Published 21:05 IST, May 11th 2019
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning meets her dog first after being released from jail in WikiLeaks case
"Hey Doggo" were Chelsea Manning's first words after being freed from jail after spending 62 days for refusing to testify to the grand jury about Julian Assange's Wikileaks.
- World News
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"Hey Doggo" were Chelsea Manning's first words after being freed from jail after spending 62 days for refusing to testify to the grand jury about Julian Assange's Wikileaks.
The former US military intelligence analyst and whistleblower spent her time in custodial jail in United States' Virginia for not testifying about her revelations of military and diplomatic secrets to WikiLeaks in 2010.
Her leak years earlier of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made her a hero to anti-war and anti-secrecy activists, and her actions helped make WikiLeaks a force in the global anti-secrecy movement.
Following her release Manning announced the Twitter-verse than she is back online, but there is "still a long fight ahead." She shared a video in which she could be seen getting inside the car and saying hello to her dog.
A judge in March ruled Manning in contempt of court and ordered her held not as punishment but to force her testimony in the secret case, a spokesman for the US attorney in the Alexandria, Virginia federal court, just outside Washington, said at the time.
"Chelsea will continue to refuse to answer questions." Manning has previously said she had "ethical" objections to the grand jury system and had answered all questions about her involvement with WikiLeaks years ago.
Manning was ordered to testify earlier this year for an investigation examining actions by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2010, according to her own description, inadvertent court revelations and media reports.
At the time Manning, a transgender woman then known as Bradley Manning, was a military intelligence analyst.
She delivered more than 700,000 classified documents into WikiLeaks's hands. The documents exposed cover-ups of possible war crimes and revealed internal US communications about other countries.
Sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in prison, she was released in May 2017 after the commutation of her sentence by president Barack Obama
Meanwhile, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is fighting a legal battle, he has a massive support group in the world fighting for his release on the grounds of 'Press Freedom' lauding the whistleblower for divulging the war-crimes of United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He told the British High Court, "I do not wish to surrender for extradition. I’m a journalist winning many, many awards and protecting many people."
United States alleges that Assange conspired by Manning to access classified documents on the Department of Defence computers.
Ever since its launch in 2006, Wikileaks has published thousands of classified documents, disclosing the details from national security, war, politics to the film industry.
The documents include intercepter pager messages that were sent during 9/11 terror attack, democrat emails, Iran war logs, Afghan war details and even released documents from movie studio Sony Pictures revealing the pay-gap between male and female stars.
(With PTI inputs)
Updated 21:20 IST, May 11th 2019