Just yesterday, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea Manning. The decision, made in spite of objections from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, has caused controversy. Manning was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks and is now serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth. Her prison sentence will expire on May 17.

From the article:
“A former intelligence official described being “shocked” to learn of Obama’s decision, adding that the “entire intelligence community is deflated by this inexplicable use of executive power.” The official said the move was “deeply hypocritical given Obama’s denunciation of WikiLeaks’ role in the hacking of the (Democratic National Committee).” 

(Remember, when a president “commutes” someone it reduces the sentence they are serving but does not change their conviction, while a pardon forgives a criminal offense.)
More from the article:
“The material, which WikiLeaks published in 2010, included a classified video of a US helicopter attacking civilians and journalists in Iraq in 2007. Labeled “Collateral Murder,” the film drew criticism from human rights activists for the deaths of innocent people. Though found guilty on 20 out of 22 possible charges (including violating the US Espionage Act), Manning was not convicted of the most serious one; aiding the enemy, which could have earned the private a life sentence.
Instead, the former intelligence analyst was sentenced to prison, as well as demoted from private first class to private and dishonorably discharged.”

Waiting for Snowden

We wonder now if Snowden will be next? After all, Manning released, with plain disregard to human life, thousands of pages of material that directly put lives in jeopardy. However, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden (currently living in exile in Russia) leaked state secrets to several journalists and allowed them to decide what was most important for the Amercian people to know about what their government was doing.
Snowden did flee the country but he did so after watching what happened to Manning and he’s never denied what he did. If the president can commute Manning, Snowden should be next.
It is believed that commuting Manning’s sentence was due to the fact that she’d already served more than six years, and she is transgender, in a male prison.

Washington Responds

President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t commented on the matter yet but did say, in the wake of the releases in 2010, “I think it’s disgraceful. I think there should be like death penalty or something.”
While no one else mentioned the death penalty, Republican members of Congress, have expressed outrage:
  • “This was grave harm to our national security. and Chelsea Manning is serving a sentence and should continue to serve that sentence,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas.
  • Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, said on Twitter that she, “put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets.”
  • And South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN, Manning “stabbed his fellow soldiers in the back.”

What do you think about Mannings commuted sentence and do you think President Obama should do something for Edward Snowden?

Source: Unian