Chelsea Manning having troubles with military brig authorities
Ars Technica 2015-08-17
Chelsea Manning, serving a 35-year term for leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks, is having some run-ins with the authorities at the military brig at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
Supporters said Manning is to have an August 18 hearing over having unauthorized books and toothpaste and some minor scrapes with prison guards. The Chelsea Manning Support Network said the woman could be handed solitary confinement because of the infractions:
Chelsea faces this incomprehensibly severe punishment as a result of ridiculously innocuous institutional offenses, including the possession of books and magazines related to politics and LBGTQ issues (which she received openly via the prison mail system), and having a tube of toothpaste that was past its expiration date–deemed “medical mis-use”. The catalyst for this attack on Chelsea seems to have been an incident in the mess hall where she may have brushed, or accidentally knocked, a tiny amount of food off of her table. When aggressively confronted by a guard, she asked to speak to her lawyer.
The reading contraband, the support network said, included "a novel about transgender issues, the book 'Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy — The Many Faces of Anonymous,' the book 'I am Malala,' an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine containing an interview with Manning and the US Senate report on CIA torture."