Chelsea Girls

[Gob]

Chelsea Manning, the US army soldier who became one of the most prominent whistleblowers in modern times when she exposed the nature of modern warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who then went on to pay the price with a 35-year military prison sentence, is to be freed in May as a gift of outgoing president Barack Obama.

In the most audacious – and contentious – commutation decision to come from Obama yet, the sitting president used his constitutional power just three days before he leaves the White House to give Manning her freedom. She will walk from the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 17 May, almost seven years to the day since she was arrested in a base outside Baghdad for offenses relating to the leaking of a vast trove of US state secrets.


Nancy Hollander, Manning’s lawyer, spoke to the Guardian before she had even had the chance to pass on to the soldier the news of her release. “Oh my God!” was Hollander’s instant response to the news which she had just heard from the White House counsel. “I cannot believe it – in 120 days she will be free and it will all be over. It’s incredible.”

Manning, who is a columnist for the Guardian, was the face of one of the harsher aspects of the Obama administration, as an official leaker who suffered under his approach a longer custodial than any other whistleblower of modern times. She was one of several leakers who were prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act – with more individuals falling foul to that anti-spying law than under all previous US presidents combined.

[BoSoxGal]

President Obama is a truly decent human being.

I wish he'd pardon Snowden, too. It's cruel to leave him in Russian limbo with Trump coming to power.

[Guinevere]

I just want him to pardon Leonard Peltier. There is a very well reasoned pardon request pending, it wasn't acted on at Christmas, so I'm hoping it comes in the next two days we have left of civilization as we know it.

[BoSoxGal]

I had hoped for that one, too - doesn't seem it should be too controversial, considering how many years he's served and his poor health.

[Lord Jim]

Needless to say, I am absolutely appalled by this decision...

I've been sitting here being disgusted by all of Trump's latest offensive antics, (getting into a pissing match with a civil rights icon over Martin Luther King weekend, likening the brave men and women of our intelligence services to "Nazis" equating the murderous thug Vladimir Putin with the leader of one of our most important democratic allies Angela Merkel, once again ignorantly calling NATO "obsolete" etc, etc)

And now I see our out-going President doing something every bit as disgusting and offensive...

This decision would make me absolutely delighted to see Obama leaving...

Were it not for what's coming next...

[Guinevere]

Not even in the same realm. I'm about to go into a public meeting but I'll be back to explain why this one makes sense.

He also pardoned some general who leaked classified info.

And I do not tthink Snowdon deserves the same consideration at all.

[Crackpot]

I was thinking this is sort of an f u to Snowden. It then again who knows how the loose-cannon-in-chief will handle the situation.

[Lord Jim]

Whether or not Trump pardons The Traitor Snowden will depend entirely on what Putin wants.

[dales]

At least President Obama has pardoned Willie McCovey!

Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCovey has been pardoned by Barack Obama for a 21-year-old guilty plea to tax fraud.

The San Francisco Giants legend was one of 273 individuals granted a second chance by the outgoing president on Tuesday, when Obama issued 209 grants of commutation and 64 pardons.

McCovey pleaded guilty to income tax-fraud conspiracy in 1995, alongside fellow baseball star Duke Snider, for failing to report thousands of dollars each in fees received from memorabilia and autograph shows.

The plea carried a sentence of up to seven months in jail. Both McCovey and Snider, who died in 2011, were given two years’ probation and a $5,000 fine in 1996.

[Lord Jim]

Okay, now that's one pardon I can agree with

[Joe Guy]

Can Obama make Pete Rose eligible for the Hall of Fame?....

[RayThom]

I just want him to pardon Leonard Peltier. There is a very well reasoned pardon request pending, it wasn't acted on at Christmas, so I'm hoping it comes in the next two days we have left of civilization as we know it.

I have much empathy for Peltier but the nature of his crimes appears to be too risky a move for a presidential pardon or commutation. Two FBI agents were murdered "in cold blood" in the confrontation -- whether or not it was Peltier who pulled the trigger -- and is way to grievous an offense for consideration. I seriously doubt Obama will make this one of his last official acts.
http://www.freeleonard.org/case/

[Crackpot]

Not even in the same realm. I'm about to go into a public meeting but I'll be back to explain why this one makes sense.

He also pardoned some general who leaked classified info.

And I do not tthink Snowdon deserves the same consideration at all.

I'm looking forward to reading this (and the Snowden reasoning as well).

Just so you don't forget.

[Burning Petard]

Please note--Manning was NOT pardoned. S/He is still a convicted felon with a dishonorable discharge. The sentence was commuted. The big change is that the federal taxpayer will no longer be paying for the three hots and a cot plus medical bills (changing gender is not cheap) in a military prison.

Please note PFC Manning was held in a military jail in solitary confinement with significant harassment long before any trial began. The defense lawyer has pointed out the military and the civilian US government was unable to show ANY damage to the USofA by the leaks, beyond embarrassment to foreign and domestic government officials who had publicly said one thing while the leaks showed they were doing something else. This absence of damage was established in both the public and the secret portions of the trial. The record shows Manning was in place to do this leaking via a series of sloppy and inept military management actions. Manning should never have been given any kind of security clearance or even accepted for enlistment. THAT is the major embarrassment driving this case.

snailgate

[Guinevere]

Not even in the same realm. I'm about to go into a public meeting but I'll be back to explain why this one makes sense.

He also pardoned some general who leaked classified info.

And I do not tthink Snowdon deserves the same consideration at all.

I'm looking forward to reading this (and the Snowden reasoning as well).

Just so you don't forget.

I won't forget. Later today, I hope.

[Econoline]

FWIW here's Charlie Pierce's take on this:

• WASHINGTON, D.C.—At the end of his term, President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby, who had been convicted of misleading Congress as to the outing (purely out of political vengeance) of a covert CIA operative named Valerie Plame. At the end of his term, President George H.W. Bush pardoned everyone convicted of engaging in the criminal act of selling missiles to a state-sponsor of terrorism and diverting the profits to a private war in Central America. Libby never served a day in jail. Neither did any of the Iran-Contra characters who skated.
  
  In 2013, Chelsea Manning was convicted of the massive leak of government documents that she orchestrated in 2009. On Tuesday, the president commuted most of the rest of Manning's sentence, and she will be released next May, instead of in 2045. Since her conviction, she has been incarcerated at Leavenworth, including long stretches of solitary confinement. She has attempted suicide twice. If you think she got off easy, you're out of your mind.
  
  Libby got off easy. Oliver North got off easy. The people who gave Libby and North their orders got off easy. Once again, the president has turned his big bag of fcks inside out only to discover that it's still empty. Now the attention moves to Edward Snowden, and the White House says the difference is that Snowden fled while Manning faced the music. That's an interesting debate, but there is no serious argument about whether or not Chelsea Manning's punishment was sufficient. Solitary at Leavenworth is as sufficient as it gets.

[Lord Jim]

Gee, this Pierce feller sure has a selective memory...

Not one word about the fugitive billionaire and long time Democratic contributor Marc Rich, or Roger Clinton, or Tony Rodham's buddies Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory, or Susan McDougall, or the FALN terrorists...

[Econoline]

I quoted Pierce because he's virtually the only one I've seen with a public defense of Manning; the cases you mention are either irrelevant or precedents for more clemency rather than less. (It wouldn't have changed the point of the piece at all if--after saying "Libby got off easy. Oliver North got off easy."--he had also said "Marc Rich got off easy," or "Roger Clinton got off easy," or "Tony Rodham's buddies Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory got off easy," or "Susan McDougall got off easy," or "the FALN terrorists got off easy"...)

And personally I have mixed feelings and I'm still not quite sure where I come down on this. The fact that Manning was in the US Army and subject to military law and discipline does call for a harsher penalty; OTOH she does seem to have had a pretty rough time and maybe enough is enough. (Yeah, "solitary at Leavenworth is as sufficient as it gets.")

As for the message it sends in terms of deterrence, I would think that the original 35-year sentence is more relevant. The fact that the sentence was ultimately reduced in a way that was both unexpected and didn't involve any legal precedent or future predictability (i.e., it was not a judicially decided legal appeal) means that any possible future offender would be more likely to face something closer to 35 years rather than 7 years.

[Econoline]

Okay, here's another, more nuanced, perspective--one that sorta reflects the ambivalence I myself feel:

• I waited to answer my email until after President Obama’s final press conference.
  
  I figured he’d talk about his reasoning, and he did.
  
  And there were no surprises.
  
  First, the president commuted Manning’s sentence. Manning wasn’t pardoned.
  
  That’s an important distinction.
  
  I can perhaps live with a commutation.
  
  But I would be adamantly opposed to a pardon.
  
  Manning doesn’t deserve a pardon in any fashion. She betrayed her country. She betrayed her oath. That is not in question. And Obama didn’t say otherwise and made no excuses for her. Nor did he in any way criticize the military or the military legal process that convicted Manning of her crimes.
  
  But…
  
  But, as much as it galls me – and it does gall me – President Obama was right. Manning’s sentence was out of proportion with other similar cases.
  
  Thirty-five years in Maximum Security was far beyond what others who acted similar to Manning got. Manning wasn’t a spy like John Walker or Robert Hanssen. She was an idiot. She betrayed her country because she was stupid and selfish. She wanted us to think she did it for some higher cause but the truth is she just thought she knew better than all the rest of us. She was a lousy soldier and she shouldn’t have been there in the first place and maybe some of that is on the Army, or maybe not. But in the end perhaps 35 years was too long.
  
  Thirty-five years is too long when a General who gave classified material to his mistress got nothing but a slap on the wrist and is hailed as a hero. And yes, thirty-five years is too long when the Secretary of State can run a private email server in her house with classified information on it. Granted, neither Petraeus nor Clinton’s actions were anywhere near what Manning did, but it’s damned hard to hold the troops to account with their commanders set such examples.
  
  I want you to understand something here: I have no sympathy for Chelsea Elizabeth Manning and I’ll be honest, if she was right now looking at another 28 years in Leavenworth, I would shed not a single tear. She could have rotted there for all of me.
  
  But I’m not particular put out by clemency either. I wouldn’t have done it, but I’m not the president either.
  
  Perhaps my perspective is not yours.
  
  Perhaps my experience is not yours.
  
  Tens of thousands of us went into that lousy war, me included.
  
  We, all of us including Manning, went of our own volition.
  
  Four thousand, five hundred and fourteen of us died in Iraq.
  
  Two thousand, three hundred and ninety-two of us died in Afghanistan.
  
  Those men and women, they don’t get a choice about living with the consequences of their decisions.
  
  Those of us who lived, who held fast to our oath, we have to live with our choices. Every single day.
  
  Manning should have to live with hers.
  
  She betrayed her country. She betrayed her oath. She betrayed us. She did it on purpose.
  
  Whether it be in prison or out, Manning should have to wear that betrayal around her neck for the rest of her goddamned life.
  
  In the end, we all have to live with what we’ve done.
  
  President Obama included.
  
  Perhaps that’s why he made the decision he did.
  
  I guess, I’ll just have to live with that.

[Econoline]

Stolen from somebody on Facebook:

If the commutation causes even ONE Trump voter to die of apoplexy, it will have been worth it.