A few evenings ago, as the sky began to darken here in Kabul, Afghanistan, a small group of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, (APVs), gathered for an informal presentation about WikiLeaks, its chief editor Julian Assange, and its most prominent contributor, Bradley Manning. Basir Bita, a regular visitor to the APV household, began the evenings discussion noting that June 1st will mark the beginning of Bradley Mannings fourth year in prison. Two days later his trial will begin, a trial which could sadly result in his imprisonment for a life sentence. June 1st also begins an international week of support and solidarity, aimed at thanking Bradley Manning. #ThankManning!

Basir believes that the vast majority of Afghans are among myriads world-wide who have Manning to thank for information they will need in struggles for freedom, security, and peace. He wishes that more people would find the courage to stand up to military and government forces, especially their own, and act as whistle-blowers.

I often hear Afghan individuals and groups express longing for a far more democratic process than is allowed them in a country dominated by warlords, the U.S./NATO militaries, and their commanders. In the U.S., a lack of crucial information increasingly threatens democratic processes. How can people make informed choices if their leaders deliberately withhold crucial information from them? Mannings disclosures have brought desperately needed light to the U.S. and to countries around the world, including struggling countries like Afghanistan.

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Hakim, who mentors the Afghan Peace Volunteers, recalled that Bradley Manning passed on documents that record 91,730 Significant Actions, or SIGACTS undertaken here by the U.S. /ISAF forces, of which 75,000 were released by WikiLeaks. These SIGACTS include attacks by drones, sometimes invisible drones, and night raids.

Our group turned to discussing the history of WikiLeaks, how it formed and how it now functions. Those most familiar with computers and internet explained the process of disclosing information by anonymously following a computerized route to a dropbox.

In fact, the Afghan Peace Volunteers themselves have been communicating with Julian Assange.

Last winter, Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire had stayed with them shortly before she traveled to London for a visit to Julian Assange. Through Mairead, they had sent Assange a letter of solidarity.

The APVs heard that Manning has been more isolated than Assange; they all shook their heads when Basir reminded them that Bradley Manning was initially in solitary confinement for eleven months.

Ghulamai thought through the ironic process of how governments designate some documents secret, and how he would presume that the person who shares those secrets was a criminal. But Ali said that governments chiefly hide secrets from the public to maintain power. Hakim asked Abdulhai to imagine himself as the head of a government or of a large family. If you are working for the good of the family or the state, would you need to do things secretly? he asked.

No, Abdulhai replied. If I have power, and I am truly working for the best interests of my people, I will not need to do things in secret.

There was a keen conversation about who Bradley Manning was and what he did. Bradley Mannings own words, which journalists had to actually smuggle out of his pre-trial hearing, described how Bradleys mind had largely been made up by watching the secret video that he would come to release under the title Collateral Murder:

They dehumanized the individuals they were engaging and seemed to not value human life by referring to them as quote dead bastards unquote and congratulating each other on the ability to kill in large numbers. At one point in the video theres an individual on the ground attempting to crawl to safety. The individual is seriously wounded. Instead of calling for medical attention to the location, one of the aerial weapons team crew members verbally asks for the wounded person to pick up a weapon so that he can have a reason to engage. For me, this seems similar to a child torturing ants with a magnifying glass.

While saddened by the aerial weapons team crews lack of concern about human life, I was disturbed by the response of the discovery of injured children at the scene. In the video, you can see that the bongo truck driving up to assist the wounded individual. In response the aerial weapons team crew as soon as the individuals are a threat, they repeatedly request for authorization to fire on the bongo truck and once granted they engage the vehicle at least six times. Together, the APVs watched the deeply disturbing Collateral Damage video itself. They were avid to learn what they could do to support and thank Bradley Manning. Yet theyre aware of the risks faced by people who organize public demonstrations in Afghanistan.

Its far easier to stand up for Bradley where I live, back in the U.S. I hope many more of us will devote the time and energy we owe this young man for risking everything, as he did, to enlighten us and the world.

The Afghan Peace Volunteers are eager for ways to link with others worldwide to express thanks and concern for a remarkably brave and conscience-driven 25-year old man whose courage and whose light is so acutely needed in this darkening time. Ive seen the fierce light of these young people and, knowing them, Im certain that others will be seeing it too in the years ahead. Are we readying signals with which to answer them, are we preparing ways to show people like them, and like Julian Assange, and like Bradley Manning, that they are not alone?

Original post:
Thanking Bradley Manning - truthout.org

United States v. Manning is the court-martial case involving United States Army Private First Class Bradley Manning (now known as Chelsea Manning), who delivered U.S. government documents to persons not authorized to receive them in 2009 and 2010. Media reports said that the receiver was Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. Manning was arrested in May 2010 and a court-martial was held in JuneAugust 2013.[1] The charges were related to events which occurred "at or near" Contingency Operating Station Hammer, Iraq, in 2009 and 2010.

The charges were:

Total: 34

Most of the charges are related to the transfer of documents to another party. These documents are:

According to news reports, many of the documents are the same as documents published by WikiLeaks, including:

The first set of charges came on July 5, 2010. The Specifications (Spec.) are listed below in the same order as given on the charge sheets. To the right of each specification is a description of the related documents or actions.[10]

A second set of charges was presented on March 1, 2011, and are as follows:[11]

Read the original:
List of charges in United States v. Manning - Wikipedia

Bradley Manning, the Army private who leaked very confidential United States information has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Mannings sentence was handed to him Wednesday by a military judge at a court in Fort Meade, Maryland.

In addition to Mannings 35 years in jail, the Army private will also be dishonorably discharged and forfeit all his benefits as a member of the U.S. Army. He will also have his rank reduced from an Army private to the level of private E-1 or PVI, which is said to be lowest rank in the Army.

Manning is not expected to serve the entire 35 years since 3.5 years will have to be subtracted from it because of the number of days he had been detained prior to receiving his sentence and because of the harsh treatment he went through while being detained in Quantico, Va.

25-year-old Manning is expected to be illegible for parole after having served about one-third of his jail term.

According to reports from the Associated Press, during the sentences, Manning did not show any physical or emotional reaction even though his supporters expressed utter shock.

What was Mannings crime?

Manning is responsible for the largest leak of United States confidential information in the entire history of the country.

Manning personally gave thousands of classified United States military and sensitive diplomatic documents to Wikileaks. He was subsequently charged with the crime of aiding the enemy, espionage, theft, computer fraud and several other crimes.

Manning was fortunate to have been acquitted of the crime of aiding the enemy. Had he been convicted of that crime, he stood a chance of spending the rest of his life behind bars because that crime carries a possible life sentence with no chance of parole.

What landed Manning the 35 years in prison was the fact that he was found guilty of computer fraud, six espionage counts, five federal theft charges and several other military infractions.

Mannings fate was decided by a judge instead of a military jury because Manning chose the former. Judge Denise Lind, an Army Colonel handed Manning 35 years in jail even though prosecutors fought for Manning to be sentenced to 60 years because of his grave crime of betraying his country.

Manning is expected to be released from prison in eight years time, providing he exhibits good behavior while in jail.

Manning was enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2008 and assigned to an army unit near Baghdad in 2009 where he worked as an intelligence analyst. By the nature of his work, he had access to the databases that the United States government used in transmitting very sensitive and classified information. Somehow Manning was able to download some of the classified documents which he later passed on to the WikiLeaks website. Some of the materials that Manning passed to WikiLeaks include videos of the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike, the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan, 250,000 United States diplomatic cables, and the Iraq and Afghan War logs.

He was arrested in May 2010 after a computer hacker Adrian Lamo whom he had confided in exposed him to the FBI.

Read more from the original source:
Bradley Manning Sentenced To 35 Years In Prison - Hosbeg.com

The Democrats have, for several months now, been in a state of convulsive rage over WikiLeaks. They tell us that WikiLeaks is in league with Putin. They tell us that WikiLeaks subverted our system and destabilized the very foundations of our democracy. WikiLeaks stole the election. Sabotage! So on and so forth.

With this in mind, it seems a little odd that right in the midst of this apocalyptic hand wringing over WikiLeaks, the president would choose tocommute the sentence of a guy who went into a war zone, stole reams of classified files, and gave them to WikiLeaks. Bradley Manning didn't merely releaseemail correspondences between DNC officials where they complain about Bernie Sanders and talk about spirit cooking. These weren't embarrassing revelations about a political party. These were hundreds of thousands of secret documents relating to national security, appropriated during a time of war, and "leaked" indiscriminately with no regard tohow it would undermine our war efforts and even less regard for the lives it put at risk. The Democrats apparently want us to believe that humiliating Hillary Clinton is a far worse crime than jeopardizing the safety of our troops, intelligence officers, and allies. The word "outrageous" does not even begin to describe what's going on here.

It would appear self-defeating as well. Why would the Democrats who have almost unanimously applauded this move, by the way suddenly decide to undermine their own case against WikiLeaks? Shameful hypocrisy has never slowed them down before, granted, but even by their standards this is a rather extreme case of it. They must know that they've made it impossible for anyone to take them seriously the next time they whine about email leaks and "election hacking." It so discredits them, makes so little sense, makes them look so utterly foolish, renders their own arguments so fantastically irrelevant, that you may conclude that the entire Democrat Party has gone into a state of collective psychosis.

That's not a bad theory. Not too far from the truth, either. But there is, you might say, a method to this madness. And you can understand the method once you understand that, in the world of modern leftism, the letters "LGBT" override anything and everything. At the very top of the progressive Victimhood Hierarchy sit the members of this elite club. Any opportunity to advance their cause must be exploited. Any time the Great Cause and some other concern collides, the Cause wins out. These are the priorities of leftism nowadays. Its onlyone priority, really. Nothing and I truly mean nothing is more important than its sexual agenda.

So, Bradley Manning, a traitor to the United States who gave assistance to the enemy,a convicted spy who would have been put in front of a firing squad not too long ago, will now be a free and celebrated man for one single reason: he pretends he's not a man. Because Manning "came out" as "transgender" after committing his act of treachery, he became a hero to the Left. A trans hero, specifically, which is the most heroic kind of hero. That's why he will be getting out of prison. For that reason and no other.

The Left admitted upfront that it wants Manning out of prison solely because he cross dresses. Before his commutation was announced, the media wrote story after story describing the "bleak life" of a "woman" in a men's prison. They insisted that it's an injustice to force a woman to remain incarcerated with men. And they're right, that would be an injustice; but no such injustice had actually occurred. Bradley Manning was a man when he entered prison. He's a man now. He'll be a man when he leaves. He'll be a man until he dies and even still afterwards. Complaining that a "transgender woman" wasn't transferred to a women's prison is like complaining that a lunatic who thinks he's a polar bear won't be transferred to the local zoo.

As per usual,Manning had already been given enormous privileges thanks to his "transgender" status. The government was bending over backwards, going to extraordinary lengths, to accommodate his delusions:

Since then, Ms. Manning wrote, she has developed breasts and curvier hips. There have been significant changes since Ive been taking the hormones, and I am happy with them, she said. But, citing security risks, the military rejected the recommendation of an outside psychologist who said she should be permitted to further feminize her appearance by growing her hair longer than male military standards. Mr. Strangio is helping her challenge that restriction.

But this wasn't enough. It never is. We were using tax money to facilitate the sexual fantasies of a traitor, but still the Left was not satisfied. They never are. Manning's "transgender" status shouldn't merely entitle him to privileges in prison, they demanded. It ought to entitle him to aget-out-of-jail-free card. The laws against espionage ought tobe suspended in his case. Let other spies and traitors face the just consequences, but not Manning. He's better than them. He's more important. He's at the top of the Victimhood Hierarchy. Let him out and next we'll complain of persecution if he isn'timmediately named Nobel laureate, Medal of Honor recipient, and honorary Wheel of Fortune champion.

Obama was happy to oblige, to the extent that he could. And nowthis will stand as one of the most deranged and despicable things he's done as president, which is saying something. An impressive grand finale to a shameful presidency.

To see more from Matt Walsh, visit his channel on TheBlaze.

Read the original:
Bradley Manning is still a traitor. And he's also still a man.

David Coombs C-SPAN

David Coombs, the civilian lawyer representing Bradley Manning at his court martial for supplying WikiLeaks with a trove of US state secrets, has described the soldier's treatment in solitary confinement at Quantico marine base as criminal and a blot on the nation's history.

Making rare comments outside the courtroom, Coombs addressed an audience of Bradley Manning supporters in a Unitarian church in Washington on Monday night and lashed out at the military hierarchy for allowing the intelligence analyst to be subjected to nine months of harsh suicide prevention regime against the advice of doctors. "Brad's treatment at Quantico will forever be etched into our nation's history as a disgraceful moment in time," he said.

"Not only was it stupid and counter-productive, it was criminal. An entire group of individuals, who I have no doubt were honourable, chose to turn a blind eye to how he was being treated They cared about something more: the media impact."

Coombs made his criticism in his first and what will probably his only speech in a civilian setting since he became Manning's lawyer two years ago. He explained to the audience that he has consciously avoided all public engagements and interviews with the press partly on Manning's instructions and partly because the soldier "deserved an attorney entirely focused on the courtroom".

Manning was arrested in May 2010 for allegedly handing hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and videos of helicopter attacks to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. He has effectively admitted to passing the information, but denies the most serious charge, that he "aided the enemy" by doing so.

The comments on Quantico are all the more poignant because the Article 13 hearing a defence motion alleging unlawful pre-trial punishment of the WikiLeaks suspect is still ongoing at the court martial in Fort Meade Maryland. Coombs had timed Monday night's speech to mark the end of the hearing and the transition from the motion phase to the trial phase of the proceedings, but there has been such lengthy witness testimony, including two days in the stand by Manning, that it has been extended and will reconvene on Wednesday.

Despite his excoriating remarks on Quantico, Coombs painted a generally optimistic picture of Manning's state of mind now and of his hopes for the future. He described the jail facilities at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where Manning was transferred in April 2011 from Quantico, as having "magical waters" that had healed his client.

Asked about Manning's current state of mind, Coombs said: "He is very excited about having his case move forward. He is very encouraged at this point by the way things are going, and confident they will ultimately turn out OK for him."

Coombs recalled one conversation in which he had asked Manning what he wanted to do in future. "He told me his dream would be to go to college, and then into public service and perhaps one day run for public office. I asked him why, and he said: 'I want to make a difference.'"

He went on: "I hope that some day soon Brad can go to college and give back in public service. But he doesn't have to worry about making a difference he has made a difference."

Coombs spent 12 years in active military duty and is a lieutenant colonel in the reserves. He told the audience that given his extensive experience of military justice he was convinced that a court martial system was more likely than the civilian courts to give Manning a fair trial.

"People are often suspicious that the military judge may be subject to pressure and the the system is built to obtain a certain outcome, but having in the state and federal courts I can tell you the court martial system is by fair the fairest."

Coombs made a stern warning about the first charge facing his client "aiding the enemy" a clause of the espionage act that carries a maximum sentence in this case of life in military custody. Speaking generally, he called the charge a "scary proposition" as it held up the threat of prosecution of anybody who passed information to the press even if they had no intention of that information being used by the enemy.

"Right there, you will silence a lot of critics of our government, and that's what makes our government great that we foster criticism and through it make changes. This is a very serious charge not just for my client but for all of us in America."

Coombs thanked on Manning's behalf the 72,000 people who have written personally to the soldier in custody, and the 14,000 people who have donated to his defence fund. One of those supporters, he said, was Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower from the Vietnam war era, who has spoken out on Manning's behalf.

History had judged Ellsberg very well, Coombs said. "I hope that history will judge PFC Bradley Manning in a similar light."

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

Read more:
LAWYER: Bradley Manning's Treatment Is A Stain On US History ...

savebradley via Flickr

Lawyers for the US soldier charged with passing a trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks accused the military on Tuesday of withholding hundreds of emails over fears of a publicity nightmare.

The defence team for Private Bradley Manning, who could be jailed for life for "aiding the enemy" over the massive security breach, alleged that more than 1,300 messages were ignored by prosecutors for at least six months.

The emails relate to the conditions the 24-year-old trooper was held in during military detention at Quantico, Virginia, where he was sent after a spell in a US Army jail in Kuwait following his arrest while on duty in Iraq in 2010.

Manning's civilian lawyer David Coombs told a pretrial hearing that 84 emails were released to the defence team on July 25, but he later discovered that 1,290 other messages remained on file.

The government "chose to let these emails collect dust somewhere," Coombs said on the first day of the three-day hearing at a military base in Fort Meade, Maryland, 30 miles (48 kilometres) from the US capital.

Military prosecutors then suddenly announced that 600 other messages had been handed to Manning's legal team on Monday, ahead of the hearing, but Coombs persisted with his attack.

"It is the defence position that the government has been playing word games," the lawyer said, implying that the emails were held back because the government adopted a deliberately narrow definition of their relevance.

"That is the absurd nature of that excuse. That is 'the dog ate my homework' excuse," Mr Coombs added.

The defence maintains that Manning was mistreated at Quantico, and even alleged on Tuesday that the former intelligence analyst had been ordered by guards to stand at attention while completely naked.

Mr Coombs then took aim at top Marine officers responsible for running the jail, who he said had put their concerns about bad publicity ahead of their duty to provide fair treatment to detainees.

The emails go as high up the chain as General George Flynn, the then commanding general of the US Marine Corps, who insisted that Manning be placed on suicide watch.

Top officers at Quantico regularly sent emails to Flynn informing him of Manning's confinement, which the defence says was unnecessarily harsh, and told the Marine commander who the jailed WikiLeaks suspect's visitors were.

"They didn't want any negative publicity," Mr Coombs said, reading out an official list that placed media risks at the top of eight concerns at Quantico.

After his detention at the Marine Corps Brig from July 2010 to April 2011, Manning was transferred to a prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where he was placed under less restrictive conditions.

If the court finds he was abused, the case could potentially be thrown out, or any eventual sentence reduced.

However, Major Ashden Fein, lead counsel for the government at Fort Meade, denied that the emails were withheld, insisting the prosecution simply had more pressing issues to deal with.

Most of the emails amount to nothing more than "argument and conjecture" among the military commanders involved, he said.

"They were concerned about public affairs (media handling) but they were also concerned about Private First Class Manning," Fein said of officers at Quantico, describing Flynn as "being informed but not necessarily directing" control.

Colonel Denise Lind, the case judge, however said the months-long delay over disclosure of the emails remained unexplained.

"I still wonder why you waited until July," Lind asked Fein, before ruling that she would examine the estimated 700 emails from the original bundle that remain in government hands, before deciding if they too should be handed over.

The publishing by WikiLeaks of official documents, including military logs concerning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, triggered a diplomatic firestorm that hugely embarrassed American officials and rankled the nation's allies.

Manning, who is attending this week's hearing, has not yet entered a plea in the case and his trial now looks set to start in February five months later than originally thought.

See more here:
'US Withheld Hundreds Of Emails In The Bradley Manning ...

Chelsea Manning formerly known as Bradley Manning

Chelsea (Bradley) Manning, a former US Army Intelligence analyst who gave classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010 was ordered back to jail on Thursday for defying a grand jury subpoena.

Manning was jailed in early March for refusing to testify to a secret grand jury about WikiLeaks and was released last Thursday after spending 62 days behind bars.

A federal judge held Manning in contempt on Thursday and US Marshals took him back into custody for the second time this year for refusing to testify before a secret grand jury.

Manning said he was prepared to return to jail indefinitely rather than testify during a presser on Thursday before the trial.

No matter what happens today, Im not going to comply with this grand jury, Manning said Thursday.

Manning received a subpoena in late January to testify before a federal grand jury in a case in the Eastern District of Virginia this is the same district that the government accidentally revealed there was a sealed indictment against Julian Assange.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton, a Reagan appointee, ordered Manning to jail after he refused to testify.

In 2010, Private First Class Bradley Manning (who later transitioned to Chelsea)stole State Department documents, many of them secret international embassy reports. Manning smuggled the security documents out on a CD labeled Lady Gaga, and handed them to WikiLeaks WikiLeaks subsequently took the sensitive cables and made them public.

In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for giving classified materials to WikiLeaks.

In April 2014 a Kansas judge allowed Bradley Manning to change his name to Chelsea.

In January of 2017, Obama commuted Mannings sentence from 35 years to 7 years Manning was released from prison in May of 2017.

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JUST IN: Chelsea (Bradley) Manning Ordered Back to Jail ...

Bradley Manning has received a prison sentence that was 10 years longer than the period of time after which many of the documents he released would have been automatically declassified. The military judge handed down the longest ever sentence for a leak of US government information.

Mr Manning, according to this logic, did more harm than the soldier who gave a Jordanian intelligence agent information on the build-up to the first Iraq war, or the marine who gave the KGB the identities of CIA agents and floorplans of the embassies in Moscow and Vienna. Mr Manning did three times as much harm in transmitting to WikiLeaks in 2010 the war logs or field reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, as Charles Graner did. He was the army reserve corporal who became ringleader of the Abu Ghraib abuse ring and was set free after serving six and a half years of his 10-year sentence.

Among the 700,000 classified documents Mr Manning downloaded while stationed in Iraq was a video that showed a US Apache helicopter in Baghdad opening fire on a group of Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists and their children, who had attempted to rescue a severely injured man. More devastating than the film was the cockpit chatter of the soldiers who joked as they shot people in the streets.

"Look at those dead bastards," said one. "Nice," said another.

The Apache crew has never been charged with any offence (all their adult targets were listed as insurgents) and neither has any other individual as a result of Mr Manning's revelations. But the shortened 17-minute version of the video has been viewed more than 3m times on YouTube.

So, the central question to answer in judging the proportionality of this sentence is whether the desire to punish a whistleblower driven by moral outrage stems from the alleged harm he did US military and diplomatic interests, or whether it derives more from sheer embarrassment. The judge presiding, Col Denise Lind, had already thrown out the gravest charge, that of "aiding the enemy". Col Lind had also limited the admissibility of evidence regarding the "chilling effects" that Mr Manning's actions had on US diplomacy by releasing 250,000 state department cables. A military witness conceded there was no evidence that anyone had been killed after being named in the releases.

Mr Manning's recent apology for his actions does not, and should not, detract from the initial defence he gave for them, when he spoke of his shock at the "delightful bloodlust" displayed by that helicopter crew, or his belief that stimulating a debate about the wars was the right thing to do. We know what his motives as a whistleblower were and we have applauded them. They are certainly not akin to treachery or any act fit to be judged if anything is by an espionage act rushed onto the statute book in 1917 after America entered the first world war.

Mr Manning exposed the abuse of detainees by Iraqi officers under the watch of US minders. He showed that civilian deaths during the Iraq war were much higher than the official estimates. If they were published today, these claims would be uncontentious. They have already slipped into the official history of this war. But the author of this orthodoxy will continue to pay for the record he helped establish by a prison term that he will serve well into the next decade, which is when the first date for his parole application becomes due. Mr Manning was seeking to hold his country and its army to the values they claim to uphold.

It is unclear what the US military hopes to achieve by securing a sentence that dwarfs those of other military convictions. Deterrence features large in its thinking. Whistleblowing will not only endanger your career, it wants to say, but your freedom for most of your adult life. In 2008, one could have hoped that the US had a president whose administration would distinguish between leaks in the public interest and treason. But this sentence tells a different story. Mr Manning's sentence, which is both unjust and unfair, can still be reduced on appeal. Let us hope that it is.

View original post here:
Bradley Manning: a sentence both unjust and unfair ...

Manning was freed from Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas on Wednesday after serving just seven years of her 35-year sentence.Video provided by Newsy Newslook

In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Army, Pfc. Chelsea Manning poses for a photo.(Photo: AP)

Pvt. Chelsea Manning wasreleased from Fort Leavenworth military prison Wednesday after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence for leaking thousands of diplomatic cables and other secret documents to WikiLeaks.

The transgender soldier, 29, who entered prison as a man named Bradley Manning, will remain anactive-duty, unpaid soldier, eligible for health care and other benefits while hercourt-martial conviction remains under appeal, said Dave Foster, an Army spokesman. She will alsohave access to commissaries and military exchanges, butwill not be paid.

"After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived," Manning said in a statement after her release. "I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past. Im figuring things out right now which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me."

Shealsotweeted"First Steps of Freedom!!" above a photo showing tennis shoe-clad feet presumably hers taking a step on a wood floor.

Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward, Manning's clemency and appellate lawyers, said in a joint statement that she"has expressed her deep appreciation to her supporters and looks forward to the future."

Cynthia Smith, an Army spokesperson, confirmed Manning left Fort Leavenworth'sUnited States Disciplinary Barracks but declined to provideadditional information because ofprivacy act restrictions.

Manning was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents, including battlefield reports on Iraq and Afghanistan and State Department cables, while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Manning said the leaks were intendedto expose wrongdoing.

The soldierwas arrested outside a U.S. Army basein Iraq in May 2010. Her 2013 sentence was commuted in the final days of the Obama administration, a move that infuriated some in the military as well as President Trump. She would have been eligible for parole in six years.

Chase Strangio, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that despite solitary confinement and four years of confinement, Manning "hasemerged with grace, resilience, and an inspiring amount of love for others."

READ MORE:

ThePulse Films production company announcedat the Cannes Film Festival in France that Manning would be filmed for a documentaryupon her release Wednesday.

Mannings mother Susan Manningtold the Guardianthat it will be very hard for Manning to adjust after four years in prison, but that she will bestaying in Maryland where she has family to look out for her.

"Chelsea is so intelligent and talented, I hope she now has the chance to go to college to complete her studies, and to do and be whatever she wants," Susan Manning told the newspaper. "My message to Chelsea? Two words: Go, girl!

Courage Foundation, an international organization thatsupports people who place themselves at risk tocontributetohistorical records,Reporters Without Borders Germany and the German-based nonprofitWau Holland Foundation, which says it supports moral courage in the digital realm, started a fundraisingcampaignWednesday to help Manningpay for her legalappeal.

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Chelsea Manning released from prison after 7 years of 35-year ...

AP Photo

Pfc. Bradley Manning, who orchestrated the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history, has apologized for hurting the U.S. when he took the stand during his sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

He reportedly told the court: "The last few years have been a learning experience," adding that he should have worked more "inside the system."

The way he passed 700,000 military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks without first working to change what he saw as government abuse from the inside led former senior U.S. intelligence analyst Joshua Foust to describe his leak as "lazy."

Last month the 25-year-old was charged with 19 counts, including seven counts of violating the espionage act, for leaking the documents to "spark a domestic debate on the role of our military and foreign policy in general."

The documents included videos of airstrikes that killed civilians, a trove of front-line incident reports from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, dossiers on Guantnamo Bay detainees, and about 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.

The disclosures led to some troubling revelations about U.S. actions, and journalists subsequently wrote stories based on the information.

In all, Manning faces a maximum sentence of 90 years in prison, but his actual sentence will likely be shorter given the judge's discretion as well as time taken off for harsh pretrial confinement.

In June his defense attorney David Coombs described Manning as a young, naive, but good-intentioned soldier whose struggle to fit in as a gay man in the military made him feel he needed to do something to make a difference in this world.

Here's Manning's full statement (via The Guardian):

"First, your honour, I want to start off with an apology. I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I'm sorry I hurt theUnited States.

At the time of my decisions, as you know, I was dealing with a lot of issues, issues that are ongoing and continuing to effect me. Although a considerable difficulty in my life, these issues are not an excuse for my actions.

I understood what I was doing, and decisions I made. However, I did not fully appreciate the broader effects of my actions.

Those factors are clear to me now, through both self-refection during my confinement in various forms, and through the merits and sentencing testimony that I have seen here.

I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions. When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people.

The last few years have been a learning experience. I look back at my decisions and wonder how on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better [] on decisions of those with the proper authority.

In retrospect I should have worked more aggressively inside the system, as we discussed during the [] statement, I had options and I should have used these options.

Unfortunately, I can't go back and change things. I can only go forward. I want to go forward. Before I can do that, I understand that I must pay a price for my decisions and actions.

Once I pay that price, I hope to one day live in a manner that I haven't been able to in the past. I want to be a better person, to go to college, to get a degree and to have a meaningful relationship with my sister, with my sister's family, and my family.

I want to be a positive influence in their lives, just as my Aunt Deborah has been to me. I have flaws and issues that I have to deal with, but I know that I can and will be a better person.

I hope that you can give me the opportunity to prove, not through words, but through conduct, that I am a good person and that I can return to a productive place in society. Thank you, Your Honor."

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BRADLEY MANNING: I'm Sorry - Business Insider