In the world of liberalism, a leaker of America’s most prized top military security secrets is typically hailed as a hero who deserves national acclaim. This may have been one of many reasons why Chelsea Manning, whose 30-year conviction had the sentence commuted by President Barack Obama before he exited his office, got a prestigious fellowship offer from Harvard University. But, something went very wrong and very quickly for the alleged whistleblower this week.
The ink was barely dry on the written offer to Manning when righteous criticism poured down on the university. It had announced Wednesday that Manning would be a visiting fellow for the 2017-18 academic year. The wrathful criticism came quickly from current CIA Director Mike Pompeo as well as from former acting CIA chief and deputy director Michael Morell, a senior fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, reported UPI.
It seems that unlike the Obama administration with its penchant for looking the other way when it comes to leaking information on President Trump, and officials connected to his administration as well as non-government officials, this leaker was not going to get away with a paid free ride.
Harvard Kennedy School of Government Dean Douglas Elmendorf announced Friday that Manning’s fellowship, which had been celebrated in a statement two days earlier, had now been rescinded. Perhaps, their political correctness efforts were not as welcomed as he and the university had previously thought.
The Harvard dean apologetically stated, “We invited Chelsea Manning because the Kennedy School’s longstanding approach to visiting speakers is to invite some people who have significantly influenced events in the world, even if they do not share our values and even if their actions or words are abhorrent to some members of our community.”
Well, inviting possible national traitors to influence the minds of university students gives implied consent to their previous actions, which in the case of Manning was abhorrent. He was a convicted traitor and for some insane reason he and the university thought this was somehow legitimately alright.
It certainly was justifiably not alright with Morrell. Morell wrote in his resignation letter to Harvard, “Unfortunately, I cannot be part of an organization — the Kennedy School — that honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.” In addition, later on Thursday, CIA Director Pompeo canceled a scheduled appearance at Harvard for the same exact reason.
The damage done by Manning’s leaks is still being measured by many U.S. intelligence community officials as well as those in the diplomatic corps. The secret deliberations of U.S. government officials compromised U.S. government activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Harvard officials should have known better than to invite this criminal to an institution of higher education. Yet, maybe they knew and simply rolled the dice in the hope that no one would notice.
Image: Excerpted from: Katy Blackwood, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49754936
