Bức ảnh chụp năm 2010, khi Bradley Manning giả nữ.
REUTERS/U.S. Army/Handout
Chỉ sau 1 ngày bị tuyên
án 35 năm tù, Bradley Manning tuyên bố: tôi là một phụ nữ!
Bradley
Manning: 'I Am Chelsea Manning. I Am Female
By Tim Molloy | The Wrap
A day after being
sentenced to 35 years in prison, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning announced in a
statement to "Today" that she identifies as female and wants to be
known as Chelsea Manning.
"I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy
as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this
transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my
new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the
confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from
supporters and having the opportunity to write back," said Manning.
On Tuesday, David Coombs, Manning's attorney, called on President Obama
to pardon Manning or commute her sentence to time served. It was
unclear whether Manning identifying as female would change the location
of her imprisonment.
During his trial, Manning's attorneys presented evidence that their
client struggled with gender identity disorder, a strong feeling of
being trapped in the body of the opposite gender. They presented
evidence of Manning's struggle that included a picture of the private in
a blond wig and lipstick (above).
Manning had argued in court that he was trying to inform the public
about military and government wrongdoing when he supplied WikiLeaks with
more than 700,000 pages of classified information in 2010, and did not
intend to aid the enemy.
Here is the full text of the letter:
Subject: The Next Stage of My Life
I want to thank everybody who has
supported me over the last three years. Throughout this long ordeal,
your letters of support and encouragement have helped keep me strong. I
am forever indebted to those who wrote to me, made a donation to my
defense fund , or came to watch a portion of the trial. I would
especially like to thank Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network for their tireless efforts in raising awareness for my case and providing for my legal representation.
As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning.
I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since
childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope
that you will support me in this transition. I also request that,
starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine
pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look
forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity
to write back.
Thank you,
Chelsea E. Manning
Lính Mỹ lộ bí mật cho WikiLeaks lĩnh án 35 năm tù
Binh nhất Bradley Manning hôm qua bị tuyên án 35 năm tù vì tội gián
điệp và nhiều tội danh khác, sau khi gây ra vụ rò rỉ tài liệu mật lớn
nhất lịch sử nước Mỹ.
 |
Theo AFP,
thẩm phán, đại tá quân đội Denise Lind là người tuyên bản án trên tại
một tòa án quân sự ở Fort Meade, bang Maryland. Binh sĩ 25 tuổi cũng sẽ
bị mất lương và các lợi ích khác, đồng thời bị hạ cấp.
Các
công tố viên đã yêu cầu thẩm phán giam Manning 60 năm như một hình thức
cảnh cáo đến những người đang có ý định làm rò rỉ các tài liệu mật khác
của chính phủ. Tuy nhiên, luật sư biện hộ của Manning đã yêu cầu tòa án
khoan hồng cho binh sĩ này, viện dẫn thái độ ăn năn và tinh thần hợp
tác của thân chủ.
Tháng trước,
Manning đối mặt với tối đa 90 năm tù sau khi bị kết án các tội danh gián
điệp, trộm cắp và lừa đảo. Manning đã thừa nhận 20 trong số 22 tội danh
bị cáo buộc.
Binh sĩ này đã dùng tư
cách phân tích viên tình báo cấp dưới ở Iraq để thu thập 700.000 tài
liệu quân sự và ngoại giao mật rồi trao cho WikiLeaks, để trang này công
khai và dẫn đến vụ rò rỉ tài liệu mật lớn nhất trong lịch sử Mỹ.
Manning
bị bắt vào năm 2010 và bị giam giữ kể từ đó đến nay. Binh nhất này được
những người ủng hộ ca tụng là anh hùng và được hơn 100.000 người ký đơn
đề cử trao giải Nobel Hòa bình. Tuy nhiên, chính phủ Mỹ mô tả Manning
là một kẻ phản bội liều lĩnh, người đã có những hành động gây nguy hại
cho quốc gia.
Trong phiên xét xử hồi
giữa tháng, Manning cũng lên tiếng xin lỗi và thừa nhận “đã làm tổn
thương nhiều người, làm tổn thương nước Mỹ”. “Tôi muốn đi tiếp. Tôi hiểu
rằng tôi phải trả giá”, binh sĩ này nói.
Bản
án dành cho Manning được đưa ra trong bối cảnh Edward Snowden, một "kẻ
phản bội nước Mỹ" khác, đang tị nạn tại Nga. Snowden được cho phép tị
nạn sau 5 tuần lưu lại khu vực quá cảnh tại một sân bay ở Moscow. Trước
đó, người này làm lộ chương trình theo dõi bí mật của chính phủ Mỹ, kéo
theo căng thẳng ngoại giao giữa cường quốc số một thế giới với nhiều
nước liên quan.
Anh NgọcManning sentenced to 35 years in WikiLeaks case
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was
sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison for giving hundreds of
thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in
one of the biggest leak cases in the U.S. since the Pentagon Papers a
generation ago.
Flanked by his
lawyers, Manning, 25, stood at attention in his dress uniform and showed
no reaction as military judge Col. Denise Lind announced the punishment
without explanation during a brief hearing.
Among the spectators, there was a
gasp, and one woman buried her face in her hands. Guards hurried Manning
out of the courtroom as about a half-dozen supporters shouted from the
back: "We'll keep fighting for you, Bradley!" and "You're our hero!"
With
good behavior and credit for the more than three years he has been
held, Manning could be out in about 6 ½ years, according to his defense
attorney David Coombs.
Coombs told a press conference at a nearby
hotel that early next week he'll file, through the Army, a request that
the president pardon the soldier "or at the very least commute" the
sentence to time already served.
"The time to end Brad's suffering
is now," Coombs said. "The time for our president to focus on
protecting whistleblowers instead of punishing them is now."
The
former intelligence analyst was found guilty last month of 20 crimes,
including six violations of the Espionage Act, as part of the Obama
administration's unprecedented crackdown on media leaks.
He was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, which carried a potential life in prison without parole.
Manning
could have gotten 90 years behind bars. Prosecutors asked for at least
60 as a warning to other soldiers, while Manning's lawyer suggested he
get no more than 25, because some of the documents he leaked will be
declassified by then.
He will have to serve at least one-third of
his sentence before he is eligible for parole. He was also demoted to
private and dishonorably discharged.
There was no immediate word
from Manning's mother in Wales, who was reported to be in poor health,
but the soldier's uncle, who is also Welsh, deplored the sentence.
"I
hope it will be reduced," Kevin Fox told BBC television. "To be honest,
he shouldn't have been given any time at all. In my eyes, he is a
hero."
Prosecutors had no immediate comment, while the American
Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and other activists decried
the punishment.
"When a soldier who shared information with the
press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured
prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our
justice system," said Ben Wizner, head of the ACLU's speech and
technology project.
In a statement, WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange, who has taken refuge at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London,
decried Manning's trial and conviction as "an affront to basic concepts
of Western justice."
But he called the sentence a "significant strategic victory" because Manning could be out in less than nine years.
Gabriel
Schoenfeld, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute think
tank and author of the book "Necessary Secrets," welcomed Manning's
punishment.
"The sentence is a tragedy for Bradley Manning, but it
is one he brought upon himself," he said. "It will certainly serve to
bolster deterrence against other potential leakers."
But he also
warned that the sentence will ensure that Edward Snowden, the National
Security Agency leaker who has taken refuge in Russia, "will do his best
never to return to the United States and face a trial and stiff
sentence."
Manning digitally copied and released more than 700,000
documents, including Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State
Department cables, while working in 2010 in Iraq.
The Crescent,
Okla., native also leaked video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in
Baghdad that mistakenly killed at least nine people, including a Reuters
photographer.
A potentially more explosive leak case unfolded as
Manning's court-martial was underway, when Snowden was charged with
espionage for exposing the NSA's Internet and telephone surveillance
programs.
At his trial, Manning said he gave the material to the
secrets-spilling website WikiLeaks to expose the U.S. military's
"bloodlust" and generate debate over the wars and U.S. policy.
During
the sentencing phase, he apologized for the damage he caused, saying,
"When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not
hurt people."
His
lawyers also argued that Manning suffered extreme inner turmoil over
his gender identity — his feeling that he was a woman trapped in a man's
body — while serving in the macho military during the "don't ask, don't
tell" era. Among the evidence was a photo of him in a blond wig and
lipstick.
Coombs argued that Manning had been full of youthful
idealism and "really, truly, genuinely believed that this information
could make a difference."
Prosecutors showed that al-Qaida used
material from the helicopter attack in a propaganda video and that Osama
bin Laden presumably read some of the leaked documents. Some of the
material was found in bin Laden's hideout after he was killed.
Also,
government witnesses testified the leaks endangered U.S. intelligence
sources, some of whom were moved to other countries for their safety.
And several ambassadors were recalled, expelled or reassigned because of
embarrassing disclosures.
The Obama administration has charged
seven people with leaking to the news media, while only three people
were prosecuted in all previous administrations combined.
Prosecutors
called Manning an anarchist and an attention-seeking traitor, while
supporters have hailed him as a whistleblower and likened him to Daniel
Ellsberg, the defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
The
secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam was released to The New
York Times and other newspapers in a case touched off an epic clash
between the Nixon administration and the press and led to a landmark
Supreme Court ruling on the First Amendment.
In a telephone
interview after Manning's sentencing, Ellsberg called the soldier "one
more casualty of a horrible, wrongful war that he tried to shorten."
"I think his example will always be an inspiration of civil and moral courage to truth tellers in the future," Ellsberg said.
http://news.yahoo.com/manning-sentenced-35-years-wikileaks-case-142355884.html
No comments:
Post a Comment