Chelsea Manning: Out of jail, talking about reason for leaks – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Chelsea Manning who as a U.S. soldier named Bradley Manning leaked 750,000 classified or sensitive U.S. documents is out of jail and spoke to ABC News about the motivation behind the breach of secrets.

Mannings 35-year sentence in 2013 for violations of the Espionage Act was commuted to seven years by President Barack Obama in January.

Some view Manning as a whistleblower; others see the former soldiers actions as a threat to national security.

The one-time Army intelligence analyst was released from federal prison at Fort Leavenworth on May 17. Now identifying as a woman, Manning goes by Chelsea.

In interviews being aired this week, Manning told ABC News that the decision to leak the documents which detailed the aftermath of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to diplomat communications was prompted by a desire to draw the publics interest.

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"We're getting all this information from all these different sources and it's just death, destruction, mayhem," Manning told ABC.

"We're filtering it all through facts, statistics, reports, dates, times, locations, and eventually, you just stop. I stopped seeing just statistics and information, and I started seeing people.

"I work with this information every day," Manning said. "I'm the subject-matter expert for this stuff. You know, we're the ones who work with it the most. We're the most familiar with it. It's not, you know, it's not a general who writes this stuff."

When asked why not air these concerns over the proper channels, Manning said, "the channels are there, but they don't work."

ABCs Nightline special edition, Declassified: The Chelsea Manning Story, airs Tuesday night. ABC began airing pieces of the interview on Friday.

Its Mannings first interview since leaving prison.

Some call Manning the most well-known transgender person to have served in the modern U.S. military.

The soldier enlisted in 2007. Prior to 2011, Manning could not have served openly as a gay person. Since June 2016, transgender troops can serve openly and get medical treatment, though July 1 is the deadline to begin allowing transgender recruits.

jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Facebook: U-T Military

Twitter: @jensteeley

jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Facebook: U-T Military

Twitter: @jensteeley

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Chelsea Manning: Out of jail, talking about reason for leaks - The San Diego Union-Tribune