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Thursday, May 18, 2017

5 Things to Know About the Chelsea Manning Release

The notorious transgender intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who joined the Army as Brad Manning, was released from military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, today. Transgender activists and civil libertarians celebrate, while supporters of military intelligence will be less impressed.

Here are five things to know about Manning's release.

1. The crime.

In January 2010, Bradley Manning downloaded the 400,000 documents which later would become known as the Iraq War logs, along with the 91,000 documents known as the Afghan War logs. He smuggled the data through on a CD labeled "Lady Gaga." After being turned down by The Washington Post and The New York Times, Manning sent the information to WikiLeaks in early February.

Beginning in February, WikiLeaks publicized the documents Manning sent, causing an uproar and giving the outlet the notoriety to push more classified information into the public eye. Manning was caught after contacting Adrian Lamo, a former hacker convicted in 2004. Lamo reported Manning to the authorities, and the leaker was arrested in late May 2010.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So, the WaPo didn't want to get involved with accepting the stolen classified info, but bristles when the agent is called a traitor? There's some kind of disconnect there.