The Chelsea Manning Support Network has just emailed us this latest update:
Chelsea’s board started at 9:30 am CST today. It is expected to take up
most of the day. (The board will give its decision at the end.)
As soon as we get a call from Chelsea, we will let you know the news. (It
will most likely be in the mid-late afternoon Central Standard Time.)
In a blog post that Fight for the Future released yesterday,
Chase Strangio, Chelsea’s ACLU attorney, explained that there is some
concern about whether she will even be able to call us after the hearing.
(This is because the board could decide to punish her with indefinite
solitary confinement, which could start immediately.)
Here are some references from the past week, in case your readers are just
catching up now:
1. Fight for the Future published a blog post yesterday (Wed, Sept 21, 2016), with links to the
Formal Charge Sheet ,
some Accompanying Documents, and
Policy Letter 16 (the
official Army document with the regulations Chelsea is being charged with
violating.
2. Vice published an in-depth piece
about Chelsea’s situation.
3. Feministing published an in-depth piece
4. Chelsea wrote a Guardian op-ed on Tuesday.
It detailed how painful the process of preparing for the board has been
this past week, by causing her to relive the experience over and over
again, as she writes up, and types up, the answers to all the required
questions. (She has been spending 1-3 hours a night in the library,
preparing, for over a week.
5. Please follow Chelsea on Twitter and
her support network on Twitter, and
also follow the support network’s Facebook page. You can also DM the support
network on Twitter.
6. Please sign the petition at FreeChelsea.com and write Chelsea directly
here
Thanks to Boing Boing for posting these updates all week.
– Chelsea Manning Support Network
(Image courtesy of the Chelsea Manning Support Network)