Chelsea Manning
b. 1987
Spark a domestic debate on the role of the military on foreign policy.
Chelsea Manning, born Bradley Manning in 1987, was a US Army intelligence analyst in Iraq who in 2010 gave WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified or sensitive documents. They included videos of airstrikes, about 251,000 diplomatic cables and the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs. She was arrested in May 2010 after she told a former hacker, Adrian Lamo, who alerted the Army. In July 2013 a court martial convicted her of 17 charges, among them Espionage Act violations, and acquitted her of aiding the enemy. She was sentenced to 35 years.
President Obama commuted her sentence in January 2017 and she was released in May 2017. In 2019 she was jailed for contempt of court after refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Julian Assange. She was fined and released in March 2020.
The Charge
The court martial found her guilty of 17 charges, including several under the Espionage Act, theft of government property and violations of army regulations. The most serious charge, aiding the enemy, which can carry a life sentence, ended in an acquittal. The sentence was 35 years, a reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge.
The Case For
She said she wanted the material to spark a domestic debate on the role of the military in foreign policy. A Defense Department report concluded that the leaks had no significant strategic impact on US war efforts, although it was not published until 2017. Her sentence was unusually long for a leak, and President Obama cut it short. Supporters say that exposing airstrikes and diplomatic conduct is a public service.
The Case Against
She was a soldier with a security clearance who agreed not to disclose classified material, and she chose to disclose hundreds of thousands of documents. Admiral Michael Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the leaks endangered American soldiers and Afghan informants. In 2019 she refused to testify before a grand jury and was jailed for contempt.
Where Do You Stand?
When does an act of conscience stop being a crime and become a public service? Does the size of the leak matter? Should the soldier who obeys the oath, or the soldier who breaks it, be the one we honour?
Where do you stand?