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It's no pardon, but it will do:
President Obama has put Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified material, on his short list for a possible commutation, a Justice Department source told NBC News. A decision could come [...] for Manning, who has tried to commit suicide twice this year and went on a hunger strike in a bid for gender reassignment surgery.
"I have more hope right now than I have the entire time since she was sentenced," Manning's aunt, Deborah Manning, told NBC News.
[...] Manning's supporters believe the harshness of the sentence can be traced to another leaker; the scandal around former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was erupting around the same time. "I really believe the judge felt she needed to send some sort of message," the aunt said. "I think in a way she was a scapegoat for Edward Snowden." Snowden, who has asked Obama for clemency, tweeted his support of Manning shortly after NBC News' report about the commutation decision aired on TODAY on Wednesday morning.
Four former and current Army intelligence officers told NBC News the documents leaked by Manning pale in significance to highly classified top secret material released by Snowden. The officers, who would not allow their names to be used, said the Manning sentence seems excessive.
Also at The Hill.
Time magazine adds:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will agree to be extradited to the U.S. if President Obama grants whistle-blower Chelsea Manning clemency before his term ends on Jan. 20, the organization has said.
In a tweet posted on the group's official account Thursday, WikiLeaks said Assange would not oppose extradition to the U.S. "despite [the] clear unconstitutionality" of any potential criminal complaints that the Justice Department may have against the whistle-blower website, if U.S. Army private Manning is released.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Saturday January 14 2017, @06:29PM
Well, maybe. But a prison term was certainly justified. I would be okay with Obama commuting Chelsea's sentence to something like 10 or 15 years. Something not as excessive as 35 years. Geez....
Now, with Snowden if the feds ever get their hands on him, another story. He should be getting a prison sentence for revealing the secrets he shouldn't have revealed (e.g., NSA tricks used on foreign governments) and a Presidental Medal of Freedom for those about NSA snooping on American citizens and the public dialog and discussion its created about our surveillance state.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday January 15 2017, @04:54AM
Americans and their attitude towards their Bill of Rights. Look someone practiced their 1st amendment rights, and some political hack who was appointed to the Supreme Court redefined speech, so throw them in jail because Congress passed a law limiting speech that I agree with.
Going to be funny in a sad way when Trumps Supreme Court redefines the press as only government licensed journalists and speech doesn't include saying bad things about the government. It's pretty well inevitable from ignoring the Constitution instead of amending it if you want Congress to pass laws limiting speech. and otherwise doing an end run around the Bill of Rights
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday January 18 2017, @10:51AM
He should be getting a prison sentence for revealing the secrets he shouldn't have revealed (e.g., NSA tricks used on foreign governments)
All violations of people's rights should be revealed. Knowing how the NSA is going about violating people's rights (even if it's people in other countries) can tell us how to protect ourselves. Have you ever considered that the government shouldn't conduct mass surveillance at all if they don't want whistleblowers to reveal their actions? If they cannot be trusted to act in secret, then even if every last secret they hold gets revealed, that's fine by me.