Convicted Leaker Chelsea Manning Tweets From Prison

Convicted traitor Chelsea Elizabeth Manning has a new Twitter account, and is tweeting from prison.

Manning, sentenced to 35 years and doing time in Fort Leavenworth for leaking massive amounts of classified government documents to Wikileaks, opened her Twitter account saying, "This is my new Twitter account," and added, "I'm hoping to stay connected w/ this account as much as poss., but would rather tweet about more meaningful things than not."

Bradley Edward Manning was serving in the Army as a PFC at the time of his arrest. After being sentenced in 2013, he announced he planned to change his name to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning and begin hormone treatments, The Wall Street Journal reported. He released a photo of himself in lipstick and a blonde wig.

Manning, 27, released about 700,000 documents to Wikileaks and could have been hit with an 80-year sentence, but will be eligible for parole in eight years, the Journal reported.

The Journal notes that Manning's Twitter posts immediately gained her thousands of followers.

Posting as ChelseaManning@xychelsea, Manning tweeted: "Tweeting from prison reqs a lot of effort and using a voice phone to dictate," and followed that with, "It will be hard, but I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street/conversation."

"Starting with a shout out to the friends who have always stood by me @ggreenwald @amnesty @carwinb @savemanning and so many others #thankyou," Manning tweeted, followed by, "Also for those of you asking: @fitzgibbonmedia is handling my account for the time being."

She promised, "For those of you asking: I plan to tweet as freq. as possible; daily to weekly," her Twitter account states.

It's not the first time Manning has communicated from prison. She has authored opinion columns that have appeared in The Guardian, most recently on March 9, with one calling for prosecution of CIA agents and others involved in torture in Iraq, her supporters' website notes.

In February, Manning began receiving court-ordered hormone therapy treatment, the first time the military has administered such treatments because transgender people are not allowed to enlist, Manning's website reported.

The website says, "Now, with her new Twitter account, you can hear updates from our heroic Wikileaks whistleblower on a more regular basis."

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