Harvard Disinvites Chelsea Manning, and the Feeling Is …

When asked by a member of Ms. Mannings team why Mr. Spicer and Mr. Lewandowski were being endorsed, Mr. Elmendorf said that they had something to bring to the table, the source said.

The call lasted about 10 minutes; Ms. Mannings team left the conversation stunned and insulted.

The sudden turnabout by the school came after a day of intense backlash over the universitys announcement that Ms. Manning had been included. Mr. Elmendorf said that while the university encouraged a diversity of opinions and did not shy away from controversy, naming Ms. Manning a fellow was a mistake for which he accepted responsibility.

I see more clearly now that many people view a visiting fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations, he wrote in a letter posted on the Harvard Kennedy School website early Friday morning, shortly after the phone call with Ms. Manning. I apologize to her and to the many concerned people from whom I have heard today for not recognizing upfront the full implications of our original invitation.

In his statement, Mr. Elmendorf said the university had extended the fellowship to Ms. Manning because she fit the schools tradition of asking influential people to address students.

After news that the invitation had been revoked became public, Ms. Manning tweeted that she was honored to be disinvited and that the institution was chilling marginalized voices under C.I.A. pressure.

In another tweet, she contrasted herself with Mr. Spicer and Mr. Lewandowski.

Chase Strangio, a lawyer for Ms. Manning, wrote in a statement that the decision to withdraw the invitation in the middle of the night without coherent explanation is disgraceful even for Harvard. He also accused the school of being beholden to the C.I.A.

The decision by the Kennedy School followed forceful denunciations by a former top official at the C.I.A. and the current director at the agency.

Michael J. Morell, a deputy director at the intelligence agency under President Barack Obama, resigned as a fellow on Thursday, calling the invitation to Ms. Manning wholly inappropriate. He said it honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.

It is my right, indeed my duty, to argue that the schools decision is wholly inappropriate and to protest it by resigning from the Kennedy School, Mr. Morell wrote to Mr. Elmendorf. The letter was obtained and reported on by CBS News, where Mr. Morell is a national security contributor.

Mr. Morell did not respond to an email Thursday night, and the Kennedy School did not respond to a request for comment.

Later on Thursday, the director of the C.I.A., Mike Pompeo, withdrew from a Harvard forum he was scheduled to participate in that night, citing Ms. Mannings fellowship as the reason.

Ms. Manning betrayed her country, Mr. Pompeo, who graduated from Harvard Law School, wrote in a letter to a Kennedy School official, adding that he commended Mr. Morells decision to resign.

He said that his withdrawal has everything to do with her identity as a traitor to the United States of America and my loyalty to the officers of the C.I.A.

Ms. Manning was convicted in 2010 for giving WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables and military reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Obama commuted her sentence in January as one of his final acts as president, and she was released in May.

Since 2013, Mr. Morell had served as a nonresident senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, which is also part of the Kennedy School. In his letter, Mr. Morell said he worried that Ms. Mannings actions would encourage others to leak classified information as well.

I have an obligation to my conscience, he wrote.

See the original post:
Harvard Disinvites Chelsea Manning, and the Feeling Is ...