
Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence - coloneltcb
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/us/politics/obama-commutes-bulk-of-chelsea-mannings-sentence.html?_r=0
======
djsumdog
Seven years is still a long time for whistle blowing. I'm glad to see she is
still getting released though. It's important to note commuting the sentence
is not a pardon. Chelsea will still have this conviction for the rest of her
life.

I know there is a lot of controversy with Manning compared to Wikileaks et.
al. as far as not redacting documents or using a discriminating news source to
filter them. Still, I oppose state secrets and the Hillary e-mails are
actually very chilling when you start reading through them. I still side with
Manning. Too many of the Snowden documents were redacted with critical
information (like which hardware encryption chips were compromised by the US
government). No one has the actual Pentagon Papers outside of very specific
news agencies. Manning gave the entire story to the people .. and I find it
more sad that we didn't see more outrage and change from that release.

I also see another message here. Obama is trying to leave a positive view of
the Democratic legacy with this lasting memory. It helps people forget about
the predator drones, secret kill lists, continuation of torture, NSA spying
and the expansion of war, military and the American hegemony throughout the
world. I wish people would see this manipulation; this handout to the left to
keep them angry at the incoming administration and not at the government that
continues to spy on them and kill people without trial in and endless sea of
never ending conflict.

~~~
rthomas6
I have mixed feelings on this. Manning did commit a crime. They were entrusted
with classified information and they released it on purpose. For all of the
corruption and wrongdoing the release of those cables uncovered, didn't it
also do things like give away the positions of some undercover agents? And
harm US diplomatic relations with other countries? Look at it from the POV of
the government: How could they _not_ punish Manning? It would do a lot to
encourage others to indiscriminately leak classified info. Which would be bad.

~~~
mhurron
Classifying material should not be a way for the Government to hide corruption
and wrongdoing. Whistle blowing is the only way that prevents that.

Chelsea Manning acted on her conscience, which is the best we can expect
anyone to do. The governments punishment was to prevent that happening again.

~~~
colechristensen
Snowden released a large volume of information to well qualified journalists
who very carefully combed through the data to find the things most relevant
and important for the American public to know. Information that was
legitimately classified and had no whistleblowing value simply wasn't
released.

Manning released a large volume of information to the public en masse with no
regard to it's whistleblowing value. Some of that information was dangerous
and harmful.

Manning's battering ram is much different than Snowden's scalpel, even though
their base motivations had a lot in common. Snowden knew what he was doing and
did it with great care and consideration. Manning was suffering from some
serious mental health issues and did something foolish with questionable value
at best.

~~~
rbanffy
> Manning released a large volume of information to the public en masse

No. She leaked the documents to Wikileaks, who decided to publish them
uncensored. She had no control over what Wikileaks would do. Other media
outlets opted not to release information they considered dangerous.

And, as @mhurron pointed out, there is no record of someone who was harmed by
that information being released.

~~~
hendersoon
There is no record of any individual being physically harmed, but the leaked
diplomatic cables were highly embarrassing, hurt the interests of the US, and
were completely unjustified. They weren't exposing malfeasance or war crimes.
They should not have been released.

Manning did it wrong, Snowden did it right.

~~~
DonHopkins
The fact that the US murdered innocent civilians was highly embarrassing and
hurt the interests of the US, not the fact that Manning leaked that
information itself. Punish the murderers, not the messengers. The only people
were actually harmed were the innocent children and journalists on the
receiving end of US machine guns.

~~~
mcv
This exactly. Governments do need to be held accountable for secret crimes,
secrecy should not be allowed to enable continuing those crimes. Exposing them
was necessary, even if it was illegal.

I do think Manning was naive and sloppy for handing the whole thing over to
Assange, though in her defense, Assange seemed fairly reasonable and
responsible at the time. It's only after this enormous leak that he seems to
have gone mad with power.

~~~
wallace_f
I can sleep a lot better tonight having read this thread of thoughts after
some of the awfulness I just read over at reddit.

With this issue there is a remarkable degree of misinformation, as well as
fascist ideology supporting the the surveillance state. These neverending,
unechecked powers undermine civil rights and allow human rights abuses to go
continue. And it's all wrapped in this package of 'a good liberal just
supporting the good guys like Obama and Hillary that evil Assange is trying to
destroy.' Assange is far from perfect, but I cannot understand how people do
not fight back in solidarity with outrage against human and civil rights
abuses.

~~~
grandalf
> I cannot understand how people do not fight back in solidarity with outrage
> against human and civil rights abuses

I think there is a very sad aspect of human nature which makes humans bow
before power.

~~~
zemanel
It's called mortality :) people have X years to live and try to make the best
of it and not everyone is ready to sacrifice that time for doing the right
thing.

~~~
newbear
The simple fact that other people are unjustly suffering means that my
mortality of x years is not the best. I think this alone should make everyone
want to help make the world the best it can be. But empathy and love loses to
selfishness and greed.

------
chollida1
It's been said that one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist.

> The files she copied also included about 250,000 diplomatic cables from
> American embassies around the world showing sensitive deals and
> conversations, dossiers detailing intelligence assessments of Guantánamo
> detainees held without trial, and a video of an American helicopter attack
> in Baghdad in two Reuters journalists were killed, among others.

Has there been any sort of "ethical" system designed to show a person how they
are supposed to whistle blow? I'm only familiar with the SEC's guidance, on
what they expect you to do and going public isn't one of their main points.

How should a person become a whistle blower like Manning or Snowden while
making sure there is no collateral damage to people in the field?

I mean, the main point against Snowden and Manning seems to be that they
released way too much information to the public that could be seen as doing
more harm than good depending on your point of view.

~~~
bishnu
There was no collateral damage to people in the field due to the Manning
leaks, so I guess she figured it out.

~~~
zepto
How do you know?

~~~
bishnu
The prosecution admitted as much at her trial. Read up on United States vs
Manning for more details.

------
pdkl95
With apologies to William Burroughs.

    
    
        (To the whistleblowers,
         in hope that they stay alive.)
    
        Thanks for systemic corruption
        and disregard for the rule of law.
    
        Thanks for the transparent lies and
        carefully framed talking points.
    
        Thanks for the profitable arms sales
        to be used against us in next year's war.
    
        Thanks for manufactured consent.
        "You all saw him. He had a gun."
    
        Thanks for the American dream,
        placing profit first until
        the bare greed shines through.
    
        Thanks for always shooting the messenger.
    
        Thanks for hate peddling politicians,
        that fear anything they don't understand.
    
        Thanks for the surveillance state
        and the war against privacy.
    
        Thanks for another Crypto War,
        while the real war criminals walk free.
    
        Thanks for presidential pardons,
        given only when politically convenient.
    
        Thanks for defending title and flag,
        betraying the oath to the Constitution.
    
        Thanks for always taking special care
        to make sure no good deed goes unpunished.
    

Thank you, Pres. Obama, for finally doing the bare minimum and _eventually_
freeing Chelsea Manning. As a long-time believer in "better late than never",
my thanks really is sincere.

There is still a lot of work left to do.

~~~
gizmo385
I'm always torn on these things. Chelsea Manning _did_ break the law. If she
hadn't at least spent some time in jail, it could have potentially turned into
a much larger political nightmare.

~~~
finnh
1) Our government broke the law left & right. 2) Our government has outlawed
leaks.

In the context of (1) the law (2) is unjust, and thus punishment is unjust.

------
headcanon
how much you wanna bet that Julian Assange will conveniently forget his
agreement to be extradited if Manning gets pardoned?
[https://www.yahoo.com/news/assange-agrees-extradition-us-
rel...](https://www.yahoo.com/news/assange-agrees-extradition-us-releases-
whistleblower-222625053.html)

~~~
noja
He didn't pardon her.

~~~
cadlin
This DoJ list of clemency recipients includes both pardons and commutations.

[https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemencyrecipients](https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemencyrecipients)

------
saycheese
>> "More than a million supporters of Edward Snowden have petitioned President
Barack Obama to pardon him, but the former National Security Agency contractor
hasn't submitted the required documents for clemency, according to the White
House."

Source: [http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/snowden-no-
clemency-r...](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/snowden-no-clemency-
request/index.html)

Forms: [https://www.justice.gov/pardon/application-
forms](https://www.justice.gov/pardon/application-forms)

____

EDIT: Appears the only way to contact Ed is by Twitter:
[https://twitter.com/Snowden](https://twitter.com/Snowden)

~~~
iaw
I agree with the Manning pardon, I don't think Snowden deserves a pardon.
Manning's motives and understanding of what she was doing is worlds different
than Snowden's.

Snowden sought a position to access more information for his leaks _and_ he
leaked information on valid espionage programs along side the unconstitutional
ones.

Let him live out his days in Russia, he paid for it with intelligence.

~~~
vvpan
So you don't think Snowden has done great enough good for US citizens for
anybody to consider a pardon for him?

~~~
iaw
Snowden should be pardoned for his work revealing domestic wiretapping
program, the other programs he leaked he should do his time for.

------
cdubzzz
> “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a
> country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence
> in our democracy.”

What an amazingly loaded statement that is. Russia is just a straight up
"adversary" now? Infuriating.

~~~
shalmanese
It's also worth noting that the _only_ reason Snowden is currently in Russia
is due to actions by the US State Department. Snowden left Hong Kong with a
plane ticket to Cuba by way of Moscow. While he was on the plane, the US State
Department revoked his passport, forcing him to miss his connecting flight. To
make it seem like it was in any way a deliberate choice on his part is
rewriting history.

~~~
drawnwren
If both Russia and Cuba were ok with this, what is the reason he can't just
get on a plane to Cuba now?

~~~
shalmanese
The Americans put pressure on Cuba to not admit Snowden:

"Snowden failed to board an onward flight to Cuba the next day, the paper
says, again citing Russian officials, because the US put intense pressure on
Cuba, warning of "adverse consequences" if Snowden were allowed to board the
plane. The Cubans subsequently informed Moscow that the regular Aeroflot
flight would not be permitted to land in Havana if Snowden was aboard."

[http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-
News/2013/0826/Russian...](http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-
News/2013/0826/Russian-media-report-How-Snowden-missed-his-flight-to-Cuba)

~~~
drawnwren
So, Snowden is deliberately choosing not to go to Cuba because he will
probably be deported to the US?

------
LordKano
Commuting Manning's sentence without pardoning Snowden feels like politics to
me.

Manning's actions embarrassed the Bush administration so Obama will commute.

Snowden's actions embarrassed the Obama administration so Obama won't pardon.

~~~
arbitrage
Chelsea Manning stood trial. Edward Snowden did not.

~~~
noobermin
This has been discussed before. A President can pardon people for crimes they
may be charged with in the future.

~~~
ceejayoz
Yes, but politically, "we dropped her sentence to seven years in jail" is more
tenable than "we pardoned someone who never stood trial nor served a day in
jail".

~~~
randcraw
So don't pardon Snowden. Commute the charges against him. Like 97% of the
cases that go to prosecution in this country, let him plea to a lesser crime
and serve a 10 year sentence, minus time served in Russia.

~~~
ptaipale
Edit: Sorry, this was rubbish, I was thinking of Assange not Snowden. \-- Note
that charges (technically, a European Arrest Warrant in order to get him for
questioning) against Snowden have not been made by the U.S. but by Sweden, for
a suspected rape. So Obama definitely cannot commute them in any way.

There is no extradition request to the U.S., so when fighting an extradition
to U.S., Snowden is beating a straw man.

~~~
DarqWebster
That's Julian Assange, not Edward Snowden.

~~~
ptaipale
Sorry. Yes of course. Thanks.

------
blhack
Good.

I wish that he would just pardon her, though. I don't want the next
administration to somehow undo this.

~~~
wheelerwj
She can't be tried again though, so how would they undo it?

~~~
DINKDINK
Legally they wouldn't be able to convict Manning of the same crime again. The
state can do what they do with every dissident; surveil her in the extreme and
then prosecute her for some trivial offense.

Law is extremely complex and dense. You have certainly broken laws but haven't
been punished for them sole reason that you haven't drawn the ire of the
political class.

Do you think it's just mere coincidence that anytime a citizen embarrasses the
police they end up being busted for some trivial offense? The Fourth Amendment
was designed to prevent the state from harassing citizens and to rate limit
the states ability to execute revenge convictions. With everyone having a
dossier on them now, the state implicitly chills citizens from pushing back
against the government.

------
wnevets
What exactly did Manning blow the whistle on? While Snowden exposed what he
believed was _illegal_ spying on Americans, Manning just leaked a bunch of
classified information about war that he/she believed was immoral .

~~~
3131s
A good summary that goes well beyond the collateral murder video:

[https://www.thenation.com/article/long-list-what-we-know-
tha...](https://www.thenation.com/article/long-list-what-we-know-thanks-
private-manning/)

------
symlinkk
And now let's see if Assange keeps his promise to extradite to the US.
[https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/819630102787059713](https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/819630102787059713)

~~~
sp332
The US hasn't asked him to be extradited, so that seems moot.

------
Daviey
So Assange is booking a flight to the US now?

"If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite
clear unconstitutionality of DoJ caseWikiLeaks added" \- wikileaks
[[https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/819630102787059713](https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/819630102787059713)]

~~~
lucozade
> So Assange is booking a flight to the US now?

Doubt it, he'd need to persuade the US government to seek his extradition
first then convince the UK government that the US has preference over the
existing EAW.

That's quite a lot of persuading to get done just to ensure that a tweet comes
to fruition. My guess is that he'll either keep schtum or come up with a
narrative about how US Government still cares enough about the Manning leak to
want to extradite him.

I'm glad that Obama has done this but I don't think this is great for Assange.
His argument is quite a bit weaker now I think.

~~~
Daviey
"Assange is still happy to come to the US provided all his rights are
guarenteed despite White House now saying Manning was not quid-quo-pro." \-
[https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/821753136692002816](https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/821753136692002816)

------
redorb
This is great and I think pretty easy to see as a good thing by all sides (I
hope). I never understand why pardons and this type of thing always seem to
have a waiting period though; just being grateful the right thing (As I see
it) is being done.

~~~
TillE
Political cowardice, mostly. It's something you can only safely do once you're
a lame duck. Not sure why they don't typically do it in December, though.

~~~
cableshaft
Obama has been pardoning people since 2010, and in fact pardoned a whole big
chunk of people in December of 2016.

Source: [https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-
pardons](https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-pardons)

------
vvpan
Sigh... The scheming and carefully crafted rhetoric that White House has
developed against Snowden is just plain disgusting.

~~~
andrewclunn
Ironically, Snowden likely skipped the country as part of his leak precisely
because of what had happened to Manning. Claiming that there's mercy for him
if he comes back for a last minute commute by an outgoing President after 7
years... I mean, who do they think they're fooling?

~~~
vvpan
Precedents set for whistelblower treatment have not been very good the past
decade.

------
pavlov
Manning will be released in May this year, just after Trump's first 100 days
in office. It's almost like Obama is timing this as a reminder of himself at a
point in the future where it's bound to provide maximum irritation to his
successor. (I don't think that's the actual intention, but we can definitely
look forward to some interesting tweetstorms from Trump in May.)

------
nueded
This made me genuinely happy. Thanks, Obama. For real.

------
flanbiscuit
Now pardon Snowden

~~~
runevault
I sort of wonder if it would matter. Whether they should or not, I really
doubt the parts of the government he pissed off will forgive him just because
they are told to.

~~~
vinay427
A pardon would allow him a valid passport to travel to a different country
that would be willing to house him without having to ignore extradition
requests. He would not need to return to the US if he felt endangered there.

~~~
runevault
Okay THAT is a good reason then. Thanks for the correction.

------
pizza
Why is this no longer at the top of the front page? ~900 points in ~1 hour
alone. Please, mods, some transparency?

~~~
dang
Users tend to flag purely political stories and moderators add downweights to
them. That's part of keeping the balance on HN, which is not a primarily
political site:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

~~~
dopamean
It is a little weird to let that affect a story that is obviously of huge
interest to the visitors of this site.

~~~
dragonwriter
It's being flagged by people who are also users of the site, and is right at
the center of a category defined as likely off-topic by the site guidelines.

While I certainly find it an interesting topic worth discussing, I think the
rules and community moderation is working as advertised and as designed here.

------
gk1
For anyone else who was curious:

Commute - reduce (a judicial sentence, especially a sentence of death) to one
less severe.

------
geff82
This is good news. Manning committed a crime (giving away info from the
government which she was thought to protect), but it does not justify
destroying a life. She served well beyond enough time behind bars, too many
years for my taste, so my soul says is great she is released. If now the
prison time for more ordinary people could be reduced to more European-human
lenghts.

------
qz_
I hope this will set the tone for how whistleblowers are treated in the
future, and I wonder what the President Elect has to say about this.

~~~
ssully
I am confident he will have a few tweets about this before tomorrow morning.

Does anyone know if President Elect Trump has the authority to overturn this
sentence commuting?

~~~
rosser
Subsequent presidents can "un-pardon" people pardoned by previous presidents,
so I have a hard time imagining that a commutation is somehow immune to that
kind of thing.

EDIT: See follow-ups. I may be mistaken here, and need to run to a meeting, so
I can't dig any more now.

EDIT 2: [http://swampland.time.com/2008/12/25/more-on-
pardons/](http://swampland.time.com/2008/12/25/more-on-pardons/)

Relevant quote, "Ulysses S. Grant’s first clemency decision, on his third day
in office, was to revoke two pardons granted by Andrew Johnson. Both men
challenged Grant’s power to do so, and lost their case in federal court."

EDIT 3: Here's the link to the blog post linked from the Time article, in edit
2, from the Wayback Machine, for sake of completeness.

[http://web.archive.org/web/20090212091707/http://pardonpower...](http://web.archive.org/web/20090212091707/http://pardonpower.com/2008/12/on-
revocation-of-pardons.html)

~~~
hackuser
> Subsequent presidents can "un-pardon" people pardoned by previous presidents

I've never heard that, never heard of it happening, and don't believe it's
true. However, I've never researched it. Can you cite an example or a source?

~~~
voxic11
IN RE DE PUY, the court found that a prisoner pardoned by the previous
administration could have his pardon revoked by the following administration
so long as the pardon had not yet been delivered and accepted by the prisoner.

------
NotSammyHagar
Also I haven't heard anyone talk about how the UN and outside observers stated
that Manning was tortured during her (not sure of the right pronoun, for pre-
operative) prison time before the trial.
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-
mannin...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-manning-
cruel-inhuman-treatment-un). That should never happen, even if you are guilty.
This happened with Obama was president. I know he has a mixed record, but I
have never understood his aspect of not being able to change the military-spy-
industrial complex more. I don't believe he's afraid of them. I just think he
has so much stuff to do, to face up to, one person can't change it all.

Well, we can work toward changing it, if we elect people who want to change.

------
iaw
> Speaker Paul D. Ryan called it “outrageous.” “President Obama now leaves in
> place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security
> won’t be held accountable for their crimes,” he said in a statement.

Didn't GWB pardon Karl Rove for blowing the cover of a CIA agent? I feel like
I'm not making that up.

~~~
dopamean
What a clown. She has been held accountable. 7 years in Florence isn't
nothing.

Edit: to answer your question... I don't think Rove was pardoned of anything.
Libby did have his sentence commuted though.

------
aburan28
Why with over 900 points and 339 comments is this item falling to #9 already?
Mods?

~~~
pera
Flagging probably.

~~~
grzm
And it's likely tripped the "overheated discussion detector" algorithm. I
don't know the details, but nearly 400 comments in 2 hours seems likely to
have crossed a threshold.

------
tripzilch
> “Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice
> process,

it was torture. you can give it names but it was torture. your criminal
justice process involves torture.

> was exposed to due process

naked torture

> was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged
> wrongdoing,” he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary and
> has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to
> undermine confidence in our democracy.”

I am so disgusted right now. Why do they even pretend.

------
dandare
I was always missing a single website dedicated to the outcome of Manning's
leaks. Listing cause by cause in a clear design that can be posted as a reply
to all that say what Manning did was wrong. Maybe one day I will build such
website and I will start with this list:
[https://www.thenation.com/article/long-list-what-we-know-
tha...](https://www.thenation.com/article/long-list-what-we-know-thanks-
private-manning/)

------
ekianjo
the white house comment about snowden is incredible. Snowden basically
released evidence of wrong doing on the part of the US agencies and he is made
a scapegoat while the agencies continue business as usual. Oh and tough luck
he happens to be in Russia which is now on the official enemys list, while it
is completely irrelevant for snowden's actions.

------
intrasight
The extensive, reasoned, considerate discussion in HN on this complex topic
makes me happy and gives me hope. HN is a modern iteration of the traditional
literary salon.

Freedom is not free. Whistle-blowers pay a heavy price individually for the
freedom of others. And Whistle-blower cases are rarely clear-cut.

------
jmcgough
Having already attempted suicide twice, I don't think she would have lived
through 4 years of the Trump administration. Obama literally saved her life.

~~~
Zooper
Yes, and he's also responsible for jeopardizing it for many, many years; this
is not enough.

------
sureshn
In the last 4 years of Obama presidency the clout America had abroad has
considerably reduced. Especially after the whistle blowing incident , the
ruling dispensation came across as corrupt and unethical. The bargaining power
was compromised greatly because of this and the whole world now knows about
spying , prism , NSA etc. A Greek philosopher Diogenes I think it was or
Socrates dont remember had said this awesome quote , " Pardoning treason will
lead to self destruction" . This decision seems to have a strong left liberal
bias unfortunately

~~~
jacobush
Wait what? Pardoning treason is Standard Operating Procedure and I mean all
the war mongers, Halliburtons and manufacturers of evidence of weapons of mass
destruction... these treasons get automatic pardon, in fact no trial.

------
donatj
> The act of clemency could be seen as a reversal, at least in part, of the
> Obama administration’s unprecedented criminal crackdown on leaking

Little late…

------
mtgx
It's too bad it took a presidential order to commute her sentence to 8 years,
when it probably should've been the longest sentence she should've gotten by
default, if not much less, if she even had to be jailed in the first place. I
think she only got imprisoned for so long because that's how the military
operates. Right or wrong, they want to set an example of soldiers that
something like this, so that others aren't encouraged to do the same.

Also, too bad Obama didn't pardon Snowden. He should have.

------
jotadambalakiri
I am surprised to see no 'WINNING' from Breitbart.

------
tibbon
Any idea why he wouldn't make it effective immediately?

------
phoobot
How can this be so far down in the list?

------
phoobot
Finally!

------
arbitrage
She. Not they. Chelsea Manning identifies as female.

~~~
rthomas6
Sorry. I didn't know which pronoun to use because I didn't know if gender
changes apply retroactively, grammatically speaking. I'm having trouble
knowing which one to use to write this post, too. At the time of the leaks
Chelsea Manning identified as Bradley, a male. Is it politically correct to
use 'she' for all past references, including the times where Chelsea Manning
identified as male? Or would it make more sense to use 'he' when Chelsea
Manning identified as male, and 'she' when Chelsea Manning identifies as
female?

~~~
and0
Very understandable. I believe pronouns apply retroactively.

------
and0
Off-topic but.. "they"? Manning isn't a group of people. Just say "she", it's
really easy.

~~~
ForrestN
I don't know what Chelsea Manning's pronoun preferences are, but I have plenty
of friends who prefer "they," which also happens to be the gender-neutral
singular pronoun in English.

For example: "Someone came by asking for me earlier? Did they give you a
name?"

Many people who do not identify as male or female prefer "they."

~~~
and0
That's a valid point, but if you don't know enough about Chelsea Manning's
recent history or prison sentence to know her preferred pronoun (or even read
the article where it's made very clear) why even comment?

~~~
mod
The comment was on-topic and interesting. That's two reasons I can think of.

Also, this is not a new story, so frankly it's easy to have relevant opinions
on the topic while perhaps just doing a skim of the story.

------
LargeCompanies
This is great ... his life compared to Snowden has been horrid!

On a different note I never bought he wants to be a woman just a PR thing to
keep his name, plight and fight in the public eye. Maybe in five years or so
his story will be told and we will see him as a him not a woman.

 __ __*This is getting downvoted? I 'm sure your now aware of fake news which
is created to push agendas and or make money. Thus, I don't believe much of
what I see and read and this always seemed far-fetch to me and that it was so
out there at the time that it was made up by those helping him. It allowed him
to fight for transgender rights and remain in the public eye ... what other
way could Manning in solitary confinement have maintained his visibility in
the public and coral as much help to free him? This was great PR ... from
someone who has created fake news and such to benefit their start up!

~~~
dragonwriter
> On a different note I never bought he wants to be a woman just a PR thing to
> keep his name, plight and fight in the public eye.

Once again, the information that became public from the military through the
trial was that Manning met with a gender counselor about gender dysphoria
_before_ collecting and leaking information, much less being in the public
eye. This is a fact that is not in dispute.

> This is getting downvoted?

Yes, when you try to spin a completely unsupported fantasy that is
inconsistent with the well-documented historical sequence of events to justify
misgendering someone, that's not really a valuable contribution to the
discussion.

------
searine
I am going to miss Obama.

~~~
d33
Why?

~~~
godzillabrennus
He has a likable personality.

~~~
BinaryIdiot
He really does. Regardless of whether you like his politics or not he really
seems like a genuine, down to Earth person. He always seems professional and
articulate. I will miss that aspect of a president.

~~~
mschuster91
> He always seems professional and articulate.

Yes, especially in comparison to you-know-who got elected... what a massive
contrast.

------
gargarplex
What will Obama do next!

------
easychewie
Serious question: if Manning thought he was a rabbit, how many people would
refer to him as one?

~~~
neotek
Changing _species_ isn't the same thing as changing gender, and it's an insane
comparison to draw.

------
brilliantcode
> Ms. Manning is set to be freed on May 17 of this year, rather than in 2045.

She must feel ecstatic! It's good that she will be free to live the rest of
her life as the gender she feels comfortable expressing.

~~~
brilliantcode
genuinely curious why my comment was downvoted? didn't expect to see so much
transphobia on HN :/

edit: seriously who is doing all these drive by downvotes?

------
temp-dude-87844
Sadly, this act was just another political tool to contrast with Snowden.

Quote from the article:

 _the White House spokesman, Joshua Earnest, discussed the "pretty stark
difference" between Ms. Manning's case for mercy with Mr. Snowden's. While
their offenses were similar, he said, there were "some important differences."

"Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice
process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her
crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing," he said. "Mr. Snowden fled into the
arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently
made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy."

He also noted that while the documents Ms. Manning provided to WikiLeaks were
"damaging to national security," the ones Mr. Snowden disclosed were "far more
serious and far more dangerous." (None of the documents Ms. Manning disclosed
were classified above the merely "secret" level.)_

