President Obama commutes Manning's sentence...

[Toecutter1978]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/u ... tence.html

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted the administration, and made WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous.

The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to commit suicide last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the male military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.

Now, under the terms of Mr. Obama’s commutation announced by the White House on Tuesday, Ms. Manning is set to be freed on May 17 of this year, rather than in 2045.

The commutation also relieved the Department of Defense of the difficult responsibility of her incarceration as she pushes for treatment for her gender dysphoria — including sex reassignment surgery — that the military has no experience providing.

In recent days, the White House had signaled that Mr. Obama was seriously considering granting Ms. Manning’s commutation application, in contrast to a pardon application submitted on behalf of the other large-scale leaker of the era, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of top secret surveillance files and is living as a fugitive in Russia.

Asked about the two clemency applications on Friday, the White House spokesman, Joshua Earnest, discussed the “pretty stark difference” between Ms. Manning’s case for mercy with Mr. Snowden’s. While their offenses were similar, he said, there were “some important differences.”

“Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.”

He also noted that while the documents Ms. Manning provided to WikiLeaks were “damaging to national security,” the ones Mr. Snowden disclosed were “far more serious and far more dangerous.” (None of the documents Ms. Manning disclosed were classified above the merely “secret” level.)

Politics

Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

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Chelsea Manning’s 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.

UNITED STATES ARMY

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

JANUARY 17, 2017

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted the administration, and made WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous.

The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to commit suicide last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the male military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.

Now, under the terms of Mr. Obama’s commutation announced by the White House on Tuesday, Ms. Manning is set to be freed on May 17 of this year, rather than in 2045.

The commutation also relieved the Department of Defense of the difficult responsibility of her incarceration as she pushes for treatment for her gender dysphoria — including sex reassignment surgery — that the military has no experience providing.

In recent days, the White House had signaled that Mr. Obama was seriously considering granting Ms. Manning’s commutation application, in contrast to a pardon application submitted on behalf of the other large-scale leaker of the era, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of top secret surveillance files and is living as a fugitive in Russia.

Asked about the two clemency applications on Friday, the White House spokesman, Joshua Earnest, discussed the “pretty stark difference” between Ms. Manning’s case for mercy with Mr. Snowden’s. While their offenses were similar, he said, there were “some important differences.”

“Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.”

He also noted that while the documents Ms. Manning provided to WikiLeaks were “damaging to national security,” the ones Mr. Snowden disclosed were “far more serious and far more dangerous.” (None of the documents Ms. Manning disclosed were classified above the merely “secret” level.)

Ms. Manning was still known as Bradley Manning when she deployed with her unit to Iraq in late 2009. There, she worked as a low-level intelligence analyst helping her unit assess insurgent activity in the area it was patrolling, a role that gave her access to a classified computer network.

She copied hundreds of thousands of military incident logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which, among other things, exposed abuses of detainees by Iraqi military officers working with American forces and showed that civilian deaths in the Iraq war were likely much higher than official estimates.

The files she copied also included about 250,000 diplomatic cables from American embassies around the world showing sensitive deals and conversations, dossiers detailing intelligence assessments of Guantánamo detainees held without trial, and a video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad in two Reuters journalists were killed, among others.

She decided to make all these files public, as she wrote at the time, in the hope that they would incite “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.” WikiLeaks’ disclosed them — working with traditional news organizations including The New York Times — bringing notoriety to the group and its founder, Julian Assange.

The disclosures set off a frantic scramble as Obama administration officials sought to minimize any potential harm, including getting to safety some foreigners in dangerous countries who were identified as having helped American troops or diplomats. Prosecutors, however, presented no evidence that anyone was killed because of the leaks.

At her court-martial, Ms. Manning confessed in detail to her actions and apologized, saying she did not intend to put anyone at risk and noting that she was “dealing with a lot of issues” at the time she made her decision.

Testimony at the trial showed that she had been in a mental and emotional crisis as she came to grips, amid the stress of a war zone, with the fact that she was not merely gay but had gender dysphoria. She had been behaving erratically, including angry outbursts and lapsing into catatonia midsentence. At one point she had emailed a photograph of herself in a woman’s wig to her supervisor.

Prosecutors said that by making secret material available for publication on the internet, anyone — including Al Qaeda — could read it. And they accused Ms. Manning of treason, charging her with multiple counts of the Espionage Act as well as with “aiding the enemy,” a potential capital offense, although they said they would not seek her execution.

More on the link. I am JUST FUCKING SICK. This is another reason why Trump won. He has shown one more time how he feels about the military. Manning's supporters turned the case into a personality/gender case instead of what he/she actually did. Turn the military into a social experiment that had gone wrong.

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[Nolan]

Can't wait until Friday

[son of liberty]

Im for transparency in government, surly some opperational details must be kept classified, but the bulk of this privilage is largely abused in ways that keep hidden the many ways our government disregards the constitution.

As for this particular case, I dont know enough to care. I just always error on the side of caution, the government is a corupt tool of tyrants, set to abuse and steal from all for the love of money.

[Rem700]

Wonder if this had anything to do with the fact that Julian Assange said he would face extradition and trial in the US if Obama would commute manning.

[Eireguy]

^+1

[Toecutter1978]

Wonder if this had anything to do with the fact that Julian Assange said he would face extradition and trial in the US if Obama would commute manning.

Watch once Manning is out and walking around, Assange will stop taking calls like he's dodging a bill collector. Then when they say well we will just put the reverse pole poker back in, he's already siting in a lounge chair in a non extradite country. Maybe it's all a fishing game, use a smaller fish as bait to lure a larger fish. However it just stinks.

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[Rem700]

From what i have seen Assange has always stuck to his word and from the buzz on twitter he will follow through with this now that Manning's sentence was commuted. But we will see. I dont know enough about Manning's case to comment on whether or not he deserved the sentence he was given nor the commuting of his sentence.

If nothing else Assange is probably tired of being imprisoned in the Embassy and is ready for a change of view.

[ssracer]

Assange says his full demands were not met, will not agree to extradition

http://www.chicksontheright.com/julian- ... tradition/

[Rem700]

Well that answers that.

[WLJ]

[ssracer]

Maybe if Snowden got a sex change he'd be a hero too?

[Toddstang]

I bet at midnight tonight, our streets will have more ex-cons running loose than ever before.

[ssracer]

I'll be packing heavy tomorrow

[ssracer]

I bet at midnight tonight, our streets will have more ex-cons running loose than ever before.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01 ... ences.html

[Rem700]

During his presidency Obama freed 568 inmates serving life sentences............let that sink in.

[Rem700]

Would be interested to see the stats on how many of these people commit crimes again........and how many people they hurt or kill because they were freed.

[WLJ]

Obama Pardons Unrepentant Terrorist Oscar López Rivera
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christiner ... a-n2273267

[Rem700]

Obama Pardons Unrepentant Terrorist Oscar López Rivera
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christiner ... a-n2273267

Seems par for the course. How many did he release from Gitmo that went right back to doin what they do? Now we let one out right in our own back yard. Again he should be held responsible if this man does anything to harm an american citizen.

[ssracer]

Obama commutes life sentence of four Cartel members

http://bit.ly/2iP1R89

[WLJ]

If there was an r next to his name the media would be screaming for his head 24/7.

[Toecutter1978]

So wearing my Secretary of War shirt tomorrow to school.

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[ssracer]

So wearing my Secretary of War shirt tomorrow to school.

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winning

[PDM]

Would be interested to see the stats on how many of these people commit crimes again........and how many people they hurt or kill because they were freed.

I'd say roughly 568

[WLJ]

Obama: Before I Go, Allow Me To Release Four More Detainees From Gitmo
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/ ... o-n2274143

[PDM]

If he want's to be their savior, he needs to serve their sentence