After years of inhumane treatment, and having been held in conditions that the UN considers to be torture, Chelsea Manning, the Guardian columnist and whistleblower who has been in prison for years serving a 35-year sentence for exposing some of the U.S. government's worst abuses, attempted to take her own life on July 5th, 2016. Now, Army officials have informed her that she is facing serious new charges directly related to her suicide attempt. These new charges include:
1) Resisting a group of prison guards called "the force cell move team." (Chelsea was unconscious when this team arrived, which makes this charge particularly absurd.) 2) Prohibited property. (For the items she used to attempt to take her own life.) 3) Conduct which threatens. (For somehow putting the prison at risk while attempting to take her own life, quietly, in her own cell.)
Well, I rapped upon a house With the U.S. flag upon display I said, "Could you help me out I got some friends down the way" The man says, "Get out of here I'll tear you limb from limb" I said, "You know they refused Jesus, too" He said, "You’re not Him." -- Bob Dylan ACLU Press Release Fight for the Future Press Release If convicted of these bizarre "administrative offenses," she is facing indefinite solitary confinement for the rest of her prison term (another 30 years). Chelsea is being denied medical treatment for her gender dysphoria, which experts have stated is the only course of treatment through which she would no longer be suicidal.