I remember thinking I’m going to die."
After protests from his lawyers, Bradley Manning was then transferred to a brig at a US Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA, where - infamously - he was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of his captors - a formal finding by the UN. Isolated in a tiny cell for twenty-three out of twenty-four hours a day, he was deprived of his glasses, sleep, blankets and clothes, and prevented from exercising. All of this - it has been determined by a military judge - "punished" him before he had even stood trial.
"Brad’s treatment at Quantico will forever be etched, I believe, in our nation’s history, as a disgraceful moment in time" said his lawyer, David Coombs. "Not only was it stupid and counterproductive, it was criminal."
The United States was, in theory, a nation of laws. But it is no longer a nation of laws for Bradley Manning.
When the abuse of Bradley Manning became a scandal reaching all the way to the President of the United States and Hillary Clinton’s spokesman resigned to register his dissent over Mr. Manning’s treatment, an attempt was made to make the problem less visible. Bradley Manning was transferred to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
He has waited in prison for three years for a trial - 986 days longer than the legal maximum - because for three years the prosecution has dragged its feet and obstructed the court, denied the defense access to evidence and abused official secrecy. This is simply illegal - all defendants are constitutionally entitled to a speedy trial - but the transgression has been acknowledged and then overlooked.
Against all of this, it would be tempting to look on the eventual commencement of his trial as a mercy. But that is hard to do.
We no longer need to comprehend the "Kafkaesque" through the lens of fiction or allegory. It has left the pages and lives among us, stalking our best and brightest. It is fair to call what is happening to Bradley Manning a "show trial". Those invested in what is called the "US military justice system" feel obliged to defend what is going on, but the rest of us are free to describe this travesty for what it is. No serious commentator has any confidence in a benign outcome. The pretrial hearings have comprehensively eliminated any meaningful uncertainty, inflicting pre-emptive bans on every defense argument that had any chance of success.
Bradley Manning may not give evidence as to his stated intent (exposing war crimes and their context), nor may he present any witness or document that shows that no harm resulted from his actions. Imagine you were put on trial for murder. In Bradley Manning’s court, you would be banned from showing that it was a matter of self-defence, because any argument or evidence as to intent is banned. You would not be able to show that the ’victim’ is, in fact, still alive, because that would be evidence as to the lack of harm.
But of course. Did you forget whose show it is?
See source (https://wikileaks.org/Assange-Statement-on-the-First-Day.html) to read more.