Profile picture
American Values @Americas_Crimes
, 8 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
This week in 2013, the US government began its trial against the whistleblower Chelsea Manning after subjected her to 11 months of torture. Manning was charged with ‘aiding the enemy’ for leaking evidence of US atrocities, including major war crimes in Iraq & Afghanistan.
Following Manning’s leak of material to Wikileaks, the US arrested her & subjected her to what the UN described as 'cruel & inhumane' treatment, including being stripped naked & held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day under heavy surveillance. theguardian.com/world/2012/mar…
Manning said she leaked the material out of a deep sense of moral duty after realizing the US government was engaging in atrocities and lying about it. Journalist Glenn Greenwald describes Manning’s motivations from her statements in court in 2013:
Among the documents leaked by Manning were:
*files on torture of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay
*251,287 US diplomatic cables exposing corrupt dictatorships of Middle East, backed by the US
*400,000 Iraq War logs & 90,000 Afghan war logs documenting US war crimes
Also leaked were:
*a video of a 2007 Baghdad airstrike ("Collateral Murder" video), documenting US targeting of journalists & civilians, including children
*A 2nd video (never published), of the May 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan, which killed 97 civilians, mostly children
Manning’s leaks helped end the formal US occupation of Iraq by exposing US atrocities, making it politically impossible for the Iraqi gov to accept US demands that US troops have criminal immunity in Iraq, spurring Obama to pull US troops out.
After conviction, Manning’s imprisonment in a US military prison was so cruel--especially as a trans woman held in a men’s prison--that she attempted suicide multiple times & then was even punished for the suicide attempts. nytimes.com/2017/01/13/us/…
A grassroots campaign to free her from prison was ultimately successful, and she walked free in May of 2017. We should all honor her heroism & willingness to give up her life to expose US atrocities and the lies it told to cover them up.
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to American Values
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!