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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChelsea Manning spends sixth Christmas in prison with no end in sight
Ed Pilkington in New York
Chelsea Manning, whose role as the source of one of the largest leaks of US government state secrets in history earned her a 35-year prison sentence, will be spending her sixth Christmas in military custody with no end in sight for her ordeal.
In an article in the Guardian, the army private writes movingly about the feeling of detachment that engulfs her at this time of year. As her detention lengthens from her original arrest in Iraq in May 2010, she says that she is prone to existential doubts in what she describes as her artificially-imposed stasis.
The chasm between me and the outside world feels like its getting wider and wider, and all I can do is let it happen. I sometimes feel less than empty; I feel non-existent.
It is unclear how many more Christmases Manning can expect to spend behind bars for having transferred about 750,000 files of US state secrets to the open information website WikiLeaks. She was sentenced to 35 years in August 2013 having been found guilty on 20 counts, including six under the controversial Espionage Act of 1917.
more
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/24/chelsea-manning-christmas-prison-whistleblower-wikileaks
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)Maybe, thanks to Chelsea, I can still believe in "home of the brave." She is certainly brave!
Rex
(65,616 posts)The system is all about fairness.
I'm not going to lose any sleep over this, she released, illegally, scores of documents without even knowing what they were, she didn't care of the danger she might have put her fellow soldiers in, this deeply offends me and I could give 2 shits what others think of my post.
She can spend the rest of her days in prison for all I care.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)You break the law like that, oh well, you take your chances.
I've got no sympathy either.
I know there are those here who are going to give me hell for my attitude, but I just don't care, Miss Manning broke the law, and now she's paying the price.
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)Literally took the position with the intent to release classified intell. Drew a salary almost twice of what an equivalent civil servant would use, and endangered the troops.
Ms. Manning is lucky she was not executed for treason. She should be happy she woke up to see another Christmas.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Do the crime, do the time.
There is no question of guilt here.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)One can feel bad, and yet understand that this is the way things need to be.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)I believe a 10 to 15 year sentence is warranted.
Throd
(7,208 posts)DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)She tried to go up the chain of command with her issue.
Did she try to go outside that? The IG, another fair senior NCO, the chaplain or write her Congress person?
Or did she just dump it?
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)nor did she care of the potential harm to her fellow soldiers.
AFAIC, she can rot in prison.
DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)Well now they can use her as a training aid.
Use the tools available.
Snobblevitch
(1,958 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)And those who point it out, as the October Surprise veteran Laurence Silberman wrote, are NAZIs.
Funny how that is.