Chelsea Manning and Hillary Clinton: A Case of Double Standards

Chelsea Manning, the former US Army intelligence officer behind the one of biggest leaks of diplomatic and other sensitive (i.e. embarrassing) material in American history, is facing indefinite solitary confinement at the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, brig where she is serving a 35-year sentence. Formerly known as Bradley Manning, before her decision to go transgender, Chelsea is charged with four “crimes”:

• Sweeping food off a table at dinnertime that “almost” hit a correctional officer.
• Asking to see her lawyer after being approached by said correctional officer.
• Having a copy of the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair, along with other “forbidden” books dealing with transgender issues.
• Having a tube of toothpaste inside her cell that was past its expiration date of April 9, 2015.

While this last infraction surely is heinous, the other three seem like pure harassment. Sweeping food off a table hardly seems like a very big deal. And what about the “forbidden” reading material, which, in addition to Vanity Fair, apparently consisted of I Am Malala by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, a novel entitled A Safe Girl to Love, Out Magazine, an issue of Cosmopolitan that featured an interview with Manning, and the US Senate report on torture?

Okay, so Cosmo‘s “20 Meanest Things Celebrities Have Said About the Kardashians” is a bit on the subversive side, but hey, if we start censoring ourselves doesn’t this mean that The Terrorists will have won?

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