In his final days in office, President Barack Obama granted executive pardons to more than 500 federal inmates. Among them is Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of stealing government property, violating the Fraud and Computer Abuse Act, among other charges. While there are so many people who viewed Manning as a traitor, there are others who see her as a hero to whistleblowers.
Manning served in the US military before her conviction, and after that she turned to politics and activism.
Who is Chelsea Manning?
Popular as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning, it was actually as Bradley Edward Manning, she was born on December 17, 1987 in Crescent, Oklahoma, USA. She was raised by her parents, Brian Manning who served in the US Navy and Susan Fox as their second child.
Growing up for her was not very easy, especially her parents being both alcoholics and children, she was mainly cared for by her older sister, Casey Manning, who is 11 years older than her. More than that, she has been described as having a very controlling father.
Manning’s childhood would continue to be difficult after her parents’ marriage divorced in 2000 and soon after her father married again as she left home with her mother and sister. In 2010, they moved to Wales to be close to her mother’s family.
For her education, Chelsea Manning had her elementary education in the United States before attending Tasker Milward Secondary School after her family moved to Wales.
She soon returned to the United States in 2007 as a result of illness and moved in with her father. Later, she worked as a developer for a software company before moving to Montgomery College where she only spent one semester and quit after failing her exam.
As noted, she was born as Bradley Edward Manning, a boy. Bradley revealed to friends when he was still a child that he was gay. As he struggled to find a job and settle down, his father encouraged him to think about joining the military, which he later decided to do to resolve his gender identity disorder.
Chelsea Manning joined the military in 2007 and trained at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he had to fight bullying to be different in every way possible. He was then sent to Iraq.
What did she do or flee?
On February 18, 2010, WikiLeaks released a document known as Reykjavik 13, which was leaked to it by Manning who had access to it while serving in the military. What would be Manning’s most damning release was a Baghdad airstrike video she titled “Collateral Murder.” The video captured US helicopters firing on a group of men before turning fire on a pickup truck which pulled up to help the injured. Two children who were in the van were injured in the process while their father was killed.
The video drew a lot of criticism against the United States and it was one of the main things that made WikiLeaks very popular.
Some additional documents were later published by WikiLeaks, thanks to Manning. The new release was labeled the Afghan War Diaries and the Iraq War Diaries, which comprised more than 500,000 documents. These were classified military documents covering activities between January 2004 and December 2009.
Manning leaked other documents, including the leaked US diplomatic cables that plunged the country into a diplomatic crisis with the world. The documents revealed US foreign strategies and how the country takes advantage of its embassies as part of a global spy network.
Another leak made by Chelsea Manning which was the Guantanamo leaks was very damning which gave the world a glimpse of what was really going on at Guantanamo Bay. The release showed there were 172 prisoners in the detention camp with no hope of trace or release, along with an 89-year-old Afghan villager and a 14-year-old boy. She also revealed that there were also British nationals being held in prison.
The set of documents leaked by Chelsea Manning has become the largest set of classified documents ever released.
On May 27, 2010, Manning was arrested in Kuwait and placed on suicide watch. She was charged with a number of crimes, including violating the Espionage Act and aiding the enemy. In 2013, she pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 counts she was charged with. Although the maximum sentence for her crime was 90 years, the government sought to have her imprisoned for 60 years while her lawyers asked for a maximum of 25. Nevertheless, she was sentenced to 21 to 35 years in prison. .
In the final days of the Obama administration, Manning, who had undergone her gender transition in prison, was pardoned after serving 7 years behind bars of her 35-year-old maximum.