U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks, tried to commit suicide at a high-security military prison in Kansas where she’s incarcerated, according to news reports.
A prison spokesman refused to confirm the media reports, citing privacy laws, and would only say that officials “continue to monitor the inmate’s condition” after she was released from the hospital and returned to the barracks.
Chelsea Manning suspected of attempting suicide. Was taken to a hospital Tuesday from Fort Leavenworth, CNN.
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) July 6, 2016
In 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 charges related theft and espionage and was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison with the possibility of parole after serving eight years. At sentencing, she revealed that she had felt like a female since childhood and wanted to be known as Chelsea.
While a soldier in the Army, she illegally turned over 750,000 classified and unclassified documents to Wikileaks, including shocking videos of American-led airstrikes in Baghdad, Iraq, Afghanistan war logs, Diplomatic cables and Guantanamo Bay files.
Dubbed “Collateral Murder,” one of the Baghdad videos showed two American helicopters firing on a convoy of ten people, including two Reuters reporters, whose cameras were mistaken for guns.
The helicopters were also seen attacking a van that carried two children and their father, who was killed. The kids were wounded, but survived.
Most of the sensitive information was published on the Wikileaks website and in other media outlets with which it partnered.
Manning was finally undone after she confided in a friend, Adrian Lamo, who dropped a dime on her to Army Intelligence.
Here’s a look at some of the harsh punishments Manning endured for whistleblowing:



