In six days Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, is set to be released from military prison. Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, had been arrested for leaking nearly a million sensitive U.S. Army documents and U.S. Diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.(1) Formally Manning has been charged with "aiding the enemy" based on the logic that Al Qaeda, like a significant population of Earth, reads publications hosted by WikiLeaks.(2)

While WikiLeaks and Manning have been greatly demonized by the press, few realize Manning is actually a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. She has won numerous prizes, including The Guardian "Person of the Year" award in 2012.(3) Manning also received 5 major commendations for service during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.(4)

The material released by Manning concerned every country in the world. It detailed the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people (the majority civilians) in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. One such account detailed the execution of an Iraqi family and its cover-up after the Iraqi government refused to renew US immunity from prosecution. The material also revealed the existence of US death squads in Afghanistan.(5)

This article will discuss some of the most significant leaks released by Chelsea Manning in addition to details on her unlawful detainment and trial.

The Manning Leaks

Perhaps the single most famous release was titled Collateral Murder by WikiLeaks on April 5, 2010. The Collateral Murder video showed the view of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter as it gunned down Reuters journalists in the street, as well as a van with children inside that came to help the wounded men.

To this day the U.S. Army maintains this was an appropriate response on the part of the helicopter pilot and gunman and was in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement".(6)

In addition, Manning's contributed 251,287 diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks in what became known as "Cablegate". The cables came from 271 American embassies and consulates in 180 countries between December 1966 to February 2010. The cables were passed by Assange to his three media partners, plus El País and others, and published in stages from November 28, 2010, with the names of sources removed. WikiLeaks said it was the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain.(7)

WikiLeaks would publish the remaining cables unredacted, however, and did so on September 1, 2011 after David Leigh and Luke Harding of The Guardian "inadvertently" published the passphrase for a file that was still online.(8) To date this is the only time a passphrase to a WikiLeaks document has ever been leaked to the public (unencrypted, of course). As a result of the unredacted leaks one Ethiopian journalist had to leave his country and the U.S. government said it had to relocate several sources.(9)

In the end Manning would be responsible for WikiLeaks' Afghan War Files, Iraq War Files, and the Guantanamo Files in addition to several others notable WikiLeaks publications.(10) Overall Manning likely contributed millions of files to WikiLeaks which are still yet to be seen, or at least understood, entirely.

The Arrest & Trial

Private First Class Bradley Manning was arrested in May 2010 at the age of 23. Initially Manning would be held in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait before being shipped to the United States.(11) Manning would be moved to Marine Corp Base Quantico in Virginia on July 29, 2010.(12)

For the first nine months the US army placed Manning in conditions of pre-trial punishment which the UN Rapporteur on Torture found to be inhuman and degrading, in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture. The military judge ruled in January 2013 that Manning had been subjected to unlawful pretrial punishment for 112 days at the Quantico Marine Brig.(13)

Following these statements, the U.S. Army moved Manning from Quantico to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Texas in April 2011.(14) During this time in Fort Leavenworth Chelsea Manning had a particularly frightening encounter which has since been suppressed by the media after (ironically) first being published by The New York Times.

This complete statement will be archived in an upcoming Steemit Archive Project post, but here is perhaps the most relevant section:

Source: David Binder of The New York Times

Chelsea describes being approached by Arabic-speaking assailants who infiltrated the prison and attempted to get her to leave. Chelsea refused but the imposter guards persisted throughout the night as they presumably cleaned up evidence of their visit. By the morning the imposter guards had left and things appeared to return to normal.

This story, needles to say, is outright bizarre but it definitely fits within the realm of possibilities for this larger-than-life case. Given the authenticity of the sources involved and the implications of these events, perhaps we should consider this testimony with a bit more of an open mind.

The Redemption

After enduring a true nightmare for six years, Chelsea Manning can finally see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Her sentence, commuted by former President Barack Obama, is to end on May 17th and will be a welcome to relief to her friends and family. It may also launch a new era in investigative journalism as a former intelligence analyst will now be on the side of the common people.

It will be difficult to truly measure Chelsea's impact on society considering the blatant censorship and intimidation that went into suppressing her countless, compelling stories. We, however, will remember and so too will the Steemit blockchain for aeons to come!

Congratulations Chelsea Manning! You're always welcome on Steemit!