Chelsea Manning's First Interview Since Being Released From Prison

In her first interview since being released from prison, Chelsea Manning explains to Juju Chang of ABC News why she risked her career to disclose the information and her fight for transgender rights while in military prison.

Saying she has “accepted responsibility” for her actions, Chelsea shares that she felt it was her duty to give the 700,000 military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks due to the “death, destruction and mayhem” she saw as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq.

Even though President Obama commuted her 35 year sentence, Chelsea's 7 years in prison is still the longest ever served by a leaker.

Chelsea Manning Released From Prison Today

Chelsea Manning

Chelsea Manning, who leaked hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic documents via Wikileaks, has been released from prison today.

From The New York Times:

Sentenced to an unprecedented 35-year prison term for disclosing archives of secret files to WikiLeaks, Ms. Manning spent about seven years in prison — already double the second-longest sentence in any leak case. She was freed 28 years early because President Barack Obama, in one of his final acts, commuted the bulk of her remaining sentence.

Ms. Manning was known as Pvt. Bradley Manning in 2010 when she was arrested on suspicion of having copied hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic files from a classified computer network, to which she had access as a low-level intelligence analyst at a forward operating base in Iraq. After her conviction, she announced that she was a transgender woman and changed her name to Chelsea.

Hoping to inspire “worldwide discussion, debates and reforms,” as she wrote at the time, Ms. Manning had uploaded the files to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks. It published them in batches, working with traditional news organizations, including The New York Times.

Her leaks brought to light numerous hidden facts, including previously unknown civilian bystander killings in the Iraq war, back-room diplomatic dealings and discussion of local corruption around the world, and intelligence assessments about Guantánamo Bay detainees.

"For the first time, I can see a future for myself as Chelsea," she said in a statement last week ahead of her release. "I can imagine surviving and living as the person who I am and can finally be in the outside world."

Manning attempted suicide twice during her 7 years at Fort Leavenworth.

She will remain on unpaid active duty while her military court conviction is under appeal. During that time she will continue to receive health benefits from the Army.

First steps of freedom!! 😄https://t.co/kPPWV5epwa#ChelseaIsFree pic.twitter.com/0R5pXqA1VN

— Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) May 17, 2017

NSA leaker/whistleblower Eric Snowden charged with espionage and theft of government property

The AP is reporting that NSA leaker Eric Snowden has been charged with:

• unauthorized communication of national defense information
• willful communication of classified communications intelligence information
• theft of government property. All three crimes carry a maximum 10-year prison penalty

Each crime could result in a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

After providing the news media with information regarding two highly classified NSA surveillance programs, Snowden is believed to be hiding in China.

Glenn Beck delivers cryptic "whistleblower" message on radio show

Right Wing Watch tips us to this very CRYPTIC "whistleblower" warning Glenn Beck made today on his radio show:

So we are a little skeptical of the promise that he made at the top of his radio broadcast today that within the next twenty four hours, his The Blaze network will break a story that is going to rock the nation and take down the entire power structure.

All Beck would say is that there is a whistleblower who has handed over just one document to The Blaze, but "this one document would take down pretty much the whole power structure, pretty much everything." But this whistleblower is refusing to come forward until he can appear on television in front of Congress out of fear that he will otherwise be killed.

"We are going to be greatly divided as a nation," Beck warned, "in the next ten days and you are going to witness things in American history that have never been witnessed before."

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks out

Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA who currently works for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, revealed his identity and spoke out about why he leaked information about the NSA surveillance state in the U.S. in an interview and video released yesterday.

In a Q and A, Snowden says he fears for his partner:

"My family does not know what is happening … My primary fear is that they will come after my family, my friends, my partner. Anyone I have a relationship with … I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. I am not going to be able to communicate with them. They [the authorities] will act aggressively against anyone who has known me. That keeps me up at night." 

The Guardian reports:

Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

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