Chelsea Manning

I have a concern for Manning's continued existence and wellbeing. Few recognize the fact - that Fort Leavenworth (like Gitmo) is a Military prison, controlled by the Pentagon and is subject to harsher and stricter protocols, than prisons that serve the Civilian populations.

Leavenworth prison: Bradley Manning will join some 500 prisoners at the Leavenworth military prison. Life at Leavenworth means a 40-hour workweek. And inmates have access to playing cards, board games, and television.

Leavenworth prison: What will it be like for Bradley Manning? August 22, 2013
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0822/Leavenworth-prison-What-will-it-be-like-for-Bradley-Manning

After being sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is headed for hard time at Fort Leavenworth, home to the American military's most famous prison.

The Army penitentiary has shed its once-imposing stone edifice, but inside, Manning would confront a dreary, unchanging environment in which inmates are highly restricted, graveyard work shifts are common, and jobs pay just pennies per hour.

Manning already has spent time in Leavenworth alongside the military's worst criminals.

Leavenworth inmates will spend an average of 19 years behind bars. Theprison's daily routines are "fairly repetitive, restrictive, and militarized," said Anita Gorecki-Robbins, a Washington military defense lawyer. And inmates have no Internet access.

Even though Obama granted a Presidential Pardon, Manning will be micro-managed on the outside. Especially, since Manning also suffered from two suicide attempts in 2016. I imagine - that the Central Intelligence Agency would be given that task?

Chelsea Manning Again Attempts Suicide in Prison, Attorney Says Nov 5 2016
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chelsea-manning-again-attempts-suicide-prison-attorney-says-n678386

Chelsea Manning attempted suicide for the second time in recent months while the transgender soldier remains imprisoned in Kansas for leaking classified information, two of her attorneys said Friday.

Attorneys Vincent Ward and Chase Strangio declined to divulge details of Manning's suicide attempt last month at a military prison at Kansas' Fort Leavenworth. Wayne Hall, an Army spokesman, said medical privacy laws barred him from discussing the matter.

But Manning's attorneys cited her prison conditions — including the solitary confinement that her legal team says she received as punishment for her July suicide attempt — as contributing to their client's fragile mental state.

"After her July (2016) suicide attempt, I watched her begin to piece her life and spirit back together only to have that shattered by the disciplinary proceedings brought against her and then the unannounced initiation of her term of punishment last month," Strangio wrote. "She has repeatedly been punished for trying to survive and now is being repeatedly punished for trying to die."

Also consider Manning's direct connection to WikiLeak/Assange in an earlier Posting:

Secret Report Contradicts US Position On Chelsea Manning Leaks
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/secret-government-report-chelsea-manning-leaks-caused-no?utm_term=.fuKEXrwyz#.ynoO0Y3ZD

(Quotes)
* In the seven years since WikiLeaks published the largest leak of classified documents in history, the federal government has said they caused enormous damage to national security.

* The heavily redacted report also determined that a different set of documents published the same year, relating to the US war in Afghanistan, would not result in “significant impact” to US operations. It did, however, have the potential to cause “serious damage” to “intelligence sources, informants and the Afghan population,” and US and NATO intelligence collection efforts. The most significant impact of the leaks, the report concluded, would likely be on the lives of “cooperative Afghans, Iraqis, and other foreign interlocutors.”

The June 15, 2011 report, written a year after the leaked documents were published by Wikileaks and an international consortium of news organizations, was obtained by BuzzFeed News in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed in 2015. Classified SECRET/NOFORN, meaning it was not to be shared with foreign nationals, the document was selectively cited by government prosecutors during Manning’s court-martial. Defense lawyers were not allowed to read it. More than half the report was withheld by the government.

* To prepare it, more than 20 federal government agencies, including the FBI, NSA, CIA, the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland Security, conducted a line-by-line review of more than 740,000 pages of classified documents “known or believed compromised” by WikiLeaks to assess the damage.

* The task force’s review also found that a so-called, password-protected “insurance file,” which WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said contained additional classified US documents and which he threatened to publicly release if anything happened to him, ...

Upon hearing of the Presidential Pardon, I wondered what might be behind the sudden turn of events? News reports stipulated that there was a "grace period" for transition, prior to Manning's release. At the same time, media began focusing on Assange - held up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

At the time, my initial impression was that Manning (now neutralized through mind programming and conditioning) was being used as "a decoy" to try and flush Assange out of the "protected surroundings of the Embassy"? Assange still holds classified information, especially in reference to Afghanistan, where the Pentagon is now engaged in building up Military forces. I think, "Intelligence" would do anything - to get their hands on him and the password protected “insurance file”?

Looking at the situation from a different angle, Manning's Pardon and release from prison, placed Assange in a more complex situation. If he gives out any information, deemed detrimental to "The Establishment" - it places Manning in danger, as an expendable and possible elimination? Ironically, even with two suicide attempts, given current circumstances on the War Front, Manning was probably "safer in prison" (for how ridiculous that sounds) because if something happened (attempted suicide and death) - there would have been a loud out cry for "accountability and punishment", maybe even Protests? If something were to happen (now), it can be written off "as another attempted suicide" or accident? And the event gets buried by the Press.

Which has me feeling uneasy - with this developing "proposed Pardon" for Assange - by a suppose Pro-Russian Politian Dana Rohrabacher? What does Pro-Russian have to do with Assange's current position or why he's hold-up in the Embassy, to begin with? Maybe, deep down, Rohrabacher does have good intensions ... or maybe he's being "used" to manipulate another agenda?

Pro-Russia US Representative Dana Rohrabacher has proposed the pardon of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in return for the group’s “evidence” that Moscow did not provide hacked e-mails that sought to influence the 2016 US Presidential campaign.

Pro-Russia Congressman Seeks Assange Pardon In Return for WikiLeaks “Information” Sat. September 16, 2017
http://eaworldview.com/2017/09/pro-russia-congressman-seeks-assange-immunity-in-return-for-wikileaks-propaganda/

Rohrabacher, who has long promoted the Kremlin’s interests and continued to do so amid the Trump-Russia investigation, proposed the deal on Wednesday to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

Rohrabacher said the arrangement would involve a pardon or “something like that” for Assange, sought by Washington on charges over publication of US Government documents. Assange would present a computer drive or data-storage device supposedly exonerating Russia.

Assange has been in sanctuary in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, blocking extradition to face sexual assault charges in Sweden.
(Comment - but weren't those charges - dropped against Assange?) Rohrabacher traveled to the UK in August to see him. After the visit, the Congressman said ... Assange “emphatically stated that the Russians were not involved in the hacking or disclosure of those e-mails”.

Rohrabacher pressed for a meeting between Assange and a Trump representative, preferably someone with direct communication with the Oval Office: “I would be happy to go with somebody you trust whether it is somebody at the FBI; somebody on your staff.” He was wary of going through the CIA, asserting that the agency wanted “to cover their butt by having gone along with this big lie”.

A Trump Administration official said on Friday that Kelly told the Congressman that the proposal “was best directed to the intelligence community” and did not inform Donald Trump of Rohrabacher’s message.

US intelligence services have concluded that WikiLeaks published the stolen information passed by Russia, possibly through a third party. (Article continues - giving background info on Rohrabacher.)

Wikileaks' Julian Assange remains wanted by UK police despite dropped rape investigation by Sweden August 30, 2017 (Video - 1:36 min.)
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/gop-lawmaker-setting-trump-meeting-relay-outrageous-info-wikileaks-assange-dnc-hack-1637166
 
I don't understand. I just saw an article by Chelsea Manning and she or he tells that he is out of prison. How can that be?

Chelsea Manning: The Dystopia We Signed Up For

For seven years, I didn’t exist.

While incarcerated, I had no bank statements, no bills, no credit history. In our interconnected world of big data, I appeared to be no different than a deceased person. After I was released, that lack of information about me created a host of problems, from difficulty accessing bank accounts to trouble getting a driver’s license and renting an apartment.

In 2010, the iPhone was only three years old, and many people still didn’t see smartphones as the indispensable digital appendages they are today. Seven years later, virtually everything we do causes us to bleed digital information, putting us at the mercy of invisible algorithms that threaten to consume our freedom.


The article continues here : _https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/opinion/chelsea-manning-big-data-dystopia.html?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yandex.com

Signed September the 13.
 
loreta said:
I don't understand. I just saw an article by Chelsea Manning and she or he tells that he is out of prison. How can that be?

Back on January 2017, before leaving Office, President Obama granted Chelsea Manning a Presidential Pardon. Manning was released from prison in May.

Obama commutes Chelsea Manning's sentence 01/17/2017
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/obama-commutes-chelsea-mannings-sentence-233722

President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, a move that cuts decades off her 35-year sentence for leaking classified information and schedules her for release in May.
 
I think that what loreta is referring to is:
Leavenworth prison: Bradley Manning will join some 500 prisoners at the Leavenworth military prison. Life at Leavenworth means a 40-hour workweek. And inmates have access to playing cards, board games, and television.

I, too, didn't know that Manning was being taken to another prison. I thought she was free.
 
Nienna said:
I think that what loreta is referring to is:
Leavenworth prison: Bradley Manning will join some 500 prisoners at the Leavenworth military prison. Life at Leavenworth means a 40-hour workweek. And inmates have access to playing cards, board games, and television.

I, too, didn't know that Manning was being taken to another prison. I thought she was free.

Manning has been "FREE" since May.

Notice that the Leavenworth article Posted above is from 2013.

In May 2010, Bradley manning was arrest by Federal Military Police where he was stationed in Kuwait. From Kuwait, Manning was transferred back to the U.S. and held at the Military Quantico marine base in Virginia ... until his official Court Martial three years later (June 3, 2013) ... then transferred to Leavenworth where most of Manning's time was spent in solidary confinement. On January 2017, before leaving Office, President Obama granted Chelsea Manning a Presidential Pardon. Manning was released from prison in May.

History:

June 6, 2010 - U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe
https://www.wired.com/2010/06/leak/

* Federal officials have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com has learned.

* PFC Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad, where he was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. A family member says he's being held in custody in Kuwait, and has not been formally charged.

* Manning was turned in late last month by a former computer hacker with whom he spoke online. In the course of their chats, Manning took credit for leaking a headline-making video of a helicopter attack that Wikileaks posted online in April. The video showed a deadly 2007 U.S. helicopter air strike in Baghdad that claimed the lives of several innocent civilians.

He said he also leaked three other items to Wikileaks: a separate video showing the notorious 2009 Garani air strike in Afghanistan that Wikileaks has previously acknowledged is in its possession; a classified Army document evaluating Wikileaks as a security threat, which the site posted in March; and a previously unreported breach consisting of 260,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables that Manning described as exposing "almost criminal political back dealings."

"Hillary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning, and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public," Manning wrote.

* The Defense Department issued a statement Monday morning confirming Manning's arrest and his detention in Kuwait for allegedly leaking classified information.


June 3, 2013 - Bradley Manning Trial Begins 3 Years After Arrest
http://humansarefree.com/2014/03/here-is-why-america-became-biggest.html

* Army Pfc. Bradley Manning goes on trial Monday more than three years after he was arrested in Iraq and charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history

* Manning has admitted to sending troves of material to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and pleaded guilty to charges that would send him to prison for up to 20 years. The U.S. military and the Obama administration weren't satisfied, though, and pursued a charge of aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.

* Manning chose to have his court-martial heard by a judge instead of a jury. It is expected to run all summer.

* In February, Manning told military judge Army Col. Denise Lind that he leaked the material to expose the American military's "bloodlust" and disregard for human life in Iraq and Afghanistan.

* The judge accepted his guilty plea to reduced charges for about half of the alleged offenses, but prosecutors did not and moved forward with a court-martial on charges including violations of the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.


August 21, 2013 - Bradley Manning given 35-year prison term for passing files to WikiLeaks
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/bradley-manning-35-years-prison-wikileaks-sentence

* Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for passing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks. The sentence was more severe than many observers expected, and is much longer than any punishment given to any previous US government leaker.

* He was found guilty of 20 counts, six of them under the Espionage Act, but was acquitted of the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy".

* A three-year protracted legal process that started in May 2010, when Manning was arrested while stationed in Iraq, was over in less than two minutes on Wednesday morning.

* The military judge presiding over the court martial, Colonel Denise Lind, walked into the courtroom at Fort Meade military base at 10.15am, dealt with some court admin, asked Manning to stand, then told him he was sentenced to 35 years.

* She said Manning's rank was reduced in grade, to that of Private E1. He will also forfeit pay and allowances and be dishonourably discharged, though he was not fined.

* The 1,294 days Manning has already spent in military custody, since May 2010, will be deducted from his sentence. The figure includes 112 days that is being taken off the sentence as part of a pre-trial ruling in which Lind compensated Manning for the excessively harsh treatment he endured at the Quantico marine base in Virginia.

* He has to serve a minimum of a third of his sentence, meaning he will be eligible for parole in just over eight years, and, at the very earliest, could be released under parole soon as 2021. He can earn 120 days per year off his sentence for good behaviour and job performance.

* Daniel Ellsberg, who faced charges under the Espionage Act for leaking the Pentagon Papers documenting the Vietnam War, said Manning "doesn't deserve to spend another day in jail".

* Manning passed 250,000 State Department cables and 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield logs to WikiLeaks, as well as files pertaining to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, and video of a 2007 attack by a US helicopter gunship in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists.
 
Chelsea Manning arrives for an appearance at a forum, Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017, in Nantucket, Mass. The appearance at the forum is part of The Nantucket Project's annual gathering on the island of Nantucket. Manning is a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who spent time in prison for sharing classified documents.

Chelsea Manning says she is not a traitor, and life is like 'a dystopian novel' September 17, 2017
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/chelsea-manning-says-she-is-not-a-traitor-and-life-is-like-a-dystopian-novel-1.488193#.Wcha1_6WwdU

NANTUCKET, Mass. — Chelsea Manning said Sunday she is not an "American traitor" as her critics have claimed, and that she did what she thought was right.

Manning made the remarks at a conference in Nantucket that was one of her first public appearances since being released for a military prison in May. The Associated Press was the only media outlet in attendance.

"I believe I did the best I could in my circumstances to make an ethical decision," she told the crowd when asked by the moderator if she was a traitor.

The 29-year-old transgender woman was known as Bradley Manning when she was convicted in 2013 of leaking a trove of classified documents. She was released after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence, which was commuted by President Barack Obama in his final days in office.

Manning spoke at the annual conference for The Nantucket Project in Massachusetts, a venture founded to bring together creative thinkers to uncover ideas. Organizers say about 600 people attended.

Tom Scott, who co-founded The Nantucket Project with Kate Brosnan, said they invited Manning for "clarity of understanding."

"My brother and father are Marines. They would respectfully challenge some of her decisions," he said. "Barack Obama commuted her sentence. My instinct is that he's a good and trustful man. How do those two things mix? Seeing her in person offers, perhaps, the best way to decipher that."

Several audience members said they were intrigued to hear from Manning.

Sara O'Reilly, a Nantucket resident who has attended several past conferences, said the speakers are typically a "little edgy." She said she doesn't judge Manning and other people have done "far worse" things. Bonnie Roseman, of West Palm Beach, Florida, said after the talk that Manning is courageous.

Scott said some people were upset that Manning was invited, but he didn't consider retracting the invitation. Harvard University reversed its decision to name Manning a visiting fellow Friday, a day after CIA Director Mike Pompeo scrapped a planned appearance over the title for Manning.

Pompeo called Manning an "American traitor."

Manning said Harvard's decision signaled to her that it's a "police state" and it's not possible to engage in actual political discourse in academic institutions. "I'm not ashamed of being disinvited," she said. "I view that just as much of an honored distinction as the fellowship itself."

Eugene Jarecki, an award-winning documentary director, moderated the discussion. He asked Manning if it "reflects something about the state of our time" that she's still the subject of pressure by the CIA on Harvard and labeled a traitor.

Manning said she took a risk to contribute to political and public discourse and "change the tone of the conversation," but it hasn't changed, and if anything, "things have gotten worse."

"I'm walking out of prison and I see, literally, a dystopian novel unfolding before my eyes," she said. "That's how I feel when I walk in the American streets today."

Manning also talked about the lack of privacy in today's society, calling it "dead," as well as the power of civil disobedience and the importance of forgiveness, saying "we should forgive everybody at some point." She said she'll keep speaking out.

"Everybody keeps telling me, 'Maybe you shouldn't say this. Maybe you shouldn't do this event. Maybe you shouldn't talk. Maybe you shouldn't do this,'" she said. "And I'm just like, OK, the fact that you're telling me I shouldn't do this is the reason why I should. And I think that's what we can all do."

Scott said after that while he was still processing what Manning said, he thought it was a great conversation and a valuable use of their time.
 
The government of Canada denied the entry of US whistleblower Chelsea E. Manning this month on the grounds that the crimes Manning was convicted of in the US “would equate to an indictable offense, namely Treason,” if the transgressions were committed inside Canadian borders.

Treason’: Chelsea Manning Turned Away at Canadian Border Over US Crimes
https://sputniknews.com/us/201709251057686544-treason-chelsea-manning-canadian-border/

According to a document from Canada’s immigration office shared by Manning on Twitter, the former US Army intelligence analyst "has not been authorized to enter Canada" following an attempt at "seeking entry as a temporary visitor at St. Bernard de Lacolle Point of Entry on September 22, 2017."

Posted on Manning’s Twitter account on Monday, the document states that Manning told customs officials about being convicted in 2013 of charges the immigration office says "are violations associated with the United States Espionage Act."

<snip> Manning stated via Twitter that she "will be challenging denial of entry at a Canadian 'admissibility hearing'" at a yet-to-be-determined date.

A spokesperson for the office for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada told CBC News via email "our government is committed to ensuring that every case put forward to IRCC is evaluated based on merits and in a fair manner. All applicants can expect impartial, professional treatment and clear, accountable decision-making."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Toronto on Monday he looked forward to learning more about the case.
 
This is a surprising twist? I wonder, who or what is behind Manning in this U.S. Senate bid?

Chelsea Manning files for US Senate bid in Maryland Saturday 13 January 2018
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1225196/world

Chelsea Manning intends to run for the US Senate in Maryland, returning the transgender former soldier to the spotlight after her conviction for leaking classified documents and her early release from military prison.

Manning, 30, filed her statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, listing an apartment in North Bethesda as her address.

She is running as a Democrat and will likely challenge two-term Sen. Ben Cardin in the primary. The state’s senior senator is an overwhelming favorite to win.

Known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest, the former Army intelligence analyst was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 military and State Department documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. She’s been hailed as a traitor as well as a courageous hero.

Manning came out as transgender after being sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Barack Obama granted Manning clemency before leaving office last year.

The conservative media organization Red Maryland first reported Manning’s intention to run. The Associated Press was unsuccessful in reaching Manning for comment.

A spokeswoman for Cardin, Sue Walitsky, did not immediately return a phone call. Nor did Fabion Seaton, a spokesman for the Maryland Democratic Party.

Manning would not be the first transgender candidate to challenge a sitting member of Congress.

Kristin Beck, a retired Navy SEAL who is transgender, failed to unseat US Rep. Steny Hoyer in Maryland’s Democratic Primary in 2016. Beck got 12 percent of the vote. “It was too much for me to run for Congress,” Beck said in a phone interview Saturday. “I should have run for something lower. She might as well be running for president.”

Beck said Manning is pulling a “publicity stunt.” “I totally, 100 percent disagree with everything she did,” Beck said. “She’s just grabbing headlines. I know what that feels like. I’ve been in the headlines. You get a sense that you’re worthy and doing something that counts. And when you lose that, you try to do something to grab a headline.”

Manning was held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she attempted suicide twice, according to her lawyers.

Obama’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence to about seven years drew strong criticism from members of Congress and others, with Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan calling the move “just outrageous.”

When Manning was released in May, she told The AP in an email that she was eager to define her future — but made no mention of politics.
“I’m figuring things out right now — which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me,” Manning wrote. She added: “I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past.”

The Oklahoma native had planned to move to Maryland, where she has an aunt. She has been registered to vote at the apartment in North Bethesda since mid-August, according to the Maryland Board of Elections.

In September, Manning spoke at the annual conference for The Nantucket Project in Massachusetts, a venture founded to bring together creative thinkers to uncover ideas.

Her appearance came just after Harvard University reversed its decision to name Manning a visiting fellow. CIA Director Mike Pompeo had scrapped a planned appearance over the title for Manning, calling her an “American traitor.”

Manning told the audience in Massachusetts that Harvard’s decision signaled to her that it’s a “police state” and it’s not possible to engage in actual political discourse in academic institutions.

“I’m not ashamed of being disinvited,” she said. “I view that just as much of an honored distinction as the fellowship itself.”


NORTH BETHESDA, Md. — Chelsea Manning on Sunday confirmed via Twitter that she is a candidate for U.S. Senate.

Chelsea Manning files for U.S. Senate bid in Maryland
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/chelsea-manning-files-for-us-senate-bid-in-maryland

Three days after making her intention known to federal election officials, Manning tweeted “yup, we’re running for senate” with an attached campaign video . She sent a subsequent tweet seeking donations to her campaign.

The 30-year-old Manning filed her statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday.

Manning is running as a Democrat and will likely challenge two-term Sen. Ben Cardin in the primary.

The Oklahoma native had planned to move to Maryland, where she has an aunt. She has been registered to vote at the apartment in North Bethesda since mid-August, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Her recent move would not affect a Senate bid. To run for that office, a person must be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for nine years and an inhabitant of the state at election time, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. A felony conviction does not appear to preclude a run.

Manning is yet to file for the primary with the state elections board, which she must do in person by Feb. 27, according to the board’s website.

Cardin is also yet to file. But campaign finance reports show that his organization had nearly $2 million cash on hand in late September.
 
America's most famous transsexual whistleblower has released a promotional video in her primary election bid for Maryland's US Senate seat.

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Releases First Senate Campaign Ad (VIDEO)
https://sputniknews.com/us/201801151060755980-chelsea-manning-election-campaign-ad/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAXo1Y7AK_I (1:11 min.)

"We live in trying times. Times of fear, of suppression, hate. We don’t need more or better leaders, we need someone willing to fight. We need to stop expecting that our systems will somehow fix themselves, we need to actually take the reins of power from them. We need to challenge this at every level. We need to fix this. We don’t need them anymore, we can do better. You’re damn right we got this," the would-be senator narrates.
 
Do anyone else find the timing of a transexual whistleblower running to a position in the US senate a little too suspect?
Given the recent pressure in the media of propagating the idea of transexuality. Maybe this is a form of wikileaks damage control?
 
I have not given much thought to the timing of it. Maybe I am missing something here. But it is hard for me to understand how/why someone who has witnessed and experienced so much of the darker aspects of governmental operations would want anything to with that same body of government.
 
Why Senator Cardin Is a Fitting Opponent for Chelsea Manning

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/01/16/why-senator-cardin-is-a-fitting-opponent-for-chelsea-manning/

Chelsea Manning’s senatorial bid offers a contrast to the Russian fear-mongering of incumbent candidate Ben Cardin, says Norman Solomon.

By Norman Solomon

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin [Md.], has become a big star in national media by routinely denouncing Russia as a dire threat to American democracy. The senior senator from Maryland personifies the highly dangerous opportunism that has set in among leading Democrats on the subject of Russia.

Chelsea Manning confirmed on Sunday that she is challenging Senator Cardin’s re-election effort in the Democratic primary this June. Her campaign has real potential to raise key issues. One of them revolves around the kind of bellicose rhetoric that heightens the dangers of conflict between the world’s two nuclear superpowers.

Chelsea Manning on May 18, 2017 the day after her release from prison. (Twitter)

In a typical foray into reckless hyperbole, Cardin told a public forum in November: “When you use cyber in an affirmative way to compromise our democratic, free election system, that’s an attack against America. It’s an act of war. It is an act of war.”

Cardin is far from the only member of Congress to use “act of war” rhetoric about alleged Russian cyber actions. Republican ultra-hawk Arizona Senator John McCain has hurled the phrase at Russia. But the most use of the phrase comes from a range of Democrats, such as Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal and the normally sensible Northern California Representative Jackie Speier.

As his party’s ranking member of the key Senate committee on foreign policy, Cardin is at the tip of the anti-Russia propaganda spear. After three decades in Congress including nearly a dozen years in the Senate, he’s an old hand at spinning. No one has worked harder to get political mileage out of “Russiagate.”

A Distorted Report

Last week, Cardin upped the ante with the release of a report that he commissioned. In effect, it’s a declaration of red-white-and-blue jihad against Russia.

The report — which accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of “a relentless assault to undermine democracy and the rule of law in Europe and the United States” — received massive coverage in U.S. news media. Conservative and liberal punditry voiced acclaim.

“Never before in American history has so clear a threat to national security been so clearly ignored by a U.S. president,” a solo statement by Cardin declares on the opening page. With the truly repugnant President Trump in its crosshairs, the report’s most polemical claims — no matter how debatable or ahistorical — have predictably gotten a pass from mass media.

But the much-ballyhooed report is a carefully selective and distorted version of history.

The expansion of NATO up to Russia’s borders, the U.S. interference in dozens of countries’ elections (including in Russia during the Clinton administration), Washington’s support for repressive regimes in the past and present — such realities didn’t merit consideration or mention. Nor did facts such as the USA’s role as the world’s biggest arms merchant. Or the aggressively deadly U.S. military interventions in the recent past and present, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya.

Such omissions are essential to the self-righteous tone of the Russiagate frenzy. Only with silence about basic truths of U.S. foreign policy can officials in Washington pose as leaders of an angelic nation that must confront satanic Russia.

In light of what is at stake for human survival — with the odds of nuclear war shifting ominously because of the agenda that he’s helping to push — Senator Cardin can be understood as someone who avidly fits into patterns of nationalistic and militaristic madness. The sad fact is that he has plenty of company on Capitol Hill.

Democratic leadership used to be much saner. Five decades ago, it was the fanatical Republican standard bearer Barry Goldwater who scorned reaching out to the Kremlin – while Democratic President Lyndon Johnson wisely sought détente with Russian leaders on behalf of peaceful coexistence and reducing the risks of nuclear conflagration.

Right after being sentenced to prison in August 2013 for heroic whistleblowing that exposed many U.S. war crimes, Chelsea Manning released a statement that quoted Howard Zinn: “There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” A nuclear war between the United States and Russia would do more than kill vast numbers of innocent people. Scientific research tells us that a nuclear holocaust would make the Earth “virtually uninhabitable.”

The extreme hostility toward Russia that makes such an outcome more likely must be rejected. Senator Ben Cardin is one of the loudest and most prominent voices for such hostility. He should be challenged.

Norman Solomon is the coordinator of the online activist group RootsAction.org and the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of a dozen books including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.”
 
There's been a couple of odd turns surrounding Chelsea Manning that I wanted to share, especially in light of a senate bid.

There was a conservative/right wing gala held by Mike Cernovitch and sponsors, which Chelsea Manning "crashed" in her own words in a twitter post. By most accounts of the gala (_https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/chelsea-manning-goes-to-a-pro-trump-gala) she was mingling in quite a positive manner, so "crash" seems like a really unusual verb in this context. I mean she wasn't being disruptive in any sense of the word by any accounts given. By some accounts she said it was done "to help bridge the gap between the left and right". It doesn't seem like anyone on the right was upset by her presence there, but apparently many people on the left had a conniption if wapo is a decent enough measure of the narrative they're pushing to the sjw base: _https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/23/chelsea-manning-showed-up-at-a-far-right-pro-trump-bash-infuriating-the-far-left/?utm_term=.fea9c16524e9

Later on a few photographs surfaced of Chelsea hanging out with some of the attendees in another context, in particular Cassandra Fairbanks at an "escape room" event, and at one a house of one of them. Cassandra Fairbanks is an ex-Bernie Sanders supporter, currently right-of-center Trump supporter and contributor for Sputnik. When this apparent act of friendship was pointed out, Chelsea made a justification in a few horrendously slanted articles in wapo and the daily beast about how she was "gathering intelligence" on the alt-right, making a loose appeal to Charlottesville. Trying to cover her tracks, she said publicly that she was NOT friends with them.

Tim Poole covered this quite extensively in a recent video of his. He is friends with Cassandra and did take this disingenuousness of Chelsea Manning more personally had he otherwise may have.


https://youtu.be/6ebHzHvv0xc
 
whitecoast said:
There's been a couple of odd turns surrounding Chelsea Manning that I wanted to share, especially in light of a senate bid.

There was a conservative/right wing gala held by Mike Cernovitch and sponsors, which Chelsea Manning "crashed" in her own words in a twitter post. By most accounts of the gala (_https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/chelsea-manning-goes-to-a-pro-trump-gala) she was mingling in quite a positive manner, so "crash" seems like a really unusual verb in this context. I mean she wasn't being disruptive in any sense of the word by any accounts given. By some accounts she said it was done "to help bridge the gap between the left and right". It doesn't seem like anyone on the right was upset by her presence there, but apparently many people on the left had a conniption if wapo is a decent enough measure of the narrative they're pushing to the sjw base: _https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/23/chelsea-manning-showed-up-at-a-far-right-pro-trump-bash-infuriating-the-far-left/?utm_term=.fea9c16524e9

Later on a few photographs surfaced of Chelsea hanging out with some of the attendees in another context, in particular Cassandra Fairbanks at an "escape room" event, and at one a house of one of them. Cassandra Fairbanks is an ex-Bernie Sanders supporter, currently right-of-center Trump supporter and contributor for Sputnik. When this apparent act of friendship was pointed out, Chelsea made a justification in a few horrendously slanted articles in wapo and the daily beast about how she was "gathering intelligence" on the alt-right, making a loose appeal to Charlottesville. Trying to cover her tracks, she said publicly that she was NOT friends with them.

Tim Poole covered this quite extensively in a recent video of his. He is friends with Cassandra and did take this disingenuousness of Chelsea Manning more personally had he otherwise may have.


https://youtu.be/6ebHzHvv0xc

What struck me as odd in the video is Chelsea's outfit - dark blue with the white zipper - which gives a Navy military impression. Then to state, "she was "gathering intelligence" on the alt-right ..." just seems odd? Is it a subtle message that Chelsea is being monitored or controlled by Navy Intelligence?

It's been a long busy day and maybe my mind is working in "over-drive", although, Manning (as Bradley) was serving in Army Intelligence when arrested.

I'm still not sure what to think with this US Senate bid in Maryland?
 
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