Chelsea Manning, the transgender army private jailed for one of the largest leaks of classified documents in US history, said Tuesday she can finally imagine a future for herself, as she prepares to walk free.
Manning had served seven years of a 35-year stretch when outgoing president Barack Obama commuted her sentence earlier this year. She is due to be released next week from the all-men's jail where she was incarcerated, although a precise date has yet to be given.
"For the first time, I can see a future for myself as Chelsea. I can imagine surviving and living as the person who I am and can finally be in the outside world," said the 29-year-old, who still identified as male when she was arrested.
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Manning twice attempted suicide in jail, where she was often kept in solitary confinement after being sentenced in 2013 for passing more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which released them in collaboration with international news organizations.
"I am forever grateful to the people who kept me alive, President Obama, my legal team, and countless supporters," she said in a statement.
"Freedom used to be something that I dreamed of but never allowed myself to fully imagine.
"Now, freedom is something that I will again experience with friends and loved ones after nearly seven years of bars and cement, of periods of solitary confinement, and of my health care and autonomy restricted, including through routinely forced haircuts."
International furor
Originally named Bradley, Manning became a hero to anti-war activists and a villain to government officials outraged over her leaking of classified files.
Three days before leaving office in January, then-president Obama slashed Manning's sentence by 28 years after more than 115,000 people signed a petition calling for her release.
Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union which lobbied on Manning's behalf, said that "like far too many people in prison, particularly transgender women, Chelsea Manning has had to survive unthinkable violence throughout the seven years of her incarceration."
Manning was an army intelligence analyst based in Baghdad in 2010 when she leaked the huge trove of files, which included footage of an Apache helicopter strike that killed two Iraqi journalists working for the British news agency Reuters.
The massive leak caused an international furor, exposing the private opinions of senior US diplomats and other top officials about Washington's allies and foes.
Manning was arrested after confessing her part in the leak to an online acquaintance, who alerted military authorities. She has been incarcerated in Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and her case sparked fresh controversy last year when she was put into an isolation cell as punishment for a suicide attempt. She said she attempted to kill herself a second time while in solitary confinement.
"The transition out of these horrific institutions will not be easy, and part of what we hope is that Chelsea will find the space, love, and support to heal and build a life of her choosing," the ACLU's Strangio said in a statement.
