It’s a time-honored tradition in the groves of academe that the worst people in the country are honored with university appointments.
So right on schedule Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government awarded a prestigious visiting fellowship to Chelsea Manning, a traitor who should have been executed by firing squad.
Manning took to Twitter
But then something happened. Two days later Harvard responded to the resulting public uproar — including complaints from CIA Director Mike Pompeo — and rescinded the award. This kind of thing almost never happens. When universities shower tributes on the worst people they can find, typically reprobates and subversives, they usually ride out the backlash and refuse to give in. Not this time.
“I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility,” Douglas W. Elmendorf, the school’s dean, said in a prepared statement.
Whiny b*tch that he/she/it is, Manning took to Twitter to complain:
Poor thing.
Manning had his/her/its 35-year sentence commuted by President Obama shortly before he left office. He/she/it was released from prison May 17.
Manning, who leaked vast quantities of classified materials, was born male with the given name Bradley but now identifies as female, whatever that means.
Manning was convicted by court-martial on July 30, 2013, of 20 counts, including six violations of the Espionage Act, along with theft and computer fraud. As a clemency-sweetener, on Jan. 12 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange offered to allow himself to be extradited to the U.S. if President Obama ordered the release of Manning. It appears Assange is unwilling to honor his promise.
Manning’s actions constituted the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history.
The leaks began in 2010. Manning had access to classified databases after being assigned to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst. Among the leaked material were a quarter million U.S. diplomatic cables and almost a half million U.S. Army reports. Much of the material was published online by WikiLeaks.
During Manning’s trial, prosecutors said the leaks directly benefited al-Qaeda and that Osama bin Laden himself had pored over the purloined documents from his base in Abottabad, Pakistan.
That is why he/she/it is a hero/heroine to the Left.
