Well this is interesting.
When I read that Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, several things came to mind — mainly because I like to believe in people.
Maybe Obama was a ‘good guy’ after all, and was just kept hostage by CIA fuckers the whole time, the deep state and their pizza parties?
Or, he’s just really sympathetic towards transgenders, mainly because he’s married to one.
Or, Wikileaks has dirt on him or someone in power and a deal was struck.
Or, and this is the final or, he’s taking Assange up on his bargain — exchanging Assange’s freedom for Manning.
Via NY Times:
Ms. Manning was still known as Bradley Manning when she deployed with her unit to Iraq in late 2009. There, she worked as a low-level intelligence analyst helping her unit assess insurgent activity in the area it was patrolling, a role that gave her access to a classified computer network.
She copied hundreds of thousands of military incident logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which, among other things, exposed abuses of detainees by Iraqi military officers working with American forces and showed that civilian deaths in the Iraq war were likely much higher than official estimates.
The files she copied also included about 250,000 diplomatic cables from American embassies around the world showing sensitive deals and conversations, dossiers detailing intelligence assessments of Guantánamo detainees held without trial, and a video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad in two Reuters journalists were killed, among others.
She decided to make all these files public, as she wrote at the time, in the hope that they would incite “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.” WikiLeaks’ disclosed them — working with traditional news organizations including The New York Times — bringing notoriety to the group and its founder, Julian Assange.
The disclosures set off a frantic scramble as Obama administration officials sought to minimize any potential harm, including getting to safety some foreigners in dangerous countries who were identified as having helped American troops or diplomats. Prosecutors, however, presented no evidence that anyone was killed because of the leaks.
At her court-martial, Ms. Manning confessed in detail to her actions and apologized, saying she did not intend to put anyone at risk and noting that she was “dealing with a lot of issues” at the time she made her decision.
Testimony at the trial showed that she had been in a mental and emotional crisis as she came to grips, amid the stress of a war zone, with the fact that she was not merely gay but had gender dysphoria. She had been behaving erratically, including angry outbursts and lapsing into catatonia midsentence. At one point she had emailed a photograph of herself in a woman’s wig to her supervisor.
Prosecutors said that by making secret material available for publication on the internet, anyone — including Al Qaeda — could read it. And they accused Ms. Manning of treason, charging her with multiple counts of the Espionage Act as well as with “aiding the enemy,” a potential capital offense, although they said they would not seek her execution.
Ms. Manning confessed and pleaded guilty to a lesser version of those charges without any deal to cap her sentence. But prosecutors pressed forward with a trial and won convictions on the more serious versions of those charges; a military judge acquitted her of “aiding the enemy.”
In her commutation application, Ms. Manning said she had not imagined that she would be sentenced to the “extreme” term of 35 years, a term for which there was “no historical precedent.” (There have only been a handful of leak cases, and most sentence are in the range of one to three years.)
“I take full and complete responsibility for my decision to disclose these materials to the public,” she wrote. “I have never made any excuses for what I did. I pleaded guilty without the protection of a plea agreement because I believed the military justice system would understand my motivation for the disclosure and sentence me fairly. I was wrong.”
What do you think?
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Fascinating. Maybe Assange knew that under Trump administration he would not be prosecuted…
I think Assange was tweeting nonsense and did not think it would happen, he will get prosecuted.
I still expect to see Putin return Snowden as a goodwill gesture.
Of course Trump won’t prosecute Assange. Assange handed Trump the election.
I would like to see Snowden get pardoned, as I am glad to see Manning get pardoned. Whistle blowers who do good things should be rewarded, not punished.
It sets a precedent Frog. If you get caught cheating on a test, but still get an A what would make others not do the same? As brutal as it sounds the leakers must be made an example of. Death penalty.
frog got clemency?
that’s odd for the white-house muslim to do that. good thing he did that though and let Manning go.
LOL, the White House Muslim, says the fake news believer.
You’re an idiot.
I never wanted to watch a Michael Obama penis hunt on Youtube. I had to find the truth though and the only way to do that was watch hours of carefully curated video of Michael Obama’s dick slips. I saw no wang.
Hey, where is your belief in fake news? Where is your imagination? LOL.
Hours of watching Michael Obama’s dong taught me I’m not going to be one of the great schlong spotters. They really have an eye for it.
So she exposed people abusing power and committing fraud, and she gets punished for it.
She who? That’s a man baby.
*Dave Chappelle voice*
lol
I think 0bama is setting the stage for pardoning Hillary, Bill and everyone involved with CGI and the Clinton Foundation.
LOL, you mean everyone who didn’t commit any crimes, unless you believe fake news?
Will BO pardon Billary? Yes or no?
What sez you?
Not possible to pardon someone who hasn’t been sentenced.
TREASON. No dick Manning and BO. Both traitors.
I think Assange should have kept his mouth shut. What Manning did was of benefit to society, but her/his/it’s career is over… retired.
Assange is still in the game and on Team Humanity. Trading roster spots for a has been would be a dereliction of duty.
Manning’s sentence was entirely inappropriate. Commuting an inappropriate sentence does not warrant a reward.
If I kidnap your daughter and you say “no, take me instead,” I’m not a swell guy for taking you up on the offer.
And if I release your daughter before I can get you in the van, well, it’s not like you’re honorbound to surrender to a tyrant.
Just means I’m a incompetent tyrant.
Yeah, Right Wingers can’t give Obama any credit for anything ever. That’s the rule, isn’t it? Obama could bring lasting peace to the world and cure cancer, but Right Winger’s would still find something to criticize him for. Because criticizing powerful Democrats constantly is the meaning of life for Right Wingers.
Jesus God Baby Lord shut this stupid bitch up. Amen.
Pastor Bird, This cunt is trapped on auto loop and can’t stop herself. OCD which is defined as a form of mental illness.
Right wingers are the real cucks. They all conveniently forget this happened unless they are pleasing themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBKu9OJ8Ltk
Right, left, blah, blah. Yeesh, you are a blind little groupie.
Most fake news is Right Wing. That’s a fact. I know Right Wingers are allergic to facts though, so feel free to ignore it.
Shut up and go give someone a wing job already.
I know you want to.
Regards
Chuck Bennet
All Snowden has to do is change his name to Erica Snowden and claim he is now a woman and 0bama would pardon him.
Bump
I guess it is impossible to commit treason now, as all that matters is what people’s intentions were. As if it is coincidence Putin started acting up after Snowden was granted asylum.
Couldn’t care any less about this person story.
I hate to be cynical but this is only an attempt to cash in some “good will” with the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ community
– also probably a shot at Assange.
11th hour pardon of snowden is a must! Dude only has like less than a year left in Russia. B obama hated what he did though. Maybe trump will drop the charge
I didn’t even know Peyton Manning was in jail.
I saw him the other day doing a pizza commercial.