NATION/WORLD
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Obama chops Manning’s term, 18 million more uninsured if
grants clemency to hundreds
Obamacare killed, not replaced
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— President Barack Obama
commuted
the
prison
sentence of Chelsea Manning
on Tuesday, allowing the
Army intelligence officer
who leaked scores of clas-
sified documents to go free
nearly three decades early.
Manning, who will leave
prison in May, was one of
209 inmates whose sentences
Obama was shortening, a list
that includes Puerto Rican
nationalist Oscar Lopez-Ri-
vera. Obama also pardoned
64 people, including retired
Gen. James Cartwright, who
was charged with making
false statements during a
probe into disclosure of
classified information.
“These 273 individuals
learned that our nation is
a forgiving nation,” said
White House counsel Neil
Eggleston, “where hard work
and a commitment to rehabil-
itation can lead to a second
chance, and where wrongs
from the past will not deprive
an individual of the opportu-
nity to move forward.”
The actions are perma-
nent, and can’t be undone
by President-elect Donald
Trump. White House offi-
cials said Obama would grant
clemency to more individuals
on Thursday — his final day
in office — but that batch
was not expected to include
prominent individuals like
Manning.
A former Army intel-
ligence analyst, Manning
has been serving a 35-year
sentence for leaking more
than 700,000 classified
government and military
documents to WikiLeaks,
along with some battlefield
video. She was convicted in
military court in 2013 of six
violations of the Espionage
Act and 14 other offenses
and has spent more than six
years behind bars. She asked
Obama last November to
commute her sentence to
time served.
Known
as
Bradley
Manning at the time of her
2010 arrest, Manning came
out as transgender after being
sentenced, and LGBT rights
groups took up her cause and
lobbied the president to grant
her clemency.
She was held at a men’s
prison in Fort Leaven-
worth, Kansas, and filed a
transgender prisoner rights
lawsuit, although the military
did approve gender-reassign-
ment hormone therapy.
She attempted suicide
twice last year, according to
her lawyers, citing her treat-
ment in prison. Manning has
acknowledged leaking the
documents, but has she did
it to raise public awareness
about the effects of war on
civilians.
White House officials said
the president was inclined to
grant clemency to Manning
because she had expressed
remorse for her crimes and
had served several years of
her sentence. The officials
briefed reporters on a confer-
ence call on condition of
anonymity.
“We are all better off
knowing
that
Chelsea
Manning will walk out of
prison a free woman, dedi-
cated to making the world
a better place and fighting
for justice for so many,”
said Chase Strangio, an
American Civil Liberties
Union attorney representing
Manning,
adding
that
Obama’s action could “quite
literally save Chelsea’s life.”
But Obama’s move was
panned by Manning’s critics,
including several prominent
Republicans. House Speaker
Paul Ryan called the move
“just outrageous.”
High profile clemencies, pardons:
The Obama administration on Tuesday shortened the
prison sentences of 209 people and granted pardons to
another 64.
High-profile names on the list include Army leaker
Chelsea Manning and the former vice chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. James Cartwright. The
majority of commutations focused on nonviolent drug
offenders.
Some of the notable individuals on the list, in addition
to Manning:
RETIRED GEN. JAMES CARTWRIGHT
The former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
pleaded guilty in October to making false statements
during an investigation into a leak of classified information
about a covert cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. His
plea ended a Justice Department investigation into a leak
regarding a computer virus called Stuxnet that disabled
equipment the Iranians were using to enrich uranium.
Cartwright, 67, falsely told investigators that he did not
provide or confirm classified information contained in a
news article and in a book by New York Times journalist
David Sanger, according to charging documents unsealed
by prosecutors.
He was pardoned.
OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA
The Puerto Rican nationalist was sentenced to 55 years
in prison for his role in the struggle for independence for
the U.S. island territory. Puerto Ricans have long called
for Lopez’s release, a move that has been opposed by a
national police organization, among others.
Lopez belonged to the ultranationalist Armed Forces of
National Liberation. The group has claimed responsibility
for more than 100 bombings at public and commercial
buildings in U.S. cities, including New York, Chicago and
Washington, during the 1970s and ‘80s.
Obama commuted the sentence of the 74-year-old.
ARBOLEDA A. ORTIZ
In a Missouri court in 2000 he was sentenced to die for
his role in a murder and in drug trafficking. He maintained
that officers who questioned him never told him he had a
right to an attorney or a right to remain silent. His attorneys
said he never learned to read or write in any language.
Obama commuted the death penalty punishment to
life imprisonment. Anti-death penalty advocates hailed
the decision, saying he was intellectually disabled and his
execution would therefore have been unconstitutional.
Bureau of Prisons records show Ortiz has been serving
his sentence at a high-security penitentiary in Terre Haute,
Indiana.
IAN SCHRAGER
A co-owner of the New York City nightclub Studio 54,
he was convicted of tax evasion. After serving time in a
jail, Schrager became a well-known hotelier.
Obama pardoned Schrager.
“Chelsea
Manning’s
treachery put American lives
at risk and exposed some of
our nation’s most sensitive
secrets,” said Ryan, R-Wis.
“President Obama now
leaves in place a dangerous
precedent that those who
compromise our national
security won’t be held
accountable for their crimes.”
The U.S. Army and the
Pentagon both declined to
comment on Obama’s deci-
sion.
Manning’s commutation
came as Obama, days before
leaving office, wielded
his clemency powers with
newfound vigor. Though
most of the beneficiaries were
low-level drug offenders or
little-known financial crimi-
nals, a few prominent names
made the list, too.
Cartwright, the former
vice chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff who received
a pardon, had pleaded
guilty in October to making
false statements during an
investigation into a leak of
classified information about
a covert cyberattack on Iran’s
nuclear facilities. Prosecu-
tors said Cartwright falsely
told investigators that he
did not provide information
contained in a news article
and in a book by New York
Times journalist David
Sanger, and said he also
misled prosecutors about
classified information shared
with another journalist,
Daniel Klaidman.
The Justice Department
sought a sentence of two
years, saying employees of
the U.S. government are
entrusted each day with
sensitive classified informa-
tion.
Puerto Ricans had long
demanded the release of
Lopez, who was sentenced to
55 years in prison for his role
in a violent struggle for inde-
pendence for the U.S. island
territory. Lopez had belonged
to the ultranationalist Armed
Forces of National Liber-
ation, which has claimed
responsibility for more than
100 bombings at public and
commercial buildings in U.S.
cities during the 1970s and
1980s.
Lopez’s term will now
expire in May.
Commutations
reduce
sentences being served but
don’t erase convictions.
Pardons generally restore
civil rights, such as voting,
often after a sentence has
been served.
It wasn’t immediately
clear what Obama’s commu-
tation for Manning would
mean for WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange, who had
earlier pledged that he would
agree to U.S. extradition if
Obama granted clemency to
Manning.
Holed up in the Ecua-
dorean embassy in London,
Assange had expressed
concern that if he left he would
be extradited to the U.S. to
face espionage charges. But
the Justice Department has
never publicly announced
any indictment against
Assange, who is also being
investigated by Sweden for a
possible sex crime.
White House officials
didn’t say Tuesday whether
there were sealed charges
against Assange, but insisted
his pledge to surrender to the
U.S. didn’t play into Obama’s
decision
to
commute
Manning’s sentence.
Melinda Taylor, who
serves on Assange’s legal
team, said he would not go
back on his word, though
she didn’t elaborate about
possible extradition.
BRIEFLY
Prosecutor:
Orlando gunman’s
widow knew
about the attack
OAKLAND, Calif.
(AP) — The widow of the
Orlando nightclub gunman
knew about the attack ahead
of time, prosecutors said
Tuesday as she appeared
in court to face charges
of aiding and abetting her
husband in the months
before the rampage last June
that left 49 people dead.
Noor Salman, 30, stood
before a federal judge
under tight security, looking
downcast and bewildered.
She did not enter a plea.
When she was led back to
jail, she locked eyes with her
tearful uncle.
“She knew he was going
to conduct the attack,”
federal prosecutor Roger
Handberg told the judge.
Handberg did not disclose
any more details and would
not comment after the
15-minute hearing, held in
a courtroom packed with
security officers.
Outside court, Salman’s
uncle Al Salman said his
niece was innocent and did
nothing to help her husband,
Omar Mateen, plan the June
12 attack on the Pulse, a gay
nightclub in Florida.
“She’s a very soft and
sweet girl,” Salman said.
“She would not hurt a fly.”
In an indictment unsealed
Tuesday, she was accused of
aiding and abetting Mateen
in providing material support
and resources to the Islamic
State group between April
and June of last year. She
was also charged with
obstruction, accused of
misleading and lying to
police and the FBI during
their investigation.
The charges that Salmon
face carry a punishment of
life in prison.
Premiums would also rise under
Republican bill to scuttle ACA
WASHINGTON (AP) — Insurance
premiums would soar for millions of Ameri-
cans and 18 million more would be uninsured
in just one year if Republicans scuttle much
of President Barack Obama’s health care
overhaul without a replacement, Congress’
budget analysts said Tuesday.
Spotlighting potential perils for Repub-
licans, the report immediately became a
flashing hazard light for this year’s effort by
Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers to annul
Obama’s law and — in a more complicated
challenge — institute their own alternative.
It also swiftly became political fodder
in what is expected to be one of this year’s
biggest battles in Congress.
Republicans have produced several
outlines for how they’d redraft Obama’s 2010
statute, but they’ve failed to unite behind
one plan. President-elect Trump and GOP
congressional leaders have at times offered
clashing descriptions of their shared top goal,
so eventual success is hardly guaranteed.
Tuesday’s evaluation came from the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,
joined by Congress’ Joint Committee on
Taxation.
Together, they analyzed a Republi-
can-written bill, vetoed by Obama last
January, that would have erased major
portions of his overhaul. Those included tax
penalties for people who fail to buy insurance
and for larger companies that don’t cover
workers, federal subsidies to help consumers
buy policies on the law’s online marketplaces
and an expansion of Medicaid coverage for
low-income people.
The new report said under such a
measure, premiums for individual policies
— excluding the coverage many workers
get from employers — would swell by up to
25 percent the first year after enactment and
double by 2026. The number of uninsured
would reach 32 million over the decade, the
analysts said.
However, Republicans say there’s a big
difference between that 2016 bill and this
year’s plan: Last year’s version would not
have replaced Obama’s statute with a GOP
alternative, while Republicans insist replace-
ment will be an integral part of their new
health care drive.
Citing that difference, Donald Stewart,
spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., said the report “assumes a
situation that simply doesn’t exist and that no
one in Congress advocates.” AshLee Strong,
spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., called the estimates “meaningless”
because they ignore plans for legislation and
regulatory actions by the incoming Trump
administration for revamping how people
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
In this Jan. 10 file photo, House
Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., accompa-
nied by House Majority Leader Kevin
McCarthy of Calif. leaves a news con-
ference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
could obtain coverage.
“Nonpartisan statistics don’t lie,”
countered Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., who said the report
showed Republican plans to void Obama’s
overhaul “will increase health care costs
for millions of Americans and kick millions
more off of their health insurance.” House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
said it illustrated that the GOP effort “will be
nothing less than a nightmare for the Amer-
ican people.”
Trump seemed to complicate the GOP
drive last weekend when he told The
Washington Post that a forthcoming Repub-
lican plan would provide “insurance for
everybody.” In contrast, some congressional
Republicans have described their goals more
modestly, saying they will offer “universal
access.”
In one sign of how GOP plans continue
proliferating, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine,
said she and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., are
planning legislation that would let states
retain coverage under Obama’s law or
choose different options.
The CBO analysis has particular weight
because Republicans have cited last year’s
bill as a starting point for their 2017 drive to
erase Obama’s law.
For Senate procedural reasons, that 2016
GOP bill also had to leave intact some
mandates that Obama’s law has imposed on
insurers. Those include requiring coverage
of certain services and barring insurers from
denying policies to sick people or charging
them higher rates.
Those same Senate procedures could
make it hard for Republicans to erase the
mandates this year, too. That would make
things tough for the GOP because those
insurance requirements tend to drive insurers’
costs higher, and leaving them in force while
other parts of Obama’s statute are erased
could wreak havoc on markets.
SMART is celebrating 25 years
of sparking a love of reading
in Oregon kids.
Since 1992, SMART (Start Making A
Reader Today) has been pairing adult
volunteers with PreK through
third-grade students across Oregon to
get them excited about books and
reading.
Join SMART’s statewide 25th
anniversary celebration by:
t4JHOJOHVQUPWPMVOUFFS
t.BLJOHBEPOBUJPOUPTVQQPSU4."35
in your local community
t1VSDIBTJOHPVSDIJMESFOTCPPL
Oregon Reads Aloud
Students served
Volunteers
Hours spent reading
Books given
www.getSMARToregon.org/25years
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