After being sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking a trove of some 700,000 government documents to Wikileaks,Chelsea Manningis appealing her convictionand calling the sentence grossly unfair and unprecedented.

No whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly, Mannings attorneys write in their appeal brief. Throughout trial the prosecution portrayed PFC Manning as a traitor and accused her of placing American lives in danger, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The prosecution, they write, sought to make an example of her, and the overzealous nature of the prosecution made the trial unmanageable, confused the military judge, and caused a myriad of errors.

They argue that a 10-year sentence would be more appropriate as it will adequately punish her, deter others, and allow her to receive the treatment and care she needs.

The ACLU filed a separate brief saying that Mannings prosecution was separately unconstitutional because the military judge overseeing the trial barred Manning from asserting any defense on the basis that the information she disclosed was in the public interest, according to The Guardian (where Manning was brought on as a contributing writer in Feb. 2015).

The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) filed another brief arguing that Mannings overall motive was to advance the public interest and the public interest value of some of the disclosures justifies mitigation of the sentence.

In an op-ed published in theNew York Times in June 2014, Manning defended her decision to leak the cablesregarding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, writing,I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance.

[image via wikicommons]

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Chelsea Manning Appeals Conviction, Calls Sentence ...

Lawyers for Chelsea Manning appealed her conviction on Thursday, calling it grossly unfair and unprecedented and arguing that no whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly.

Manning was convicted of six counts of espionage by a military court in 2013 and is currently serving a 35-year sentence in military prison.

In January 2010, while serving as an Army intelligence analyst overseas, Manning then known as Bradley sent hundreds of thousands of documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to WikiLeaks. The documents revealed dramatically higher numbers of civilian casualties than were publicly reported and featured a video of Apache attack helicopters in Baghdad gunning down two Reuters journalists.

Manningstreatment in military court came under fire from journalists and free speech advocates. Because she was indicted under the Espionage Act, shewas not allowed to raise the public interest value of her disclosures as a defense.

In the 209-page legal brief made public on Thursday, lawyers for Manning questioned the testimony of military officials at her trial, arguing that their claims of harm were speculative and provided no indication of actual harm, which they said had a highly prejudicial effect on the trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus briefarguing that applying the Espionage Act to whistleblowers is unconstitutional and furnishes the government with a tool for selective prosecution.

The ACLU brief cites the example of Gen. David Petraeus, a former Army general and CIA director, who gave eight notebooks filled with classified information to his biographer, who he was sleeping with. Petraeus was not charged under the Espionage Act,accepted a plea deal for two years probation and a $100,000 fine, and kept his security clearance.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has cited Mannings treatment and trial as a key reason for not returning to the United States.

[Disclosure: First Look MediaWorks, Inc.,publisher of The Intercept, made a $50,000 matching-fund donation to Chelsea Mannings legal defense fund through its Press Freedom Litigation Fund, andGlenn Greenwald, a founding editor of The Intercept, donated $10,000.]

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Chelsea Manning Appeals "Unprecedented" Conviction

Chelsea Manning, 28, was convicted in 2013 of multiple crimes for passing an estimated 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks, Photograph: AP

Chelsea Manning has formally appealed against her conviction and 35-year prison sentence for leaking a huge cache of government documents, arguing that her punishment was grossly unfair and unprecedented.

Describing the sentence as perhaps the most unjust sentence in the history of the military justice system, attorneys for Manning complained that she had been portrayed as a traitor to the US when nothing could be further from the truth.

No whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly, states the appeal, which also alleges that Manning was excessively charged and illegally held while awaiting trial in conditions amounting to solitary confinement. It suggests that her sentence be reduced to 10 years.

The appeal sharply contrasts the governments punishment of Manning with the two years probation given to David Petraeus, the retired military commander and CIA director, who admitted giving classified information to his biographer, with whom he was having an extramarital affair. While Manning was a whistleblower, Petraeus apparently disclosed the materials for sex, say Mannings attorneys.

Manning, a 28-year-old former US army private, was convicted in 2013 of multiple crimes for passing an estimated 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group. The cache included diplomatic cables and reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Attorneys for Manning filed the appeal documents on Wednesday to the US army court of criminal appeals at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The documents were made public on Thursday after being reviewed by officials for possible redaction of classified material. Manning, a transgender woman previously known as Bradley, is serving her sentence at the Fort Leavenworth military base in Kansas.

Manning disclosed the materials because under the circumstances she thought it was the right thing to do, said the appeal brief. She believed the public had a right to know about the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the loss of life, and the extent to which the government sought to hide embarrassing information of its wrongdoing.

Mannings appeal said her sentence was unfairly inflated by the military judges misreading of relevant laws and by overzealous prosecutors deciding to charge her with more severe crimes than the mishandling of classified information, to which she admitted.

She was initially charged with stealing or converting databases, despite the original records remaining intact. But stealing or converting photocopies of documents within a filing cabinet is not the same as stealing the filing cabinet itself, Mannings attorneys argued. The government later amended these charges but only after each side had presented its case.

The appeal also claimed the sentence also did not take into account the time she served in deplorable and inhumane conditions of confinement before her trial, which are described as unconstitutional and sufficient grounds for dismissing the charges altogether.

Mannings attorneys requested that she be credited 10 days of time served for every day she spent in these outrageous and completely unjustified pretrial conditions, which would effectively wipe out seven years of the total sentence.

The appeal urged authorities to consider the context of Manning suffering from mental health problems and stress, which it blames on her inability to live openly as a transgender woman in the US military. The governments litigation strategy was to ignore all of this, and to instead make an example of her, it said.

Related: When will the US government stop persecuting whistleblowers? | Chelsea Manning

In a simultaneously filed brief supporting Mannings appeal, the American Civil Liberties Union said the Espionage Act used to convict Manning was unconstitutionally vague because it allows the government to subject speakers and messages it dislikes to discriminatory prosecution.

The ACLU said Mannings prosecution was separately unconstitutional because the military judge overseeing the trial barred Manning from asserting any defense on the basis that the information she disclosed was in the public interest.

A war against whistleblowers is being waged in this country and this case represents how this country treats anyone who reveals even a single page of classified information, Nancy Hollander, one of Mannings attorneys, said in a statement. We need brave individuals to hold the government accountable for its actions at home and abroad and we call upon this court to overturn the dangerous precedent of Chelsea Mannings excessive sentencing.

In another brief backing Manning, the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) said her overall motive was to advance the public interest and the public interest value of some of the disclosures justifies mitigation of the sentence.

In support of this argument, the brief quoted the Guardians former investigations editor David Leigh and John Kerry, now the US secretary of state, who as chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee said that disclosures within the Afghan war logs leaked by Manning raise serious questions about the reality of Americas policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The OSJI brief also argued that Mannings sentence was far higher than the penalties that our closest allies would consider proportionate. The brief featured a survey of 30 such countries that pointed to a maximum 14-year sentence in Canada as the next stiffest penalty for a comparable conviction.

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Chelsea Manning files appeal against 'grossly unfair' 35-year ...

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning is appealing her conviction under the Espionage Act for releasing more than 700,000 cables to Wikileaks in 2010, which earned her a 35 year sentence in a military prison.

Papers were filed on Wednesday with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals in Fort Belvoir, but they must be reviewed for classified information before they are released to the public.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in 2013 after being found guilty of 20 charges by court martial, including six under the Espionage Act of 1917, for whistleblowing on war crimes committed by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The New York Times editorial board called her prison term "excessive" at the time of the verdict.

At the age of 22, US army intelligence analyst Manning sent documents, cables, and other digital files to Wikileaks.

She included the haunting Collateral Murder video which depicts a US Apache crew killing civilians including two Reuters cameramen and wounding two children in Iraq.

"I started to question the morality of what we were doing," Manning said through a statement during the trial. "We had forgotten our humanity."

Lawyers Vincent Ward, Nancy Hollander, and Captain James Hammond have been preparing the appeal for months.

The Guardian reports the lawyers reviewed classified evidence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation raised money for the appeal with First Look Media and Glenn Greenwald matching donations up to $60,000.

The US Army Court of Appeals has the power to throw out the case, order a retrial, or amended her sentence.

The Obama administration has used the Espionage Act more than any other administration in US history, convicting seven whistleblowers including Manning.

She was awarded the Blueprint Enduring Impact Whistleblowing Prize earlier this month and wrote an acceptance speech from prison.

I keep fighting to survive and thrive. I am fighting my court-martial conviction and sentence before a military appeals court, starting this month. I am fighting to make the full investigation by the FBI public. I am fighting to grow my hair beyond the two-inch male standards by the US military, she wrote. I keep fighting to warn the world of the dangerous trend in which the only information you can access is the kind that someone with money or power wants you to see.

Mannings leak revealed a US policy of ignoring torture reports in Iraq, including the Frago 242 order against investigating allegations of abuse by the Iraqi government in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture.

The Guantanamo Filesrevealed detainees were arrested based on thin evidence.

The complicity of defense company DynCorp in child trafficking was also leaked, showing how the US embassy tried to censor a story about foreign contractors who hired young dancing boys to entertain them in northern Afghanistan.

Mannings inside information exposed the coverup of Obamas drone war in Yemen and evidence that US diplomats were authorized to collect biometric data on UN officials through an order signed by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State.

Wikileaks is still under investigation for its role in whistleblowing and its founder Julian Assange remains in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Manning submitted an official request for a presidential pardon in 2013 and the hashtag #PardonManning is being used by someone social media to push President Barack Obama.

He technically has the power to release her before the end of his term in January 2017, although he has given no indications he will do so.

As for Obama's potential successor, only Hillary Clinton has commented directly on Manning.

I think that in an age where so much information is flying through cyberspace, we all have to be aware of the fact that some information which is sensitive, which does affect the security of individuals and relationships, deserves to be protected and we will continue to take necessary steps to do so, Clinton said about Manning on December 11, 2015, failing to foresee the irony of her comments in light of her current email server scandal.

There is no record of her primary opponent Bernie Sanders mentioning Manning by name, but when asked about Edward Snowden at an October debate, he said, I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American public ... he did break the law, and I think there should be a penalty to that.

Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump has hinted he would kill Snowden using the death penalty, saying, This guys a bad guy. There is still a thing called execution.

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Political prisoner Chelsea Manning appeals excessive 35yr ...

Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army Private who leaked thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks in 2013, has officially filed an appeal for her 35-year military prison sentence after being convicted of multiple charges including violation of the Espionage Act.

The former intelligence analyst's leak of hundreds of thousands of classified documents, mostly about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has sparked a wide debate about government secrecy and First Amendment rights.

Manning, who was born male and known as Bradley, transitioned to being a woman after the government convicted the former soldier of leaking the documents.

The appeal argues that the sentencing was overreaching, stating, "For what PFC Manning did, the punishment is grossly unfair and unprecedented. No whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly. Throughout trial the prosecution portrayed PFC Manning as a traitor and accused her of placing American lives in danger, but nothing could be further from the truth."

The appeal also argues that Manning released the documents for the good of the public, who had the right to know what was going on.

"PFC Manning disclosed the materials because under the circumstances she thought it was the right thing to do. She believed the public had a right to know about the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the loss of life, and the extent to which the government sought to hide embarrassing information of its wrongdoing," the appeal states.

ABC News previously reported that the judge in the Manning case, Col. Denise Lind, called Manning's conduct "both wanton and reckless" in court documents. Lind added that it "was of a heedless nature that made it actually and imminently dangerous to others."

Nancy Hollander, one of Manning's attorneys, told ABC News today that she "really is a very brave courageous young woman to have done what she did and to write about it. She did what she believed was right in a very difficult situation. What happened with her is really an outrageous sentence, especially when you compare it to others."

Manning, who is currently serving out her prison sentence at the militarys detention facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, wrote about the appeal in her own words on her blog. "I have asked the judges to dismiss all charges or give me a shorter sentence," Manning wrote, outlining alleged errors in her trial. "All in all, rather than this being the end, this is only beginning."

The American Civil Liberties Union, historically a strong defender of First Amendment rights, wrote an amicus brief to the judges of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals in support of Manning. The ACLU argues that the conviction and sentence of Manning under the Espionage Act must be overturned for two main reasons.

"First, the Espionage Act is unconstitutionally vague, because it provides the government a tool that the First Amendment forbids: a criminal statute that allows the government to subject speakers and messages it dislikes to discriminatory prosecution. Second, even if the Act were not unconstitutional in all its applications, the military judges application of the Act to PFC Manning violated the First Amendment because the military judge did not permit PFC Manning to assert any defense that would allow the court to evaluate the value to public discourse of any of the information she disclosed," the amicus brief, posted on the ACLU website reads.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also posted an amicus brief in defense of Manning, calling for U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse her conviction.

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Chelsea Manning Officially Appeals Her 35-Year Prison ...

Lawyers for Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army soldier convicted of leaking a massive trove of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, formally appealed her lengthy prison term handed down in 2013, calling Mannings punishment grossly unfair and unprecedented.

In their 209-page appeal, Mannings lawyers said the whistleblower was convinced disclosing the cache of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks was the right thing to do.

She believed the public had a right to know about the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the loss of life and the extent to which the government sought to hide embarrassing information of its wrongdoing, Mannings lawyers wrote. The documents were published by WikiLeaks in 2010.

The appeal comes more than two years after Manning was convicted under the Espionage Acta World War I-era law intended to prosecute spiesbut was acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy. Manning, a private first class in the U.S. Army, was subsequently sentenced to 35 years in prison and dishonorably discharged at a military trial at Fort Meade, Md.the home base of the National Security Agency.

Related: Revolutions Family Tree: Franklin and Adams to Manning and Snowden

Her lawyers are now arguing that the judges sentence was overly harsh compared to prosecutions of other leakers, most notably, Gen. David Petraeus. The former CIA director pleaded guilty to disclosing classified documents to his mistress and biographer. For his crimes, Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation.

Manning is asking military judges to dismiss all charges based on the militarys use of solitary confinement, vague evidence and for the absence of proof that her disclosures harmed the United States.

Mannings leak included more than 700,000 classified military and state department documents. Among the cache of intelligence was cockpit gun-sight footage of a U.S. Apache helicopters killing a dozen unarmed civilians and two Reuters photojournalists in Iraq in 2007. At the time it was the largest leak of U.S. intelligence secrets in history.

The disclosures rocked U.S. intelligence agencies and prompted dubious suggestions that by leaking classified intelligence Manning was putting American lives in dangerbut such claims have gone unfounded, her supporters claim.

Mannings trial also came during a historically aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers under President Obama, whose administration has prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act than all other presidents combined.

Vincent Ward, of the New Mexico-based firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias & Ward, which is representing Manning, said theyll argue that the Espionage Act violates Mannings due process and First Amendment rights.

The elements are so broad and vague that you dont know what to defend against, Ward told the Press, adding, Its an issue thats been subjected to lots of scrutiny and debate for a long time, even before Chelsea.

Manning, who has gone through a very public sex change, was previously known as Bradley Manning.

No whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly, Mannings lawyers wrote. Throughout trial the prosecution portrayed PFC Manning as a traitor and accused her of placing American lives in danger, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Her lawyers chided the government for its pretrial confinement of Manning, which, they claim, worsened her already serious mental health issues.

Court documents note that Manning was restricted to what amounted to solitary confinement for nine months while awaiting trial despite Manning having informed Army officials about her challenges dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder and anxiety.

The American Civil Liberties Union, in an amicus brief filed in support of Mannings appeal, challenged the legality of the Espionage Act because it prohibits suspects from defending themselves on the merits of the disclosures. The civil rights group also regaled at a double standard in which government officials are permitted to disclose information to perpetuate a certain agendawhich critics have dubbed authorized leaks.

Disclosures of government information happen all the time, whether by officials seeking to advance their interests or by whistleblowers exposing misconduct for public benefit, a pair of ACLU attorneys wrote in a blog post announcing the agencys amicus brief. But only one person in our history has ever been sentenced to decades in prison for disclosing truthful information to the press and public: Chelsea Manning.

Ward said Manning is anxious and nervous and has been highly engaged in all aspects of her case.

She also recognizes that she has a voice that transcends even the current situation, Ward told the Press. Shes brought awareness to both the issues associated with being a whistleblower to transgender issues, and I think she understands she occupies that political space.

Manning enlisted in the Army in 2007 and was deployed to Baghdad as an intelligence analyst two years later. It was during the course of her deployment that Manning deteriorated emotionally because of her inability to live openly as a transgender woman, her appeal states.

In February 2015, Manning, who is incarcerated at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, was authorized by the Army to undergo hormone therapy. Just days after she was sentenced, Manning announced via a statement to NBCs Today show that she was transitioning to a woman.

As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me, the statement read. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.

In 2013, the Press visited Fort Meade, Maryland to report on Mannings trial:

(Featured photo: Famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Elsberg during a demonstration in support of Chelsea Manning/Courtesy Free whistleblower PVT Chelsea Manning Facebook)

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Whitleblower Chelsea Manning Appeals 'Unprecedented' Sentence

The US army intelligence analyst, who has appealed to reduce 35-year sentence, has endured the most severe punishment ever given to a whistleblower

Chelsea Manning, the US army intelligence analyst who leaked a huge cache of state secrets to WikiLeaks, has entered her seventh year in military custody amid renewed concern about the Obama administrations harsh treatment of whistleblowers.

Related: Chelsea Manning files appeal against grossly unfair 35-year prison sentence

Manning, 28, was arrested at the Forward Operating Base Hammer outside Baghdad on 27 May 2010 and has endured traumatic times during her return to the US and prolonged detention in solitary confinement.

The six years in prison she has just completed amount to the most severe punishment of a whistleblower in the modern era.

The anniversary of Mannings arrest and detention comes as the spotlight has again fallen on the Obama administrations tough approach to pursuing whistleblowers. John Crane, former head of the Pentagons whistleblower unit, revealed this week that instead of providing a safe channel for government employees to report internal wrongdoing, the system actively retaliates against them for daring to sound the alarm.

Despite her portrayal by the US government as a dangerous and reckless criminal, Manning remains an admired figure among advocates of more transparent government.

Daniel Ellsberg is Americas most celebrated whistleblower, having in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers , revealing the conduct of the Vietnam war. He marked the anniversary of Mannings arrest by saying: I waited 40 years for Chelsea Manning. I dont want to wait another 30 to thank her in freedom.

I waited 40 years for Chelsea Manning. I dont want to wait another 30 to thank her in freedom

Daniel Ellsberg

The Courage Foundation , an international organization that supports whistleblowers including the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, has this week launched a new European fundraising effort to help cover the costs of Mannings appeal against her 35-year sentence.

Sarah Harrison, the groups acting director, called her punishment a travesty.

Chelsea Manning is one of the most important figures of the digital age and a hero to many of us, Harrison said. Her incarceration will be a lasting stain on Americas reputation.

Last week, Mannings appeal was lodged with the US army court of criminal appeals in Virginia. It calls for a reduction of the grossly unfair and unprecedented sentence to 10 years, noting pointedly that David Petraeus , the former CIA director who passed classified information to his biographer and then lover, was fined and given two years probation with no prison time.

Related: How the Pentagon punished NSA whistleblowers | Mark Hertsgaard

Nancy Hollander, the lead lawyer on Mannings appeal, called the conviction and sentence one of the most unjust in military history. The legal team is awaiting the US governments response to the appeal filing; it will then prepare to argue the case for a sentence reduction in front of the appeals court.

Since her conviction, support for Chelsea has only grown, Hollander said, as the world recognizes her commitments to justice, equality and a more accountable government.

In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in military prison, for leaking as many as 700,000 official secret documents. The documents included many cables from US embassies around the world, war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and the famous collateral murder video of an Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad on a group of civilians including Reuters photographers.

Manning is being held in the military brig at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where she is involved in separate legal action relating to her desire to transition as a transgender woman.

guardian.co.uk Guardian News and Media 2016

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Chelsea Manning completes six years in military custody for ...

Preparing for military appeal, Manning needs international support

Chelsea Manning is one of the most well known political prisoners of our time, whose actions exposed war crimes, helped fuel the Arab Spring uprisings, and led to the US withdrawing most of its forces from Iraq in 2011. The 28-year-old former Army intelligence analyst disclosed hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks in order to reveal war crimes and human rights violations, give a clearer picture of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to the public and shed light on the way the United States conducts diplomacy around the world. Manning is serving 35 years in jail, the longest sentence for a whistleblower in US history, after being convicted on several counts of the Espionage Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and military violations.

WikiLeaks first major release from Mannings disclosures, on 5 April 2010, was Collateral Murder, a video depicting U.S. helicopter gunners shooting Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, among them two Reuters journalists and a van of people whod stopped to help the initial victims.

Later in 2010, WikiLeaks released the Iraq and Afghanistan War logs, comprising daily reports of casualties and other notable incidents from both war zones. These diaries documented 15,000 previously uncounted killings of innocent civilians, American complicity in torture, contractors abuses, among countless more revelations.

The Iraq logs undermined the Obama Administrations attempt to keep troops in Iraq beyond 2011. Upon seeing the logs, Iraqi officials declined to provide US troops the immunity they requested, troop talks then broke down and the US was forced to leave.

In November 2010, WikiLeaks released 250,000 State Department cables, ranging from unclassified to Secret, exposing, in Mannings words, how the first world exploits the third. With reports penned by American officials from embassies around the world, the documents gave new light to backroom dealings, detailing how the United States interacts with its allies and adversaries behind closed doors. These diplomatic releases, by exposing rampant corruption and abuse not only by the United States but also by those it dealt with, helped fuel the Arab Spring, the wave of grassroots uprisings that roiled North Africa and the Middle East in the following years. Tunisian activists set up TuniLeaks to highlight locally relevant disclosures and spread awareness of the corruption of their government.

Finally, in April 2011, WikiLeaks released the Guantanamo Bay Files, largely revealing that prisoners held there were known to not pose a threat but were held instead due to their intelligence value.

Though separate from the larger caches, WikiLeaks also released two CIA Red Cell memos in 2010, CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe and Memorandum on United States exporting terrorism. At her trial, Manning said, The content of two of these documents upset me greatly.

Manning was arrested on 27 May 2010 in Iraq and shipped to Kuwait, where she endured brutal treatment in a metal cage, while awaiting transfer to a military prison. She was brought to the Quantico Marine Brig, where her abusive treatment, including forced isolation and nudity, incurred international outrage, condemnation from the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, diplomatic protests and the resignation of Hillary Clintons spokesperson P.J. Crowley. Judge Denise Lind ruled that her treatment was improper and awarded Manning 112 days off of her sentence.

Manning was precluded from defending her actions as a whistleblower at trial, because the Espionage Act does not provide for a public-interest defense a conviction only requires the prosecution to show the potential for harm. Manning plead guilty to some of the counts against her and altered versions of some of the others, in part in order to make the very public interest arguments that the legal process had barred.

In her statement, Manning said,

I felt that we were risking so much for people that seemed unwilling to cooperate with us, leading to frustration and anger on both sides. I began to become depressed with the situation that we found ourselves increasingly mired in year after year. The [war logs] documented this in great detail and provide a context of what we were seeing on the ground.

I believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information contained within the [Iraq and Afghan War Logs] this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general as well as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan.

On 21 August 2013, Manning received the harshest conviction in any whistleblower case in US history, 35 years in prison.

The day after her sentence, Manning, formerly Bradley, announced her decision to live publicly as a woman, as Chelsea. Since then, she has been embattled in a fight with the US Army for rights as a transgender prisoner, including to medically necessary hormone therapy.

Since her imprisonment, Manning has been a vocal member of the global debate over war, secrecy and transparency, and transgender rights. She has a column in the Guardian, blogs at Medium.com and dictates tweets to be sent out at @xychelsea.

On 19 May 2016, Mannings legal team formally filed its appeal of her conviction to the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Her defence decries perhaps the most unjust sentence in the history of the military justice system and suggests Mannings sentence be substantially reduced, if not dismissed outright.

The Courage Foundation has always supported Chelsea Mannings actions and fight for freedom and justice and is now officially making her a beneficiary, so we can raise funds for her legal team throughout Europe ahead of the appeal, which should come to a courtroom in 2017.

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Donate to Chelsea Mannings legal defence fund here.

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Chelsea Manning | Courage Foundation

The United States may soon have the opportunity to request the extradition of WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange to its shores, which would allow criminal proceedings against him to finally begin.

Given his focused mission to cause momentous damage to the United States by disclosing secret and highly classified information, prosecution would be totally justified.

Lets put this in context.

I am a strong supporter of exposing government corruption and wrongdoing. I also believe whistleblowers are the appropriate mechanism of last resort for accomplishing that goal.

But theres a process whistleblowers must follow. It may not be perfect, but it allows abuses to be identified without compromising national security interests.

Whistleblowers in the intelligence community, including those working in the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, have such paths outlined in a precise manner.

The process allows for the exposure of corruption while protecting classified information and ensuring that whistleblowers do not face retaliation. This is a balanced approach that protects all parties.

Those who operate outside of the process Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, the recent leakers at the CIA and those who leaked the information on former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn are criminals. They broke the law and blatantly ignored the avenues established for whistleblowers.

Manning was accordingly charged and convicted. Snowden, still hiding abroad, should be tried and convicted. The more recent leakers must be, too.

These leakers all assumed roles well beyond their job descriptions. They perceived themselves as singularly possessing the authority and the judgment to determine right and wrong and, in turn, jeopardized the security of the country not to mention their colleagues.

Assange is no different. While he may not have actually physically stolen information, Assange has claimed possession of stolen materials and published them for the world to see. His public comments and actions clearly outline his motives and desire to fundamentally damage the West, the United States in particular.

There will be thousands of pages of legal debate written about Assange. The back-and-forth will focus on whether his actions constitute a new type of newsgathering and are thereby sheltered free speech.

Theyre clearly not, though, and he ought to be tried and found guilty.

Moving forward, Congress must strengthen whistleblower protections, direct our intelligence agencies to better secure sensitive and classified data, and put in place a modern legal framework to prosecute those who leak and make available classified information. These measures will ultimately protect the United States and its citizens from traitors and individuals seeking its demise.

A former chairman of the U.S. House intelligence committee, Pete Hoekstra is a senior fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

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Hoekstra: Assange should face punishment - Online Athens

Chelsea Manning poses for a photo wearing a wig and lipstick. U.S. Army/AP

Updated: Dec 11, 2016 9:16 PM UTC

The petition calling on President Obama to shorten Chelsea Manning's prison sentence has received more than 106,000 signatures as of Sunday afternoon, surpassing its 100,000-signature goal and requiring the White House to respond.

Manning, who admitted leaking secret military and government documents to WikiLeaks, asked Obama to commute her current 35-year sentence down to the time she has served, a little more than six years.

"Chelsea has already served more time in prison than any individual in the United States history who disclosed information in the public interest," the petition said. "Her disclosures harmed no one."

The New York Times reported that Manning wrote in a statement in the petition that she took "full and complete responsibility for her actions," calling them "wrong."

"The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members," she wrote.

The White House has 60 days to officially respond to the petition, which was created on Nov. 14.

"I am just grateful that I am not forgotten," Manning said Sunday on a Twitter account that posts on her behalf.

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Chelsea Manning: White House Must Respond to Petition | Time.com