December, 17 2015, 08:45am EDT
Chelsea Manning Turns 28 in Military Prison
Chelsea Manning turns 28 in military prison, supporters mobilize to celebrate heroic WikiLeaks whistleblower’s birthday Fight for the Future launches site to send Chelsea a flurry of birthday cards
WASHINGTON
Today is imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning's 28th birthday. She has been in prison since she was 22, and is serving a 35 year sentence for exposing some of the U.S. government's worst abuses.
To celebrate Chelsea's birthday and highlight the ongoing support for her fair treatment and release, Fight for the Future has launched a website that allows anyone to send Chelsea a physical birthday card with a customized message with just a few clicks.
See the website here: HappyBirthdayChelsea.com
"The world needs more people like Chelsea Manning who speak out when they see injustice and government abuse, that's why we're making sure she gets more birthday cards this year than ever before in her life," said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future. "The fact that Chelsea is spending her 28th birthday in a military prison where she is being denied basic health care and dignity is an indictment of the U.S. government's treatment of whistleblowers and human rights activists."
"Chelsea Manning is a brave woman who should not be in prison, and she deserves to have a happy birthday," added Jeff Lyon, Fight for the Future's CTO, who built the site in his spare time, "There are so many people all over the world who support her, I wanted to make it easier for them to send her some birthday wishes, so I made a page that makes sending her a real live birthday card as easy as sending an email."
Fight for the Future, a digital rights group best known for organizing massive online protests against SOPA, NSA surveillance, and for net neutrality, has been vocally supporting Manning over the past year and maintains the website FreeChelsea.com to run dedicated campaigns that help amplify Chelsea's voice as an advocate. In August, Fight for the Future and other groups delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures (PHOTOS) in support of Chelsea when she faced potential solitary confinement as part of ongoing harassment by military officials.
The group is also currently running a petition calling for members of Congress to read and consider a 129 page surveillance reform bill that Chelsea wrote while in prison.
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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