Chelsea Manning: "People" Not "Statistics" Compelled Leaks

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U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who leaked classified information about the war in Iraq to the public, has given her first interview since being released from prison.

The former intelligence analyst and whistleblower was pardoned by President Obama before he left office.

In her first interview since her release, with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the transgender soldier says she felt a “responsibility to the public” to act the way she did.

Manning blew the whistle on the questionable activity of the U.S. Army in Iraq and the casual way people were being gunned down by Apache helicopters based on orders from a faceless and heartless chain of command.

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Her actions deemed treacherous by many actually saved America’s face in that part of the world for the time being.

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Manning was convicted by court-martial in the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history and served seven years behind bars.

By Andrea Germanos:

U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning has given her first interview since being released from prison last month in which she explains her motivations for making public thousands of military documents.

Excerpts of her interview with ABC’s “Nightline” co-anchor Juju Chang aired Friday on the network’s “Good Morning America.”

Asked about why she leaked the trove of documents, she says, “I have a responsibility to the public … we all have a responsibility.”

“We’re getting all this information from all these different sources and it’s just death, destruction, mayhem.”

“We’re filtering it all through facts, statistics, reports, dates, times, locations, and eventually, you just stop,” she adds. “I stopped seeing just statistics and information, and I started seeing people.”

Asked by Hing what she would tell President Obama, Manning, choking up, says, “I’ve been given a chance,” she says. “That’s all I asked for was a chance.”