Chelsea Manning, the former US intelligence analyst who leaked hundreds of thousands of state secrets to Wikileaks and served seven years in Fort Leavenworth, hung up on the dean of Harvard for revoking the invitation to be a visiting fellow at the prestigious university.
The Guardian reports:
Manning’s ended the conversation on Thursday as the dean, Douglas Elmendorf, tried to justify to her his decision to cancel the fellowship only a day after it had been announced. The dean had said he needed to talk to Manning “urgently” after CIA figures first raised their objection to Harvard offering the whistleblower a place among its 2017-18 visiting speaker program – raising the prospect that one of America’s most prestigious academic institutions had kowtowed to pressure from the intelligence services.
Manning’s invitation to address students of the school’s Institute of Politics was denounced by Mike Pompeo, the CIA director who cancelled an appearance at Harvard on Thursday, and by former deputy director of the agency Mike Morell, who resigned his own visiting fellowship in protest at what the two men described as the honoring of a “traitor”.
Details of the phone call were shared with the Guardian by a source who was present at the time of the conversation. Manning had just stepped off stage in San Francisco where she was receiving a global freedom of information award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Chelsea lashed out at Harvard for pulling her invitation to address students by likening it to a “military/police/intel state … the CIA determines what is and is not taught at Harvard”.
this is what a military/police/intel state looks like 🕵️🕵️♀️ the @cia determines what is and is not taught at @harvard 😎🌈💕 #WeGotThis https://t.co/09xIJGlhgf
— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) September 15, 2017
She also compared her experiences with former White House Spokesman Sean Spicer and Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
so @harvard says @seanspicer & @Clewandowski_ bring “something to the table and add something to the conversation” and not me 😎🌈💕 #WeGotThis
— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) September 15, 2017
Elmendorf alienated the Manning team by responding that Spicer and Lewandowski “brought something to the table” and could teach the Harvard audience something.
In her statement Manning said Harvard is an institution tainted with blood of its victims.
Thoughts on Harvard's cowardly & disgraceful decision to withdraw @xychelsea's fellowship. pic.twitter.com/Exxf1uCWBS
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) September 15, 2017
this is what a military/police/intel state looks like 🕵️🕵️♀️ the @cia determines what is and is not taught at @harvard 😎🌈💕 #WeGotThis https://t.co/09xIJGlhgf
— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) September 15, 2017
The Guardian continued:
In his letter of resignation as a senior fellow at Harvard, Morell said that “senior leaders in our military have stated publicly that the leaks by Ms Manning put the lives of US soldiers at risk”. That was belied by the Pentagon’s own internal inquiry into the 2010 WikiLeaks disclosures that came from Manning that concluded that the leak had no strategic impact on the US war effort.
Elmendorf said that Harvard’s doors were still open to Manning who was welcome “to spend a day at the Kennedy school and speak”. Given the institution’s handling of affairs this week, the former soldier is unlikely to respond favorably.
In his letter of resignation as a senior fellow at Harvard, Morell said that “senior leaders in our military have stated publicly that the leaks by Ms Manning put the lives of US soldiers at risk”. That was belied by the Pentagon’s own internal inquiry into the 2010 WikiLeaks disclosures that came from Manning that concluded that the leak had no strategic impact on the US war effort.
Former CIA Deputy Director @MichaelJMorell resigns as Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy school over their hiring of Chelsea Manning pic.twitter.com/JORdp4ysHR
— Mosheh Oinounou (@Mosheh) September 14, 2017
The Federalist staff writer Bre Payton and TheBlaze TV host Lawrence Jones on the fallout from Harvard inviting Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow and then withdrawing the offer.