Though she is best known for her role in leaking state secrets, Chelsea Manning is more engaged in what she calls regular activism at the moment, which in todays America means fighting neo-Nazis.

Manning who is about to make her first trip to Australia in September on a speaking tour will come to our shores with warnings about the rise of white nationalism in the United States, the police state and what citizens should do to fight back.

Speaking to Guardian Australia ahead of the trip, Manning said she is organising against the second Unite the Right rally in Washington DC where neo-Nazis theyre barely hiding their affiliation folks are coming here for a white civil rights rally, which is the most ridiculous thing in the entire world in my opinion.

They stand as a legitimate threat and they have power.

It is a warning that has resonance in Australia, days after Sky News hosted an interview with the far-right extremist Blair Cottrell, which they later apologised for and took down.

The former US military analyst, who served seven years of a 35-year sentence in military prison after leaking a vast trove of 700,000 secret documents to WikiLeaks, has already upended the world once and it sounds like, through activism, she is determined to do it again.

In multiple interviews since her release, Manning has claimed that time pressures and difficulties with mainstream outlets forced her to send the documents direct to WikiLeaks but she has never said sorry or expressed regret.

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

Ive made a couple of errors since Ive been out of prison that Ive had to learn from because Im navigating life again.

Manning says her stint in prison had a lot of long-term effects on her but explains only elliptically because she says she does not fully understand them. Its been slow, its been very difficult for me to recognise the things going on.

Mannings sentence was cut short by a surprise commutation by Barack Obama and within a year she threw herself into an unsuccessful run in the Democratic primary for a Maryland Senate seat.

Manning insists that her Senate run is not on the list of errors but she talks extensively about cures for the worlds ills outside of electoral politics.

If people in the United States or Australia are afraid of the extensive powers of police and national security agencies, Manning says they can demand more we dont have to be afraid.

The only political decisions we make in our lives are not just voting or signing a petition or going out to a protest every single thing that we do, in essence, can be a political decision, she says.

People can choose whether or not to do business with repressive institutions, whether or not to call the police, whether or not we want to depend on these kinds of systems that really harm enormous amounts of people.

Asked about her comments on Twitter that change wont come through any ballot and expressing extreme scepticism about the prospect of change at the forthcoming US midterm elections, Manning clarifies she is not saying you shouldnt vote.

We actually have power in our every day lives ... if we keep expecting that voting is going to change that were not going to see any change at all, she says. [Electoral politics] has to be in conjunction with an actual movement that has teeth.

When asked whether the US president, Donald Trump, is a unique threat, Manning describes him as not an aberration but the inevitable conclusion of a trend ... of the political system in the United States.

The more concerning thing for me is the fact that a single person, a single office has the power to do these things, and this has been allowed to happen.

Because of that we have to reconsider how we structure our political system I often ask the question, Why do we even have a president?

Manning warns the trend to a police state is not only happening in the US. In the Australian context, Manning cites issues including whats happened to Indigenous folks who are also over-represented in prison statistics and the sphere of influence of Australia with migration and immigrants.

The former prime minister Tony Abbott has recommended that Europe adopt Australias harsh policies of turning back asylum seeker boats, an idea gaining traction with the far right. When Malcolm Turnbull described Australias policy of refusing to allow even legitimate refugees who arrive by boat to settle in Australia, Trump remarked you are worse than I am.

In a series of three lectures in September, Manning will explore the growth of the police state and activism at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Antidote festival, and talks in Melbourne and Brisbane hosted by ThinkInc.

Manning also includes Australia in her critique of media complicity in the growing power of police and the security apparatus.

Despite Trump railing against the fake news media, Manning says a cosy, symbiotic relationship exists between the media and institutions of power to maintain access and sources even if coverage can, at times, still be unfavourable.

Journalists accept the frame given to them by politicians even though [its] designed to mislead or obfuscate things, she claims.

I just had a very telling interview, actually, with an Australian journalist [who] weaved the words traitor, spy, criminal, smuggle [and] stole into every single question. Its also about the framing.

But despite that added scrutiny on her every move, Manning says her past conviction has not limited what she can do as an activist one bit.

Theres been this mainstream media portrayal of things - Ive really moved on, Im actually much more focused on whats happening in the US right now.

I cant go back and change and make any decisions differently, so I dont do that. I dont try to relitigate all the decisions in my life.

Manning is appearing on Sunday 2 September at Sydney Opera House (as part of Antidote), Friday 7 September at MCEC, Melbourne, and Tuesday 11 September at The Tivoli, Brisbane. Tickets available at thinkinc.org.au.

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Chelsea Manning on the far right, state surveillance and ...

Saturdays talk schedule at the HOPE conference was centered around one thing: the on-stage interview with Chelsea Manning. Not only was a two-hour session blocked out (almost every other talk has been one hour) but all three stages were reserved with live telecast between the three rooms.

I was lucky enough to get a seat very close to the stage in the main hall. The room was packed front to back. Even the standing room mapped out on the carpet in tape and closely policed by conference fire marshals was packed with people standing shoulder to shoulder. The audience was alive with energy, and I think everyone lucky enough to be here today shares my feeling that moments like these tie our community together and help us all focus on what is important in life, as individuals and as a society.

Chelsea was very recently released from prison. So recently, that the last time this conference was held back in 2016, she and her close circle of friends were under the impression that she was very far from the end of her sentence. One such friend, Yan Zhu, joined Chelsea on stage in a comfortable armchair-setting to guide the interview.

Chelsea Manning was sentenced to serve 35 years in Leavenworth maximum-security prison, having been convicted in 2013 of violating the Espionage Act. This talk (and the article Im writing now) was not about the events leading up to that conviction, but rather about Chelseas life since being released, with a bit of background on the experience of being incarcerated. Her early release came as the result of a commutation of sentence by President Barack Obama that returned her freedom just over one year ago.

Serving seven years in jail meant missing seven years of technological evolution. I think its safe to say everyone reading this article possesses far above average skills when it comes to computers, the internet, and electronics. How much of a mountain is it to climb to get back up to speed with all that youd missed?

One of the most interesting anecdotes on this readjustment period is Chelseas story about getting a computer into her hands for the first time again. Her lawyers had offered to buy her one. That sounds easy enough, but for anyone serious about infosec, and especially those who are likely to be targets of surveillance, you cant just order a laptop from an online retailer. She leaned on her support structure to help her acquire a secure machine. (Id actually like to dig deeper into that topic so keep your eye on Hackaday for future articles on secure sourcing.)

Hardware in hand, she started whittling away at the topics necessary to get back into the now. Among these, gettingup to speed on virtual machine platforms, advances in network security, new warning systems, and the requisite mailing lists to stay on top of the latest research were on her short list. She mentioned that she thinks a lot ofwhat once were tedious tasks have been tamped down through automation.

All of this, however, is the small part of her readjustment. When Chelsea entered prison she was only 22 years old. She had never lived by herself, and just learning how to find and rent an apartment was a big adjustment. Prison social dynamics do not jive with life on the outside and her discussion took the audience through what it has been like making the mental pivot to rejoin society.

Yan Zhu asked if Chelsea had considered becoming a community organizer. Chelsea has already been working in that area as a prisoner advocate. She spends time writing to prisoners and convincing others to do the same. There are at least 2.2 million people incarcerated in the United States. Chelsea mentioned that we have seen much activism around police violence. She believes that most people assume that those in prison are violent and scary people, but that her experience was that the most violent and scary people I met in prison were the prison guards.

She goes on to say that the people in jails and prisons are part of our communities and we should treat them as such; that we need to stop writing people off. This a powerful message, and she concedes that its really hard to do this. Even the most supportive of people struggle to keep a torch lit year in and year for prisoners whom they very infrequently see because of the separation between inside and outside worlds.

This year, Chelsea Manning ran in the US Senate primary in Maryland against an incumbent Senator. The primary was in June and she did not win, but was interesting to hear of her experiences during the campaign. It makes me wonder about the number of times people from the infosec community have run for national office?

The discussion dipped into the topic of social media and its role in politics. Chelsea posits that a bulk of the problem goes back to algorithms, that machine learning has picked up on the fact that were now being hyper-stimulated. She described a feedback loop that automatically promotes content that is making people angry or upset. The algorithms encourage this because it results in more content more activity from users. She attributed this to alittle meme generating weakness in our brain.

Her solution is not to ban social media. She believes we still need these tools to communicate, but that maybe we should stop algorithmically picking what people should see in their feed. She also advocates that we read books. Reading about other things that are going on with which were not familiar, exposing ourselves to new ideas and new ways of thinking, and learning about new cultures and new social norms is a time-tested way to build society.

I found myself wondering why so many people in this enormous audience felt so connected to this person on stage. I myself felt it quite strongly. Thinking back to the very beginning of the talk helped me understand this a little more.

Part of the early discussion centered upon any advice Chelsea had for engineers. Because of the information systems that are pervasive throughout our world, the actions of one person can have great ramifications. Chelsea Mannings actions effected the lives of many people, herself included. No matter what you think about those actions, I believe we can all empathizewith the reality that many people are working in roles where their actions and decisions can have great consequences.

She stresses that were not just making tools these things have direct impact on huge parts of the population. Large data sets and machine learning are giving rise topredictive analysis. If applied incorrectly, this has the ability to destroy lives. Could your actions deny millions of people access to their livelihood, or to their rights? Developing software that has unintended consequences is often because the ramifications werent thought out ahead of time. These are difficult questions that Chelsea put forth, but it is imperative that technological advancement doesnt outpace the rate at which we find answers to them.

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HOPE XII: Chelsea Manning | Hackaday

Government leaker and transgender rights advocate Chelsea Manning entered the U.S. Senate race in Maryland to huge fanfare this year, but her campaign is poised to wind down quietly Tuesday when voters head to the polls on primary day.

Ms. Manning promised to shake up the race, using her high profile to push a platform that included creating a universal health care system, abolishing federal law enforcement agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and combating what she called the American police state.

But the strain of being in the public eye after seven years in prison for leaking secrets took its toll, friends and advocates say, compounded by the attacks she has faced during the campaign.

That culminated in a strange episode late last month when she made several posts on social media suggesting that she was contemplating suicide, before a tweet from her account later said she was safe.

Campaign spokeswoman Kelly Wright told The Associated Press after the incident that the candidate needed space to heal but that she had not suspended her campaign to unseat Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin in the Democratic Party primary.

Still, she has been out of the public eye and took what she said was a long-overdue break from Twitter at a time when voters are making up their minds.

Glenn Greenwald, a friend of Ms. Manning and co-founder of The Intercept, said her entrance into the race compounded the difficult adjustment she has had after her time in prison.

That has created a lot of hatred and animosity toward her on the part of Democratic Party loyalists who directed a lot of bile and hatred at her, which to be honest is fair game once you announce that youre going to run as a major candidate, he said in an interview last month with Democracy Now.

But I think its clear that she wasnt really prepared for that. She wasnt really ready for that, he said.

Ms. Mannings campaign did not respond to phone messages and emails seeking comment.

But even in the best of environments for an insurgent-style campaign, any candidate would have a tough time unseating Mr. Cardin, a two-term Democrat who has 50 years of experience as a federal and state lawmaker in Maryland.

Mr. Cardin said he is confident heading into the Tuesday primary and that top concerns he has been hearing from residents include health care, prescription drug costs, jobs, the environment and health of the Chesapeake Bay, and the effect President Trump is having on Americas values.

A Goucher College poll released in February, soon after Ms. Manning announced her candidacy, showed Mr. Cardin with a 61 percent to 17 percent lead over her.

A Zogby poll conducted in March on behalf of Jerome Segal, another Democratic challenger, showed Mr. Cardin with about 50 percent support; 38 percent were undecided, and Ms. Manning was the closest challenger at 3 percent.

Mr. Cardin acknowledged Ms. Mannings national name recognition but deferred comment to her campaign on why she hasnt managed to gain more traction.

I have not seen her on the campaign trail at all. Ive never met her, and Im out every day, he said.

She also has struggled to find financial backers, raising just $81,361 for her campaign through June 6. Mr. Cardin raised nearly $4 million this year.

Known as Pfc. Bradley Manning when arrested in 2010, she was convicted in 2013 on espionage and theft charges for leaking government secrets to WikiLeaks.

She came out as a transgender woman in 2013 while serving in an all-male federal prison in Kansas. She tried to kill herself at least twice while behind bars, her attorney said.

Her fight for better conditions as a woman in a male prison became a major cause for the gay rights community.

She was released from prison in May 2017 after President Barack Obama commuted her 35-year sentence to time served.

Yet many in the military and national intelligence communities still consider her a traitor for leaking thousands of documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a military analyst.

Harvard University announced in September that she would be a visiting fellow for the academic year only to quickly reverse course after a swift backlash, including criticism from then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Ms. Manning has staked out a fiercely liberal platform, demanding an overhaul of the federal prison system, abolishing the immigration enforcement agencies and instituting a universal basic income.

She also called for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to be abolished, saying it acts merely as a rubber stamp for the government in an attempt to provide an illusion of oversight and checks and balances behind a wall of secrecy.

Maryland is a deeply Democratic state, but analysts said that doesnt mean it is ready to embrace calls for open borders or disbanding entire police departments.

Maryland is Democratic Maryland has not historically been progressive, said Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Marys College of Maryland.

Ms. Manning also doesnt seem to have done the retail politicking that is needed to gain traction in a statewide campaign, said Mileah Kromer, a political science professor at Goucher College in Baltimore.

The issue with her candidacy and other candidacies is its difficult to run a statewide race, period, Ms. Kromer said.

Ms. Manning, along with Mr. Segal and Rikki Vaughn, another Democratic challenger to Mr. Cardin, co-authored a June 7 piece in The Washington Post saying the incumbent should debate his Democratic opponents.

Not one progressive organization in the state has endorsed any candidate in the primary, they wrote. And while multiple debates were scheduled for the gubernatorial race, not one civic organization, or media organization and not the Democratic Party itself proposed a debate between us and Cardin.

Though he is indeed the prohibitive favorite, Mr. Cardin has been running radio ads in the Baltimore and Washington media markets. He will likely face one of about a dozen Republicans vying for their partys nomination Tuesday.

I am asking the voters of Maryland to allow me to continue to use my experience, seniority and willingness to work beyond party lines to help promote their interests and their goals in the U.S. Senate, Mr. Cardin said.

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Chelsea Manning's Senate campaign in Maryland falters ...

Famed leaker Chelsea Manning attracted national news coverage in announcing plans earlier this year to challenge longtime Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin from the left in the Democratic primary.

But despite all the media attention and excitement from liberal activists, the former Army intelligence analyst previously known as Bradley Manning -- who was convicted of leaking classified documents before transitioning to a woman and later winning a commutation from then-President Barack Obama -- has struggled to make a significant mark on the race.

The Baltimore Sun, the largest newspaper in Maryland, reported last week that its not clear if Manning is even campaigning anymore ahead of Tuesdays vote. The paper said Mannings campaign hasnt responded to requests for comment for weeks.

Mannings campaign did not return a request for comment Monday from Fox News, either.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Manning has reported raising a paltry $76,355 from campaign donors.

And on Twitter, Manning seems resigned to losing, tweeting in recent weeks we cant expect any change thru the upcoming elections - the primaries are rigged and voting wont change anything. (Manning's Twitter description doesn't even reference the Senate campaign.)

But Mannings fading campaign follows an alarming episode in May where she posted a pair of tweets hinting that the candidate was contemplating suicide, including a photo of feet standing on the ledge of a high-rise building.

CHELSEA MANNING 'SAFE' AFTER TWEET THAT SPARKED CONCERN FOR SAFETY

"I'm sorry - I tried - I'm sorry I let you all down," Manning wrote in one of the now-deleted tweets. "Im not really cut out for this world - I tried adapting to this world out here but I failed you.

Shortly after the tweets, Mannings Twitter handle reported that she was safe and on the phone with friends. Thanks everyone for your concern and please give her some space, the tweet read.

Manning, then known as Bradley Manning, was arrested in 2010 and convicted in 2013 of leaking a trove of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks. Mannings sentence was controversially commuted by Obama in 2017 after Manning had served seven years of a 35-year sentence.

Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, 74, was first elected to Congress in 1987 and is seen to be in a commanding position to not only win the primary but also re-election. (AP)

Since leaving prison, Manning has become known for provocative tweets and liberal policy positions, often accompanied with a series of emojis and the hashtag #WeGotThis. Manning once tweeted out the message f--- the police on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, along with the hashtag #DisarmThePolice.

Manning has also referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as literally the new gestapo, and has called for the elimination of the agency that enforces immigration laws.

Cardin, 74, was first elected to Congress in 1987 and is seen to be in a commanding position to not only win the primary but also re-election. The crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary in Maryland to take on GOP Gov. Larry Hogan is viewed as the more competitive contest on Tuesday.

Other races are being held across the country on Tuesday including in New York, Colorado, Maryland, Oklahoma, Utah, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Closely watched contests include former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romneys GOP primary campaign for Senate in Utah, as well as South Carolinas gubernatorial runoff between incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster and businessman John Warren, with President Trump stumping for McMaster Monday evening.

Fox News Adam Shaw and Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.

Alex Pappas is a politics reporter at FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexPappas.

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Chelsea Manning leaking support in uphill Senate race ...

Chelsea Manning lost her bid for a U.S. Senate seat from Maryland on Tuesday, as incumbent Ben Cardin defeated her and six other challengers in the states Democratic primary.

Manning drew national attention when she filedin Januaryto run against the 74-year-old Cardin.

The 30-year-old government whistleblower and former intelligence analyst began her race with some momentum, but her campaign stalled in recent weeks as appearances and fundraising declined, The Washington Post reported.

Manning conceded with an online statementTuesday addressing her pullback in campaigning efforts to focus on her physical and mental health in recent months. She thanked her staff and volunteers for their work while telling her supporters to realize the power we have as individuals.

We started this campaign knowing it was a long-shot, Manning wrote in her concession. But, after spending hours and hours knocking on doors and making phone calls, Im convinced that the change people truly need goes beyond what our corrupt two-party system is willing to offer.

Last month, Manning posted a thread on Twitter claiming that Maryland residents were uninterested in voting and thatprimaries are rigged.

In one of her tweets, Manning said that we need something radically different and we cant just ask for it or expect it to happen somehow.

Cardin, long a fixture on the Maryland political scene, is a heavy favorite to win a third Senate term in Novembers general election in the strongly Democratic state.

Manning, in her campaign, called for abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency months before it was put in the spotlight by President Donald Trumps since-rescinded policy of cracking down on undocumented immigrants by separating parents from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border.

We dont need ICE, she said in an interview with Democracy Now! in March. We dont need a lot of these gigantic... police agencies that are singularly focused on deporting people.

Manning,a former Army private,pleaded guilty in 2013 to leakingmore than 700,000 government files to WikiLeaks. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but was released in May 2017 after former President Barack Obama commutedher sentence in January of that year, just as he was leaving office.

She became a symbol of transgender rights while in jail when she went on a hunger strike to protest officials who denied her request forgender confirmation treatment.Manning, who was assigned male at birth and transitioned during her imprisonment, ended her strike after the Army complied with her request.

This story has been updated with a concession statement from Manning.

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Chelsea Manning Loses Longshot Maryland Primary Challenge ...

Chelsea Manning was defeated Tuesday in her run against longtime Sen. Ben Cardin in the Maryland Democratic primary. (Getty Images, File)

Convicted leaker Chelsea Manning was soundly defeated Tuesday in her run against longtime Sen. Ben Cardin in the Maryland Democratic primary, ending a longshot bid that attracted widespread media attention when it began in January.

Cardin, 74, triumphed over Manning and six other Democrats, although none was as high-profile as Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst whom President Trump has described as an "ungrateful traitor."

A two-term incumbent and ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Cardin is expected to prevail in the solidly blue state in November. His Republican opponent is yet to be determined.

For Manning, who was arrested in 2010 and convicted in 2013 of leaking a trove of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks, a run for the Senate would have been all but unthinkable years ago.

But Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, served only seven years of a 35-year sentence, after former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence just before he left office.

After the results were announced Tuesday night, Manning claimed a kind of victory, saying her "campaign platform has advanced an anti-authoritarian agenda."

"Win or lose, our campaign is part of a growing political insurrection," Manning said in the statement. "Our power is real. Our movement is larger than any election, and the political establishment ignores our voices at their own peril."

Manning's rhetoric was incendiary throughout the campaign. In January, she called Immigration and Customs Enforcement "literally the new gestapo." She has called for abolishing both ICE and the presidency itself.

OPINION: IT'S ABSURD TO EVEN THINK ABOUT AWARDING A SENATE SEAT TO A CRIMINAL

In recent weeks, though, Manning seemed resigned to defeat, tweeting: "we cant expect any change thru the upcoming elections - the primaries are rigged." Her campaign was trailing significantly in the polls, and had raised relatively little money.

In May, a photo on Manning's Twitter account apparently showed the 30-year-old standing on the edge of an upper-story window ledge. The photo was posted to Manning's Twitter account late Sunday with the words: "I'm sorry."

It was sent shortly after a separate tweet that said: "im not really cut out for this world i tried adapting to this world out here but i failed you i couldn't do this anymore," among other things.The epsiode caused widespread alarm. A friend later said Manning was OK and needed "some space."

State officials hadwarned that a computer glitchmight cause some problems for voters on Tuesday in Maryland -- although they reassured the public that all votes would eventually be counted.

Voters cast ballots in seven states on Tuesday, including South Carolina, New York, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma and Mississippi as well as Maryland. With the November general election a little more than four months away, more than half the states will have selected their candidates after the day's final votes are counted.

Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Gregg Re is an editor for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @gregg_re.

Continued here:
Chelsea Manning loses longshot bid in Maryland Democratic ...

Chelsea Manning, the transgender soldier and activist who gained attention after being convicted of leaking classified government and military documents to the website WikiLeaks, tweeted that she is "safe" after a now-deleted photo of a person standing on a ledge with the words "I'm sorry" caused concern online.

The photo was posted on Manning's account on Sunday night, showing a person's feet standing on what appears to be a ledge of a building with a street shown below. It's unclear if it was Manning in the photo.

Later Sunday evening, the photo appeared to be deleted and instead a tweet was sent from Manning's account reading, "Chelsea is safe. She is on the phone with friends, thanks everyone for your concern and please give her some space."

Kelly Wright, a friend of Manning who also is the communications director for her Senate bid, told The Associated Press on Monday that the 30-year-old transgender woman now needs the "space to heal." She did not reply when asked if Manning was seeking professional help.

When asked whether Manning had suspended her Senate campaign, Wright wrote: "Negative."

In her text message, Wright said Manning's adjustment to life outside prison has been "extremely difficult."

"I have seen firsthand and up close the violence inflicted on her by years of imprisonment, solitary confinement and torture," Wright said. "This is made worse by the impossibly high expectations our society sets for public figures, especially on social media."

Manning, whose name was Bradley at the time of her arrest in 2010, worked as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. She was convicted in 2013 in military court of six violations of the Espionage Act and 14 other offenses for providing to WikiLeaks more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents, as well as battlefield videos.

Since was released from a military prison last year after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence when President Obama granted her clemency, Manning has now turned to politics, filing paperwork for a Democratic primary bid in Maryland.

Manning, who currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland, is seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin who is seeking his third term in the Senate.

2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Chelsea Manning tweets she's "safe" after deleting ...

Chelsea Manning is reportedly out of the harms way following a scare caused by her now-deleted tweets contemplating suicide. (AP)

Chelsea Manning reportedly posted a pair of tweets Sunday night that hinted suicide contemplation that have since been deleted.

Shortly after the tweets, Mannings Twitter handle reported that she is safe and was on the phone with friends.

Thanks everyone for your concern and please give her some space, the tweet read.

Manning, who is currently living in Bethesda in Maryland, announced her run for U.S. Senate earlier this year. She was sentenced to 35-years in prison in 2013 for violating the Espionage Act and leaking sensitive information to WikiLeaks.

One of the alarming messages posted by Chelsea Manning on Twitter.(Twitter)

President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in his last day in office in 2017.

The candidate for the U.S. Senate posted a picture that appeared to show a person looking down to a street from atop a building.

"I'm sorry - I tried - I'm sorry I let you all down," Manning wrote in one of the now-deleted tweets, The Daily News reported. "Im not really cut out for this world - I tried adapting to this world out here but I failed you - I couldn't do this anymore - I can take people I don't know hating me but not my own friends," she added. "I tried and I'm sorry about my failure."

Many on social media quickly jumped on her frightening tweets, asking friends to contact Manning or the authorities to ensure her safety.

The alarming messages came after a debate on social media with Dawn Ennis, a former ABC News assignment editor who criticized Mannings remark that voting wont change anything.

Ennis, who came out as transgender in 2013, posted on Twitter, I am looking forward to an update on Chelseas well being in the morning. I truly wish her well. And I expect a new wave of online anger and hate to greet me, too. Be kind to all those who struggle. I myself will work harder to bear that in mind.

Lukas Mikelionis is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter@LukasMikelionis.

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Chelsea Manning 'safe' after tweet that sparked concern ...

NORTH BETHESDA, Md. Chelsea Manning is no longer living as a transgender woman in a male military prison, serving the lengthiest sentence ever for revealing U.S. government secrets. Shes free to grow out her hair, travel the world, and spend time with whomever she likes.

But a year since former President Barack Obama commuted Mannings 35-year sentence, Americas most famous convicted leaker isnt taking an extended vacation. Far from it: The Oklahoma native has decided to make an unlikely bid for the U.S. Senate in her adopted state of Maryland.

Manning, 30, filed to run in January and has been registered to vote in Maryland since August. She lives in North Bethesda, not far from where she stayed with an aunt while awaiting trial. Her aim is to unseat Sen. Ben Cardin, a 74-year-old Maryland Democrat who is seeking his third Senate term and previously served 10 terms in the U.S. House.

Manning, who also has become an internationally recognized transgender activist, said shes motivated by a desire to fight what she sees as a shadowy surveillance state and a rising tide of nightmarish repression.

The rise of authoritarianism is encroaching in every aspect of life, whether its government or corporate or technological, Manning told The Associated Press during an interview at her home in an upscale apartment tower. On the walls of her barely furnished living room hang Obamas commutation order, and photos of U.S. anarchist Emma Goldman and British playwright Oscar Wilde.

Mannings longshot campaign for the June 26 primary would appear to be one of the more unorthodox U.S. Senate bids in recent memory, and the candidate is operating well outside the partys playbook. She says she doesnt, in fact, even consider herself a Democrat, but is motivated by a desire to shake up establishment Democrats who are caving in to President Donald Trumps administration. She vows she wont run as an independent if her primary bid fails.

Shes certainly got an eye-catching platform: Close prisons and free inmates; eliminate national borders; restructure the criminal justice system; provide universal health care and basic income. The top of her agenda? Abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency created in 2003 that Manning asserts is preparing for an ethnic cleansing.

Manning ticks off life experiences she believes would make her an effective senator: a stint being homeless in Chicago, her wartime experiences as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq even her seven years in prison. She asserts shes got a bigger vision than establishment politicians.

But political analysts suspect the convicted felon is not running to win.

Manning is running as a protest candidate, which has a long lineage in American history, to shine light on American empire, said Daniel Schlozman, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. Thats a very different goal, with a very different campaign, than if she wanted to beat Ben Cardin.

Mannings insurgent candidacy thus far has been a decidedly stripped-down affair, with few appearances and a campaign website that just went up. In recent days, she approached an anti-fracking rally in Baltimore almost furtively, keeping to herself for much of the demonstration. But when it was her turn to address the small group, her celebrity status was evident. People who never met her called her by her first name and eagerly took photos.

Manning has acknowledged leaking more than 700,000 military and State Department documents to anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks in 2010. She said her motivation was a desire to spark debate about U.S. foreign policy, and she has been portrayed as both a hero and a traitor.

Known as Bradley Manning at the time of her arrest, she came out as transgender after her 2013 court-martial. She was barred from growing her hair long in prison, and was approved for hormone therapy only after litigation. She spent long stints in solitary confinement, and twice tried to kill herself.

The Pentagon, which has repeatedly declined to discuss Mannings treatment in military prison, is also staying mum about her political ambitions. Democratic Party officials say they have no comment, citing a policy not to weigh in on primaries. Republican operatives are quiet.

In Maryland, a blue state thats home to tens of thousands of federal employees and defense contractors, it appears Mannings main supporters are independents or anti-politics, making them unlikely to coalesce politically. She recently reported contributions of $72,000 on this years first quarterly finance statement, compared with Cardins $336,000.

The candidate has barely made an effort at tapping sources of grassroots enthusiasm outside of activism circles. And its easy to find progressive Democrats who feel her candidacy is just a vehicle to boost her profile.

It feels to me almost like its part of a book tour that this is her moment after being released from prison, said Dana Beyer, a transgender woman who leads the Gender Rights Maryland nonprofit and is a Democratic candidate for state senate. I dont think this is a serious effort.

Manning is indeed working on a book about her dramatic life. For now, she says she supports herself with income from speaking engagements. Shes spoken at various U.S. colleges and is due to take the stage at a Montreal conference later this month.

Last week, she appeared at a tech conference in Germanys capital of Berlin, arriving to cheers from the audience of several thousand people. She told attendees shes still struggling to adjust to life after prison and hasnt gotten used to her celebrity status yet.

Theres been a kind of cult of personality that is really intimidating and that is overwhelming for me, she said in Berlin.

At her Maryland apartment, Manning told the AP she occasionally wakes up panicked that shes back in the cage in Kuwait where she was first jailed, or incarcerated at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, where a U.N. official concluded shed been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. She works hard to overcome anxiety, centering herself with yoga, breathing exercises, and reading.

Ive been out for almost a year now and its becoming increasingly clear to me just how deep the wounds are, she said in her Spartan living room.

Asked how she would define success, Manning responded with passionate intensity: Success for me is survival.

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Chelsea Manning says rise of authoritarianism inspired U ...

Almost one year has passed since Chelsea Manning was released from the U.S Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Manning, the most famous Army whistleblower, served seven years of a 35-year sentence for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified records about the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The day after receiving that sentence in 2014, she released a statement that read in part: As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence before he left office, and she has not wasted any time, announcing a run for the U.S. Senate seat in Maryland.

Appearing on the Democracy Now! news hour, she talked about her newfound freedom: Its overwhelming. I wake up some days, and Im not sure that this is actually happening. Im seeing more and more of the world and how its become the world I feared a decade ago.

These were real people in real places, not just dots on a map, she said. These are peoples lives and emotions. Were in their home I couldnt separate my work from my emotions anymore.

A decade ago she was known as Pvt. Bradley Manning, working as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, where she had a front-row seat to the war: These were real people in real places, not just dots on a map, she said. These are peoples lives and emotions. Were in their home I couldnt separate my work from my emotions anymore.

Manning continued: I went to my housing unit at night, and I couldnt sleep. I would look at the news it was almost like a glossing over of what had happened in Iraq, what I was seeing on the ground I was very worried about that disconnect.

Chelsea Manning amassed a trove of hundreds of thousands of classified, digital records of the U.S. wars: field reports from soldiers detailing everything from thousands of civilian deaths to torture and summary executions, along with thousands of diplomatic cables. After encountering technical hurdles in getting the material to both The Washington Post and The New York Times, she turned to what was at the time a little-known website designed to securely and anonymously receive leaked documents: WikiLeaks.

On April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks released the first of Chelsea Mannings leaks: a grainy video called Collateral Murder. The video was shot from the onboard camera of an Apache helicopter gunship, and captured the helicopters attack on a group of civilians on the ground in Baghdad, as the soldiers laughed and cursed. All 12 men were killed, including videographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, two employees of the Reuters news agency. Manning said of the Collateral Murder video, on Democracy Now!: This is not unusual. This is not a freak incident. This is what war is.

More leaks followed, with many of the worlds most prominent newspapers and magazines partnering with WikiLeaks to produce scores of in-depth, impactful stories based on the leaks.

Manning had confided details of the leak to someone via an online chat, and that person reported her to U.S. authorities. She was arrested, beginning an ordeal of imprisonment and military prosecution that the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, said constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that could constitute torture.

Manning was held in a cage in Kuwait, then moved to a Navy brig in Quantico, Virginia, where she continued to be held in solitary confinement. She described solitary as a practice that needs to be ended everywhere. Nothing justifies doing this to any human being.

Cardin has been in Maryland politics for 40 years, she says. Hes been behind a desk that whole time. What experience can he bring to the table? I have life experience. Ive been homeless. Ive been to prison. Ive been to war.

In prison, she fought for trans rights, suing officials for access to hormone treatments. In 2016, she wrote a letter to President Obama from the all-male prison at Fort Leavenworth where she was being held, appealing for a commutation of her sentence. I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life, she wrote, as the person I was born to be.

Chelsea Manning is now embarking on that life. Part of that is running in the June primary against Sen. Ben Cardin to be the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate. Cardin has been in Maryland politics for 40 years, she says. Hes been behind a desk that whole time. What experience can he bring to the table? I have life experience. Ive been homeless. Ive been to prison. Ive been to war.

Reform is not in her vocabulary. Manning is calling for the abolition of prisons, the elimination of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, for universal health care and more. We need to start pushing back. And the way we do that is by focusing on the systemic problems, she said.

Chelsea Manning ended her first campaign video last January with the hashtag that has come to signify her optimism and determination: #WeGotThis.

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Chelsea Manning: We Got This - commondreams.org