Army Approves Hormone Therapy for Chelsea Manning
The U.S. Army has approved hormone therapy for Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of leaking national security secrets to Wikileaks, defense officials told N...
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Army Approves Hormone Therapy for Chelsea Manning - Video
New York Army officials have approved hormone treatments for the male-to-female transition of Chelsea Manning, the transgender soldier convicted of espionage in 2013 after sending classified government documents to WikiLeaks, the Defense Department confirmed on Thursday.
Official approval to begin hormone treatments for Ms. Manning, formerly Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is currently in the Forth Leavenworth Army prison, marks a first for the Defense Department, which does not permit open transgender individuals to serve in the military, and had not previously provided transition-related health care in the past.
But the Armys approval of Mannings hormone therapy is part of a rapid and wide-ranging shift in how the nation sees transgender people and their health needs. Health providers and insurance companies across the nation, as well as the federal government and civil courts, have begun to reevaluate previous bans on sex-transition treatments, which have long been seen as elective procedures, like cosmetic surgery, that were done for personal, subjective reasons.
In past few years, however, the nations medical and psychological professions have increasingly shifted to considering transition therapy, in some cases including sex-reassignment surgery, medically necessary treatments of a condition referred to as gender identity disorder.
Though the idea of providing public funds for such treatments remains politically controversial, the nations health care structure has been changing.
In February, 2013, the Veterans Health Administration approved all medically necessary care for intersex and transgender veterans, including hormone therapy, mental health care, as well as pre-operative and post-operative care following sex-reassignment surgery. The VA does not provide such surgery, however.
Last year, the Obama administration ended the 33-year-old ban on Medicare coverage for both transition-related care and sex-reassignment surgery.
Weve had some really significant gains in the last few years, says Dru Levasseur, director of the Transgender Rights Project for Lambda Legal, a New York-based lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights group. And we see a growing number of states that are passing these private insurance bulletins that say that insurers cannot discriminate in the provision of health care for transgender people.
In 2012, Oregon became the first state to tell private insurers to pay for transition procedures deemed medically necessary. Other states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia have done the same.
At the same time, much of corporate America has embraced more inclusive insurance coverage for transgender people now included as a part of the Human Rights Campaigns influential corporate equality index scores.
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Chelsea Manning decision points to shift in views on transgender health care
Chelsea Manning, the Wikileaks leaker formerly known as Bradley Manning, is finally getting the hormone treatments shes been demanding for months.
In September of last year Manning sued the US Department of Defense, claiming she had been denied access to medically necessary treatment in connection with a gender disorder.
She brings this action to compel defendants to treat her serious medical needs consistent with their obligation under the Constitution, said the lawsuit. Mannings lawyers claimed that lack of hormonal treatment would cause Manning to suffer continued pain, depression and anxiety and that she is at an extremely high risk of self-castration and suicidality.
Manning and the ACLU said that the military was stalling.
Now, after many months, theyve caved. USA Today obtained the internal memo, which grants Manning the medically appropriate and necessary treatments.
After carefully considering the recommendation that (hormone treatment) is medically appropriate and necessary, and weighing all associated safety and security risks presented, I approve adding (hormone treatment) to Inmate Mannings treatment plan, wrote Col. Erica Nelson in the memo.
The American Civil Liberties Union, who has represented Chelsea Manning, applauded the decision.
We are thrilled for Chelsea that the government has finally agreed to initiate hormone therapy as part of her treatment plan, said Chase Strangio, an attorney with the ACLU. This is an important first step in Chelseas treatment regimen and one that is in line with the recommendations of all of her doctors and the basic requirements of the Eighth Amendment.
Still, its not a total victory. According to Strangio, the officials at Leavenworth are still refusing to let Manning grow her hair out a step in her transformation that he describes as critical.
In August of 2013, Pvt. Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for supplying WikiLeaks with 700,000 classified documents in 2010. Manning was found guilty on charges under the Espionage Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the code of military justice but was spared the charge of aiding the enemy, the most serious of all the charges. If convicted of that crime, Manning could have faced up the 90 years behind bars.
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Chelsea Manning Will Receive Hormone Therapy Following Suit
The decision came after a lawsuit was filed in September in US District Court for the District of Columbia. It alleged Manning was at a high risk of self-castration and suicide unless she received more focused treatment for gender dysphoria, the sense of being a woman in a man's body.
The Army was providing some treatment but not enough, according to the lawsuit, including psychotherapy from a mental health specialist who lacked the qualifications to treat gender dysphoria. The Federal Bureau of Prisons and many state and local corrections agencies administer hormone therapy to prisoners with gender dysphoria, but Manning is the first transgender military prisoner to request such treatment.
"Such clear disregard of well-established medical protocols constitutes cruel and unusual punishment," ACLU attorney Chase Strangio said in September. Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had approved medical treatment in August, but it hadn't started by the time the ACLU filed the lawsuit.
The 26-year-old former intelligence analyst was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offenses for sending more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks while working in Iraq.
Transgender people are not allowed to serve in the U.S. military, but Manning can't be discharged from the service while serving her prison sentence.
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Chelsea Manning has gender hormone therapy approved
Updated at 11:33 a.m., Wednesday
Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for being behind the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history, will write an opinion column for The Guardian's U.S. website, the site's editor-in-chief said.
Politico, quoting a Guardian memo, reported the announcement was one of several hires at the organization. Manning, who is serving her sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., will not be paid, Guardian US Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner said in a tweet. Also, Manning's columns won't be on a set schedule.
In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Army, Pfc. Chelsea Manning poses for a photo wearing a wig and lipstick. AP hide caption
In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Army, Pfc. Chelsea Manning poses for a photo wearing a wig and lipstick.
In a column last year for The New York Times, Manning outlined the rationale for her actions, saying she leaked the documents out of "a love for my country and a sense of duty to others."
In a subsequent column for The Guardian, Manning wrote about the U.S. strategy against the self-described Islamic State, noting that "only a very focused and consistent strategy of containment can be effective in reducing the growth and effectiveness of [the group] as a threat." In another column for The Guardian, this one in December, Manning wrote about the challenges of being a transgender woman.
Manning began the transition last year.
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Chelsea Manning To Be 'Guardian' Columnist
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief at The Guardian U.S., announced today that Chelsea Manning will join the publication as a contributing opinion writer.
Manning will write from Fort Leavenworth prison in northeast Kansas, where she is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking national security documents to WikiLeaks in 2010. She will not be paid for the work, Politico reported.
Manning, who served in the military under her birth name Bradley, was deployed in Iraq for a year and a half before her arrest in May 2010. After her sentencing in 2013, Manning announced that she was a transgender woman, and last May U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel approved a plan to assist her gender transition while in prison. In September, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit for Manning against Hagel and other government officials, saying that she had not yet received the treatment she was promised.
Manning wrote an essay for The Guardian in December outlining some of the challenges that transgender people face in the U.S. legal system. She wrote:
Despite ample evidence that trans people have existed in most cultures throughout history, and the medical consensus that trans people can live healthy, productive lives, many governments continue to impose barriers on trans people that can make it almost impossible to survive.
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Chelsea Manning to join The Guardian as an opinion writer
Chelsea Manning, the Wikileaks leaker formerly known as Bradley Manning who was recently sentenced to 35 years in prison, has joined The Guardian US as a contributor.
The Guardian US editor-in-chief says that Manning will write on war, gender, and freedom of information.
According to Politico, Manning will not be compensated.
In August of 2013, Pvt. Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for supplying WikiLeaks with 700,000 classified documents in 2010. Manning was found guilty on charges under the Espionage Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the code of military justice but was spared the charge of aiding the enemy, the most serious of all the charges. If convicted of that crime, Manning could have face up the 90 years behind bars.
Shortly after her sentencing, Manning revealed that she was transgender, suffering from gender dysphoria a condition in which a person does not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth.
Manning recently sued the Department of Defense over allegedly stalled gender treatments.
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Chelsea Manning to Write Columns for The Guardian
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (nacida Bradley Edward Manning, Crescent, Oklahoma, 17 de diciembre de 1987), fue soldado y analista de inteligencia del ejrcito de los Estados Unidos. Manning cobr notoriedad internacional por haber filtrado a WikiLeaks miles de documentos clasificados acerca de las guerras de Afganistn conocidos como los Diarios de la Guerra de Afganistn y de Irak, incluidos numerosos cables diplomticos de diversas embajadas estadounidenses y el video del ejrcito conocido como Collateral Murder ('asesinato colateral'). Tras tres aos de prisin provisional, cuyas condiciones fueron controvertidas en algunos perodos, el Pentgono formul una acusacin formal contra Manning,[1] y un tribunal militar le conden en agosto de 2013 en primera instancia a cumplir una pena de 35aos de prisin y a su expulsin del ejrcito con deshonor.[2]
El 22 de agosto de 2013, Manning manifest pblicamente su identidad como mujer transexual, expresando su decisin de iniciar un tratamiento hormonal para modificar su cuerpo, y pidi que de entonces en adelante se le llamase Chelsea.[3]
Manning cambi oficialmente su nombre a Chelsea Elizabeth en abril de 2014.[4]
El ejrcito de los Estados Unidos acus a Manning de haber filtrado el video conocido como Collateral Murder ('asesinato colateral'), en el que se ve cmo un helicptero estadounidense mata a un grupo de civiles en Irak del que formaban parte dos periodistas de la agencia Reuters,[5] los documentos secretos que derivaron en las publicaciones de los Diarios de la Guerra de Afganistn el 25 de julio de 2010 y de los Registros de Guerra en Iraq el 22 de octubre de 2010, adems de la filtracin de los cables diplomticos en WikiLeaks. En total casi medio milln de registros de las guerras de Irak y Afganistn, y ms de 250.000 cables diplomticos, que Manning reconoci haber divulgado en el transcurso del juicio al que fue sometido tres aos ms tarde.[6]
Esta acusacin fue posible debido a que el hacker colomboestadounidense Adrian Lamo delat la autora de Manning de las filtraciones, pues en una conversacin va chat Manning le manifest haber conseguido cables de guerra secretos referidos a las invasiones en Medio Oriente.[7]
La detencin de Manning se produjo en mayo de 2010 en Bagdad por el comando de Investigacin Criminal del Ejrcito de los Estados Unidos, y condujo a su retencin sin cargos durante ms de un mes en una prisin militar en el Campamento Arifjan en Kuwait.[8] Posteriormente trasladaron a Manning al centro de detencin militar de Marine Corps Brig, en Quantico, en el estado de Virginia (Estados Unidos) para afrontar un proceso con la justicia militar de su pas.[9]
En diciembre de 2010 continuaba la detencin de Manning en condiciones de mxima vigilancia (maximum custody detainee) y sometida a un aislamiento absoluto que algunas fuentes crticas consideraban como una forma de tortura.[10][11][12] En enero de 2011, su abogado David Coombs, plante una objecin formal contra el tratamiento que estaba recibiendo Manning y present una queja basada en el artculo 38 del Cdigo Uniforme de Justicia Militar (UCMJ).[13] En virtud de este artculo, cualquier miembro de las Fuerzas Armadas que se crea perjudicado por su comandante en jefe puede solicitar una reparacin. [...] Si la reparacin es negada, se puede hacer una denuncia, y un oficial superior debe examinar la denuncia.
Segn su abogado David Coombs, Manning permaneca en su celda 23horas al da sin almohada, sbanas ni objetos personales. Su nico ejercicio, segn Coombs, era caminar por una habitacin vaca. Cuando dorma deba quitarse toda la ropa excepto la ropa interior y entregarla a los guardias.[14]
Manning ha estado confinada en soledad y durante parte de esta semana fue ubicada de nuevo en la seccin de suicidas por su comandante de brigada en Quantico. Fue despojada de la ropa con la excepcin de su ropa interior. Adems, le quitaron las gafas que lleva por prescripcin mdica. [...] Se vio obligada a sentarse a ciegas, a excepcin de los momentos en que estaba leyendo o en los que se le permiti ver televisin. En esos momentos se le devolvieron las gafas.
Se excluy a Manning del programa de vigilancia a suicidas tras dos das en la seccin, despus de que el juez de la Oficina del Estado Mayor del Ejrcito as lo estableciera. El oficial de Asuntos Pblicos de Quantico, Brian Villiard, asegur que las condiciones de encarcelamiento de Manning se correspondan con el rgimen de custodia mxima y que se intentaba prevenir que pudiera autolesionarse. Declar as mismo a la cadena CNN que le estaban tratando como se haca con cualquiera que pudiera suponer un riesgo para la vida, la propiedad o la seguridad nacional.[14]
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Chelsea Manning - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
Chelsea Manning (fdt Bradley Manning, 17. december 1987 i Crescent, Oklahoma, USA) er en amerikansk soldat og whistleblower, der i 2010 blev anklaget for at have lkket fortrolig information. Information der menes at vre givet til WikiLeaks.[1] Den endelige anklage ld p 22 forbrydelser, heriblandt videregivelse af national forsvarsinformation til en uautoriseret kilde og hjlp til fjenden.[2]
Manning var udstationeret ved en hrenhed nr Bagdad, hvor hun havde adgang til databaser, der blev brugt af den amerikanske regering til, at sende klassificeret information. Hun blev anholdt efter hackeren Adrian Lamo, havde fortalt FBI, at Manning overfor ham, i onlinechats, havde fortalt at hun havde downloadet materiale fra disse databaser og videregivet det til WikiLeaks. Indeholdt i materialet var videoen af Luftangrebet i Bagdad den 12. juli 2007 og en video af Luftangrebet p Garani i Afghanistan i 2009, 250.000 dokumenter fra amerikanske ambassader, samt 500.000 hrrapporter, der senere blev kendt som henholdsvis Krigsdagbgerne fra Irak og Krigsdagbgerne fra Afghanistan. Samlet set var det det strste antal fortrolige dokumenter, der nogensinde er lkket til offentligheden. Meget af det blev efter flgende publiceret af WikiLeaks eller deres mediepartnere mellem april og november 2010.[3]
Den amerikanske filminstruktr Michael Moore og den amerikanske akademiker Daniel Ellsberg har sammen dannet en forening, der sger at f Manning lsladt.
Den 21. august 2013 blev hun idmt 35 rs fngsel og blev afskediget i unde fra den amerikanske hr. Det forventes at hun vil appelere dommen, som hun ellers ville kunne opn prvelsladelse fra efter udstelse af en tredjedel.[4]
Manning har siden barndommen flt sig transknnet og dagen efter domfldelsen udsendte hun en meddelelse, hvor hun identificerede sig som kvinde, ndrede sit navn til Chelsea Manning og udtrykte nske om hormonbehandling.[5]
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Chelsea Manning - Wikipedia, den frie encyklopædi
Scotland Yard has spent at least $15.6 million guarding the Ecuadorean embassy in London where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been holed up fornearly 1,000 days.
Assange was granted asylum there and could be arrested if he leaves the embassy. Swedish authorities want to question him about an alleged sexual assault in Stockholm in 2010; he says the sex was consensual. A Swedish court upheld an arrest warrant last year, and British courts have said he should be extradited to Sweden.
"[Sweden is]hardly an illiberal rogue state. Of course the right thing for him to do is face justice in a country where due process is well established," British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Thursday.
The costs, more than $15,000 daily, cover policing and overtime. The figures were first reported by LBC Radio of London, which obtained the data under open records laws. The station said the price tag, at least through October 2014, amounted to the cost of 343 patrol officers for a year.
"It is embarrassing to see the UK government spending more on surveillance and detaining an uncharged political refugee than on its investigation into the Iraq war, which killed hundreds of thousands," Kristinn Hrafnsson, a WikiLeaks spokesman, said.
Assange has not been formally charged with a crime. According to Assange's own September 2013 affidavit, he said that the women he slept with specifically said they were not accusing him of rape and that police made up the charges.
If extradited to Sweden, the 43-year-old Assange fears he might then be sent to the United States and prosecuted forpostingclassified US military documents on the secret-spilling site.
In a September telephone interview with Ars, the Australian briefly spoke of being trapped in the embassy."For security reasons, I can't tell you which sections of the embassy I utilize," he said. "As to the rest, in a way, it's a perfectly normal situation. In another way, it's one of the most abnormal, unusual situations that someone can find themselves in."
The US government's WikiLeaks investigation began in 2010 after WikiLeaks distributed tens of thousands of US secrets obtained by Chelsea Manning, an Army private sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of espionage and other charges.In addition to leaking thousands of diplomatic documents, Manning's most famous leak was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack that killed civilians and a Reuters journalist in Iraq. The video ultimately became known as the "collateral murder" video.
Google, meanwhile, said last month that ithanded over data to USauthorities about three WikiLeaks staffers as part of the government's espionage probe of Assange and the site.
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UK spent $15.6 million guarding embassy housing Julian Assange