Story highlights Manning is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking thousands of classified documents She says she will be using a voice phone to dictate her tweets

Manning, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking thousands of classified documents, appears to have joined Twitter this week.

In a series of tweets, the prisoner formerly known as Bradley Manning said she will be using a voice phone to dictate her tweets to communications firm Fitzgibbon Media, which will post them on her behalf.

She is not allowed Internet access in prison, according to The Guardian.

"It will be hard, but I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street/conversation," Manning posted to her nearly 26,000-plus followers.

Manning was sentenced in 2013, and in August of that year, she said she wanted to transition to a female.

The Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas, where she is serving her sentence, has authorized hormone therapy for her treatment.

Manning said she suffers from gender dysphoria. Her lawyers describe it as "the medical diagnosis given to individuals whose gender identity -- their innate sense of being male or female -- differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, causing clinically significant distress."

Last year, a Kansas judge granted her request to be formally known as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

The former Army intelligence analyst was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks in what has been described as the largest leak of classified material in U.S. history.

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Chelsea Manning's jail tweets

Story highlights Manning is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking thousands of classified documents She says she will be using a voice phone to dictate her tweets

Manning, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking thousands of classified documents, appears to have joined Twitter this week.

In a series of tweets, the prisoner formerly known as Bradley Manning said she will be using a voice phone to dictate her tweets to communications firm Fitzgibbon Media, which will post them on her behalf.

She is not allowed Internet access in prison, according to The Guardian.

"It will be hard, but I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street/conversation," Manning posted to her nearly 26,000-plus followers.

Manning was sentenced in 2013, and in August of that year, she said she wanted to transition to a female.

The Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas, where she is serving her sentence, has authorized hormone therapy for her treatment.

Manning said she suffers from gender dysphoria. Her lawyers describe it as "the medical diagnosis given to individuals whose gender identity -- their innate sense of being male or female -- differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, causing clinically significant distress."

Last year, a Kansas judge granted her request to be formally known as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

The former Army intelligence analyst was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks in what has been described as the largest leak of classified material in U.S. history.

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Chelsea Manning is tweeting from prison - CNN.com

Chelsea Manning, the U.S. soldier serving a 35-year sentence for leaking military secrets to the Web site Wikileaks, has joined Twitter, giving her a new way to communicate with the outside world from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Mannings first message was posted at noon, and was followed by three more in quick succession. She said shed be dictating them by voice, and is using the handle @xychelsea. A spokesperson for the ACLU told Politico on Friday that it would not be tweeting on her behalf, but others in close contact with her would.

Manning, who joined the Army as a man named Bradley, uses a black-and-white image of herself with long hair on her Twitter profile.

[From military prison, Chelsea Manning offers punditry on Iraq]

Its not the first time shes offered punditry from behind bars: In September, she argued in an opinion piece published by The Guardian that Islamic State militants should be allowed to set up a caliphate and control their own territory because it would prove that they are unable to govern.

Manningserved in Iraq in 2009 and 2010andwas sentenced to 35 years of confinement in August 2013. In August 2014, her attorneys threatened to sue the U.S. government if it didnt grant her gender treatment. She identifies as female, and swapped names to Chelsea in 2013.

Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.

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Chelsea Manning, imprisoned for leaking secrets, to tweet ...

"How Chelsea Manning Sees Herself," as drawn by Alicia Neal. The Army private who gave documents to WikiLeaks has joined Twitter. Alicia Neal/Chelsea Manning Support Network

Private Chelsea Manning has been behind bars since 2013, after pleading guilty to leaking classified military reports to WikiLeaks. Although she has been cut off from the outside world, as she serves a 35-year sentence, Manning has now found a means to communicate with her legion of supporters: Twitter. With the help of FitzGibbon Media, Manning will operate under the handle @xychelsea, where she promises to tweet "as frequently as possible; daily to weekly."

"This is my new twitter account =P," Manning wrote in her inaugural tweet, while cheekily putting her current location as Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the location of the military prison where she's currently housed. However, without a smartphone or computer, Manning mapped out the difficulties of using Twitter from behind bars. "Tweeting from prison reqs a lot of effort and using a voice phone to dictate #90sproblems," Manning wrote, showcasing an already veteran approach to hashtags.

Given Manning's lack of accessibility, it willbe difficult for her to respond in a timely manner to her @s, replies and DMs, but she hopes her Twitter won't be "a one-way street/conversation." In her first series of 140-character missives, Manning also thanked journalists Glenn Greenwald and Alexa O'Brien, Amnesty International and the Save Manning campaign because they have "always stood by me."

"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," Manning wrote, as her Twitter account grew to 15,000 followers in its first hour of existence.

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Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Joins Twitter From Prison ...

Convicted traitor Chelsea Elizabeth Manning has a new Twitter account, and is tweeting from prison.

Manning, sentenced to 35 years and doing time in Fort Leavenworth for leaking massive amounts of classified government documents to Wikileaks, opened her Twitter account saying, "This is my new Twitter account," and added, "I'm hoping to stay connected w/ this account as much as poss., but would rather tweet about more meaningful things than not."

Bradley Edward Manning was serving in the Army as a PFC at the time of his arrest. After being sentenced in 2013, he announced he planned to change his name to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning and begin hormone treatments, The Wall Street Journal reported. He released a photo of himself in lipstick and a blonde wig.

Manning, 27, released about 700,000 documents to Wikileaks and could have been hit with an 80-year sentence, but will be eligible for parole in eight years, the Journal reported.

The Journal notes that Manning's Twitter posts immediately gained her thousands of followers.

Posting as ChelseaManning@xychelsea, Manning tweeted: "Tweeting from prison reqs a lot of effort and using a voice phone to dictate," and followed that with, "It will be hard, but I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street/conversation."

"Starting with a shout out to the friends who have always stood by me @ggreenwald @amnesty @carwinb @savemanning and so many others #thankyou," Manning tweeted, followed by, "Also for those of you asking: @fitzgibbonmedia is handling my account for the time being."

She promised, "For those of you asking: I plan to tweet as freq. as possible; daily to weekly," her Twitter account states.

It's not the first time Manning has communicated from prison. She has authored opinion columns that have appeared in The Guardian, most recently on March 9, with one calling for prosecution of CIA agents and others involved in torture in Iraq, her supporters' website notes.

In February, Manning began receiving court-ordered hormone therapy treatment, the first time the military has administered such treatments because transgender people are not allowed to enlist, Manning's website reported.

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Chelsea Manning Tweets About 'Meaningful Things' From The ...

Imprisoned soldier Chelsea Manning can now communicate with the world -- in 140 characters or less.

Manning, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking thousands of classified documents, appears to have joined Twitter this week.

In a series of tweets, the prisoner formerly known as Bradley Manning said she will be using a voice phone to dictate her tweets to communications firm Fitzgibbon Media, which will post them on her behalf.

She is not allowed Internet access in prison, according to The Guardian.

"It will be hard, but I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street/conversation," Manning posted to her nearly 26,000-plus followers.

Manning was sentenced in 2013, and in August of that year, she said she wanted to transition to a female.

The Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas, where she is serving her sentence, has authorized hormone therapy for her treatment.

Manning said she suffers from gender dysphoria. Her lawyers describe it as "the medical diagnosis given to individuals whose gender identity -- their innate sense of being male or female -- differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, causing clinically significant distress."

Last year, a Kansas judge granted her request to be formally known as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

The former Army intelligence analyst was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks in what has been described as the largest leak of classified material in U.S. history.

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Chelsea Manning to dictate tweets from prison