Free Republic

The Army says former private Chelsea Manning will lose her military healthcare benefits despite President Obama’s commutation of her prison sentence. “If Pvt. Manning is discharged with a dishonorable discharge, she will lose her entitlement to [military] benefits, including gender-transition care at [military] medical treatment facilities,” Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith told USA Today Wednesday. Smith said Manning’s dishonorable discharge was included in the terms of the 35-year prison sentence imposed on her in 2013. Manning was convicted of leaking classified information about U.S. national security activities that were later publicly disclosed by WikiLeaks. Smith said Manning could appeal her discharge...

Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Wednesday blasted President Obama's decision to commute former U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning’s 35-year prison sentence. “To commute Private Manning's sentence was a mistake," Pence said in a pre-recorded interview with Fox News that will be broadcast Wednesday evening. The vice president-elect echoed the words of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who on Tuesday said Obama treated "a traitor like a martyr.” "Private Manning is a traitor and should not have been turned into a martyr, as Senator Cotton said. Private Manning's actions compromised our national security, endangered American personnel downrange, compromised individuals in Afghanistan...