Chelsea Manning 10 years after her sentence: what happened to the whistleblower?

Chelsea Manning was responsible for the largest leak of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The former U.S. Army soldier, who served as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010, leaked videos depicting airstrikes in which U.S. soldiers fired upon and killed several civilians, including two Reuters journalists. This video, known as “Collateral Murder,” was just the beginning. Manning went on to release over 251,000 diplomatic cables and more than 482,000 Army reports, collectively referred to as the “Iraq War Logs” and “Afghan War Diary,” through WikiLeaks and its media partners between April 2010 and April 2011.

After being identified as the source of the leaks, Manning was arrested in May 2010 and faced 22 charges, including theft, espionage, and aiding the enemy, which carried the possibility of a death sentence. In February 2013, she pleaded guilty to 10 charges. The trial for the remaining charges commenced on June 3, 2013, ten years ago. On July 30, Manning was convicted of 17 of the original charges, excluding aiding the enemy. She received a 35-year sentence at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, a maximum-security military facility. However, on January 17, 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence, resulting in nearly seven years of confinement dating back to her arrest. Manning was released on May 17, 2017.

Since her release, Manning has engaged in speaking engagements about data leaks and her experience as a trans person, and has authored a memoir titled “README.txt,” wherein she candidly recounts her military experiences and the motivations behind her actions. In the book, she expresses her desire to challenge the simplified narrative of war prevalent in society, where questioning the established viewpoint is often perceived as disloyalty.

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