by Lucy Steigerwald
(Original article here.)
After eight years of waging war on whistleblowers, and indeed, being president during former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning’s sentence, trial, and three years of brutal detainment before that—President Obama finally delivered some pleasant news on Tuesday. Instead of 35 years in prison for 20 charges, Manning will be out in May of this year.
A heroic whistleblower to some and a traitor to others, Manning was an Army private who leaked thousands of documents related to the Iraq and Afghan wars to WikiLeaks, which in turn shared some of those documents with various newspapers. Though U.S. officials and their most dutiful lapdogs cried out in outrage over this individualist act of light shedding, no one died because of these leaks, as some claimed. We did, however, get to see what war looks like live with the “collateral murder” video. Furthermore, Manning’s information gave us body counts for Iraq, reports of the U.S. failing to follow up on reports of torture and murder, and war crimes committed that were never prosecuted.
There was all the reason in the world to assume Obama wouldn’t free Manning. His administration tried a record number of people under the espionage act. Edward Snowden fled to Russia rather than face the dubious justice that anyone unimportant would be granted for spilling government secrets. Former NSA executive Thomas Drake narrowly escaped the Espionage Act, and now works at an Apple Store, because he spoke to a reporter about privacy concerns he had with the agency, which he said was committing privacy violations worse than those which took place under Richard Nixon.
General David Petraeus could have been charged under a section of the Espionage Act for leaking classified secrets to his mistress/biographer, but he wasn’t. He pled guilty to a misdemeanor, and retired as CIA director, and that was all. Six months later, there was talk of him being in Donald Trump’s administration.
After two suicide attempts, miserable treatment, and draconian punishments for crimes such as possessing verboten books and expired toothpaste,
and seven total years without freedom, Manning has five more months to go. It appears that President Trump will have no power to reverse this decision. Presidential clemency power is a beefy power indeed. Obama, after a term and a half of being known for a dubious healthcare law, and setting exciting new precedents in drone assassinations of Americans, finally started using that power in earnest, and is now breaking records there. As of today’s news, the president had commuted the sentences of more than 1500 people, and pardoned 212 people.
Though the news of Manning’s imminent release is great, there can be at least a semi-cynical explanation. Having diluted his civil libertarian rhetoric with his, uh, actual record, Obama can now go out with a bang, one that makes even the crankiest small government fans cheer when they consider the 1500 people whose lives are improved (or in the case of the handful of people who sentences Obama changed from death to life imprisonment, saved). But he can also keep an elite credibility by saying Manning was punished already. The clemency was a surprise, but there’s a certain savvy logic to it as well.
It’s not enough for security state vampires such as National Review’s David French, who found 35 years in prison for Manning to be an unsatisfying compromise, and seven measly years and torturous solitary confinement to be an insult. French and his ilk, such as former UN Ambassador John Bolton (and the Trump of 2010), thought Manning deserved death. She could have received the death penalty if she had been charged with treason, or if she hadn’t been acquitted of the charge of aiding the enemy. Manning’s sentencing must have been a sad day for people who demand their pound of flesh, and who think that 35 years behind bars is small.
That’s the thing. This could be a brilliant compromise move. There are people who believe Manning deserved to be punished, and there are people who have been furious about her imprisonment for the past seven years.
But the former could develop some proportionality and realized that seven years is a lot of life to lose. Manning was punished for trying to show the world what war looks like beyond George W. Bush and a “mission accomplished” banner, or even sanitized photos of flag-draped coffins. By freeing her, Obama gets to get back some of his civil libertarian cred, but also isn’t doing something “crazy” like pardoning Snowden. In a country that loves to punish too much (2.3 million people in prison), Obama ending his presidency with a cascade of mercy is a good thing, no matter what you think of the people whose sentences he has commuted, or the people he has freed. But it’s a shame that he didn’t have the courage to push for these things earlier. Or that he didn’t feel like risking some of the political capital that he spent on drones, Libya, and ObamaCare.
Petraeus was showing off to his mistress. Hell, Dick Cheney has been enjoying his freedom for many years now. 
Henry Kissinger has a Nobel Peace prize, no matter how many Cambodians he helped to melt.
What happened to Manning is proof that there are rules for them, and rules for the rest of us. There are rules for former heads of the CIA, and there are rules for Army privates who want Americans to know what is going on.
They will go to war for us, and in our name. But God help anyone who wants to help the public get a picture of what those wars really resemble. No matter what Obama’s motivation was, sincere or otherwise, his freeing of Manning is a pleasant surprise, and a capper to a rocky, often-authoritarian presidency that Trump is about to inherit.
Originally published at Rare.us on January 17th, 2017. Reprinted with permission.
Comments
92 responses to “Obama was right to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence”
Can we talk about Lucy now?
Yes, but only in hushed tones and on odd numbered days.
Whoops. I just yelled “Lucy!”.
Sorry.
It’s the 16th man! god.
didn’t reply yesterday, but thanks on the garage compliment. It’s been too long and I needed one.
Yes, you do.
And quit loaning tools!
It’s funny what makes us happy, though, isn’t it?
I do need to quit that. I just end up thinking the karma points will be cashed in at some point.
You just gotta choose carefully. One of my neighbors is the coolest dude ever. I loan him stuff, he loans me stuff – no problems. He’s a decent mechanic who brews really good beer.
Find one of those.
on that note, this new place is actually big enough to brew my own. Does anyone have a brand of starter kit they liked?
funny story, when I lived in Pasadena, my parents sent me to catholic school. My first day of 1st grade involved me teaching the nuns how to brew beer. I helped my parents out, they made it in our basement. The school had a very long talk with my parents. they still bring that up on occasion.
Replying here, as I don’t see a Reply button to the one actually asking about the brand of starter kit. If you don’t have any of the equipment, take a look at MoreBeer’s starter kits. They have both 1 gallon kits, and different tiers of 5 gallon kits.
I will check that out! Thanks Nephilium. would you tell me to lean to the 5 gal?
DOOMco, if you know you’re going to brew, and you’re willing to dedicate the time, I would suggest starting with one of the 5 gallon starter kits. From there, you can easily downgrade to doing 1 gallon batches just by picking up a 1 gallon jug. I would also recommend getting at least the kits with the 8.5 gallon kettle, which allows you to easily step up to all grain with a minimal investment. If you go with the 5 gallon kettle, you’ll be limited to doing either smaller batches or buying a new kettle if you want to jump to all grain.
That’s good to know. Thanks again. to amazon!
THIS^^^ is an important point.
If I were you and it were not my money I would get a 7 barrel steam boil copper kettle and several 7 barrel glycol jacketed bright tanks, fermenters, serving tanks. Also, you will probably need 600-700 square feet in your fridge…you don’t want to run out of room. Now might be a good time to invest in a poured composite floor. and a decent hose and sprayer system. You should also take the time to build a raised wooden floor for your grain storage room…get that shit off the concrete seriously people. I don’t think you need to splurge on the RO system just yet, wait till your chem lab is up and running. Most municipal water is sufficient for a beginner.
oh,thanks a lot,CB.
Ya know, the more I think about it you may want to just consider the hopper now. Are you near any railway tracks? It would be trivial to build a siding for your grain shipments. We may need to engage robe for his opinion on routing the grain via overhead gantry. Also he may have some input on organization of the hot liquor/boil kettle/fermenter orientations. Plumbing can get in your way if you don’t plan this right.
P.S.
OR you could go to Midwest Supplies and get a starter
This is a good one.
Cause I think every asshole should have to bottle at least once.
I mean if you want to be a pussy about or whatever…
Oh, i’d bottle. You’re more than welcome to my first batch. as is anyone in my neck of the rockies.
OH SHIT…I forgot you be local to my ass…ignore all those things I said about you.
ANYWAY, you beech. And if you ever want to brew a batch and need someone to get drunk next to you slinging criticisms and insults while you do it let me know.
Also, truly, another VERY worthwhile tool is a burner. I have a Bayou (Bob) Classic that pushes 80,000 BTUs but really ANYTHING to get off your stove. (But as with bottling, some would say it is part of the initiation)
FUKIN’ 4 hour boil
That does look like a good tool to get. stovetop does seem like an initiation of sorts. Yeah, I’m in the people’s republic. I tried to set up a meet up in denver, but nothing came from it.
Yeah, last time I got one going it was me and JEP … SO. Any Denver Metro-ites want to go drinking and smoking cigars let me know. I prefer the Brown palace but Palmas Cigars is a fine place too. If you DONT want to smoke cigars then go to hell.. I mean ok, suggest something else.
the PRB is a super long way away from the civilized community of Littleton. But I can make an exception.
downtown works always. I would never hold it against someone for not coming to Boulder.
Has JEP received an invite here, yet? He’s good people.
not sure…i have his email somewhere.
He is all smart and stuff…not sure he has time for us ruffians any more.
I haven’t seen him on either site
I’ll reach out to him at some point in the near future. Last time we talked, he was loaded up with a bunch of career stress, so I doubt his first priority is screwing around on a politics website.
But what if you follow the Portuguese day of the week system?
*panicked emoji*
Oh for fuck’s sake. They’re really letting in the riffraff now.
YES! I’m not riff raff
U like BR? BRBRBRBRBR??? LIKE BRAZIL?! Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk I fron São Paulo
We did, however, get to see what war looks like live with the “collateral murder” video. Furthermore, Manning’s information gave us body counts for Iraq, reports of the U.S. failing to follow up on reports of torture and murder, and war crimes committed that were never prosecuted.
I’ve always believed that intelligence leaks and whistleblowing is the only act where the ends can justify the means. I would say that this information meets that justification requirement. For once, good job Obama.
I’d agree if exposing wrongdoing had been his intention. Instead, he did a huge data-dump. Not the action of a whistleblower.
He was a disgruntled employee looking to fuck with his boss.
I guess I may be confusing Snowden and Manning. Huge data dumps certainly don’t make the cut for me.
Manning released a bit too much. Some of it was great for the public to see. others not so much.
Yeah, I have to disagree with Lucy on this one. Snowden was a whistleblower, Manning was a disgruntled shitbird. He should have done at least 10.
So he’ll serve three years fewer than he should, still not *too* bad.
I was still hoping that Snowden would get a pardon. I think others were right when they said Obama wouldn’t do it because Snowden happened in the Obama era. It is good to see Manning get commuted. I think she might have done it in a poor way, with less of an objective, but she did publicize how very brutal our wars
wereare.I don’t see it happening. I still hear otherwise intelligent people saying he should be tried and shot. No argument about the rape of the Constitution seems to penetrate their derple haze.
Law-n-order peeps are almost as retarded as proggies.
Snowden deserves a medal, tickertape parade and to be exempt from paying taxes for the rest of his life.
As would be expected, Obama got it completely backwards.
Of course there is the issue of pardoning someone before they are convicted.
Pardoning somebody before conviction or charge is perfectly allowable (see Nixon, Richard)
Carter blanket pardoned draft avoiders too. A perfectly good way of ending that particular round of unpleasantness with slave armies.
I realize it has happened. Whether it’s appropriate or not is another issue. Not that I think Obama would care.
Yeah, I wouldn’t bank on Teh Lightworker caring.
I think Carter’s use was appropriate, and almost all of those folks were under shadow of prosecution, and only some were actually convicted.
Manning’s exposures happened in the Obama era as well.
The true difference is that Manning’s exposures made Bush look bad, and Snowden’s exposures made Obama look bad.
You said it much better.
OHH MY GOD LUCY!!!!!!!
ok, thats done.
*hands Bandit a cleanup rag*
Er….you got any more of those handy?
Handy?
*does swiss impression*
* wipes eyes *
thank you.
what did you think i needed a rag for?
That’s gross, you’re supposed to point it away from your own face.
Good shot, though.
wow…
i was lulled into a false sense of security with the move…A costly mistake I shall not repeat. My defenses are now at 11. Be prepared for my counterstrike.
Old wine, new bottles, my friend.
I mean, if an actual SugarFree joint posted as an article didn’t warn you . . .
Wow, this site is going places fast. Now all we need are a guy with a bushy mustache and a former judge who writes posts that consist entirely of questions.
I would steer clear of magicians.
You know who else had a mustache and asked a lot of questions?
Lots of highway patrolmen?
My 10th grade math teacher?
70s porn stars?
Thomas Magnum?
John Stossel?
Wait…that was dumb.
An edit button! My kingdom for an edit button!
Maybe it’s right, maybe it’s wrong, but I do wonder how many guys are still sitting in jail for unintentional / careless activity related to confidential emails/documents/etc. I hope there aren’t very many, but if there are any, I’d imagine they’re pretty pissed. You’ve got someone who intentionally dumped a ton of info getting a reduced sentence, likely just because of fame and how it plays in the media. And of course you’ve got Hillary, Petraus, and all those Obama execs who used pseudonym gmail accounts to conduct official business. The lack of consistency must be extraordinarily frustrating to the anonymous grunt who got busted for not following protocol.
I like the new layout.
*stretches arms wide*
Tundra, his arms wide.
Jalad at tanagra.
Heh, Heh, Gilgemesh
(For some reason that line is seared into my memory)
No mention of Sandy Berger?
While I don’t know all the particulars, and no one could with today’s media, I can see a scenario where Petraeus divulged classified accidently. At that level, you deal in a shit-ton of information some classified some not. He took notes as the CC.
I assume these notebooks were reminders for actions needed to be taken or to help him prioritize his decisions. Classified/unclassified gets blurry at that point. Perhaps classified was mixed in unintentionally…
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t proper handling of classified, but it was the Wild West over there. Often, mission necessity didn’t allow for it. I could see how he might think his notebooks were unclassified and use them for his biography, and upon the scrutiny of an official investigation, some of it turns out to be.
Just not the same animal as the Manning case.
OT:
Barf.
Cultists are sad, sad people.
It’s really sad because Obama is an unathletic dweeb.
Are you kidding? The dude is a beast in the weight room.
HAHAHAHA. Jesus Christ, my wife uses heavier weights than that! And he still looks uncoordinated as fuck!
I larfed – especially when he flaps his wings
John used a word for that type of thing, and it’s escaping me. dang it was such a perfect word. he even spelled it correctly.
Who wants to read about that? Really?
Really.
“Looocy! You’re home!” /Cuban accent
Not racist or nuthin’ but some of you contributors look the same to me.
I resemble that remark.
We are all Harambe, Max….
Sorry dude, I’m not whipping it out for you.
Clone Harambe!
Your meme skillz are mad indeed.
Luuuuuucy!
Great article, but I am curious how the millennials feel.
/farts, runs out of room and bars door from outside
cop gets pulled over for drunk driving.
Now I see why they that cannot be named let Lucy go. She misspelled ‘Bradley’.
Didn’t Heroic post an article on this very thing earlier today?
So no reply button if the indenting gets too far? Did we let the squirrels design this system too?
And still no edit button.
Better to reply to the top comment than push everything so far right its illegible I suppose.
The indenting should just get smaller with each deeper indent, approaching an asymptote on the right margin.
+
1
That’s all nice, but no alt text. Swiss?