Edward Snowden sends birthday greeting to 'extraordinary' Chelsea Manning

On Manning’s 27th birthday, NSA whistleblower praises
WikiLeaks source for having ‘inspired an angry public’ with her
‘extraordinary act of service’

Ed Pilkington in New York
theguardian.com, Tuesday 16 December 2014 17.27 GMT

From one whistleblower in exile to another in military prison: a birthday greeting. Edward Snowden marks the 27th birthday of Chelsea Manning on Wednesday with a personalized message that praises the WikiLeaks source for having “inspired an angry public”.

Since he astounded the world with his NSA revelations in June 2013, Snowden’s name has perhaps inevitably been associated with that of Manning, who had similarly astounded the world with the WikiLeaks trove of state secrets three years previously. In the pantheon of contemporary US official leakers, Snowden and Manning rank supreme – they were jointly nominated for the Nobel peace prize and Snowden referred to Manning in his early interviews, as “a classic whistleblower”.

Now Snowden has offered words of comfort for Manning as she marks her fifth birthday behind bars. From his own exile in Russia, the former NSA contractor thanks Manning for her “extraordinary act of service”, regretting that “it has come with such an unbelievable personal cost”.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]