WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen in a police van, after he was arrested by British police, in London, Britain April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Julian Assange Is About to Become a Journalist
Tag: Bradley Manning
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America get a big kick out of Democrats insisting there are no real real benefits for the middle class in the recent tax bill – even as company after company publicly announces higher wages, new jobs, and bonuses. They also shake their heads as emergency official in Hawaii create a major mess by trying to run a missile alert drill and send out an actual missile alert instead. And they sigh as convicted military leaker and felon Bradley Manning, who now identifies as a woman named Chelsea, runs for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.
The Mess at Harvard
First, the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government invites a former intelligence officer for the US army who was convicted of espionage and sentenced to prison for thirty-five years to become a Fellow of the Institute. The man’s qualification? He thinks that he is a she, demands that we accommodate his delusion, and treats our unwillingness to do so as a justification for his misconduct.
Then, after an outbreak of criticism, the resignation from the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of a former acting director of the CIA, and a scathing letter from the current director, Douglas W. Elmendorf, the hapless dean of the Kennedy School, rescinds the invitation and issues a statement denying what everyone knows — that the school honors someone when it invites that someone to become a Visiting Fellow of its Institute of Politics.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are happy to see Ben Shapiro was able to give his speech at Berkeley without incident in the auditorium and minimal unrest outside, which this year counts as very good news. They also unload on Harvard for offering convicted spy Bradley Manning, who now identifies as Chelsea Manning, a position as a visiting fellow, and only rescinding the offer after the intelligence community denounces the move. And they groan as a terrorist attack on the London tube injures 22 people and suggests terrorists there might be changing their tactics.
Chelsea Manning to Teach at Harvard
Here is a piece of news that will warm the cockles of your heart. Chelsea Manning, as Bradley Manning now calls himself, will soon be lecturing at the Institute of Politics in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His qualification? In 2013, after leaking to Wikileaks something like three-quarters of a million classified State Department and military cables, Manning was convicted of espionage in army court-martial proceedings and sentenced to 35 years in prison; and in January 2017, Barack Obama commuted the sentence.
What an opportunity for Harvard students!
Justice as a Social Construct
It seems today that Justice is an idea as malleable in some people’s eyes as gender has become to the very same people. We are obviously witnessing a rise of people who consider themselves ‘Justice queer’. This week we have a convicted terrorist, Oscar Lopez Rivera, going to the scene of his crimes to join a public parade. The person formally known as Private Manning is now out of prison after eight years after committing one of the worst crimes against national security ( especially ironic given the current Oval Office intel kerfuffle ) and is now to remain on the taxpayers’ bill for his mental health despite being out of both the service and prison. Then there’s Bowe Bergdahl who at least is still awaiting trial but is a hero to the ‘Justice queer’ for his desertion.
I wonder if anyone who happens to not be ‘Justice queer’ will feel it necessary to take justice into their own hands. Perhaps seeing a violent man freed for no other reason than popular politics will drive someone to seek justice by Rivera, who was never convicted of killings. Maybe a distraught father who’s family was harmed by the actions of Manning or Bergdahl will be unsatisfied seeing the source of their pain released on a whim as a sop to Hollywood donors. Bergdahl’s fate is undetermined, but his celebrity carries the risk of a commutation similar to Manning’s.
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.