Chelsea Manning
Bradley Edward Manning (or Chelsea Elizabeth Manning, according to his wishes.[1]) is a United States Army soldier who was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted in a court-martial for releasing vast amounts of classified documents to WikiLeaks. Manning is being held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico, Virginia, charged with "transferring classified data" and "delivering national defense information to an unauthorised source", and "aiding the enemy".[2] Manning is a homosexual, and there is speculation that his homosexuality motivated him to leak classified information.[2] In August 2013 Manning announced he wanted to live as a woman.[1]
The Australian hacker and founder of the controversial website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, considers him an unparalleled hero.
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Data Leak
Manning was assigned to a unit based near Baghdad, Iraq. He had access to databases used by the United States government to store classified information. He was arrested after Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker, and journalist, informed the FBI that Manning had confided during online IRC chats that he had downloaded material from the confidential databases and passed it to WikiLeaks. The material leaked included videos of American airstrikes and hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. It was the largest set of restricted documents ever leaked to the public. Much of it was published subsequently by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010.
Release
Despite being sentenced to 35 years in prison, Manning was released after seven years after President Barack Obama granted "her" clemency in his last days in office. It was decided that "she" would remain on active duty in the military.[3][4]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/2013/08/23/bradley-mannings-new-crusade-n1671409
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 [1]
- ↑ Suhr, Jim (May 17, 2017). Pvt. Chelsea Manning released after 7 years in military prison. The Washington Times. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
- ↑ Chelsea Manning freed from Kansas military prison. Fox News. May 17, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
