Chelsea Manning In April 2012 when known as PFCBradleyManning Born Bradley Edward Manning (1987-12-17) December 17, 1987 (age26) Crescent, Oklahoma, U.S. Knownfor Release of classified U.S. government documents to Wikileaks

Criminal charge

Criminal penalty

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning[4] (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after releasing the largest set of classified documents ever leaked to the public. Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years confinement with the possibility of parole in eight years, and to be dishonorably discharged from the Army.[2] Manning is a trans woman and in a statement the day after sentencing said she had felt female since childhood, wanted to be known as Chelsea, and desired to begin hormone replacement therapy.[4] From early life through much of Army life, Manning was known as Bradley, and was diagnosed with gender identity disorder while in the Army.[5]

Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010 she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance. Lamo informed Army Counterintelligence, and Manning was arrested in May that same year. The material included videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables; and 500,000 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs. Much of the material was published by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010.[6]

Manning was ultimately charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy, which was the most serious charge and could have resulted in a death sentence.[7] She was held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico in Virginia, from July 2010 to April 2011 under Prevention of Injury statuswhich entailed de facto solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused domestic and international concernbefore being transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she could interact with other detainees.[8] She pleaded guilty in February 2013 to 10 of the charges.[9] The trial on the remaining charges began on June 3, 2013, and on July 30 she was convicted of 17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others, but was acquitted of aiding the enemy.[1] She will serve her sentence at the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.[10]

Reaction to Manning's disclosures, arrest, and sentence was mixed. Denver Nicks, one of her biographers, writes that the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, and that Manning was viewed as both a 21st-century Tiananmen Square Tank Man and an embittered traitor.[11]Reporters Without Borders condemned the length of the sentence, saying that it demonstrated how vulnerable whistleblowers are.[12]

Born Bradley Edward Manning in 1987 in Crescent, Oklahoma, she was the second child of Susan Fox, originally from Wales, and Brian Manning, an American. Brian had joined the United States Navy in 1974 at the age of 19, and served for five years as an intelligence analyst. Brian met Susan in a local Woolworth's while stationed in Wales at Cawdor Barracks. Manning's sister was born in 1976. The couple returned to the United States in 1979, moving first to California, then to a two-story house outside Crescent, with an above-ground swimming pool and 5 acres (2 hectares) of land where they kept pigs and chickens.[13]

Manning's sister Casey, 11 years her senior, told the court-martial that both their parents were alcoholics, and that their mother had drunk continually while pregnant. Captain David Moulton, a Navy psychiatrist, told the court that Manning's facial features showed signs of fetal alcohol syndrome.[14] Casey became Manning's principal caregiver, waking at night to make the baby a bottle. The court heard that Manning was fed only milk and baby food until the age of two, and was always small for her age; as an adult she reached just 5ft 2in (1.57m) and weighed around 105 pounds (47.6kg).[15]

Manning's father took a job as an information technology (IT) manager for a rental car agency, which meant he had to travel. The family lived several miles out of town and Manning's mother was unable to drive. She spent her days drinking, while Manning was left largely to fend for herself, playing with Legos or on the computer. Brian would stock up on food before his trips, and leave pre-signed checks that Casey mailed to pay the bills. A neighbor said that whenever Manning's elementary school went on field trips, she would give her own son extra food or money so he could make sure Manning had something to eat. Friends and neighbors considered the Mannings a troubled family.[16]

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Chelsea Manning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Published time: January 16, 2014 08:47 Edited time: January 17, 2014 10:44

Chelsea Manning (AFP Photo / Saul Loeb)

The former US Army intelligence analyst who was found guilty of releasing the largest set of classified documents in US history will be honored in absentia for her role in exposing the dark nature of civilian casualties in Iraq.

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), currently incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison, will be recognized at a ceremony in absentia at Oxford University's prestigious Oxford Union Society for casting much-needed daylight on the true toll and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq; human rights abuses by U.S. and coalition forces, mercenaries, and contractors; and the roles that spying and bribery play in international diplomacy, according to the press release, published by activist and author David Swanson.

The award ceremony will be held on February 19, 2014, according to the statement.

The Sam Adams Award acknowledged Chelsea Manning, 26, for revealing to the world some of the atrocities of the Iraq War, including the "Collateral Murder" video footage taken in July 2007 from inside the cockpit of a US Apache helicopter as US troops onboard cut down 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters reporters.

The video footage, together with some 500,000 Army documents that are now known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs, was turned over to Wikileaks in early 2010.

Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years imprisonment.

Former senior NSA executive and SAAII Awardee Emeritus Thomas Drake commented that Manning "exposed the dark side shadows of our national security regime and foreign policy follies."

Drake writes that Manning's "acts of civil disobedience strike at the very core of the critical issues surrounding our national security, public and foreign policy, openness and transparency, as well as the unprecedented and relentless campaign by this Administration to snuff out and silence truth tellers and whistleblowers in a deliberate and premeditated assault on the 1st Amendment."

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Chelsea Manning awarded 2014 Sam Adams Prize for Integrity ...

January 22, 2014. By the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII). Chelsea Manning has been awarded this years's Integrity in Intelligence award for "casting much-needed daylight on the true toll and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq; human rights abuses by U.S. and coalition forces, mercenaries, and contractors; and the roles that spying and bribery play in international diplomacy." Read more

January 10, 2014. By the Private Manning Support Network. Last week, the New York Times editorial board thrilled government transparency advocates worldwide when they released an article calling on President Obama to grant clemency to Edward Snowden. The same criteria all apply equally to Chelsea Manning.Read more

January 8, 2014. By the Private Manning Support Network. A new letter from Chelsea thanks supporters for all their birthday and holiday wishes! "I just wanted to share my gratitude for all of those who have been so generous to me by sending your well wishes for my birthday and the holidays" she writes. Read more

December 21, 2013. By the Private Manning Support Network. Read about ongoing projects we are working on to support Chelsea while we fight for her immediate release, and consider donating to the defense fund so that we can continue our efforts through 2014! We have raised $26,000 so far of the $40,000 needed to sustain these projects. Read more

December 13, 2013. By the Private Manning Support Network. Last week we hosted three exclusive events with Pvt. Chelsea Manning's lead civilian attorney, David Coombs. Drawing hundreds in attendance, these events provided a personal, in-depth report back of this past summer's historic trial as well as a look forward to the next phase in the fight to win justice for Manning.Read more

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Private Manning Support Network

U.S. Army / AP

Im usually hesitant to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. After all, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony systematically terrorized and slaughtered the very same Pequot tribe that assisted the first English refugees to arrive at Plymouth Rock. So, perhaps ironically, Im thankful that I know that, and Im also thankful that there are people who seek out, and usually find, such truths. Im thankful for people who, even surrounded by millions of Americans eating turkey during regularly scheduled commercial breaks in the Green Bay and Detroit football game; who, despite having been taught, often as early as five and six years old, that the helpful natives selflessly assisted the poor helpless Pilgrims and lived happily ever after, dare to ask probing, even dangerous, questions.

Such people are often nameless and humble, yet no less courageous. Whether carpenters of welders; retail clerks or bank managers; artists or lawyers, they dare to ask tough questions, and seek out the truth, even when the answers they find might not be easy to live with.

Im also grateful for having social and human justice pioneers who lead through action, and by example, as opposed to directing or commanding other people to take action. Often, the achievements of such people transcend political, cultural, and generational boundaries. Unfortunately, such remarkable people often risk their reputations, their livelihood, and, all too often, even their lives.

For instance, the man commonly known as Malcolm X began to openly embrace the idea, after an awakening during his travels to the Middle East and Africa, of an international and unifying effort to achieve equality, and was murdered after a tough, yearlong defection from the Nation of Islam. Martin Luther King Jr., after choosing to embrace the struggles of striking sanitation workers in Memphis over lobbying in Washington, D.C., was murdered by an escaped convict seeking fame and respect from white Southerners. Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in the U.S., was murdered by a jealous former colleague. These are only examples; I wouldnt dare to make a claim that they represent an exhaustive list of remarkable pioneers of social justice and equalitycertainly many if not the vast majority are unsung and, sadly, forgotten.

So, this year, and every year, Im thankful for such people, and Im thankful that one dayperhaps not tomorrowbecause of the accomplishments of such truth-seekers and human rights pioneers, we can live together on this tiny pale blue dot of a planet and stop looking inward, at each other, but rather outward, into the space beyond this planet and the future of all of humanity.

Chelsea Manning, formerly named Bradley, is serving a 35-year prison sentence at Fort Leavenworth for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

Tell us what youre thankful for on Twitter using the hashtag #TIMEthanks

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Chelsea Manning | Thanksgiving Gratitude With Michelle ...

Details Written by Helen Silvis Published: 16 January 2014

A U.S. Army private, Manning was jailed for 35 years in 2013 for leaking U.S. video and documents that revealed abuses of civilians and other information embarrassing to the U.S. military and government. After her arrest she came out as a transgendered person. She currently is incarcerated in Leavenworth prison.

Manning's treatment in custody was described by Juan E. Mendez, aUnited Nations Special Rapporteuron torture, as cruel, inhuman and degrading. And prompted the resignation of State department official Phillip Crowley.

The award comes from theSam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retiredCIAofficers, and goes to someone in the intelligence world who takes a stand for integrityand ethics. It is named aftera Vietnam era CIAwhistleblower Samuel A. Adams.

In the press release, the group says:

A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, U.S. Army Pvt. Manning is the 25 year-old intelligence analyst who in 2010 provided to WikiLeaks the "Collateral Murder" video gun barrel footage from a U.S. Apache helicopter, exposing the reckless murder of 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters journalists, during the surge in Iraq. The Pentagon had repeatedly denied the existence of the "Collateral Murder" video and declined to release it despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act by Reuters, which had sought clarity on the circumstances of its journalists' deaths.

Release of this video and other documents sparked a worldwide dialogue about the importance of government accountability for human rights abuses as well as the dangers of excessive secrecy and over-classification of documents.

On February 19, 2014 Pvt. Manning - currently incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison - will be recognized at a ceremony in absentia at Oxford University's prestigious Oxford Union Society for casting much-needed daylight on the true toll and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq; human rights abuses by U.S. and coalition forces, mercenaries, and contractors; and the roles that spying and bribery play in international diplomacy.

On August 21, 2013 Pvt. Manning received an unusually harsh sentence of 35 years in prison for exposing the truth -- a chilling message to those who would call attention to wrongdoing by U.S. and coalition forces.

Under the 1989 Official Secrets Act in the United Kingdom, Pvt. Manning, whose mother is British, would have faced just two years in prison for whistleblowing or 14 years if convicted under the old 1911 Official Secrets Act for espionage.

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The Skanner Newspaper - Jailed Chelsea Manning Gets Intelligence Ethics Award