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Privacy Rights in the Digital Age, 2nd Edition

Manning, Chelsea Elizabeth

by Rachel Jorgensen

Identification: Was born in Oklahoma on December 17, 1987 to Susan Fox and Brian Manning.

Chelsea Manning was biologically male at birth and was named Bradley Edward Manning. In 2011, Bradley Manning officially changed his gender to female and adopted the name of Chelsea Elizabeth Manning. Ms. Manning’s parents divorced in 2000; in 2001 Ms. Manning moved with her mother to Haverfordwest, Wales, United Kingdom. In 2005 Ms. Manning returned to the United States, where she moved in with her father who was living in Oklahoma City with his second wife and child. In September, 2007 Ms. Manning enlisted into the United States Army. Before finishing basic training, Ms. Manning was referred to the discharge unit, but was eventually returned to basic training and graduated the following year. After basic training, Ms. Manning was assigned as an intelligence analyst and rose to the rank of private first class (PFC). As an analyst she received Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance and had access to SIPRNet (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network).

In 2009, Ms. Manning was deployed to Iraq. From 2009 to 2010, Ms. Manning began accessing and downloading classified and sensitive materials from SIPRNet and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. Ms. Manning was arrested in early 2010 and charged under article 92, Failure to Obey Order or Regulation, and article 134, a general article for misconduct, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) on May 29, 2010. The details of the charges made under article 134 include unauthorized possession and dissemination of classified materials to an authorized person, including a video of a military operation that took place in Baghdad in 2007. At the time of the charge, it was reported that PFC Manning had leaked nearly 250,000 classified documents and communications to Wikileaks. Wikileaks did not recognize PFC Manning as the source of the leaked materials. However, the hacker Adrian Lamo, who had had extensive communications through chat and email with PFC Manning, and was the person who notified the Army of PFC Manning’s actions, has stated the PFC Manning divulged to Mr. Lamo that he had been the source of the leaks.

Ms. Manning’s court martial began in June, 2013. In July, 2013 she was convicted on 20 out of the 22 individual charges, including espionage, and for copying and disseminating confidential and secret documents, but she was acquitted of aiding the enemy. She was sentenced to 35 years in military prison, but will be eligible for parole after serving 7 to 10 years of her sentence. At the time of her sentencing, many argued that Ms. Manning’s sentence was harsh, in light of the fact that Ms. Manning’s actions were not driven by espionage, but rather by his desire to inform the public of the government’s actions.

While she was incarcerated, Ms. Manning became a symbol of the controversies surrounding the government’s collection of data, secrecy, and the public’s right to access of information. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, stated that “Mr. Manning’s treatment was intended to send a signal to people of conscious in the US government who might seek to bring wrongdoing to light . . . the Obama administration is demonstrating that there is no place in the system for people of conscious and principle.” Many of Ms. Manning’s supporters argued that she was a whistleblower who had been unjustly convicted and who suffered mistreatment while in custody. The government maintained its argument that the sentence imposed on Ms. Manning was insufficient, considering the egregiousness of PFC Manning’s actions and the harm it caused to the United States. Ms. Manning’s lawyers petitioned for commutation in November, 2016. On January 19, 2017 President Barack Obama granted a commutation; Ms. Manning was released from prison on May 17, 2017.

Further Reading

1 

Fishman, Steve. “Bradley Manning’s Army of One.” New York. July 3, 2011. http://nymag.com/news/features/bradley-manning-2011-7/

2 

Maxwell, Lida. “Truth in Public: Chelsea Manning, Gender Identity, and the Politics of Truth-Telling.” Theory & Event 18, no. 1 (2015) https://muse.jhu.edu/

3 

Poulsen, Kevin and Kim Zetter. “U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe.” Wired. June 6, 2010. http://www.wired.com/2010/06/leak/

4 

Rothe, Dawn L., and Kevin F. Steinmetz. “The Case of Bradley Manning: State Victimization, Realpolitik and WikiLeaks.” Contemporary Justice Review 16, no. 2 (June 2013): 280-292.

5 

Sangarasivam, Yamuna. “Cyber Rebellion: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Struggle to Break the Power of Secrecy in the Global War on Terror.” Perspectives On Global Development & Technology 12, no. 1/2 (January 2013): 69-79.

6 

Shaer, Matthew. “The Long, Lonely Road of Chelsea Manning.” New York Times. June 12, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/magazine/the-long-lonely-road-of-chelsea-manning.html

7 

True, Michael. „The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story Behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower.” International Journal On World Peace 31, no. 3 (September 2014): 84-87

See also: Assange, Julian; WikiLeaks

Citation Types

MLA 9th
Jorgensen, Rachel. "Manning, Chelsea Elizabeth." Privacy Rights in the Digital Age, 2nd Edition, edited by Jane E. Kirtley & Michael Shally-Jensen, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=PRDA2e_0146.
APA 7th
Jorgensen, R. (2019). Manning, Chelsea Elizabeth. In J. E. Kirtley & M. Shally-Jensen (Eds.), Privacy Rights in the Digital Age, 2nd Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Jorgensen, Rachel. "Manning, Chelsea Elizabeth." Edited by Jane E. Kirtley & Michael Shally-Jensen. Privacy Rights in the Digital Age, 2nd Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2019. Accessed May 30, 2026. online.salempress.com.