Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Politics
posted by n1 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the home-sweet-home dept.

Chelsea Manning has been freed from the Fort Leavenworth military prison, according to a US Army spokesperson:

In January she tweeted that she wanted to move to Maryland after being released, a state where she previously lived. On Monday she tweeted: "Two more days until the freedom of civilian life ^_^ Now hunting for private #healthcare like millions of Americans =P".

Manning will remain on active army duty while her military court conviction remains under appeal. She will have healthcare benefits but will be unpaid, the army says. An online campaign set up by her attorney has raised $150,000 (£115,725) to pay for her living expenses for the first year after her release. If the appeal is denied, she could be dishonourably discharged from the army, US media say.

The mentioned Chelsea Manning Welcome Home Fund. Also at NPR, NYT, and CNN.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 17 2017, @11:58PM (11 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @11:58PM (#511461) Journal

    You might be astounded to learn this, but things people do have an effect into the future if they are important.

    what Manning did was force a withdraw on Bush's deadline because Obama could not get the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) extended. SOFA forbade Iraqi courts from trying US military personnel for crimes committed in Iraq. Perhaps you can comprehend that the Iraqi government was sort of irked by the US Military having immunity to commit war crimes, and so decided not to extend SOFA.

    Anyway, after failing to extend the war, Obama declared peace and has been a Democrat darling. Honest question, would he still be a Democrat darling had he managed to extend the war like he wanted to?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Interesting=2, Informative=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday May 18 2017, @01:36AM (9 children)

    by butthurt (6141) on Thursday May 18 2017, @01:36AM (#511486) Journal

    You might be astounded to learn this, but things people do have an effect into the future if they are important.

    Thank you for sharing your observation. Does it have some relation to what I wrote?

    What I meant was that Mr. Obama wasn't president in 2006. You had posted about a "2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi" and I was alluding to that.

    Perhaps you can comprehend that the Iraqi government was sort of irked by the US Military having immunity to commit war crimes, and so decided not to extend SOFA.

    I don't have a deep understanding of Iraqi politics. After a little reading I gather that the agreement was made during the George W. Bush administration, gave general immunity from Iraqi law for U.S. soldiers stationed in the country, and was disliked because the presence of thousands of foreign soldiers was seen as an infringement on the country's sovereignty.

    Two major agreements-a Status of Forces Agreement stalled on the issue of legal immunity for U.S. troops and dates for a full withdrawal, and a broader strategic framework agreement-were approved by Iraq’s parliament in late November 2008.

    -- https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-security-agreements-and-iraq [cfr.org]

    At the end of the Bush administration, when the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, was negotiated, setting 2011 as the end of the United States’ military role, officials had said the deadline was set for political reasons, to put a symbolic end to the occupation and establish Iraq’s sovereignty.

    -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/world/middleeast/united-states-and-iraq-had-not-expected-troops-would-have-to-leave.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]

    Are you simply saying that the war as a whole is criminal because it was a war of aggression? If not, what leads you to say that immunity from war crimes was the main factor in non-renewal of the agreement?

    > Anyway, after failing to extend the war, Obama declared peace [...]

    Citation, please, for "Obama declared peace"?

    > [...] and has been a Democrat darling.

    As I understand it, he ran for the Senate and for president as a Democrat. By "Democrat darling" are you saying that fellow politicians in his party have been uncritical of him? That's not unexpected: I've noticed that politicians belonging to his predecessor's party have, largely, been uncritical of Mr. Bush. Or are you saying that the press is controlled by Democrats?

    > Honest question, would he still be a Democrat darling had he managed to extend the war like he wanted to?

    His party's platform in 2008 said:

    Ending the war in Iraq will be the beginning, but not the end, of addressing our defense challenges. We will use this moment both to rebuild our military and to prepare it for the missions of the future. We must retain the capacity to swiftly defeat any conventional threat to our country and our vital interests. But we must also become better prepared to take on foes that fight asymmetrical and highly adaptive campaigns on a global scale.

    We will not hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests whenever we are attacked or imminently threatened.

    -- http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=78283 [ucsb.edu]

    Not exactly a commitment to non-violence, was it?

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @02:20AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @02:20AM (#511503)

      > Thank you for sharing your observation. Does it have some relation to what I wrote?

      Seems like hemo's hate-on for hillary is now bending towards obama too.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday May 18 2017, @06:16AM

        by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday May 18 2017, @06:16AM (#511557) Journal

        Obama:

        • Expanded GWB's reprehensible policy of due process free detention based on secret legal memos, to include execution.
        • Tripled the number of troops in Afghanistan to more than 3x GWB's max.
        • Persecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all other presidents combined -- about 4x
        • Expanded the number of wars we are in to include 7 or 8 countries in total.
        • Libyan war destroyed the War Powers Act, the great liberal achievement to come out of the Vietnam War and designed to prevent others. Remember that now that Trump is office and remember who to blame if he starts a war w/o consulting Congress.
        • Excused torturers making it much more likely for the policy to be expanded under Trump.
        • Dropped over 26,000 bombs in 2016 alone.
        • Mass surveillance
        • Prosecuted zero Wall St. fraud. The S&L crisis was something like 1/40th the size of the recent meltdown and about 1000 banksters did Federal prison time. Remember that next time they act with impunity and we have to pay the bill.

        Yeah -- Obama is super awesome. If you are Republican.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by shortscreen on Thursday May 18 2017, @05:51AM (1 child)

      by shortscreen (2252) on Thursday May 18 2017, @05:51AM (#511553) Journal

      What I meant was that Mr. Obama wasn't president in 2006. You had posted about a "2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi" and I was alluding to that.

      The post wasn't about Obama's relationship to the 2006 incident/crime. It was about the effects of the leaked info which came out in 2011 (when Obama was president). Before that, essentially no one knew about the incident.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:27AM

        by butthurt (6141) on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:27AM (#511594) Journal

        The post wasn't about Obama's relationship to the 2006 incident/crime. It was about the effects of the leaked info which came out in 2011 (when Obama was president). Before that, essentially no one knew about the incident.

        I didn't reply to that post. I replied to an AC who had written:

        Obama has a (D) next to his name, so the media isn't the least bit interested in the military committing atrocities while he was in charge.

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday May 18 2017, @06:10AM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday May 18 2017, @06:10AM (#511556) Journal

      The war was a travesty based on lies. However, one of the war crimes committed was quoted in my original post, it involved:

      • Executing a 70yo woman
      • A 5yo kid
      • A bunch more of intermediate age
      • Calling in an airstrike to cover up the executions
      • Lying that those people died in the airstrike.

      The publicity surrounding that event was important and w/o Chelsea Manning's help, more such atrocities would have been enabled under an Obama extension of hostilities. Considering that nobody involved in that incident was publicly punished, and Iraq was prohibited from doing anything about because of SOFA, it should be glaringly obvious the importance of publicizing the event.

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday May 18 2017, @06:19AM (3 children)

      by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday May 18 2017, @06:19AM (#511558) Journal

      One should also add, quoting Obama's 2008 platform is like quoting Sleeping Beauty. It might be interesting fantasy, but it bears little relationship with reality.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @07:16PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @07:16PM (#511792)

        Does that mean that Trump's 2016 platform is something like Snow White with the evil queen played by Hillary?

        • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:23PM

          by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:23PM (#511890) Journal

          Yes. Except in reality, HRC is an evil queen. However, when it comes to what Trump promised, it will be as useful a reference tool as Obama's '08 platform.

      • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday May 19 2017, @06:16PM

        by butthurt (6141) on Friday May 19 2017, @06:16PM (#512287) Journal

        You seem to be faulting me for quoting it. It seemed the most obvious standard by which the Democrats could be expected to judge his actions, and decide whether he ought to be their "darling." Or by "Democrat darling" did you mean the same thing as the AC: that the news media are uncritical of Democratic Party politicians?

  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday May 19 2017, @06:53PM

    by butthurt (6141) on Friday May 19 2017, @06:53PM (#512300) Journal

    > [...] Obama declared peace [...]

    I asked where you learned this, but there was no answer. I found a transcript of his speech from 31 August 2010:

    Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission. Extremists will continue to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife.

    --
    https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/31/remarks-president-address-nation-end-combat-operations-iraq [archives.gov]

    The moment of candour wasn't universally ignored by the news media. For example, one article was titled "President Obama Marks End of Combat in Iraq, Cites Challenges Ahead" and said:

    Today the official name of the military mission in Iraq changes to "Operation New Dawn," but the president cautioned that does not mean the violence in Iraq is over, nor is the U.S. commitment to help fight it.

    "Extremists will continue to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife," Obama said.