President Barack Obama’s decision on Tuesday to commute the sentence of U.S. Army private Chelsea Manning’s sentence is being met with outrage in the military and intelligence communities.
Manning, who was born Bradley Manning, leaked thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks in 2010.
The 29-year-old private was sentenced to 35 years in 2013 for her role in leaking the cables to the online site. She will now be released on May 17, instead of her scheduled 2045 release.
At his final White House press conference on Wednesday Obama said he was “very comfortable that justice has been served and that a message has been sent.”
"The sentence she received was very disproportionate, relative to what other leakers had received,” he said.
Critics argued that Manning’s leak was among the largest breaches in U.S. history, with more than 700,000 pages of classified documents and some videos.
The documents included field reports from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and intelligence reports on detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It also included 250,000 diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies, containing frank, and in some cases embarrassing, assessments of other country’s leaders.
"Pardoning Manning is disgraceful," Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey told The Cipher Brief. "He was a soldier who violated his oath, endangered people and caused immense damages," he added.
Manning was charged with 22 offenses, including violations of the espionage act and the charge of aiding the enemy, which carried the death sentence. She was, however, acquitted of that charge.
Manning accepted responsibility for the leaks, but said she was facing gender identity disorder at the time, while deployed in Iraq.
She attempted suicide twice last year at the male military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she has been held. She also went on a hunger strike last year until the military agreed to provide her with gender-changing treatment.
Human rights groups and WikiLeaks have long campaigned for the commutation of Manning’s sentence. Last week, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange even vowed to accept extradition to the U.S. if President Obama granted clemency to Manning. Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since claiming asylum there in 2012. In the past, he said he feared that he would be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges if he left the embassy.
On Tuesday, WikiLeaks declared the commutation a victory on twitter, but it’s being met with harsh words and disapproval from the security communities, including Defense Secretary Ash Carter. "I did not support the direction the President went," Carter said in an interview with CNN. "That was not my recommendation,” he added.
Former CIA and NSA Director General Michael Hayden told The Cipher Brief that Manning’s commutation would have “repercussions throughout the intelligence community. And not good ones.”
“I was surprised more by how much he [President Obama] commuted it than the fact that he commuted it at all,” said Hayden. “That makes it a relatively short sentence for an incredibly serious breach of American security.”
Retired four-star General Jack Keane told The Cipher Brief the decision was a "profound act of irresponsibility by outgoing President Obama."
"Manning's act of treason by the document release exposed countless Afghans who worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan," said Keane.
Retired Lieutenant General Guy C. Swan III said he found the decision “outrageous” and “hard to understand.”
“This sets a very bad precedent for those who are in positions of trust and who are expected to safeguard our most classified information, some of which may involve the lives of U.S. personnel,” he said. “In an era when our entire governmental system is under constant cyber-attack, this only serves to dis-incentivize the efforts of dedicated professionals across all levels of government to guard that system.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who served in the U.S. Army from 2005 to 2009, blasted the decision in a statement released on Twitter saying, “We ought not treat a traitor like a martyr."
“When I was leading soldiers in Afghanistan, Private Manning was undermining us by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks,” he said. “I don't understand why the president would feel special compassion for someone who endangered the lives of our troops, diplomats, intelligence officers, and allies.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who served in the U.S. Air Force, condemned the move in a series of tweets, saying Manning “stabbed fellow service members in the back” and said the commutation was “a slap in the face by our Commander-in-Chief to those who served honorably.”
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement in which he said “Chelsea Manning's treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation's most sensitive secrets.”
Hints of clemency for Manning came from the White House on Friday, when White House spokesman Josh Earnest was asked if there was a possibility of her sentence being commuted or the contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked highly classified NSA documents to WikiLeaks, being pardoned before President Obama left office.
Earnest responded by saying there was a “pretty stark difference between Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.”
“Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.”
Leone Lakhani is executive producer and reporter at The Cipher Brief.
