A dangerous precedent
Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence will have reverberations
In one of his final acts as president of the United States, Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning. The former Army intelligence analyst was convicted in 2010 of leaking secret documents. Mr Obama’s decision to release her later this year instead of in 2045 comes at a time of great uncertainty as to the role of whistle-blowers and how information is handled around the world. Hours after the US president made his decision, Russia said that it would extend the residency of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency employee who also leaked classified information.
Both moves appear to be sending the same message: if you break the law and leak classified information, you might not face the consequences. While Manning and Snowden stand by their actions as noble acts in the public interest, they don’t deny that they broke the law. Mr Obama has essentially adopted a similar perspective in Manning’s case and as such set a precedent that Donald Trump could expand.
Throughout the bitter presidential election, Mr Trump praised the work of WikiLeaks, the primary dissemination vehicle for Manning’s leaked material. WikiLeaks released the hacked emails of the Democratic National Committee and the emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief. In a recent press conference, Mr Trump said that it was “probably” Russia that obtained the emails through cyber espionage.
While this might sound like the plot of a John Le Carré spy thriller, this is the reality facing the United States. The incoming administration has already signalled that it wants traditional press to have a limited footprint in the White House. Mr Trump’s commitment to maintaining his private Twitter account, which is a repository for mild conspiracy theories and praise for WikiLeaks, demonstrates a fertile opportunity for leakers to exploit. We have entered uncharted waters where information is insecure and those who break secrecy laws are able to evade justice. Regardless of Mr Obama’s calculations, he has just opened the door for more high-profile leaks.