Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

>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.

>Ms. Manning confessed and pleaded guilty to a lesser version of those charges without any deal to cap her sentence. But prosecutors pressed forward with a trial and won convictions on the more serious versions of those charges; a military judge acquitted her of “aiding the enemy.”
...

>In her commutation application, Ms. Manning said she had not imagined that she would be sentenced to the “extreme” term of 35 years, a term for which there was “no historical precedent.” (There have only been a handful of leak cases, and most sentence are in the range of one to three years.)

>“I take full and complete responsibility for my decision to disclose these materials to the public,” she wrote. “I have never made any excuses for what I did. I pleaded guilty without the protection of a plea agreement because I believed the military justice system would understand my motivation for the disclosure and sentence me fairly. I was wrong.”

>After her sentencing, Ms. Manning announced that she was transgender and changed her name to Chelsea.

>The military, under pressure from a lawsuit filed on her behalf by Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, has permitted her to partly transition to life as a woman, including giving her cross-sex hormones and letting her wear female undergarments and light cosmetics.

>But it has not let her grow her hair longer than male military standards, citing security risks, and Ms. Manning said she had yet to be permitted to see a surgeon about the possibility of sex reassignment surgery.

>Until recently the military discharged transgender soldiers. In June, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter changed that policy and said it would instead provide treatment for them, eventually including such surgery if doctors said it was necessary.

>But President-elect Donald J. Trump mocked that change as excessively “politically correct,” raising the possibility that he will rescind it.

>Even if he does, Ms. Manning will soon no longer be subject to the military’s control.

Other sources:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/17/obama-will-let-chelsea-manning-out-of-prison-29-years-early/

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/chelsea-manning-sentence-commuted/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/17/obama_commutes_wikileaks_whistleblower_chelsea_manning_s_sentence.html

http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/17/14239900/chelsea-manning-pardon-obama-wikileaks

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/president-obama-commutes-chelsea-manning-s-sentence-n708046

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-17/obama-commutes-sentences-of-chelsea-manning-and-former-general

http://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-01-13/chelsea-manning-pardon-would-get-me-to-surrender-julian-assange-says

https://shadowproof.com/2017/01/13/white-house-possible-commutation-chelsea-manning/

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-manning-idUSKBN15130B

Obama's biggest :^)

>>100845
What did this kid really do?

>>100871
Gave away lots and lots of classified intelligence about both the US military and The State Department to Wikileaks while serving as a private in the US Army stationed in Iraq.

>used the espionage act on a whistleblower
>no pardon
let's applaud Obama doing the bare minimum of the right thing!

>>100879
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/17/obama-grant-more-commutations-final-days/
According to this story, Obama can't pardon Snowden because he never applied for clemency like Manning (or his lawyers) did.

>>100884
but i was talking about Manning.
also that entire line of argument is bullshit and as a constitutional lawyer Obama knows it fully. the Presidential pardon has been used in very wide application in the past and when those applications were taken to court the Supreme Court has validated those precedents every time.
Vietnam Draft Dodgers being granted blanket clemency is one of the most well known of those.

>>100879
>>100884
>>100885
reminder that a commutation is not a pardon.
they could pull out new charges/move it to civilian court and throw Manning right back in prison.

>>100886
yeah you're right, agreed. Also one of the articles mentions he is supposed to stay in jail until sometime in May for some administrative reason.

>>100887
probably the time needed to make sure theres nothing damaging once the interviews start (or time for a successful suicide).

Shit, let's not hope Assange actually agrees to go to the us now. Who know's what'll happen, maybe the government will turn him into a cyborg sleeper cell agent.

>>100897
I know he's quoted as saying that in many places, but come on Anon, it's a virtual guarantee of jail time for him if he does. He's got to know that and won't come.

>>100897
you're referring to that tweet wikileaks made about Assange being willing to concede to (illegal) US extradition.
doubt he'd do it, it's just a tweet.
but if Assange is brave enough to make good on that than i'm actually not too worried about him, he's not the kind of guy who would concede to that bullshit on bravery alone... whatever it was in those files that wikileaks didn't release that the US military/gov want back so fucking bad that they hop outside the law regularly in regards to Manning and Assange... it will still be in the power of wikileaks to release it no matter what happens to Assange so he has leverage.

>>100897
If he goes anywhere near the US he's going to get suicided by two shotgun blasts to the back of the head. He probably cost Killary the election, no chance she'd let him live if he wandered into her reach.

>>100849
>“I have never made any excuses for what I did.
>>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.

which one is it you fucking freak?

Here is a thought to ponder... What if they already have Assange, and they are using Manning's commuted sentence as a cover...

>>100912
now i am the one that is behind you.

The military acts in our name; we should be able to know everything they do. The government should not be able to keep secrets from us. Tyranny and evil can only exists in the shadows of secrets

>>100912
Trump'll pardon him. Assange is a hero, and Trump knows that and is on his side. He'll dissolve the CIA, NSA, FBI, and all the other tools the government has used to oppress us, along with restructuring the military to reign back their barbarity.

>>100950
You do realize that one of the things Trump said he'd do was force the military to torture, and that he plans to increase military spending, right?

>>100950
>writing Trump mary sue fanfiction
i'll never understand you internet kids

>>100871
Holy shit where do all these illiterate anons come from and why won't they leave? It says right in the article that OP gracefully copied into this thread.

On-topic, I'm glad Obama did this. The original sentencing was insane. Hopefully Manning lives to see the day of her release. It'll make for a fascinating retrospective, no doubt

Come on Anonymous. You can do better. Obama made this decision against the protests of the Secretary of Defense. Someone is in a bind.

>>100977
>Holy shit where do all these illiterate anons come from
/pol/

https://twitter.com/FuzzyHatFunk/status/821766301303603201

>>101185
And then reality struck
>>101375

>>100977
>It says right in the article that OP gracefully copied into this thread.
If only he could have summarized it into one post instead of being his usual petulant spamming self and masturbating over the fact.

Here's a summary for this thread:

"Whistle Blower and Transparency Crushing Obama Administration Attempts to Save Face with Last Minute Commutation of LGBT Individual Unjustly Imprisoned for Four Years, Useful Idiots Predictably Fawn Over Obama Like Teenage Girls at a Jonas Brothers Concert in Response. Water Continues to be Wet. More at 11"

>sure you committed treason and the intelligence you leaked made us look bad, got Americans killed, and everything in between, but you're a differently abled tran-snowflake so it's cool :)

>>100845
>living as a fugitive in Russia.
I thought he was at the Ecuadorian embassy in London?

>>100950
You realize that sounds as insane as Obama declaring martial law to take your guns, right?

>>100897
There is no indictment or extradition request from the US government against Assange.
Once he leaves the embassy he will be arrested by UK police and extradited to Sweden (ofc an implemented brexit could change the automatic extradition laws).

With Snowden, US federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against Snowden.

>>101455
>got Americans killed
My understanding is no one got killed and that is why clemency was possible. Imagine the shitstorm if someone had been killed and Manning got clemency?

>>101458
geez anon. Keep up.
Snowden got trapped in Russia and they granted him a temporary visa.
Assange is the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

>>101451
>usual petulant spamming self and
Actually it's the opposite of spamming to deny a news outlet adsense shekels but I understand that you are the faggot that gets triggered by greentext. Try harder next time.