Anti-war whistleblowers wins freedom after seven year campaign
CHELSEA MANNING, the acclaimed whistleblower who leaked crucial evidence on the brutality of the Afghan and Iraq wars, will be freed from jail this year.
Manning, who has been imprisoned since her arrest in May 2010, was behind one of the largest intelligence leaks in human history – which revealed the true scale of massacres and chaos in the US Middle Eastern wars.
Now human rights campaigners are celebrating after President Obama reduced Manning’s sentence as one of his final acts in executive office.
Fellow whistleblower Edward Snowden, one week ago, called for justice – stating: “Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life.”
Journalist Glenn Greenwald said: “I don’t think she (Manning) should have spent a single day in prison.”
He added that Manning was “heroic and has inspired millions of people around the world”.
“I don’t think she (Manning) should have spent a single day in prison.” Glenn Greenwald
Manning – who has attempted suicide while in jail will now be released in May.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture previously described the U.S. government’s treatment of Manning was “cruel, inhuman and degrading”.
The Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act – established to criminalise peace movement resistance to the first world war – than any other previous administration.
Picture courtesy of Stephen Melkisethian
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