knapplc Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Obama commutes Chelsea Manning’s sentence and she will be released from prison in May President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning. Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in 2013, will be released on May 17. In the final week of his presidency, Obama shortened the senteces of 209 inmates and granted pardons to 64 people, including retired Gen. James Cartwright. Manning leaked documents to what is now known as WikiLeaks. This is an interesting development. Does this mean anything regarding Edward Snowden? Or Julian Assange? 1 Link to comment
teachercd Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Uggg, her talk show is horrible... wait. 1 Link to comment
TonyStalloni Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Snowden is an American citizen so there is the possibility. Assange is not so I doubt he could be pardoned by a sitting American president. He could be given asylum here though but I doubt he would want to roam the streets freely in the USA. Might not be good for his health. Link to comment
RedDenver Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Whatever else you think of Assange, if he follows through on this, he's got some big stones. Link to comment
JJ Husker Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 An interesting developement? Can somebody explain why Obama is not being crucified for this in this forum? Didn't she leak important secrets that compromised our national security and put American lives at risk? Why would Obama pick her for a presidential pardon? I'll be honest, I don't know know much about it but it seems pretty I'll advised, or maybe worse, on the part of Obama. Link to comment
Lil' Red Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 An interesting developement? Can somebody explain why Obama is not being crucified for this in this forum? Didn't she leak important secrets that compromised our national security and put American lives at risk? Why would Obama pick her for a presidential pardon? I'll be honest, I don't know know much about it but it seems pretty I'll advised, or maybe worse, on the part of Obama. He commuted her sentence rather than giving her a pardon and she has already spent 7 years in prison. What she did was wrong and put people at risk but I don't believe 35 years is an appropriate sentence for her crime. Link to comment
knapplc Posted January 18, 2017 Author Share Posted January 18, 2017 An interesting developement? Can somebody explain why Obama is not being crucified for this in this forum? Didn't she leak important secrets that compromised our national security and put American lives at risk? Why would Obama pick her for a presidential pardon? I'll be honest, I don't know know much about it but it seems pretty I'll advised, or maybe worse, on the part of Obama. Sounds like Manning will end up having served about the same amount of time as others convicted of similar crimes. The initial sentence was, apparently, unusually long. Or perhaps Obama decided seven years in prison was punishment enough for embarrassing him and the United States, scrambling America's diplomatic ties, endangering foreign collaborators, exposing war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan, and raising the profile of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Manning's lawyers, human rights groups, and even senior White House officials note that 35 years is a much more severe sentence that those doled out in comparable cases. "Manning's sentence was orders of magnitude greater than any sentence previously imposed for leaking classified information to the media," said Elizabeth Goitein at the Brennan Center for Justice. If ~7 years is what people who do what Manning did typically get, doesn't this commutation make more sense? Link to comment
darkhorse85 Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Obama has been very polarizing when it has come to whistleblowers. It's confusing. Anyway, Manning is going to have a rough road to travel after [insert whatever pronoun you want here] is released. A dishonorable discharge (which I highly doubt there will ever be a chance of an upgrade in character of discharge), a felonious criminal record, a gender transition, recovering from a very long stint in solitary confinement (11 months I think), and I would probably wager that there will be some death threats and related nonsense in the months/years following release. Manning may be getting released from prison early but it won't be all sunshine and roses in the days ahead. Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 She is a non-violent criminal and has spent 7 years in prison. As Darkhorse has pointed out, it's not like she is leaving prison to a wonderful life. This is a non-issue to me. Link to comment
knapplc Posted January 18, 2017 Author Share Posted January 18, 2017 Conservative media is raising a huge stink about this (because Obama did it, most likely), and I admit I was surprised to see Manning's name on the list of commutations. But do we know the ramifications of the leaks? Was anyone actually harmed as a result? Another bizarre part of the Conservatives having kittens over this is, they were absolutely OK with WikiLeaks having access to Hillary Clinton's campaign materials, and didn't (and don't) want to know how/why they got that information. They elected a man who openly requested that Russia hack into Hillary's stuff. So why, if they're OK with that kind of leak, are they not OK with Manning's kind? What's the difference here? Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Because they have absolutely no shame with no aversion for rampant hypocrisy. That makes you effective at accomplishing your goals, even if tarnishes you among us common folk. Link to comment
GM_Tood Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 So why, if they're OK with that kind of leak, are they not OK with Manning's kind? What's the difference here? I can't believe this question was actually typed out. smh 1 Link to comment
RedDenver Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 An interesting developement? Can somebody explain why Obama is not being crucified for this in this forum? Didn't she leak important secrets that compromised our national security and put American lives at risk? Why would Obama pick her for a presidential pardon? I'll be honest, I don't know know much about it but it seems pretty I'll advised, or maybe worse, on the part of Obama. Manning exposed the US killing innocent civilians, and her/his revelations weren't of the sort that could have compromised our intelligence gathering. What should be an outrage is that Manning wasn't protected as a whistle blower. Link to comment
knapplc Posted January 18, 2017 Author Share Posted January 18, 2017 So why, if they're OK with that kind of leak, are they not OK with Manning's kind? What's the difference here? I can't believe this question was actually typed out. smh This is the kind of response you get when someone A) Doesn't understand the question, B) Doesn't understand the answer, C) Can't explain it if neither A nor B are true. 2 Link to comment
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