Obama Commutes Remaining Prison Sentence Of Chelsea Manning

Zero Hedge

Following urges by Edward Snowden and Julian Assange (who offered his own extradition), President Obama has commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 document leak.

Manning will be released in May 2017 according to the White House. The move is part of a final push of pardons and commutations in the closing days of the administration, and Obama has now shortened the sentences of more federal inmates than any other president, bringing the total to 1,385 as of today.

Previously both Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who leaked his cache of documents detailing U.S. intelligence efforts around the same time as Manning’s crime, advocated for her clemency. "Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning," Snowden tweeted. "You alone can save her life."

Manning was arrested in 2010 after leaking 700,000 military files and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks, and her sentence exceeded that received by other individuals recently convicted of releasing classified material. She has twice attempted to commit suicide while incarcerated, and went on a hunger strike in an effort to get the Army to allow her to undertake gender reassignment surgery.

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You've been lied to all the time: Chelsea Manning issues dire warning about Iraq

RT

As the White House weighs the possibility of taking military action in war-torn Iraq, WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning is warning that it’s imperative that the American media demands unfettered access to any operations overseas.

Manning, 26, issued that call for action in an editorial published in the New York Times this weekend authored from the jail cell in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where she is currently serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking a trove of sensitive files to the anti-secrecy site. Before being arrested and charged with dozens of crimes related to the unauthorized disclosure of those documents, Manning was deployed outside of Baghdad and for months worked as an intelligence analyst for the United States Army. 

According to Manning, her experience during the Iraq War has left her believing the Pentagon has a big problem with providing access to journalists, especially those who may portray America’s military actions in a way that Defense Department wouldn’t particularly like. 

“As Iraq erupts in civil war and America again contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to the question of how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan. I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance,” Manning wrote. 

Contrasting sharply the news articles authored by DOD-vetted journalists during the Iraq War, Manning wrote, was a more “complicated reality” that wasn’t being seen by reporters. 

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Secrets of Empire and Self-Deceptions of Partisans Yet a howling defiance into the darkness of the corporate state night

Uruknet

Phil Rockstroh

It is laughable (in a weeping outright sort of way) that Obama and his fellow Democratic Party supporters and apologists can’t find a more resonant campaign theme than, "We carry out the agendas of the national security/bankster/militarist state (i.e., the one percent) while appearing to be less crazy than Republicans."

The notion of even possessing a preference as to whom should be president of this crumbling, faux republic is a bit like asking what color uniform one would prefer that the crew tasked with rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic should don as they go about their duties.

In times such as these, when escaping into one’s comfort zone is no longer a viable option, one is advised to evince the audacity of hopelessness, because the act leaves one desperate enough to embrace this daunting proposition:

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

Although, for the present and foreseeable future, the propitious aspects of the sentiment will not hold true for Bradley Manning…whose plight displays the punitive, hyper-authoritarian nature of late U.S. empire. As is the case with Manning, in a national security state, few acts will cause one to lose his freedom in a more rapid manner than to reveal the secrets of lawless, ruthless power.

Apparently, Bradley Manning guarded secrets of his own–not shameful ones–but traits that would cause him to become subject to derision if revealed.

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Bradley Manning Case Advances Despite Defense Objections

Wired

FORT MEADE, Md. — The defense attorney for suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning opened a pre-trial hearing on Friday morning with a bang — by calling for the investigating officer presiding over the hearing to recuse himself, immediately forcing the proceeding into recess while the government prepares a response and the officer reviews the details of the motion.

Defense attorney David E. Coombs called on Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, a reserve military judge who also works for the Justice Department, to recuse himself on several grounds including bias and conflict of interest.

Almanza was appointed the investigating officer in August 2010, but has worked as a career prosecutor with the DoJ since 2002 until Dec. 12 this year, when he went on reservist military leave to devote himself to the Manning case.

Coombs proceeded to put Almanza on trial after the first recess, asking why the Army picked someone who works for the Justice Department to preside over the hearing and pointing out that Alamanza is still using his DOJ e-mail account, even though he’s now on reservist leave.

“That simple fact alone … would cause a reasonable person to say ‘I question your impartiality,’” Coombs said.

The young former Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning sat quietly next to his civilian attorney and two military attorneys, wearing Army fatigues and dark-rimmed glasses – sporting a crew cut with a bit of a flip in front. In his first appearance in public since being arrested in May 2010, Manning quietly answered a few questions from Almanza affirming he was happy with his defense team.

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Is alleged Wikileaks' whistleblower Bradley Manning a victim of US torture?

What US torture one of their own? Nah. Course not. How could you even think such a thing? 

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More than 50 members of the European parliament have signed an open letter to the US government raising concerns about the treatment of Bradley Manning, the US soldier in military detention for allegedly leaking classified US documents to the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks.

The call on the US government comes before a pre-trial hearing – Manning's first appearance in court – which begins on 16 December.

The MEPs said internal investigations into Manning's treatment in custody, which included solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day, inspections by officers every five minutes from 5am onwards and removal of his clothes, had been marred by "clear conflicts of interest".

They call for US authorities to grant Juan Méndez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, access to Manning.

Mendez has made repeated requests for access to the military base where Manning is held, all of which have been refused by US authorities.

Manning was arrested in May 2010 after allegedly confessing to passing thousands of documents to WikiLeaks to computer hacker Adrian Lamo, who informed the authorities. He was charged with 12 offences under the uniform code in July 2010. An additional 22 charges were added in March 2011, following the publication of the Afghan and Iraq war logs, Guantánamo files and US embassy cables.

One charge, "aiding the enemy", carries the death penalty in the US, but army prosecutors have indicated they will not seek such a punishment in Manning's case.

The open letter from European parliamentarians, which follows another signed by several hundred US legal scholars, questioned the charges against Manning and warned that his pre-trial treatment may harm the UN's work elsewhere, "particularly its mandate to investigate allegations of torture and human rights abuses".

"In order to uphold the rights guaranteed to Bradley Manning under international human rights law and the US constitution, it is imperative that the United Nations special rapporteur be allowed to properly investigate evidence of rights abuses. PFC Manning has a right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. People accused of crimes must not be subjected to any form of punishment before being brought to trial," they wrote.

"We certainly do not understand why an alleged whistleblower is being threatened with the death penalty, or the possibility of life in prison. We also question whether Bradley Manning's right to due process has been upheld, as he has now spent over 17 months in pre-trial confinement."

Five MEPs from the UK signed the open letter in support of Manning, who holds dual US and UK citizenships. They were Labour MEPs Richard Howitt and Derek Vaughan, Green MEPs Jean Lambert and Keith Taylor, and Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans.

Manning will attend an Article 32 hearing, the US military equivalent of a pre-trial hearing, on 16 December. This is expected to last five days. Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, has indicated he wishes to call 50 witnesses at the hearing, but military authorities are considered unlikely to grant such a request.

The Article 32 hearing then makes a recommendation to a general as to whether to proceed to a full trial.

Bradley Manning's conversations with Adrian Lamo published in full

Guardian

Internet conversations between Bradley Manning, the US soldier awaiting court martial on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source, and Adrian Lamo, who reported him to the authorities, have been published in their entirety for the first time.

The decision by Wired magazine to publish the full unedited version of what have become known as the Manning-Lamo chat logs brings to a close a bitter dispute between bloggers over the nature of the material. Wired always claimed that it had held back a large portion of the chats because they were irrelevant and in order to protect Manning's privacy on personal matters.

But critics, notably Glenn Greenwald of Salon, wondered whether any material pertinent to Manning's defence may have been held back for more sinister reasons.

In explaining its decision to now go ahead with the full logs, Wired pointed to new material that had come to light recently that revealed much of the information that the magazine had previously withheld. It pointed particularly to a separate set of web logs, obtained by New York magazine and published simultaneously by the Guardian.

The newly published Wired logs will be studied closely by followers of the Manning story – supporters and detractors – for extra evidence about his conduct while working as a US intelligence gatherer at a military base outside Baghdad.

The soldier has been charged with passing classified information to WikiLeaks as the source of the giant trove of state secrets, the largest of which were the embassy cables from US diplomatic outposts around the world.

An early view of the logs suggests that Wired's defence stands up – much of the new material relates to Manning's sexuality and other personal matters.

As a result of turning Manning into the military authorities, Lamo has become known as the "world's most hated hacker". New York magazine tracked him down to a Long Island motel, where he appeared to be living largely in isolation.