Via Drudge: President Obama on Tuesday commuted all but four months of the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst convicted of a 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted Mr. Obama’s administration and brought global prominence to WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures.
The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to kill herself last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the men’s military prisonat Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.
At the same time that Mr. Obama commuted the sentence of Ms. Manning, a low-ranking enlisted soldier at the time of her leaks, he also pardoned James E. Cartwright, the retired Marine general and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who pleaded guilty to lying about his conversations with reporters to F.B.I. agents investigating a leak of classified information about cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program.
The two acts of clemency were a remarkable final step for a president whose administration carried out an unprecedented criminal crackdown on leaks of government secrets. Depending on how they are counted, the Obama administration has prosecuted either nine or 10 such cases, more than were charged under all previous presidencies combined.
In addition, Mr. Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was part of a Puerto Rican nationalist group that carried out a string of bombings in the late 1970s and early 1980s; the other members of that group had long since been freed. Mr. Obama also granted 63 other pardons and 207 other commutations, mostly for drug offenders.
23 comments:
The constitution is clear that the President is fully within his powers to pardon, pretty much for any reason. The people who voted for Obama knowingly gave him this power.
That said, I think this is poor decision and one that does not serve the interests of the nation. It is more likely a response to Manning's transgenderism which has made him a sympathetic victim for the left.
Snowden is shopping for dresses in Moscow today.
My personal view is that Manning is alive today because he is prison. The person obviously has various mental health issues, with depression being way up there. In prison, guards are watching out for suicide. So I don't think releasing Manning is a threat to anyone but himself. It is just a slap in the face to American vets.
President Petulance pees on the whole country.
Can't wait to see what he does Friday morning.
Some of these leaks revealed the identity of people helping the troops in Afghanistan. Leaks that made their way to Ozama bin laden.
Obama is not on our side.
I guess I should let myself "be clear"; I don't think Manning threatens anyone today. And my own personal view is he could have suffered a few more decades as Bradley until he was entirely forgotten. He's a traitor that has been given extremely preferential treatment because of his specific minority privilege of being a former white man.
He looks like Tanya Harding.
Why is Obama so deferential towards transgender issues above anything else? Was Joan Rivers right about Michelle?
April, LOL! But, if you see Tanya Harding now you wouldn't say that.
If this "pissy", a shoutout to edutcher, pardons Leonard Peltier, then he will be showing just how much he hates cops. I don't think he will cross that red line. But, we'll see. He has pardoned more people than the last 9 Presidents COMBINED! That goes back to IKE.
A response to anyone who believes the commutation isn't about Obama's disrespect of veterans or pandering to the QWERTY community, just remember what the Obama administration felt about leaks from the beginning:
“We have tried more leak cases—brought more leak cases during the course of this administration than any other administration,” Holder said
Of course, those leaks were whistleblowers on Obama policies.
Chelsea's life will be its own punishment. I don't see her living happily ever after, but, at least now, she won't be able to claim martyr status......I'm more worried about all those drug dealers Obama pardoned. Not all of them will go on to live exemplary lives after their release, and some of them have scores to settle.News of their crimes will be suppressed. If any actually do succeed in turning their lives around, expect to see a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington dramatizing such a triumph.
Wait a minute?
Obama pardoned Eli Manning?
William said...
Chelsea's life will be its own punishment. I don't see her living happily ever after
Most of these people who try to change what they are don't get any happier, so he's in his own prison.
@April: The hack-kneed press will love him to death.
Typically silly, shallow, reckless and symbolic of ... what? Something that no doubt requires tedious explanation about historical inequities and the righting thereof. What else is new?
Obama pardoned Eli Manning?
You can't pardon the crime of beating Dallas twice.
I feel sorry for Chelsea too.
Imagine having Bill and Hill for parents.
Woke up, it was a Chelsea Manning and . . .
I assume that joke's been done to death.
Nothing says victim like a clemencied transgender private convicted of spying and sentenced to 35 years with two suicide attempts in prison under your belt, being a he/she in a male military prison complex, and having your sentence commuted by the POTUS down to 7 years. If that isn't dotting all of the I's and crossing all of the T's (in transgender) of victimhood, I don't know what is.
Leaking military secrets = A-OK
Leaking democrat secrets lies and money-grubbing whoring = bad bad bad !
Not your father's army.
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