At
last, the first good thing he does just before he leaves
President
Obama has commuted the majority of the remaining prison sentence of
Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in
military prison in 2013 for leaking hundreds of thousands of
documents to Wikileaks. Manning will be released on May 17 from Fort
Leavenworth Military Prison, where she would otherwise have been
detained until 2045.
While
serving as an army intelligence analyst, Manning sent hundreds of
thousands of classified diplomatic and military documents to
Wikileaks, revealing, among other things, a dramatically higher
civilian death count in Iraq and Afghanistan than the Pentagon
revealed publicly, and the chilling video of a U.S. Apache helicopter
gunning down journalists in central Baghdad.
White House
spokesperson Josh Earnest spoke about the possibility of clemency on
Friday, saying Manning was “exposed to due process, was found
guilty,” and that she “acknowledged wrongdoing.” He
also appeared to close the door on last-minute clemency for other
whistleblowers, saying NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed
material that is “far more serious and far more dangerous.”
Even with
her sentence commuted, Manning will have spent more time in detention
than anyone convicted of leaking to news organizations: Just over
seven years. After being arrested in 2010, she endured 11 months of
solitary confinement, and was repeatedly denied medical care for her
gender dysphoria.
In
September, Manning staged a five-day hunger strike, and ended it only
after the Army allowed her to consult a surgeon to receive
gender-affirming surgery. Later that month, the Army punished Manning
in retaliation for a suicide attempt, and she spent a week in
solitary confinement.
Human rights
activists and lawyers for Manning celebrated the decision.
“I’m
relieved and thankful that the president is doing the right thing and
commuting Chelsea Manning’s sentence,” said Chase Strangio,
an attorney with the ACLU representing Manning, in a statement.
“Since she was first taken into custody, Chelsea has been
subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement — including for
attempting suicide — and has been denied access to medically
necessary health care. This move could quite literally save Chelsea’s
life, and we are all better off knowing that Chelsea Manning will
walk out of prison a free woman, dedicated to making the world a
better place and fighting for justice for so many.”
The move was
quickly hailed by human rights groups. “Instead of punishing the
messenger, the U.S. government can send a strong signal to the world
that it is serious about investigating the human rights violations
exposed by the leaks and bringing all those suspected of criminal
responsible to justice in fair trials,” said Erika
Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International.
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