Twenty-five year-old U.S. Army soldier Bradley Manning, who was sentenced this week to thirty five years imprisonment for leaking seven hundred fifty thousand pages of classified documents to an anti-secrecy group, said that he is Chelsea Manning and he is a female.
"Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible and I hope that you will support me in this transition," he said in his statement that was read on NBC's "Today" show.
An Army Intelligence analyst, Manning, digitally copied and caused the leakage of Afghanistan and Iraq battlefield reports while he was working in Iraq. There is also a possibility that he caused the release of a video of an attack in Baghdad by a 2007 Apache helicopter that erroneously killed at least nine people. Manning's intent in such leakage is to expose the U.S. military's "bloodlust" and initiate debate over U.S. policies on wars. Manning was seen by the government as a traitor who turned his back on his oath as a soldier in exchange of notoriety. He was found guilty for twenty crimes last month, which included six infractions of the Espionage Act. He was however acquitted of the charge "aiding the enemy", the most serious charge.
David Coombs, Manning's counsel, hopes that officials assigned at the Fort Leavenworth military prison will provide Manning the hormone therapy he needs for his transition. "I'm hoping Fort Leavenworth would do the right thing and provide that. If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are forced to do so," he told "Today".
Issues of Manning's sexuality repeatedly emerged in his court martial. A picture released by the military which showed him in a blonde wig circulated during the court martial. During the sentencing stage last week, Manning added that he was "dealing with a lot of issues" during the time he decided to give the documents to Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy group. The "issues" he was dealing with referred to his identity crisis.
The military judge who convicted Manning also demoted him from private first class to private and ordered him to forfeit pay and benefits and be dishonorably discharged.
© 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
