"I've heard from people in federal law enforcement, who say that they're still furious at President Obama for commuting Chelsea's Manning's sentence, that when she was sentenced to 35 years, they intended for her to remain in Leavenworth [a prison located in northeast Kansas] for 35 years, not for seven. Of the seven years that she spent at Leavenworth — Leavenworth is a maximum security military prison — two of those years she spent in solitary confinement, and one of those years, was spent nude in solitary confinement because they were worried she was going to use her clothes to commit suicide. So, we are talking about a very rough time in the prison system," Kiriakou, who is also the co-host of the program Loud and Clear on Radio Sputnik, told hosts Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackson.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects freedoms regarding religion, expression, assembly and the right to petition, while the Fourth Amendment protects the right of people to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects" and against "unreasonable searches and seizures." The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the "right to a speedy and public trial."
"Chelsea Manning could have taken the easy way out, but she didn't, despite the fact that solitary confinement has to be killing her, mentally and emotionally after what she has gone through. I have deep respect for her," Kiriakou told Sputnik.
Since March 8, Manning has been placed in solitary confinement at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Virginia.
"Chelsea can't be out of her cell while any other prisoners are out, so she cannot talk to other people or visit the law library and has no access to books or reading material. She has not been outside for 16 days. She is permitted to make phone calls and move about outside her cell between 1 and 3 a.m.," Chelsea Resists!, a support committee for Manning, said in a statement on March 24.
"Barack Obama was the one who waged war on whistleblowers. Between the passage of the Espionage Act in 1917 and Obama's inauguration in 2009, three Americans were charged with espionage for speaking with the media. Just under the Obama administration, eight Americans were charged with espionage for speaking to the media," Kiriakou added.
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a US federal law passed on June 15, 1917, after the US entered World War I.
"So, this was a war waged on whistleblowers by a Democrat, not by the Republicans. I get relatively frequent emails, Facebook messages or phone calls, even from former CIA colleagues, in two instances, from two FBI agents involved in my case and affected my arrest, apologizing to me and saying that they were ordered to do it, the case was political and they felt bad about it all these years and they were sorry. But, they would never say that publicly, because the political climate is such that whistleblowers are the bad guys," Kiriakou added.
"You don't have to like Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning or any other whistleblower to still have respect for what they did and what they stand for. One thing Americans forget is that our elected officials work for us. They are hired help and if we don't like them, we can throw them out. Well, they have to respect the Constitution; they have to respect our rights; they have to respect transparency. If they don't, we can throw them out, and we rely on people like Edward Snowden [the former CIA agent who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013] and Chelsea Manning and other whistleblowers to keep the honest people honest. Because without them, we have our own unique form of fascism, and that isn't acceptable," Kiakou continued.
According to Kiriakou, it's also important to differentiate between leaking and whistleblowing.
"There's a legal definition of whistleblowing, and that is bringing to light evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality or threats to the public health or public safety. That's what a whistleblower does. A leaker just leaks, and the motivation may be self-aggrandizement, it may be revenge, or money or an adrenaline shot. A whistleblower provides information for the public good. The second point is, and this is another problem with the Espionage Act, there has to be a provision for an affirmative defense. Right now, nobody in America, including yours truly, has been permitted by the courts to say, ‘Yes, I provided the information, but I did it for the public good,'" Kiriakou added.