AFP Published Saturday, August 12, 2017 9:10AM EDT Last Updated Saturday, August 12, 2017 1:23PM EDT

Transgender soldier Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst jailed for leaking troves of classified information to WikiLeaks, has turned heads by posing in a red one-piece bathing suit for the September issue of Vogue.

"Guess this is what freedom looks like," Manning said in social media posts that included a picture from the shoot with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, showing Manning walking on a beach, her hands in her wet hair.

"Chelsea Manning changed the course of history. Now she's focusing on herself," says the headline of the fashion magazine's long-form interview with Manning, who has become an icon for transgender activists.

The photo and the article garnered major attention on social media Friday, eliciting comments both for and against Manning, who will turn 30 in December.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks three years earlier, when she was known as Bradley.

She served seven years, and twice tried to take her own life last year alone, before then-president Barack Obama commuted her sentence just days before he left office in January.

Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth's all-male prison in May.

During her incarceration, Manning battled for -- and won -- the right to start hormone treatment. She now has cropped blonde hair and a decidedly feminine look.

For some Americans, she is a hero who paid dearly for leaking embarrassing US diplomatic cables and classified military documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For others, she is a traitor.

So far, Manning's tweet with the Vogue photo has been retweeted about 3,600 times, and has raked in about 27,000 likes.

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Chelsea Manning makes waves with Vogue swimsuit spread - CTV News

Chelsea Manning in NYC Pride March Chelsea Manning in NYC Pride March Related Content

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - Chelsea Manning is making her Vogue debut.

The former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, who served time in prison for leaking classified documents, will be featured in the magazine's September issue.

She was photographed by the renowned Annie Leibovitz, who has taken pictures of President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, John Lennon, Michael Jackson and Caitlyn Jenner.

Manning was convicted in 2013 for leaking reams of material to WikiLeaks. She was sentenced to 35 years in military prison but was released in May. Obama commuted her sentence days before he left office.

Manning came out as transgender the day after she was sentenced. She became the first person to take hormones while in military prison, and she remained in an all-male Army prison until she was released.

Since her release, Manning has spoken candidly about her life, including her decision to leak the classified records and her transition. Her first major interview after prison was published in the New York Times Magazine in June.

"It's not like I'm living in fear or anything," she told Vogue. "I'm so glad to be out and about and walking around."

Manning also participated in the New York City Pride March earlier this year with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Vogue's September issue, which publishes ahead of New York Fashion Week, is typically the largest and most significant that the magazine puts out each year. Previous editions have weighed in at 700 to 900 pages.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence will be featured on the cover.

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Chelsea Manning photographed for Vogue - KNWA

Chelsea Manning in NYC Pride March Chelsea Manning in NYC Pride March Related Content

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - Chelsea Manning is making her Vogue debut.

The former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, who served time in prison for leaking classified documents, will be featured in the magazine's September issue.

She was photographed by the renowned Annie Leibovitz, who has taken pictures of President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, John Lennon, Michael Jackson and Caitlyn Jenner.

Manning was convicted in 2013 for leaking reams of material to WikiLeaks. She was sentenced to 35 years in military prison but was released in May. Obama commuted her sentence days before he left office.

Manning came out as transgender the day after she was sentenced. She became the first person to take hormones while in military prison, and she remained in an all-male Army prison until she was released.

Since her release, Manning has spoken candidly about her life, including her decision to leak the classified records and her transition. Her first major interview after prison was published in the New York Times Magazine in June.

"It's not like I'm living in fear or anything," she told Vogue. "I'm so glad to be out and about and walking around."

Manning also participated in the New York City Pride March earlier this year with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Vogue's September issue, which publishes ahead of New York Fashion Week, is typically the largest and most significant that the magazine puts out each year. Previous editions have weighed in at 700 to 900 pages.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence will be featured on the cover.

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Chelsea Manning photographed for Vogue - WSYR

Chelsea Manning has only been out of prison for a short time, but shes already made a splash.

The trans soldier spent seven years behind bars for leaking 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks.

Now she is out of prison thanks to President Obamas pardon and making the most of her new found freedom.

Manning posted a photo of herself in a red bathing suit to Instagram.

The image of her strutting down the beach, veteran photographer Annie Leibovitz, is taken from the September issue of Vogue.

Guess this is what freedom looks like, she captioned the image on Instagram.

The magazine followed the trans activist as she prepared for the Lambda Literary Awards, which honours LGBT writers.

I knew that I was different, Manning tells Vogue.

I gravitated more toward playing house, but the teachers were always pushing me toward playing the more competitive games with the boys.

She continues: I spent so much time wondering, Whats wrong with me? Why cant I fit in?

Manning was just 22 when she shared the US diplomatic correspondence, which included evidence of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, profiles of detainees at Guantanamo prison camp, and low-level battlefield reports.

Manning speaking to ABC in her first interview since leaving prison. Interview below.

I have a responsibility to the public we all have a responsibility, Manning told ABC News.

Anything Ive done, its me. Theres no one else. No one told me to do this. Nobody directed me to do this. This is me. Its on me.

The 29-year-old added: Were getting all this information from all these different sources and its just death, destruction, mayhem.

Were filtering it all through facts, statistics, reports, dates, times, locations, and eventually, you just stop.

I stopped seeing just statistics and information, and I started seeing people.

Obamas decision to commute Mannings sentence one of the last of his presidency was credited by many commentators to years of campaigning from advocacy groups.

The decision was criticised by then President Elect Donald Trump, who called Manning an ungrateful traitor.

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Chelsea Manning poses for Vogue magazine in red swimsuit - PinkNews

Recently released Chelsea Manning, who worked in Army intelligence, tried to pick a fight with the Daily Wires Ben Shapiro and it did not turn out well. In 2010, Manning leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, along with 250,000 cables from the State Department, to Wikileaks. That same year, Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for leaking classified material. President Barack Obama commuted the sentence after Manning served seven years (via WaPo):

Manning, 29, was an intelligence analyst for the Army at the time of her arrest in 2010. The trove of material she provided to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks documents known as the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs included video of a U.S. Apache helicopter opening fire on a group of suspected insurgents in Baghdad. Among the dead were two journalists who worked for the Reuters news agency.

She also leaked documents related to detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and about 250,000 State Department cables.

Manning tweeted imagine a world without prisons, to which Shapiro responded by saying weve all seen Mad Max. The deathblow was delivered shortly thereafter. Independent Journal Reviews Benny Johnson wrote about the exchange.

Ouch.

Editor's Note: Manning was mistakenly referred to as an Army officer. That wasn't the case. Apologies for the error, folks.

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Chelsea Manning Tried To Pick A Fight With Ben ShapiroThings Did Not Turn Out Well - Townhall

An ACLU attorney who represented Chelsea Manning is blasting the organization's decision to defend conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulous in a lawsuit against Washington D.C.'s public transit agency.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday announced they were suing the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority over its refusal to display ads promoting Milo Yiannopoulos' book.

"I don't believe in protecting principle for the sake of protecting principle in all cases," Chase Strangio said in a statement.

Strangio argues Yiannopoulos' behavior may not necessarily fall under the legal definition of incitement but his actions do "exacerbate harm" to the black and transgender communities.

"The ACLU has a long history of representing despicable people in the service of protecting valuable First Amendment principles and in some cases I support decisions that have been made and in other cases I do not. Here I do not," Strangio said.

The ACLU's lawsuit argues parts of WMATA's ad policies violate the First Amendment by discriminating against particular ads and advertisers deemed controversial by WMATA officials.

Metro's policies first came into place in 2015 after a set of anti-Muslim advertisements sparked controversy. Current guidelines ban ads "intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions," ads that "support or oppose an industry position or industry goal without any direct commercial benefit to the advertiser," and ads "intended to influence public policy," among others.

"This case highlights the consequences of the government's attempt to suppress all controversial speech on public transit property," Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU-DC and lead counsel in the case, said in a statement Wednesday. "The First Amendment protects the speech of everyone from discriminatory government censorship, whether you agree with the message or not."

"The ACLU could not more strongly disagree with the values that Milo Yiannopoulos espouses, but we can't allow the government to pick and choose which viewpoints are acceptable," said Lee Rowland, senior staff attorney with the ACLU.

The suit asked the court to declare portions of the WMATA advertising guidelines unconstitutional because they violate free speech rights and are unconstitutionally vague. A motion has also been filed on behalf of Milo Worldwide LLC, seeking immediate financial restitution for the ongoing loss of revenue from book sales caused by what they deem the wrongful removal of advertisements for his book.

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Chelsea Manning's attorney blasts ACLU's decision to defend Milo Yiannopoulos - Washington Examiner

Manning came out as a transgender woman in prison.

As a prisoner at the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, she had to conform to male grooming standards before her 3 a.m. ET release.

"She has experienced trauma over the past seven years of her confinement and the trauma from those experiences won't just evaporate the day she walks out of prison," said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio, who represented Manning.

"It's going be a process for her to heal and begin to live her free life with more autonomy over her gender and her decisions and vision for the future."

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

She also tweeted a photo of her feet, clad in black, low-top Converse Chuck Taylors, with the caption, "First steps of freedom!!"

The Army says Manning will remain on unpaid, active-duty status as she continues to appeal her court-martial. This means she will maintain her access to military medical benefits, including for gender dysphoria and gender reassignment, but Strangio said his client has no interest because of the treatment she endured in prison.

"Because of the nature of her circumstances and the experience of confinement, she is very committed to living her life as free from the government as possible and taking care of her own health benefits and financial needs, separate and apart from the continued benefits available to her," the lawyer said.

She clearly looked forward to what life might hold for her outside the military prison walls.

Amnesty International, which had campaigned for Manning's release, was quick to applaud her freedom but said the fight was not over.

"While we celebrate her freedom, we will continue to call for an independent investigation into the potential human rights violations she exposed, and for protections to be put in place to ensure whistleblowers like Chelsea are never again subjected to such appalling treatment," a statement said.

But it didn't come easily. Manning launched a hunger strike in September, demanding access to treatment for her gender dysphoria.

Though she still needs to navigate the legal process, Manning's "priority is living her life in the civilian world and taking care of her own needs."

She hopes to reside in the Washington area, the attorney said, explaining her supporters there will be vital, not only to her transition to civilian life but also to her transition to living openly as a transgender woman.

"It's going to be Chelsea telling us what her future will look like," Strangio said.

She hopes to continue hormone therapy and may pursue gender reassignment if doctors continue to recommend it, Strangio said.

Otherwise, she looks forward to growing out her hair and discovering "what will make her feel like she can embody womanhood" without the government's interference, he said.

Manning's attorneys Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward agreed.

"Chelsea has already served the longest sentence of any whistleblower in the history of this country. It has been far too long, too severe, too draconian," Hollander and Ward said in a joint statement.

"President Obama's act of commutation was the first time the military took care of this soldier who risked so much to disclose information that served the public interest."

CNN's Holly Yan, Laura Jarrett, AnneClaire Stapleton and Mike Callahan contributed to this report.

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Chelsea Manning released from prison - CNNPolitics

30 lifelike 3D portraits of Chelsea Manning's face hang from the ceiling in the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan. 30 lifelike 3D portraits of Chelsea Manning's face hang from the ceiling in the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan. Related Content

NEW YORK (CNN) - For years, we only had one photo of Chelsea Manning: that iconic black and white mugshot she sent to her therapist.

It was made public by the Army in 2013 and remained the only photo portraying her as a woman until her release from prison in 2017 -- other photos were prohibited while she was in custody.

It's strangely fitting, then, that 30 lifelike 3D portraits of her face now hang from a ceiling in the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan.

They are part of a project called "A Becoming Resemblance," by Heather Dewey-Hagborg, who created them from computer-generated images made using Manning's DNA.

"This is a sampling of thirty possible faces that could be produced algorithmically reading Chelsea's DNA data," said Dewey-Hagborg during the exhibition's private view.

"They represent a wide range of the diversity that exists within Chelsea's genome, a diversity in which that same DNA data can be read."

Manning spent seven years in prison for leaking government documents to WikiLeaks. During that time, she had gender transition surgery.

Originally sentenced to 35 years when she was still known as Bradley Manning, she was pardoned in January 2017 by then President Obama -- on his third-to-last day in office -- and then released on 17 May.

The DNA samples were recovered from cheek swabs and hair clippings that were part of a correspondence between Manning and Dewey-Hagborg.

It's a similar process to Dewey-Hagborg's groundbreaking 2012 project "Stranger Visions," which used random bits of DNA found on cigarette butts and other litter to create portraits of strangers.

"In 2015 I received an email more or less out of the blue from Paper magazine. She couldn't be visited and photographed at that time and so they reached out to Chelsea and asked if she'd be interested in having a DNA portrait made."

A handful of letters were exchanged over the next two years through an intermediary.

"Chelsea was excited about the idea, but also concerned the she might appear too male in a portrait generated just based on her DNA," said Dewey-Hagborg.

"I'm hoping that people will take away the idea that genetics is not destiny and a kind of push for self-determined identity and a push against efforts to inscribe identities into us, or for external forces to tell us who we are rather than listening to us say this is who I am."

Ruddy Shrock, the curator of the exhibition, defined it as a "a poetic investigation Heather took into issues of identity and ownership of oneself."

Around 250 people were in attendance at the opening. Manning arrived accompanied by friends and her agent, but declined to speak with the media.

She was followed around by the documentary team for "Chelsea XY," which will be released at Sundance Film Festival in January 2018.

She did engage with fans and supporters and took photos with them.

"To have Chelsea out, in a dress, creating art, on this wonderful journey with other activists and people in the media, it's really moving," said Suzie Glbert, one of the attendees.

Jeff Seelbach, a fan of Chelsea and producer at the company funding her documentary, said: "The thing that fascinates me about it is the very unique and terrible situation she was in, that her identity and her ability to have an image and a representation was completely suppressed by the government and by our legal system."

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg also got to meet Chelsea in person for the first time after their mail exchange.

"It was both totally amazing and then completely normal. I mean we had brunch, avocado toast, you know, your typical New York thing. But then it was also just completely stunning to see someone you've pictured in your head," she noted.

"She's [Chelsea] really excited about it, this is her kind of art debut."

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Chelsea-Mannings-DNA-spawns-lifelike-3D-portraits - Story - CIproud.com

It was made public by the Army in 2013 and remained the only photo portraying her as a woman until her release from prison in 2017 -- other photos were prohibited while she was in custody.

It's strangely fitting, then, that 30 lifelike 3D portraits of her face now hang from a ceiling in the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan.

"This is a sampling of thirty possible faces that could be produced algorithmically reading Chelsea's DNA data," said Dewey-Hagborg during the exhibition's private view.

"They represent a wide range of the diversity that exists within Chelsea's genome, a diversity in which that same DNA data can be read."

The DNA samples were recovered from cheek swabs and hair clippings that were part of a correspondence between Manning and Dewey-Hagborg.

It's a similar process to Dewey-Hagborg's groundbreaking 2012 project "Stranger Visions," which used random bits of DNA found on cigarette butts and other litter to create portraits of strangers.

"In 2015 I received an email more or less out of the blue from Paper magazine. She couldn't be visited and photographed at that time and so they reached out to Chelsea and asked if she'd be interested in having a DNA portrait made."

A handful of letters were exchanged over the next two years through an intermediary.

"Chelsea was excited about the idea, but also concerned the she might appear too male in a portrait generated just based on her DNA," said Dewey-Hagborg.

"I'm hoping that people will take away the idea that genetics is not destiny and a kind of push for self-determined identity and a push against efforts to inscribe identities into us, or for external forces to tell us who we are rather than listening to us say this is who I am."

Ruddy Shrock, the curator of the exhibition, defined it as a "a poetic investigation Heather took into issues of identity and ownership of oneself."

Around 250 people were in attendance at the opening. Manning arrived accompanied by friends and her agent, but declined to speak with the media.

She was followed around by the documentary team for "Chelsea XY," which will be released at Sundance Film Festival in January 2018.

She did engage with fans and supporters and took photos with them.

"To have Chelsea out, in a dress, creating art, on this wonderful journey with other activists and people in the media, it's really moving," said Suzie Glbert, one of the attendees.

Jeff Seelbach, a fan of Chelsea and producer at the company funding her documentary, said: "The thing that fascinates me about it is the very unique and terrible situation she was in, that her identity and her ability to have an image and a representation was completely suppressed by the government and by our legal system."

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg also got to meet Chelsea in person for the first time after their mail exchange.

"It was both totally amazing and then completely normal. I mean we had brunch, avocado toast, you know, your typical New York thing. But then it was also just completely stunning to see someone you've pictured in your head," she noted.

"She's [Chelsea] really excited about it, this is her kind of art debut."

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Chelsea Manning's DNA turned into 3D portraits - CNN.com - CNN

Itwas set up as an anti-secrecy organisation to allow whistleblowers to release information anonymously

WHISTLEBLOWING website Wikileaks has been a thorn in the side of governments, armies and spy agencies for a decade by publishing secret papers online.

Heres the lowdown on its most shocking and embarrassing leaks from Chelsea Mannings Iraq files to Emmanuel Macrons leaked emails.

PA:Press Association

Wikileaks was set up in 2006 as an anti-secrecy organisation to allow whistleblowers to release information anonymously.

By 2015, the WikiLeaks website had published more than ten million documents including some classified as top secret.

The organisation says its purpose is to bring important news and information to the public so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth.

From early on it has faced fierce criticism from governments and defence and intelligence officials who accuse it of being irresponsible.

It is hosted on computer servers based in several countries around the world such as Iceland and Sweden where the law protects disclosures, putting it out of reach of efforts by US law enforcement bodies to close it down.

The US Justice Department launched a criminal probe into Wikileaks and its outspoken founder Julian Assange after the leak of diplomatic cables in 2010.

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In 2010 Wikileaks published a series of three mega leaks using information passed to it by US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, who later changed her name to Chelsea.

The whistleblower leaked more than 700,000 classified documents related tothe wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 251,287 diplomatic cables from US embassies and 482,232 Army reports.

One of the most damaging for the US was a video called Collateral Murder, footage of unarmed Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists being gunned down by American Apache helicopters.

The storm generated by this video made Wikileaks and Assange household names around the world.

The first mega leak was a tranche of more than 91,000 documents from the war in Afghanistan.

Wikileaks handed the juciest papers to newspapers including The Guardian and the New York Times, which revealed how the US military killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.

This was eclipsed by the Iraq War logs some 391,832 field reports the biggest leak in the military history of the United States.

They recorded more than 66,000 civilian deaths many more than had previously been admitted.

Some 700 civilians including pregnant women were killed by US troops at checkpoints, papers revealed.

They also showed sickening torture of prisoners by Iraqi forces, and that US commanders had a policy of ignoring allegations of rape and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.

Later Wikileaks began releasing it stash of diplomatic cables from US embassies, including embarrassingly candid assessments of the USAs allies and the revelation the US and Britain spied on UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Manning was jailed for 35 years for breached of the Epionage Act but was released this year after her sentence was commuted by outgoing president Barack Obama.

Wikileaks has publishedmaterial exposing toxic waste dumping on the ivory coast, Scientology manuals and Guantanamo Bay detention camp procedures.

More recently,Wikileaks claimed UK government helped CIA hack Samsung Smart TVs and turn them into microphones.

It has been reported that TV viewers were stalked by a virus in their set called the Weeping Angel.

Software was also allegedly developed by the CIA to hack into peoples smartphones, computers and cars.

It claimed the papers dubbedVault 7 expose how a sinister TV surveillance program was developed by UK and US spy chiefs.

British agents were said to have been put in danger by the release of classified documents.

Wikileaks also published thousands of emails from Hillary Clintons campaign in the final weeks of the race for the White House.

Assange defended the publication, denying links with Russia and claims that his website was trying to influence the US vote.

In July 2017 the site published 20,000 hacked email from Emmanuel Macrons campaign when he was running for president of France.

They cast doubt on his tough Brexit stance as it was revealed he was advised staying close to the UK was a key priority for France as Britain is the most important military player in Europe.

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What is WikiLeaks and what are some of its biggest leaks? From Chelsea Manning and the US diplomatic cables to ... - The Sun