General News Chelsea Manning to Be Released Early as Obama Commutes Sentence

Manning screwed us out of a plan to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon by handing classified information to a website whose only existence is to publish classified documents. How does this warrant a commutation in any way, shape, or form?

 

Manning's prison conditions were relatively uncertain in terms of safety and appropriateness, she had already served seven years and while her imprisonment for leaking well beyond what qualifies as whistleblowing was justified, her leaks were genuinely inspired by some degree of public interest and exposed war crimes and the lack of accountability of Iraqi forces working with the U.S. A considerable sentence has been served in difficult personal circumstances and her capacity to create further damage is negligible.

Snowden is a completely different question. He leaked sensitive diplomatic cables, intelligence and other completely legitimate forms of government communications and faced no justice due to an ignominious escape, undermining a large number of liberal democracies' relations and their security apparatuses. He proceeded to back and seek refuge in a brutal, repressive and ironically anti-press state whose defining characteristic is opposing the openness Snowden apparently cares about. He is a hypocrite and a coward who shouldn't be given a free pass by the U.S. under any circumstances. Manning's commutation is no precedent for him.

 

I'm glad Manning is getting released early. She released to the public what was truly happening in Guantanamo Bay and showed the torture that the U.S. government is willing to conduct.

She served enough time in my opinion. The government needs to stop killing and torturing innocent people.

 

Good tbh I didn't think Obama was going to have her sentence commuted so props to him. She served her time and there's murderers/rapists that get locked up for less time so our justice system is broken. As far as the leaked info, we need to hold people in high positions of power accountable for breaking the law too. Hypocritical to feel Chelsea needs to be punished but not the soldiers doing heinous acts even to this day sadly.

 

He should release Edward Snowden as well.

 

Good!

 

I'm very happy about this, 35 years is way too long for what she did. I think that he should have pardoned her instead of commuting her sentence, though.

 

Good. The government needs people who are willing to expose its skeletons in the closet. I don't know what motivated this particular political move from Obama (why now?), but this is certainly a good outcome. I wish Ms. Manning all the best for bringing government misdeeds to light despite the personal risks.

 

Manning is released but Snowden isn't. What a strange dichotomy.

 

*facepalm* Snowden isn't in prison, my man. He's in Russia.

---------- Post added 25th Jan 2017 at 09:25 AM ----------

Snowden hasn't served any time?? He's also hiding in Russia so no one really wants to pardon him