FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan., April 3 (UPI) -- Chelsea Manning, the former soldier convicted of giving classified military documents to Wikileaks, joined Twitter on Friday.

Manning mostly used the social media platform to thank her supporters and explain how she's able to tweet from prison. She is currently serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for violating the Espionage Act.

"I'm hoping to stay connected w/ this account as much as poss., but would rather tweet about more meaningful things than not #lessismore," she wrote in her second tweet.

Manning said she has to dictate what she wants to tweet over the phone to another party who is managing the Twitter account for her. Fitzgibbon Media is handling the account.

"It will be hard, but I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street/conversation," Manning wrote.

"Starting with a shout out to the friends who have always stood by me @ggreenwald @amnesty @carwinb @savemanning and so many others #thankyou," she continued.

"That's all the tweets I have for today! Thank you all for your love and support. I hope you will continue to follow me in the future."

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Chelsea Manning joins Twitter from Leavenworth

Within minutes of her first tweets, Ms Manning had recruited more than 5,000 followers under the handle @xychelsea.

Ms Manning already writes occasional commentaries for The Guardian newspaper's American edition, offering her take on US foreign policy.

The former army intelligence analyst was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offenses after admitting to handing over more than 700,000 classified documents, including military intelligence reports and State Department cables, to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

US officials describe the document dump as the biggest leak of classified files in American history.

On Ms Manning's request, judges have ordered the military to address her in gender-neutral or feminine terms in court documents as she completes her transition to life as a woman.

After months of legal wrangling, the US Army recently approved hormone therapy for Manning's gender "reassignment," an unprecedented step for the military.

Ms Manning, who was formerly a male enlistee known as Bradley Manning, is serving out her sentence at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas.

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Chelsea Manning begins tweeting from prison

This drawing of Chelsea Manning is her profile picture on her Twitter page @xychelsea. Photograph: http://www.chelseamanning.org

Chelsea Manning, the US soldier serving 35 years in military prison for leaking state secrets to WikiLeaks, has joined the social media site Twitter.

The army private has secured the handle @xychelsea and will begin posting tweets from noon ET on Friday. Given the conditions of her custody which do not extend to internet access she will dictate comments by phone to supporters who will then post on her behalf.

The new Twitter feed had by 5.30pm ET on Thursday already attracted more than 1,000 followers, even before the soldier had uttered a word or followed any other accounts. Her page includes a drawing of her as she would like to be seen, with long hair even though the military authorities have consistently refused to allow her to grow out her hair.

Manning was arrested at the Forward Operating Base Hammer outside Baghdad in Iraq where she was working as an intelligence analyst. After a prolonged trial, she was convicted of charges arising from having passed a massive stash of US state secrets to the open-information organization WikiLeaks.

After she was convicted, Manning revealed that she wanted to transition from her male birth gender to begin living as a woman. After months of legal struggle, the US military agreed to approve her gender-reassignment hormone therapy the first such treatment ever approved for an active member of the armed forces.

Since being incarcerated, Manning has developed her voice as a perceptive and questioning observer of international affairs as a columnist for the Guardian. She has written on issues ranging from President Obamas war on whistleblowers to the CIAs torture techniques and transgender politics.

The Chelsea Manning support team are encouraging people to follow the soldier on Twitter through a #FF campaign. They promise that the tweets posted on her feed will be her own candid thoughts and comments.

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Chelsea Manning joins Twitter and gets over 1,000 followers before posting

From FoundSF

"I was there..."

by Caitlin Carmody

In April 2013, San Francisco Pride seemed to take an exciting step with the nomination of queer military whistleblower Chelsea (ne Bradley) Manning as a grand marshal for the 2013 Pride parade. Manning would not have been present for the honor, as she was in military custody facing life in prison for revealing war crimes committed by the United States during the war in Iraq. But Daniel Ellsberg, fellow whistleblower and famed leaker of the Pentagon Papers, was happy to accept the honor on her behalf and represent her in the parade. In nominating a queer military whistleblower, Pride was making an important statement about the values of the gay rights movement; grand marshals are the public emissaries of Pride. They represent a mix of individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community. With the help of community input, Pride selects these groups and individuals as Grand Marshals in order to honor the work they have put into furthering the causes of LGBT people.(1)

Manning contingent was the largest in SF Pride march, June 2013.

Photo: courtesy Private Manning.org

No sooner had this honor been bestowed upon Manning when San Francisco Pride Board President Lisa Williams released a statement revoking the honor. The statement indicated Manning's nomination had been an error committed by someone within Pride going rogue and never should have been allowed to happen. Williams wrote: "Bradley Manning(2) is facing the military justice system of this country. We all await the decision of that system. However, until that time, even the hint of support for actions which placed in harms [sic] way the lives of our men and women in uniform and countless others, military and civilian alike will not be tolerated by the leadership of San Francisco Pride. It is, and would be, an insult to every one [sic], gay and straight, who has ever served in the military of this country." The response to Williams' statement from the more radical edge of the gay rights movement in the Bay Area was swift and furious. Williams' statement seemed to many on the queer Left as horribly illustrative of an ongoing tension within the movement for gay rights: are we looking to join the system, imperialism, war, and all, or are we opposed to the rotten status quo and want to radically transform it? Had Manning not made significant contributions to the LGBT community in revealing U.S. war crimes in Iraq? Do queers not care about militarization, racism, imperialism, and massacre in the name of patriotism and freedom?

Pride president Lisa Williams said naming Manning as a grand marshal would be an insult to everyone who had ever served in the military; for me, what seemed the biggest insult was Pride taking the side of the U.S. military and its war crimes, elevating the military to untouchable status: Thou shalt not utter a word against war, was Pride's party line. It was alarming to see the leadership of one of the largest gay pride parades in the world completely uncritically endorsing what they called the military justice system, as if such a system dispenses what we all call justice. It was also alarming to hear them condemn Mannings actions, which they erroneously claim placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform -- and countless others, military and civilian alike. Many people, including many former members of the military, characterized Mannings actions as an important act of dissidence, blowing the whistle on U.S. war crimes, and saving countless human lives by throwing a wrench in the U.S. war machine. It was not Mannings actions, but the U.S. military establishment, that place in harms way, and actively end, the lives of many people, civilian and military, U.S. and Iraqi alike (though Pride seemed not to care about dead Iraqi civilians). Prides statement via Williams was also alarmingly repressive: not a hint of support for Mannings actions would be tolerated. Hardly the endorsement of free speech and dissent one would hope for from gay rights leaders.

Video: courtesy Private Manning.org

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San Francisco Pride, Chelsea Manning, and Queer ...

Chelsea Manning, the US army soldier serving 35 years in prison for leaking a huge stash of state secrets, has won a small but significant victory in her bid to transition to living as a woman.

Manning has taken on the might of the US military, challenging its ongoing refusal to refer to her as a woman, and won. A court order from the US army court of criminal appeals instructs the military to refer to the soldier in all future official correspondence either using the gender neutral Private First Class Manning or employing the feminine pronoun.

As a result, the military is henceforth forbidden from referring to Manning as a man.

The court order marks another advance towards Mannings goal of gender transition which she has had to fight every step of the way in the face of an intransigent army hierarchy. Last month, Manning, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, was allowed to start hormone treatment, having struggled for years to convince her jailers to grant her the medical care that had been indicated.

The treatment marked a breakthrough for the US military, which continues to ban transgender individuals from service.

Manning was allowed to change her name legally from her male designation at birth Bradley in April last year. Even so, army lawyers continue to contest her new identity. Last month the US government filed a formal objection to Mannings request to be referred to as a woman in all future filings.

In its submission to the court, government lawyers pointedly referred to the soldier as Bradley, and said that unless directed otherwise by this honourable court, the government intends to refer to [Manning] using masculine pronouns.

Mannings legal advisers were jubilant about the outcome of the challenge. Nancy Hollander, who is leading the soldiers appeal against conviction, said it was an important victory for Chelsea, who has been mistreated by the government for years.

Chase Strangio, a staff attorney with the ACLU who pressed a lawsuit against the army to force it to allow her hormone treatment, said that the court had court rightly recognized that dignifying Chelseas womanhood is not the trivial matter that the government attempted to frame it as. This is an important development in Chelseas fight for adequate medical care for her gender dysphoria.

Manning, who writes for the Guardian from her confinement in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has written that a doctor, a judge or a piece of paper shouldnt have the power to tell someone who he or she is We should all be able to live as human beings and to be recognized as such by the societies we live in.

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Chelsea Manning Archives – Ideas Guy

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AARON MAT: With prosecutions of whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou and several others, the Obama administration is by far the most aggressive in history when it comes to punishing leaks. But is there a double standard when it comes to who is punished and who walks free?

Thats the question being raised after a lenient plea deal for David Petraeus, the retired four-star general and former head of the CIA. Unlike the others, Petraeus did not release information to expose perceived government wrongdoing. Instead, he gave classified material to his mistress, Paula Broadwell, who was also writing his biography. Petraeus let Broadwell access his CIA email account and other sensitive material, including the names of covert operatives in Afghanistan, war strategy, and quotes from White House meetings. Petraeus then lied to the FBI, telling investigators he never gave Broadwell any classified information.

After an investigation that raised eyebrows for its slow pace, the FBI and federal prosecutors recommended felony charges. But unlike other leakers, Petraeus was not indicted. Instead, earlier this month, he reached a plea deal, admitting to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information. Prosecutors wont seek prison time, but instead two years probation and a fine. His sentencing is next month. Meanwhile, after being forced to resign in 2012, Petraeus remains an administration insider, advising the White House on the war against ISIS.

AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest defended the administrations ongoing consultations with Petraeus.

PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: He is, I think, legitimately regarded as an expert when it comes to the security situation in Iraq. So I think itsit makes a lot of sense for senior administration officials to, on occasion, consult him for advice.

REPORTER: And any particular security precautions that you take in this situation, given his legal entanglements?

PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: Not that Im aware of.

AMY GOODMAN: As General David Petraeus avoids jail time and advises the White House, a lawyer for imprisoned government contractor Stephen Kim is accusing the Obama administration of blatant hypocrisy and demanding Kims immediate release. In a letter to the Justice Department, Abbe Lowell says, quote, "The decision to permit General Petraeus to plead guilty to a misdemeanor demonstrates more clearly than ever the profound double standard that applies when prosecuting so-called 'leakers' and those accused of disclosing classified information for their own purposes," unquote. Kim was convicted earlier this year for sharing information from an intelligence report on North Korea with a reporter from Fox News.

The famed lawyer Abbe Lowell says prosecutors dismissed his offer to have Kim plead guilty to the same misdemeanor they ended up offering to Petraeus. He writes, quote, "You rejected that out of hand, saying that a large reason for your position was that Mr. Kim lied to FBI agents." But since Petraeus also lied to the FBI, Lowell concludes, quote, "Lower-level employees like Mr. Kim are prosecuted under the Espionage Act because they are easy targets and lack the resources and political connections to fight back. High level officials (such as General Petraeus) ... leak classified information to forward their own agendas (or to impress their mistresses) with virtual impunity," unquote.

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A Double Standard on Leaks? As Whistleblowers Jailed ...

Last December, when Chelsea Manning turned 27, she received birthday greetings from Michael Stipe, JM Coetzee, Slavoj iek, Terry Gilliam, Edward Snowden, and Lupe Fiasco: not a bad group of friends for any young woman. Vivienne Westwood sent her a card, too, a handsome graphical map of red and green, marked up with scribbles of support in the loose but confident scrawl of a fashion designer. Manning received it, of course, in Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas, where she is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks as a soldier in the U.S. Army. Shereplied to Westwood, I am working a lot, studying, working on the appeal and a lawsuit on fundraising, writing articles and trying to stay healthy. In February, in her capacity as an article-writer, Manning landed a new gig: contributing opinion writer at the Guardian US, focused on war, gender, freedom of information. Days later, the United States military approved hormone therapy for Mannings gender transition, a first. And last Wednesday, in Washington, the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals issued an order saying that references to Manning in all future decisions, filings, and orders should use female or gender-neutral pronouns. The United States government is unlikely to champion her as a whistleblowerbut Manning and her attorneys have managed to make the government see things her way when it comes to her gender, which is its own accomplishment.

Manning has long presented herself as a kind of public moralist. When she pleaded guilty, she did so by reading out a statement explaining her actions. It ran to some 35 pages, and took more than an hour. After her sentencing, she made a formal request for a presidential pardon. She wrote that the decision to leak secret documents was made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Her time in Iraq made her question the morality of Americas military activity since 9/11. I realized that in our efforts to meet the risks posed to us by the enemy, we had forgotten our Humanity, she said.

Last September, after publicly coming out as transgender, Manning sued the U.S. military, charging that the denial of her medical treatment for gender dysphoria was a violation of her constitutional rights. The suit said that, without treatment, Manning each day experiences escalating anxiety, distress and depression. She feels as though her body is being poisoned by testosterone.

I am working a lot, studying, working on the appeal and a lawsuit on fundraising, writing articles and trying to stay healthy.

Chelsea Manning

In December 2014, the month of her 27th birthday, Manning wrote an op-ed in the Guardian (she had previously been published in that newspaper, and in the New York Times), about her identity and the violations of her rights as a trans person. She wrote of unfinished business when it comes to protecting civil rights for many people, from immigration reform to police brutality and racism to rampant discrimination faced by people like her. Were banned from serving our country in the armed services unless we serve as trans people in secret, as I did, she wrote. She argued for self-recognition, the absolute and inalienable right to define ourselves.

Chase Strangio, an ACLU Staff Attorney who represents Manning in her gender dysphoria case, told me that in Fort Leavenworth, Manning is not allowed to browse the web. But she consults print news, remains a voracious reader, andhas access to new gender theory texts, too.

Mannings relationship with the Guardian is one kind of recognition. (The Guardian, which won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the N.S.A.s mass surveillance programrevealed by Edward Snowdenhas a special relationship with leaks.) She will not be paid for her contributions. Strangio said that she believes this is by choice.

The journalist David France sees the agreement with the Guardian as indication that Manning has kind of figured it out. France, who directed the documentary film How to Survive a Plague, and has corresponded with Manning, told me that Manning can only be visited by people she had named before her imprisonment, not by new friends, lovers, or journalists. She cannot be photographed, cannot give interviews on camera.

Through the Guardian, he said, we can finally get a regular impression of Chelsea now, through her own voice, which is terrific. Theres so much she can tell us, about what her life is like. I think shes very insightful, I think shes very a keen observer of life. Its interesting to start hearing from her now. Were starting to see Snowden make his appearance. Were actually starting to hear from these people, which I think is good for the dialogue.

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What Chelsea Manning Has Won - Bloomberg Politics

Last December, when Chelsea Manning turned 27, she received birthday greetings from singer Michael Stipe, Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee, Marxist philosopher Slavoj iek, director Terry Gilliam, rapper Lupe Fiasco and Edward Snowden; not a bad group of friends for any young woman.

Vivienne Westwood sent her a card, too, a handsome graphical map of red and green, marked up with scribbles of support in the loose but confident scrawl of a fashion designer. Manning received it, of course, in Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas, where she is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks as a soldier in the U.S. Army.

Shereplied to Westwood, "I am working a lot, studying, working on the appeal and a lawsuit on fundraising, writing articles and trying to stay healthy." In February, in her capacity as an article-writer, Manning landed a new gig: contributing opinion writer at the Guardian US, focused on "war, gender, freedom of information." Days later, the United States military approved hormone therapy for Manning's gender transition, a first. And last Wednesday, in Washington, the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals issued an order saying that references to Manning in all future decisions, filings, and orders should use female or gender-neutral pronouns. The United States government is unlikely to champion her as a whistleblower _ but Manning and her attorneys have managed to make the government see things her way when it comes to her gender, which is its own accomplishment.

Manning has long presented herself as a kind of public moralist. When she pleaded guilty, she did so by reading out a statement explaining her actions. It ran to some 35 pages, and took more than an hour. After her sentencing, she made a formal request for a presidential pardon. She wrote that the decision to leak secret documents was made "out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in." Her time in Iraq made her "question the morality" of America's military activity since 9/11. "I realized that in our efforts to meet the risks posed to us by the enemy, we had forgotten our humanity," she said.

Last September, after publicly coming out as transgender, Manning sued the U.S. military, charging that the denial of her medical treatment for gender dysphoria was a violation of her constitutional rights. The suit said that, without treatment, Manning each day "experiences escalating anxiety, distress and depression. She feels as though her body is being poisoned by testosterone."

In December 2014, the month of her 27th birthday, Manning wrote an op-ed in the Guardian (she had previously been published in that newspaper, and in the New York Times), about her identity and the violations of her rights as a trans person. She wrote of "unfinished business when it comes to protecting civil rights for many people," from immigration reform to police brutality and racism to rampant discrimination faced by people like her. "We're banned from serving our country in the armed services unless we serve as trans people in secret, as I did," she wrote. She argued for self-recognition, the "absolute and inalienable right to define ourselves."

Chase Strangio, an ACLU staff attorney who represents Manning in her gender dysphoria case, said that in Fort Leavenworth, Manning is not allowed to browse the web. But she consults print news, remains "a voracious reader," and has access to new gender theory texts, too.

Manning's relationship with the Guardian is one kind of recognition. (The Guardian, which won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the NSA's mass surveillance program _ revealed by Edward Snowden _ has a special relationship with leaks.) She will not be paid for her contributions.

The journalist David France sees the agreement with the Guardian as indication that Manning has "kind of figured it out." France, who directed the documentary film "How to Survive a Plague" and has corresponded with Manning, said that Manning can only be visited by people she had named before her imprisonment, not by new friends or journalists. She cannot be photographed and cannot give interviews on camera.

"Through the Guardian," he said, "we can finally get a regular impression of Chelsea now, through her own voice, which is terrific. There's so much she can tell us, about what her life is like. I think she's very insightful, I think she's very a keen observer of life. It's interesting to start hearing from her now. We're starting to see Snowden make his appearance. We're actually starting to hear from these people, which I think is good for the dialogue."

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Manning's next chapter: Opinion writer on war, gender, freedom of information

Chelsea Manning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh No AHAHA
Chelsea Manning will now be called a woman. O.K..

By: SECRETLY WE ARE GAY

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Chelsea Manning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh No AHAHA - Video

Chelsea Manning Must Be Referred to as #39;She #39; by Military, Court Says
The 27-year old Manning, a former intelligence analyst, is undergoing gender reassignment from male to female while serving a 35-year sentence in the U.S. Di...

By: aayan luky

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Chelsea Manning Must Be Referred to as 'She' by Military, Court Says - Video