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Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years by a military court in 2013. She is now likely to be released on May 17, 2017 [Xinhua]
Manning, (born Bradley Manning) was a US soldier stationed in Iraq who became an intelligence analyst and leaked sensitive data about the war in that country. In 2010, she was arrested at her base in Baghdad and three years later was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
With Obama’s commuted sentence, she will be released on May 17.
The leak, including some 700,000 classified documents, videos and memos, was considered the biggest security breach in US history.
One of the videos included dramatic footage from 2007 of a US Apache helicopter firing on a group of suspected insurgent Iraqis, including children.
Snowden, who has pleaded for Manning’s clemency, Tweeted to Obama:
Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama. https://t.co/IeumTasRNN
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 17, 2017
But he also Tweeted congratulations to Manning:
In five more months, you will be free. Thank you for what you did for everyone, Chelsea. Stay strong a while longer! https://t.co/PaLvJDvDbl
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 17, 2017
Snowden, who has been living under a three-year residency in Russia and was just issued an extension visa, believes he was justified in sharing sensitive US intelligence data about the NSA’s global spying operations.
“Citizens have to fight against the suppression of information about affairs of essential importance for the public. Those who speak the truth are not committing a crime,” he told the German news magazine Der Spiegel in November 2013.
On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it would not hand Snowden over to US authorities even if ties improved under the incoming Trump administration.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
