Obama to Free Chelsea Manning

 

For the past month, Democrats have screamed about the danger of WikiLeaks and Russian hackers. But when it comes to a guy who damaged US military and intelligence assets instead of the DNC, Obama has decided even massive leaks are unimportant. From the New York Times:

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 in five months, 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.

Here’s a reminder of Manning’s crimes:

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.

Perhaps if Mr. Putin began identifying as a woman, Obama would overlook his actions in the 2016 election.

Published in Law, Military
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  1. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    So does this mean he’ll have to pay for his own sex change surgery now?

    • #1
  2. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Hey, he only hacked the U.S. Military, not the DNC.  Where’s your sense of priority?

    • #2
  3. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Vance Richards (View Comment):
    So does this mean he’ll have to pay for his own sex change surgery now?

    Exactly.  Obama is trying to reduce the budget deficit.  What a guy.

    • #3
  4. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    Weird undeserved Politically Correct Presidential pardons & commutations, are entirely predictable with this strange Lefty Obama gang.

    The highlight of this post is:

    “Perhaps if Mr. Putin began identifying as a woman, Obama would overlook his actions in the 2016 election.”

    Comedy Gold Mr. Gabriel!

    • #4
  5. Jon Gabriel, Ed. Contributor
    Jon Gabriel, Ed.
    @jon

    Vance Richards (View Comment):
    So does this mean he’ll have to pay for his own sex change surgery now?

    No, I’m sure ObamaCare will cover it.

    • #5
  6. MLH Inactive
    MLH
    @MLH

    Vance Richards (View Comment):
    So does this mean he’ll have to pay for his own sex change surgery now?

    And no VA benefits as I assume heshe will still gets a dishonorable discharge. Much better deal for us taxpayers.

    • #6
  7. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    And there goes any hope of a “legacy” for Obama. This makes the Marc Rich pardon look like a principled, ethical decision.

    • #7
  8. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Your prison sentence is commuted but I sentence you to a lifetime of looking insanely ugly.

    • #8
  9. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Somebody should have told this guy about the transgender scam. He could have saved himself 30 years in the slammer.

    Hope Ms. Manning gets a rare disease and dies young. Sorry, I’m just not in the mood for any more crap from the Obama Administration.

    Regards,

    Jim

     

     

     

    • #9
  10. Chuck Enfield Inactive
    Chuck Enfield
    @ChuckEnfield

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Perhaps if Mr. Putin began identifying as a woman, Obama would overlook his actions in the 2016 election.

    Putin would never go for it.  Likes to run around shirtless too much.

    • #10
  11. billy Inactive
    billy
    @billy

    My grandfather was the eleventh son of an Irish coal miner in western New York. He was a good football player and had a scholarship lined up to play for Brown. But at 16 he quit school, lied about his age and joined the Army so he could go fight the Kaiser.

    I’ve often wondered what Pfc. Joseph O’Brien would have to say about Pfc. Bradley Manning.

    • #11
  12. Chuck Enfield Inactive
    Chuck Enfield
    @ChuckEnfield

    DocJay (View Comment):
    Your prison sentence is commuted but I sentence you to a lifetime of looking insanely ugly.

    If that’s an acceptable punishment for crimes I should be immune from prosecution.

    • #12
  13. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    I never want to hear another word about Valerie Plame.

    • #13
  14. Paul Dougherty Member
    Paul Dougherty
    @PaulDougherty

    C’mon folks, you know this is just a pre-workout stretch, right?

     

    Free Mumia!!

    • #14
  15. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    Paul Dougherty (View Comment):
    C’mon folks, you know this is just a pre-workout stretch, right?

    Free Mumia!!

    Two days left . . . I wouldn’t be surprised

    • #15
  16. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Here’s my favorite line from this news article (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/us/politics/obama-commutes-bulk-of-chelsea-mannings-sentence.html?_r=0):

    “(None of the documents Ms. Manning disclosed were classified above the merely ‘secret’ level.)”

    Do you see that?  “Merely” secret?  The definition of secret is “serious damage to national security.”

     

     

     

     

    • #16
  17. billy Inactive
    billy
    @billy

    Paul Dougherty (View Comment):
    C’mon folks, you know this is just a pre-workout stretch, right?

    Free Mumia!!

    Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised.

     

    • #17
  18. Paul Dougherty Member
    Paul Dougherty
    @PaulDougherty

    billy (View Comment):

    Paul Dougherty (View Comment):
    C’mon folks, you know this is just a pre-workout stretch, right?

    Free Mumia!!

    Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised.

    Why wouldn’t he? My suspicion is that in his mind, this would elevate Obama to Mandela stature worldwide.

    • #18
  19. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    Don’t call Manning “she”.  Why should we play their game?

    But you’re right.  He, Snowden and Assange were the Holy Trinity to the Left.  Why, no one had died because of what they did!  All they had done was kick power in the seat if the pants!   The Lefties  still feel that way about unManning  and Snowden–just not Assange cuz he turned on the Dems.

    I read an article saying unManning should be pardoned just BECAUSE he had voluntarily undergone genital mayhem.  Our prisons just aren’t set up,to accommodate transsexual women.

    Hiw the hell did we ever get here?

    • #19
  20. Teresa Mendoza Inactive
    Teresa Mendoza
    @TeresaMendoza

    President Obama is the one in thrall to Vladimir Putin, not President-Elect (OMG!) Trump.

    Even so, this never would have happened if Bradley Manning had not declared himself to be a “trans woman.”

    • #20
  21. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Teresa Mendoza (View Comment):
    Even so, this never would have happened if Bradley Manning had not declared himself to be a “trans woman.”

    I suspect you’re right.

    • #21
  22. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    It’s no coincidence that a country eager to pretend a man can become a woman is also eager to pardon treason.

    • #22
  23. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Let’s see if I have President Obama’s views figured out:

    Leaking sensitive and critical military information that endangers our assets around the world: Awww, poor guy/gal. Xe didn’t mean to hurt anyone. Besides, Xe was “dealing with issues!”

    Leaking John Podesta’s e-mails: TRAITOR! TRAITOR! RUSSIAN STOOGE!

    Edited for Proper 21st Century Pronouns.

    • #23
  24. Paul Dougherty Member
    Paul Dougherty
    @PaulDougherty

    In the spirit of healing, maybe a posthumous pardon for Anwar al-Awlaki?

    • #24
  25. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    What a terrible president. (and what an ugly girl)

    • #25
  26. Paul Dougherty Member
    Paul Dougherty
    @PaulDougherty

    Paul Dougherty (View Comment):
    In the spirit of healing, maybe a posthumous pardon for Anwar al-Awlaki?

    My bad, that would technically impossible due to lack of trial/conviction.

    • #26
  27. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    So does this mean he’ll have to pay for his own sex change surgery now?

    Nope.  Now that he’s out scot free, it will turn out he identifies as a man after all.  I will disagree with him on that too.

    • #27
  28. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    Can Hillary be far behind?

    • #28
  29. TKC1101 Member
    TKC1101
    @

    Obama now has his own Monica Lewinski.

    • #29
  30. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    Hypatia (View Comment):
    Don’t call Manning “she”. Why should we play their game?

    But you’re right. He, Snowden and Assange were the Holy Trinity to the Left. Why, no one had died because of what they did! All they had done was kick power in the seat if the pants! The Lefties still feel that way about unManning and Snowden–just not Assange cuz he turned on the Dems.

    I read an article saying unManning should be pardoned just BECAUSE he had voluntarily undergone genital mayhem. Our prisons just aren’t set up,to accommodate transsexual women.

    Hiw the hell did we ever get here?

    Until his Willy is in a jar over his mantle he is a He to me.

    • #30
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