In a surprise move which is reportedly fueling “shock” within the US intelligence community, President Obama today commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, a former private first class who was the source for massive WikiLeaks caches, including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables.
The 29-year-old Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for the leaks, which at the time were considered among the largest such leaks of classified material in history. She will be released on May 17 with the rest of her sentence commuted.
Heavily vilified by prosecutors and officials and held years before the actual trial, Manning faced serious enough mistreatment in detention while awaiting trial that the United Nations actually launched its own investigation into the matter.
Manning’s physical and emotional health was said to be waning in the face of the protracted detention, and her attorney had warned that the sentence far exceeded international norms, and that she had twice attempted suicide. It is unclear if her condition played a role in the clemency.
In a less surprising move, President Obama also pardoned Gen. James Cartwright, a former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who had pled guilty to a felony count of lying to the FBI related to the leaks of the classified Stuxnet virus.
Gen. Cartweight was a close ally of the president, often called “Obama’s General,” and appeared to have fallen out of favor with the rest of the military leadership in Obama’s first term over his offer of an alternate plan to the 2009 Afghan surge, a plan then chairman Admiral Michael Mullen wanted withheld from the White House.
Cartwright claimed to have been promised the position of chairman of the joint chiefs in 2011, though faced with what was described as a “smear campaign” Obama backed off the plan, and ended up with Gen. Martin Dempsey instead. Cartwright left the military at this point.
Manning’s sentence being commuted is the much bigger shock, as Obama had long condemned the whistleblower, though he did contrast her with NSA leader Edward Snowden, noting that Manning “went through the military criminal justice process” and “acknowledged wrongdoing,” while Snowden fled the country.
Adding another element of potential intrigue, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, currently in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, offered last week to be extradited to the United States in return for clemency for Manning. There is no word yet on this front since the commutation, though with Obama having just a few more days in office the Assange question may be left to his successor.
YAY!!!!!!
It was a mistake to punish all of them including Edward Snowden.
So why now this? Because he wanted to encourage Edward Snowden to come back to USA and wanted to know how much more info gave the Russians including his expertise on hacking.
It’s to little to late.
Ginny out of the bottle.
Hastalavista baby.
Obama,you have a talent to talk,nothing else.
Great that it happened, but for another reason too. It’s a chance for the sickos who hate Obama to expose themselves for what they really are.
How many dead on this ( puke) peace laureate’s watch…?????????
Also maybe just cold political calcIulus to reposition what’s left of the Dem. party re: humanitarian relevalence… or just to try to get pardons for their war crime felons….no putty from me for the man who tortured Omar Khadir! President or pauper…..
That’s a political statement!
One that everybody on this site should be happy to hear. All most have to do is pretend it wasn’t Obama who did it.
Excellent!
Obama made two good moves one was freeing Manning for informing us on the atrosities our government was committing in Iraq .. And the other one was failing to follow through when his red line was crossed He refused to bomb Syria When The rebels we supported committed a false flag gas attack on their own people .
That’s how I see it as well.
The best two foreign policy achievements Obama made was the Iran peace deal, and the non-vote in the UN regarding israel.
Throw in his ‘red line’ which Assad readily agreed to, and I would agree those were his three best on foreign policy. He effectively snookered his own country by allowing Russia to establish a presence in Syria and that spelled the end of US planned war.
Then, on domestic policy, his Obamacare was huge and is going to hinder the crass bastards who don’t want the poor to have medical care, for years!
Remember that millions of Americans, more Republicans than Democrats” raised Hell and contacted their members of Congress with the message, “We don’t have a dog in this fight”. My money was on the Israelis for that false flag attack with Sarin gas. Putin came up with a get out of jail scheme that allowed Obama and his few Israeli friends to stop their threats. Three years later the US is there and even more enthusiatic
I guess Kyriakos (who really deserves a pardon – not this freak Manning) needed to play the transgendered card in order to receive a commutation of his sentence from Obama…
Note to Snowden and Kyriakos – next time you serve your country by exposing corruption and constitutional abuses by our tyrannous government infrastructure – make sure you change your gender in order to receive a commutation of your bogus sentence..
Pace WackyWacktyWackyWorld: The elephant in the room is, indeed, Manning’s “gender reassignment.”
Given Obama’s obsession with LGBT “rights”–including forcing on the whole country by fiat the “right” of the transgendered to their public restroom of choice–one can fairly speculate that this commutation was similarly-motivated special treatment for Manning.
Hardly makes up for prosecuting/persecuting more government whistleblowers than ALL other presidents COMBINED. But a good move nonetheless. And Snowden won’t come back because he knows that a “Jack Ruby” has already been selected to meet up with him upon his arrival. There would be NO due process for him in the US.
Another shot at Netanyahu after listening to his screeching for 6.5 years to free that bastard Pollard.
I don’t know why Obama did it and, quite frankly, at this point, I don’t care. He saved that brave girls life this week. I have no choice but to thank him for it.
Ditz’s point that it provides cover for his pardoning Cartwright is reasonable.
Of course, since this doesn’t take effect before Trump assumes power, maybe Trump’ll cancel Obama’s executive order with one of his own. One can imagine Trump howling and beating his chest, and saying ‘I’m not a traitor like that murderous Musselman Barmy. I’m gonna make sure that wicked traitor Manning stays in jail till he has long white whiskers!!’
Why didn’t Obama make sure the pardon took effect before he left office? My guess is that he thinks all the claims of hacking and spying and treason are hilarious, and he just wants to see how it all turns out. I like to imagine him sitting in front of the TV, listening to all the furore and laughing himself sick.
The Army was really PO’ed when Bradley Manning released that video of the helicopter gunship firing on a group of civilians with a 30 mm cannon and explosive shells, then firing on the wounded and those who came to help. It showed only one instance of the callous brutality of what was going on. Manning was given 35 years and the chopper crew was never held liable for murdering at least ten people and wounding others.
Great news.
But it won’t wash away the massive crimes that this fraud committed.