NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, whom Russia granted political asylum in 2013 to protect him from US-initiated espionage charges, has eloquently zeroed in on Chelsea Manning’s recent release from federal detention, saying the authorities “offered to let her out in exchange for collaboration, but she chose her principles instead.”
“The government cast Manning into a dungeon for resisting a scheme to make publishers of news subject to the Espionage Act", Snowden tweeted referencing whistleblower and former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning’s cooperation with WikiLeaks and her unconditional support for website founder Julian Assange, who is currently behind bars in a high-profile London prison.
US District Judge Anthony J. Trenga ordered Chelsea Manning released from detention on Thursday, a day after the ex-army contractor attempted to commit suicide.
As Trenga put it in his court order, Ms. Manning's appearance before the grand jury – the condition Manning had been slapped with to be released – “is no longer needed", which means “her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose". However, she is still obligated to pay fines worth $256,000.
Similarly, author and free speech advocate Nozomi Hayase has said that it is a "huge relief" to know that Manning has now been released from detention, however, "we must not forget that she should not have been imprisoned in the first place".
"The secrecy of the grand jury is a coercive procedure used by the state to go after whistleblowers and journalists who expose the government’s wrongdoings. This practice is a part of the US government’s war on the free press, going after WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. Manning was incarcerated because of her principled stance of refusing to cooperate in the federal grand jury targeting WikiLeaks. She indicated that she would not betray her principles, and that she would rather starve to death than testify", says Hayase.
According to the author, even thoughthe torture of Manning has ended, "she will carry devastating effects of psychological trauma that may be irreversible".
"The US government’s treatment of Manning shows that if Assange were to be extradited to the US, he would not only never receive a fair trial, but he would be tortured. We need to end this political battle and Assange needs to be immediately released. Both Manning and Assange have shown remarkable strength and integrity in their resistance. But they can’t do it alone, and they need our support. We can’t allow them to be driven to death, whether it is by suicide or murder. It is time for people to step up and work together to free these truth-tellers and bring justice", Hayase stressed.
Chelsea Manning was originally charged with 22 offences, including aiding the enemy, which could have seen her be handed a death sentence. Born Bradley Manning, she later transitioned to a woman, and was eventually acquitted of the most serious charge, having pleaded guilty to 10 offences, with her sentence subsequently commuted by President Obama to nearly seven years of confinement.
Two years after her 2017 release from the maximum-security Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Manning was jailed at an Alexandria, Virginia dentention centre for contempt of court after refusing to testify before a federal grand jury that has been probing WikiLeaks. Her new, almost a year-long confinement and snowballing "psychological torture", as the case has been referred to by UN expert Nils Melzer, have resulted in Manning's attempted suicide.
Meanwhile, Julian Assange, who is through his first round of February extradition hearings, faces up to 175 years in prison in the US where he is wanted on 18 counts of espionage-related crimes. All of the charges pertain to his role in publishing classified diplomatic cables which shed light on war crimes committed by US-led forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and US-occupied Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba.
The extradition hearings will resume on 18 May 2020, as soon as witness and expert testimony is presented by both sides.
