Exactly four years ago this morning, the espionage trial of (then Edward, now) Chelsea Manning began with opening arguments. By July of 2013, Sfc. Manning was convicted by court-martial of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly three-quarters of a million classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents.
Per WikiPedia, then -- a bit:
. . . .Reaction to Manning's disclosures, arrest, and sentence was mixed. Denver Nicks, one of Manning's biographers, writes that the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, and that Manning was viewed as both a 21st-century Tiananmen Square Tank Man -- and, as an embittered traitor [by many others]. . . .
The case, and Mr. Obama's commutation of her sentence -- raise morally complex, and nuanced issues -- and serve, at least for me, to remind that if one decides to look with clear, open eyes at any series of events -- especially with the benefit of hindsight, one may come to a less knee-jerk, black and white (parochially but falsely moralistic) conclusion.
It doesn't seem that four years have passed -- but they have. Now, to bend this back "on topic," do go read up on all that's happening in immuno-oncology at ASCO this weekend. I'm out -- for a day, and night -- of good fun now. [See last night's concluding 'graph.]
नमस्ते
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