Reading 05: Chelsea Manning

As a committed American, I was and still am startled by the blatant disregard for US National Security that Chelsea Manning displayed with her decision to leak top secret data to WikiLeaks. While I am certainly not of the opinion that whistleblowing is always immoral, I believe that in this specific case, Manning was definitely in the wrong.Furthermore, I find her confession at her court-martial that she did not mean to put anyone at risk and had been dealing with a lot of issues when she decided to make the leaks to be a terrible excuse. Regardless of her intentions or whatever issues she was going through related to her gender dysphoria, the effects of her actions were the same she compromised the safety of Americans and foreign collaborators who were listed in the leaked documents. Such an action is an egregious offense against the interests of the United States and should certainly be punished.

Those who defend Chelsea Manning typically fall into two camps, one of which has a much more rational position than the other. The first camp justifies her actions based mostly on her status as a transgender woman forced to live in the macho environment of the US Military. This position is absurd for the reasons I have already stated.Just because Manning faced significant personal doubts and hardship, it is not okay for her to lash out and endanger the lives of Americans and American collaborators. I certainly do not want to diminish Mannings struggle, but simply being a transgender does not give one the privilege to blatantly break the law.

The second pro-Manning camp has a stronger position. They argue that the shocking content in some of Mannings leaks made her decision the morally correct thing to do. Regarding with some of the content she leaked, I think (but am still not 100% sure) that I agree with this position. The leak of the videos of the 2007 Baghdad helicopter strike and the 2009 Afghanistan Garani air strike, both of which killed innocent civilians, could potentially be justified in an effort to keep the public informed of US Military actions and thus hold it accountable for such horrors. However, these leaks went much further, and Manning seemed to place no filter whatsoever on what she released. Manning released a trove of more than a quarter of a million documents.There is absolutely no way that she actually read through these documents, and her failure to do so shows a complete lack of responsibility. If Manning had just found and released a few documents she felt the public deserved to see, then her actions could potentially have been justified, but the fact that she just unleashed a trove without reviewing it removes any possibility that she did the right thing, even if it turns out there was no threatening information in the leaks. The fact that the Obama administration was scrambling to protect many people threatened by the info in the leaks going public only makes things worse.

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Reading05: Chelsea Manning John McGuinness

Adrin LamoBornAdrin Alfonso Lamo Atwood(1981-02-20)February 20, 1981Malden, Massachusetts, U.S.DiedMarch 14, 2018(2018-03-14) (aged37)Wichita, Kansas, U.S.OthernamesAdrin Lamo, R. Adrin LamoOccupationThreat analyst, journalistYearsactive19992018EmployerProjectVIGILANTKnownforComputer hacking, reporting Chelsea Manning to the Army's Criminal Investigation CommandNotable workAppeared on Hackers Wanted, We Steal Secrets, Good Morning America, Democracy Now!, Aqui y Ahora, and other media outlets, including cover stories in Information Week and SF WeeklyTelevisionTechTV, KCRA Channel 3 NewsTitleAssistant Director for Threat IntelligenceOpponent(s)Julian AssangeCriminal penaltytwo years probation, with six months to be served in home detention, and ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution[1]Criminal statusIn 2004, pleaded guilty to one felony count in SDNY to hacking The New York Times and Microsoft, and subsequently informed them and helped fix their security holesSpouse(s)Lauren Fisher(m.2007; div.2011)Websiteabout.me/aal

Adrin Alfonso Lamo Atwood[2] (February 20, 1981 March 14, 2018) was an American threat analyst[3][4] and hacker.[5] Lamo first gained media attention for breaking into several high-profile computer networks, including those of The New York Times, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, culminating in his 2003 arrest.[6] Lamo was best known for reporting U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning to Army criminal investigators in 2010[7] for leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks.[8][9] Lamo died in March 2018 at the age of 37.

Adrian Lamo was born in Malden, Massachusetts[2] near Boston.[10] His father, Mario Ricardo Lamo, was Colombian.[11][12] Adrian Lamo attended high schools in Bogot and San Francisco,[2] from which he did not graduate,[13][14][15] but received a GED and was court-ordered to take courses at American River College,[16] a community college in Sacramento County, California.[17][18] Known as the "Homeless Hacker" for his reportedly transient lifestyle,[19] Lamo claimed that he spent much of his travels couch-surfing, squatting in abandoned buildings, and traveling to Internet cafs, libraries, and universities to investigate networks, sometimes exploiting security holes.[6] Despite performing authorized and unauthorized vulnerability assessments for several large, high-profile entities, Lamo claimed to have refused to accept payment for his services.[13]

Lamo first became known for operating AOL watchdog site Inside-AOL.com.[20][21]

In December 2001, Lamo was praised by Worldcom for helping to fortify their corporate security.[22] In February 2002, he broke into the internal computer network of The New York Times, added his name to the internal database of expert sources, and used the paper's LexisNexis account to conduct research on high-profile subjects. The New York Times filed a complaint, and a warrant for Lamo's arrest was issued in August 2003 following a 15-month investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. At 10:15 a.m. on September 9, after spending a few days in hiding, he surrendered to the US Marshals in Sacramento, California. He re-surrendered to the FBI in New York City on September 11, and pleaded guilty to one felony count of computer crimes against Microsoft, LexisNexis, and The New York Times on January 8, 2004.[23][24]

In July 2004, Lamo was sentenced to two years probation, with six months to be served in home detention, and ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution.[1] He was convicted of compromising security at The New York Times, Microsoft,[25][26] Yahoo!,[27] and WorldCom.[28]

When challenged for a response to allegations that he was glamorizing crime for the sake of publicity, his response was: "Anything I could say about my person or my actions would only cheapen what they have to say for themselves". When approached for comment during his criminal case, Lamo frustrated reporters with non sequiturs, such as "Faith manages"[29] and "It's a beautiful day."[30]

At his sentencing, Lamo expressed remorse for harm he had caused by his intrusions. The court record quotes him as adding: "I want to answer for what I have done and do better with my life."[31]

He subsequently declared on the question and answer site Quora that: "We all own our actions in fullness, not just the pleasant aspects of them." Lamo accepted that he had committed mistakes.[32]

On May 9, 2006, while 18 months into a two-year probation sentence, Lamo refused to give the United States government a blood sample, which they had demanded in order to record his DNA in their CODIS system.[33] According to his attorney at the time Lamo had a religious objection to giving blood but was willing to give his DNA in another form. On June 15, 2007, lawyers for Lamo filed a motion citing the Book of Genesis as one basis for Lamo's religious opposition to the giving of blood.

On June 20, 2007, Lamo's legal counsel reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice whereby Lamo would submit a cheek swab in place of the blood sample.[34]

In February 2009, a partial list of the anonymous donors to the WikiLeaks not-for-profit website was leaked and published on the WikiLeaks website. Some media sources indicated at the time that Lamo was among the donors on the list.[35][36] Lamo commented on his Twitter page, "Thanks WikiLeaks, for leaking your donor list... That's dedication."[36]

In May 2010,[37] Lamo reported to U.S. Army authorities that Chelsea Manning claimed to have leaked a large body of classified documents, including 260,000 classified United States diplomatic cables.[38] Lamo stated that Manning also "took credit for leaking" the video footage of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, which has since come to be known as the "Collateral Murder" video.[38][39][40]

Lamo stated that he would not have turned Manning in "if lives weren't in danger... He was in a war zone and basically trying to vacuum up as much classified information as he could, and just throwing it up into the air."[37] WikiLeaks responded by denouncing Lamo and Wired Magazine reporter Kevin Poulsen as "notorious felons, informers & manipulators", and said: "journalists should take care."[38]

According to Andy Greenberg of Forbes,[41] Lamo was a volunteer "adversary characterization" analyst for Project Vigilant, a Florida-based semi-secret government contractor, which encouraged him to inform the government about the alleged WikiLeaks source. The head of Project Vigilant, Chet Uber, claimed, "I'm the one who called the U.S. government... All the people who say that Adrian is a narc, he did a patriotic thing. He sees all kinds of hacks, and he was seriously worried about people dying."[41]

Lamo was criticized by fellow hackers, such as those at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference in 2010, who labeled him a "snitch".[42] Another commented to Lamo, following his speech during a panel discussion, saying: "From my perspective, I see what you have done as treason."[43]

In April 2011, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called Lamo "a very disreputable character", and said it was not right to call him a financial contributor to WikiLeaks, since Lamo's monetary support amounted to only US$20 on one occasion. Assange said it was "mischievous to suggest the individual has anything to do with WikiLeaks."[44]

Lamo characterized his decision to work with the government as morally ambiguous, but objectively necessary, writing in The Guardian: "There were no right choices that day, only less wrong ones. It was cold, it was needful, and it was no one's to make except mine," adding to The Guardian's Ed Pilkington: "There were hundreds of thousands of documents let's drop the number to 250,000 to be conservative and doing nothing meant gambling that each and every one would do no harm if no warning was given."[45][46]

The Taliban insurgency later announced its intention to execute Afghan nationals named in the leaks as having cooperated with the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. By that time, the United States had received months of advance warning that their names were among the leaks.[47] Manning was arrested and incarcerated in the U.S. military justice system and later sentenced to 35 years in confinement, which President Barack Obama commuted to a total of seven years at the end of his term,[48] including time served.[49][50] Lamo responded to the commutation with a single post on Medium[51] and an interview with U.S. News & World Report.[52]

Lamo's role in the Manning case drew criticism from Glenn Greenwald of Salon. Greenwald suggested that Lamo lied to Manning by turning Manning in, and then lied after the fact to cover up the circumstances of Manning's confessions.[53] Greenwald places the incident in the context of what he calls "the Obama administration's unprecedented war on whistle-blowers".[53] Greenwald's critique of Wired has drawn a response from that magazine which suggests that Greenwald is writing disingenuously: "At his most reasonable, Greenwald impugns our motives, attacks the character of our staff and carefully selects his facts and sources to misrepresent the truth and generate outrage in his readership."[54] In an article about the Manning case, Greenwald mentions Wired reporter Kevin Poulsen's 1994 felony conviction for computer hacking, suggesting that "over the years, Poulsen has served more or less as Lamo's personal media voice."[53] Greenwald is skeptical of an earlier story written by Poulsen about Lamo's institutionalization on psychiatric grounds, writing: "Lamo claimed he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a somewhat fashionable autism diagnosis which many stars in the computer world have also claimed."[53] In an article entitled "The Worsening Journalistic Disgrace at Wired", Greenwald claimed that Wired was "actively conceal[ing] from the public, for months on end, the key evidence in a political story that has generated headlines around the world."[55]

On July 13, 2011, Wired published the logs in full, stating: "The most significant of the unpublished details have now been publicly established with sufficient authority that we no longer believe any purpose is served by withholding the logs."[56] Greenwald wrote of the newly released logs that in his opinion they validated his claim that Wired had concealed important evidence.[57]

Lamo had been critical of media coverage of the hacker collective Anonymous, saying that media outlets have over-hyped and mythologized the group.[58] He also said that Anonymous is not the "invulnerable" group it is claimed to be, and he can see "no rational point in what they're doing."[58]

On August 22, 2002, Lamo was removed from a segment of NBC Nightly News when, after being asked to demonstrate his skills for the camera, he gained access to NBC's internal network.[59] NBC was concerned that they broke the law by taping Lamo while he (possibly) broke the law. Lamo was a guest on The Screen Savers five times beginning in 2002.[60]

Hackers Wanted, a documentary film focusing on Lamo's life as a hacker, was produced by Trigger Street Productions, and narrated by Kevin Spacey.[61] Focusing on the 2003 hacking scene, the film features interviews with Kevin Rose and Steve Wozniak.[61] The film has not been conventionally released. In May 2009, a video purporting to be a trailer for Hackers Wanted was allegedly leaked to or by the Internet film site Eye Crave.[62] In May 2010, an earlier cut of the film was leaked via BitTorrent.[63] According to an insider, what was leaked on the Internet was a very different film from the newer version, which includes additional footage. On June 12, 2010, a director's cut version of the film was also leaked onto torrent sites.[64]

Lamo also appeared on Good Morning America, Fox News, Democracy Now!, Frontline, and repeatedly on KCRA-TV News as an expert on netcentric crime and incidents. He was interviewed for the documentaries We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks and True Stories: WikiLeaks Secrets and Lies.[65][66]Lamo reconnected with Leo Laporte in 2015 as a result of a Quora article on the "dark web" for an episode of The New Screen Savers.[67]

Lamo wrote the book Ask Adrian, a collection of his best Q&A drawn from over 500 pages of Quora answers, which have so far received nearly 30,000,000 views.[68]

In the mid-1990s, Lamo volunteered for the gay and lesbian media firm PlanetOut Inc.[13][69] In 1998, Lamo was appointed to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Youth Task Force by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.[70] In 1999, Lamo was ordained a minister in the Universal Life Church.[71] In 2001, he overdosed on prescription amphetamines.[10][72]

In a 2004 interview with Wired, an ex-girlfriend of Lamo's described him as "very controlling", alleging "he carried a stun gun, which he used on me". The same article claimed a court had issued a restraining order against Lamo;[72] he disputed the claim, writing: "I have never been subject to a restraining order in my life".[73]

Lamo said in a Wired article that, in May 2010, after he reported the theft of his backpack, an investigating officer noted unusual behavior and placed him under a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold, which was extended to a nine-day hold. Lamo said he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at the psychiatric ward.[74]

For a period of time in March 2011, Lamo was allegedly "in hiding", claiming that his "life was under threat" after turning in Manning.[75] During this time, he struggled with substance abuse but later claimed that he was in recovery and that his security situation had improved.[76]

Lamo died on March 14, 2018, in Wichita, Kansas, at the age of 37.[77][78][79] Nearly three months later, the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center reported that "Despite a complete autopsy and supplemental testing, no definitive cause of death was identified."[80][81]

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Chelsea Manning is complaining that police searched her Montgomery County apartment on a wellness check after she sent two tweets appearing to threaten suicide because the police conducted the "wellness check" while armed.

Montgomery County says they received several calls from individuals concerned that Manning was suicidal after Manning posted a photo showing what appeared to be a pair of pedicured feet dangling several stories about the street below. At least one caller either confirmed or provided an address, The Intercept says, and County officials dispatched officers for a "wellness check."

Private security camera footage, provided by Manning to The Intercept, shows three officers entering the apartment with guns drawn after knocking, announcing their presence, and opening the locked door with a key they reportedly obtained from building management. The officers call Manning's name several times while clearing rooms.

Although it's very clear from the footage that the officers had no idea what to expect when they entered Manning's apartment and that the crew had no idea whether Manning would be armed and dangerous, even if she were only dangerous to herself Manning called the video evidence that Americans live in a "police state."

This is what a police state looks like, Manning told The Intercept. Guns drawn during a wellness check.

Manning was apparently out of the country when she sent the now-infamous "suicide tweet." A friend of Manning who commented to The Intercept claimed, If Chelsea had been home when these cops arrived with guns drawn, she would be dead.

Montgomery County police attempted to explain police procedure to The Intercept, to no avail.

They responded to the address to check her welfare, Capt. Paul Starks of the Montgomery County Police told the outlet. Once inside the residence they realized that the residence did not match the photo that was posted on Twitter. We tried to determine where she may be by attempting to use her phone but the phone was powered off and they werent able to leave a message.

Although drawing a weapon isn't necessarily standard operating procedure, Starks told The Intercept, that decision is left to the responding officers, and most choose to have their weapon at the ready when entering an unfamiliar and potentially volatile situation.

They dont know what kind of circumstances they are entering when they enter a home, Starks said. The fact that a weapon is drawn doesnt mean that they are going to shoot it.

Do you know what was going on in that apartment that night? No. Not until you open the door and go in. We respond to hundreds of thousands of calls each year. Many of them are not what is phoned in," he continued.

Another expert, Metro Transit Police SWAT Commander William Malone, explained further that people frequently use police to commit suicide, and in this case, the person they were checking on had military training: The police should be commended for their actions in this case, not criticized."

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Chelsea Manning, Friends Complain After Armed Officers ...

Chelsea Manning Continues Fight Against Unfair Hacking Charge | Electronic Frontier Foundation Skip to main content

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Whistleblower Chelsea Manning wasreleased from prison more than a year ago, after former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence for releasing military and diplomatic records to WikiLeaks. But her case still continues, as Manning wants to appeal her original convictionincluding one charge under a controversial a federal anti-hacking law.

TheComputer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is intended to punish people for breaking into computer systems. Yet Manning didnt break into anything. Instead, she was found guilty of violating the CFAA for using a common software utility called Wget to access a State Department databasea database she was generally authorized to accessin violation of a computer use policy. The policy prohibited the use of unauthorized software, even though the prohibition, which covers everything from computer games to simple automated Web browsing tools like Wget, is rarely enforce by the chain of command. Prosecutors have argued that Mannings use of the Wget software violates the laws provision again intentionally exceeding authorized access to a computer connected to the Internet.

But as EFF and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) argued in an amicus brief filed last week in Mannings request for a hearing on appeal, violating an employers policy on computer use is not a crime under the CFAA. If it were, then it would turn scores of people into criminals for things like browsing Facebook or viewing online sports scores at work. It would also threaten the work of researchers and journalists, who increasingly rely on common automated Web browsing tools to more efficiently access publicly available information on the Internet so that they can do their work, even though such tools are often prohibited in websites terms of service. Overzealous prosecutors and private companies have long taken advantage of the CFAAs vague language to threaten criminal charges that go beyond Congresss original goal to police computer crime, and Manning is only one of thelatest high-profile victims.

We cant have ordinary online behaviorsuch as the use of simple, common tools for making it easier to collect publicly available informationbecome a federal criminal offense. Four other circuit courts have agreed. We hope the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces takes Mannings case and helps bring some fairness to the CFAA.

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Chelsea Manning Continues Fight Against Unfair Hacking Charge ...

Convicted U.S. whistleblower Chelsea Manning (shown above left) infamously leaked over 700,000 U.S. classified documents to Wikileaks documents that found their way into the hands of such American enemies as Osama bin Laden.

The former Army private and intelligence analyst who spent most of her life as a he, as Bradley Manning, before declaring himself a woman and eventually undergoing transgender surgery worked in Iraq.

Charged with nearly two dozen offenses, which included aiding the enemy, she was sentenced in 2010 to 35 years in prison for leaking those 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks.

Former President Barack Obama then infamously commuted that sentence in January 2017 to roughly seven years dating back to the time of Mannings arrest in 2010.

Manning, 30, now earns a living primarily through speaking engagements and media appearances.

During an interview late last week with the Australian radio station Triple J, Manning was asked how she feels about theoretically helping bin Laden.

Instead of answering the question, Manning cut the interview short.

Some of your leaked documents were found in Osama bin Ladens compound after his death. Thats information in the hands of one of Americas biggest enemies. Do you have any regrets about that outcome? What did you think when you heard that? asked interviewer Tom Tilley.

Manning replied, Ah look I cant really talk about specifics of my court martial. The record of trial is still classified.

But why does that mean you cant say how you felt when you found out that piece of information? Do you dispute thats true? Tilley pushed on.

Ah I cant I cant even tell you whether or not we dispute that its true. Its that highly classified, responded Manning.

Mannings people then suddenly interrupted the broadcast, saying they needed to end the interview.

Thank you very much. Chelsea, hang up, said the media aide who was also on the call.

Why cant we carry on this interview? What was wrong with my questioning?

Why? Why cant we carry on this interview? What was wrong with my questioning? If you guys are talking about transparency and openness, surely we can continue this interview, asked Tilley.

Tom, this is Suzi, the director of Think Inc. I guess whats a priority for us is to be respectful to our talent. I understand there might be nothing wrong with your questioning, but we just want to be really respectful to Chelsea, because shes given up her time to have this conversation, responded Suzi Jamil.

Tilley said this after the interview was cut off:I believe that [if] someone with a well-known controversial history is going to get the opportunity to speak on the national broadcaster and air their political views, they also need to be prepared to answer some accountability questions for their actions.

What do you think Cheslea Manning is hiding? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Rumors Run Wild as Leaker Chelsea Manning Electronically ...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand New Zealand authorities said on Friday that convicted secrets leaker Chelsea Manning can enter the country for a speaking tour, a day after tour organizers said she couldn't enter Australia.

Manning was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking U.S. government secrets and would not normally qualify for entry into New Zealand under its good-character provisions.

But Immigration New Zealand General Manager Steve Stuart said Manning had been granted a "special direction," allowing her to apply for a working visa for planned speaking events in Auckland and Wellington next month.

Stuart said the agency noted that Manning's sentence had been commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017, that she had not reoffended since being released, and that the chances of her offending while in New Zealand were low.

New Zealand's conservative opposition National Party had urged the government to ban Manning, saying her appearance would not enhance New Zealand's relationship with the U.S.

Australia has similar good-character rules to New Zealand. Manning's tour was due to start in Sydney on Sunday, but on Thursday event organizer Think Inc. said it had received a notice of intention from the Australian government to deny Manning entry.

The group was calling on her supporters to lobby new Immigration Minister David Coleman to allow her into Australia. While Manning can appeal, past precedent suggests the decision has already been made.

Think Inc. said it had given the government letters of support from individuals and organizations who support Manning's entry to Australia.

"Ms. Manning offers formidable ideas and an insightful perspective which we are hoping to bring to the forefront of Australian dialogue," Think Inc. Director Suzi Jamil said in a statement.

Manning, 30, acknowledged leaking more than 700,000 military and State Department documents to anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks in 2010. Known as Bradley Manning at the time of her arrest, she came out as transgender after her 2013 court-martial. She recently lost a Democratic primary in a long-shot bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland.

Under its good-character rules, New Zealand typically denies entry to people who have been sentenced to five years or more in prison at any time in their lives, or who have been sentenced to 12 months or more in prison at some point during the last 10 years.

___

Associated Press reporter Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.

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New Zealand allows Chelsea Manning entry for speaking tour ...

Chelsea Manning speaking at an event in Berlin on May 2, 2018Photo: Getty

Whistleblower and political activist Chelsea Manning is supposed to start her Australian speaking tour at the Sydney Opera House this Sunday. But that could all change if she isnt allowed to enter the country. Manning is reportedly facing some trouble getting a visa from the politically turbulent government down under.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, Manning could be denied entry to Australia based on the Migration Act of 1958, which can prohibit people based on bad character. The law specifically mentions criminal convictions as a basis for bad character, but it more or less leaves the determination up to the minister of immigration. David Coleman was sworn into that position just today after a rough and tumble month of political infighting for Australias Liberal Partyroughly the political equivalent to Americas Republican Party.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks that showed evidence of war crimes. President Barack Obama commuted Mannings sentence in 2017 shortly before leaving office. Manning was released in May.

Left-wing activists in Australia are crying foul and believe that the country is discriminating against progressive speakers. Australia has recently hosted some of the biggest names on the so-called alt-right, including Lauren Southern, Stephen Molyneaux, and Milo Yiannopoulos. Southerns tour forced local police in Victoria to shell out $68,000 for security. The tour organizer has so far refused to pay the bill.

Gavin McInnes, founder of the extremist group the Proud Boys, is scheduled to visit the country on his own speaking tour in November. McInnes and his groups account were suspended from Twitter recently over hate speech. But theres no indication that McInnes will be barred from coming to Australia.

People like Southern and Molyneaux have appeared as friendly guests on right-wing television in Australia, where the local media landscape is dominated by companies owned by Rupert Murdoch, the creator of Fox News in the United States. And Australian right-wing media is expected to roll out the red carpet for people like McInnes while disparaging Chelsea Manning.

Manning is supposed to visit the New Zealand cities of Auckland and Wellington while shes in the South Pacific region, but conservatives in that country are also calling for her to be banned.

Chelsea Manning used a position of responsibility and authority to steal hundreds of thousands of documents that may well have put American lives at risk, former New Zealand minister Michael Woodhouse told Radio New Zealand this week.

Gizmodo has reached out to the organizers of Mannings speaking tour but did not immediately receive a reply. Well update this article if we hear back.

[Sydney Morning Herald]

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Chelsea Manning May Be Banned From Entering Australia: Report

By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) 30 August 2018

In a direct attack on democratic rights and freedom of speech, the newly-installed Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared its intent to deny courageous US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning a visa to address what are expected to be large audiences in major Australian cities.

Just days before Manning was due to speak in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and then in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, the Australian government issued her with a Notice on Intention to deny her an entry visa. This was done on the spurious grounds that she fails the Migration Acts character test because of a substantial criminal record. Similar moves are underway to ban her from New Zealand.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) condemns the planned political censorship and demands its immediate reversal. Manning is not a criminal. Her heroic act in leaking more than 750,000 classified US military and diplomatic documents, which were then published by WikiLeaks in 2010, exposed the real criminals, who still sit in power in Washington and Canberra.

Manning is being denied her fundamental democratic right to speak publicly about her actions. The people of Australia and New Zealand are being denied their basic democratic right to hear her speak and discuss the political implications of her revelations.

Chelsea Manning, formerly Private Bradley Manning, was incarcerated and tortured in military prisons and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment under the Obama administration. Having enforced her vicious punishment, Obama finally commuted her sentence in 2017 after she had suffered a total of seven years in a prison cell, but deliberately left her criminal record on the books.

That was because the video footage, documents and files that the young US army intelligence analyst made available to the worlds population laid bare the murders, war crimes, human rights abuses and anti-democratic political machinations of the US military, intelligence agencies and political establishment as well as those of its allies, including Australia.

Mannings leaks, and WikiLeaks publication of them, provided essential evidence for the prosecution of those responsible for the illegal invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

While the Morrison government is moving to ban Manning, successive Australian governments, both Coalition and Labor, have rolled out the red carpet to the very war criminals whose atrocities she exposed.

Over the past year and a half alone, this has included now deceased Republican Party powerbroker Senator John McCain, ex-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, along with a steady procession of admirals and generals. These are the people who should have been put on trial, along with ex-presidents Bush and Obama and their Australian partners, including former prime ministers John Howard, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

Coming less than a week after Morrison was installed via an inner-party coup that ousted Malcolm Turnbull, the ban on Manning is another signal of the Coalition governments total commitment to the preparations by the US ruling class for further war crimes, above all its plans for a military confrontation with China. The message is clearthe Australian ruling elite will eviscerate every basic democratic right to prevent widespread popular opposition to militarism developing into a mass anti-war movement.

The contrast could not be starker. One of Morrisons first acts as prime minister was to hold a warm phone call with US President Donald Trump and invite him to visit Australia.

Warmongers are welcome. Those who have sought to oppose war are not.

There is no doubt that the decision to block Mannings visit has been taken in the closest consultation with the Trump administration and the US intelligence agencies. Politically, however, the government has only dared take this step because it can confidently expect no serious opposition from the Labor Party, which declared WikiLeaks had carried out criminal activity by publishing Mannings leaks in 2010.

Moreover, virtually the entire erstwhile liberal and left of the Australian political and media establishment has abandoned any defence of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange.

Assange, an Australian citizen, remains trapped in a tiny room in Ecuadors London embassy, cut off from all communication with the world. The refusal of successive Labor and Coalition governments to use its diplomatic power and legal discretion to secure his releasewith years of silent complicity by the Greens and parliamentary independents such as Andrew Wilkiehas left Assange under the constant threat of arrest and extradition to the US to face espionage-related charges.

Apart from well-known journalist John Pilger and a small number of other principled individuals, no political party, trade union, civil liberties organisation or media publication has taken up the demand issued by the SEP at a globally-broadcast rally in Sydney Town Hall Square on June 17 that the Coalition government act immediately to secure Assanges unconditional right to return to Australia.

It is in this fetid atmosphere of contempt for democratic rights and freedom of speech that Manning faces being blocked from visiting Australia.

The attack on Chelsea Manning, on top of Canberras central role in the persecution of Assange, has ominous implications for the democratic rights of the working class.

As the preparations for involvement in further US-led wars intensify, accompanied by escalating austerity and social inequality, state repression will be used against social unrest and political dissent, particularly anti-war opposition. Just two months ago, the Labor Party joined hands with the Coalition to push through parliament unprecedented foreign interference laws designed to criminalise any supposed links to China and opposition to Australian involvement in US-instigated military aggression.

The ban on Manning is a further warning that Morrisons government represents a further lurch by the entire political establishment toward war preparations and efforts to create a far-right movement to divert the mounting social and political discontent in poisonous nationalist directions.

The SEP demands that Chelsea Manning is immediately granted her visa and restates its demand for the unconditional freedom of Julian Assange. Their fate cannot be left in the hands of capitalist governments and courts. Workers and young people in Australia, New Zealand and internationally must come to the defence of these two brave figures, as an essential component of the fight for all the democratic and social rights of the working class.

See also:

John Pilgers speech to the June 17 rallyBringing Julian Assange Home

James Cogans speech to the June 17 rallyThe Turnbull government must act to repatriate Australian citizen Julian Assange to Australia

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Australia is questioning the character of Wikileaks whistle blower and activist Chelsea Manning. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The Australian government is preparing to ban whistleblower and activist Chelsea Manning because she does not meet the country's "character requirement."

The former soldier spent seven years in prison, including 11 months in solitary confinement, for leaking a trove of classified military documents to Wikileaks which revealed information about US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama commuted her sentence shortly before leaving office, and she made a bid for Senate as a Democrat this year.

According to a reported letter addressed to Manning from the Australian Home Affairs Department, Manning applied for a temporary visa on August 8, and the federal government was reviewing her candidacy.

The letter specified that her visa application may be denied under section 501 of the Australian Migration Act, which allows the Minister to deny an applicant if they do not meet the "character requirements."

"A person can fail the character test for a number of reasons, including but not limited to where a non-citizen has a substantial criminal record or where their conduct represents a risk to the Australian community," a spokesperson for the Home Affairs Department told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The 35-year-old, who now makes a living through speaking engagements, had planned events at the Sydney Opera House, as well as in Melbourne, Brisbane. She is also slated to speak in two major cities in New Zealand, though several politicians have called her a "felon" and are lobbying for her visa to be canceled.

Think Inc., which has organized the Australian events, has appealed for support to allow Manning to speak.

"We are looking for support from relevant national bodies or individuals, especially politicians who can support Chelsea's entry into Australia," Think Inc's director Suzi Jamil wrote.

Many have called for action to grant Manning a visa.

Richard Di Natale, the leader of the Australian Greens, wrote a letter to government ministers urging them to grant Manning a visa.

"Australians have indicated their strong interest in hearing what Manning has to say her events in Australia are sold out. To deny her opportunity to speak to our community is unfair and unwarranted."

Some have called out Australia for allowing other controversial figures, including Canadian far-right internet personality Lauren Southern, and former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos, to speak at major events.

Manning had previously been denied entry to Canada in 2017 because of her criminal record.

In September, Manning was named a visiting fellow at Harvard University, but the university withdrew the title days later after pushback from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo.

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Australia may ban Chelsea Manning because of 'character ...

The New Zealand opposition has called for US whistleblower Chelsea Manning to be banned from visiting the country to give a series of talks in September.

Manning was released from prison in May 2017 after being sentenced in 2013 in violation of the US Espionage Act for disclosing classified government documents to WikiLeaks.

She requires a special direction visa to visit New Zealand, and is subject to character provisions in section 15 of the Immigration Act 2009.

Opposition immigration spokesperson Michael Woodhouse said the government should decline Manning a special direction visa because of her history of criminal convictions.

This is a convicted felon, sentenced to 35 years in jail, coming in here for money, Woodhouse told Stuff.

The discretion is not there to apply to a person who expresses virtually no remorse for her offending ... Theres no rehabilitation, no remorse, the very purpose of her visit to come and talk about her crimes.

A spokesperson for Immigration New Zealand said an appropriately delegated INZ staff member will look at the representations in the first instance, and they had received an application from Mannings representatives for a visa.

Manning tweeted last year that she was banned from entering Canada due to her criminal convictions. However, she managed to secure a Canadian visa in May this year.

Greens MP and human rights lawyer Golriz Ghahraman said Manning posed no threat to New Zealand and called Nationals stance on Manning callous

Continuing to condemn Manning for exposing war crimes, including against children and journalists in Iraq and Afghanistan, deliberately shifts the conversation away from accountability of those responsible, effectively aligning us with the oppressor in a situation of injustice, said Gharaman.

Nationals call to shun Manning is particularly callous, given the charges laid against her were all about speaking out against serious misuse of power and she has already served a lengthy sentence of imprisonment, at times in solitary confinement ... Chelsea Manning clearly poses no viable risk to New Zealand.

Manning has never apologized or expressed regret for leaking the documents to WikiLeaks, and said she did so because the difficulties of dealing with mainstream outlets left her no other option.

There was literally no [other] way I couldve done it, she said. I make a lot of mistakes but that doesnt mean I regret those mistakes, because those are learning experiences as well.

Mannings prison sentence was cut short and she was released last year after Barack Obama intervened.

This is the second time in a month that the issue of free speech has made news in New Zealand. Auckland mayor Phil Goff banned far-right Canadian speakers Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern from speaking in any council buildings, and Ardern described New Zealand as hostile to their views, though many Kiwis said the duo had a right to speak and bought tickets to their events.

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