Yesterday in one of his last acts as president, Barack Obama commuted the prison sentence of army leaker Chelsea Manning, and today he defended the decision at a press conference.
Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence. It has been my view that given she went to trial that due process was carried out, that she took responsibility for her crime, that the sentence she received was very disproportionate relative to what other leakers had received, and that she had served such a significant amount of time that it made sense to commute and not pardon her sentence. I feel very comfortable that justice has been served.
The president’s order did not pardon Manning but it did reduce her sentence to seven years. She is scheduled to be released in May.
I just hope that there are support groups out there for this tragic person!
The electorate is curiously unable to act in its own best interest, due partly to being uninformed by the elected and appointed leaders – not leaders, but deceivers. Recall the Pentagon Papers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers
Gulf of Tonkin? A lie.
At a horrible cost, we made a poisoned ruin of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. But in abject defeat, unrecognized, we are now in hock to China. A preventable outcome, had there been an informed Electorate.
By all means, honor and protect the whistleblowers!
I’m overjoyed that Obama did the right thing, at least in this instance, and freed a true hero. Nice tribute, Katie!
It is heartening to see Obama take this morally correct step. History will eventually show that Manning was not only brave but loyal to the state and it’s ideals at a time when the leadership were actively betraying those same things.
There seems to me to be a certain irony to the fact that Obama who has prosecuted more whistle blowers than all previous Presidents COMBINED should be so highly praised for showing some mercy for one of his victims. People tend to see what they want to see. Tough luck for Leonard Peltier. No guilty conscience there!