MANNING, Chelsea

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning is a former United States Army intelligence analyst who became one of the most prominent whistleblowers in American history by providing WikiLeaks with a massive trove of classified government documents in 2010. Her disclosures sparked global debates about government transparency, military conduct, and the treatment of whistleblowers.

Born Bradley Edward Manning, she enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2007 and was deployed to Iraq in 2009 as an intelligence analyst with access to classified computer networks. While stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer near Baghdad, Manning began downloading hundreds of thousands of classified documents from government databases.

Manning's most significant leaks included the "Collateral Murder" video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed several people including two Reuters journalists, the Iraq War logs documenting previously unreported civilian casualties, the Afghanistan War logs, and approximately 250,000 diplomatic cables revealing candid assessments of foreign governments and leaders.

In May 2010, Manning contacted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and began transmitting the classified materials. The documents were gradually released throughout 2010 and 2011, causing diplomatic embarrassment for the United States and providing unprecedented insight into American military operations and foreign policy.

Manning was arrested in May 2010 after confiding in former hacker Adrian Lamo, who reported the conversations to federal authorities. She was held in solitary confinement at the Quantico Marine Corps Base under conditions that human rights groups and supporters criticized as tantamount to torture.

In 2013, Manning was convicted by military court-martial of violations of the Espionage Act and other charges, receiving a 35-year prison sentence. During her incarceration, Manning publicly announced her gender transition and began hormone therapy, fighting legal battles for appropriate medical treatment and recognition of her gender identity.

In January 2017, President Barack Obama commuted Manning's sentence to time served, and she was released in May 2017 after serving seven years. Since her release, Manning has become an advocate for transgender rights and government transparency, though she briefly returned to jail in 2019 for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.