Daniel Ellsberg's Statement in Support of Chelsea

Above: Daniel Ellsberg and Chelsea Manning at the 2018 EFF Pioneer Awards, in San Francisco, in September 2018. (Chelsea was one of the recipients of the 2017 EFF Pioneer Awards.)

“Chelsea Manning is again acting heroically in the name of press freedom, and it’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury. This grand jury investigation is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it. She has already suffered and spent many years in jail, including a year in solitary confinement.

She should be released immediately.

Although this time her incarceration is formally because of her principled refusal to cooperate with the grand jury, this is really just a continuation of seven-and-a-half years of punishment for her 2010 disclosures, much of it under conditions the UN considers tantamount to torture.

I admired her then. I admire her now. And right now she’s refusing to take part in basically a conspiracy against press freedom in this country, led by the president of the United States.”