UPDATE: Convicted Spy Chelsea Manning Loses Harvard Fellowship – ‘It Was A Mistake’

by Margaret M. | September 15, 2017 4:17 pm

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A few hours ago, we wrote about Bradley Chelsea Manning’s appointment as a Visiting Fellow to Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Manning, whose 35-year prison sentence was commuted by Obama, was announced to be receiving the Fellowship on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, a former CIA deputy director and lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School resigned in protest, citing that Chelsea’s actions had put American lives in danger[2]. Manning had stolen top secret information and sent it to WikiLeaks and was convicted for espionage as a result.

Did I mention that while in prison, Bradley Manning decided he was a girl and now goes by Chelsea Manning and pitched a fit when she found out that the American government didn’t really feel like paying for her hormone treatment[3] while in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of top secret documents?

As well, the current CIA director canceled an appearance at the school for the same reason.

CIA Director Withdraws from Harvard Kennedy School Forum pic.twitter.com/N7YKyGy9H4[4]

— CIA (@CIA) September 15, 2017[5]

And then, this morning we find out that Chelsea’ invitation to be a Visiting Fellow has been revoked. I already made the joke once today about how Manning was probably insulted by the maleness of the term “Fellow,” so instead I’ll force you to suffer through photos of Manning’s Vogue photoshoot. Yeah. This is what Vogue spends their time on nowadays. They spoke fawningly of her:

“Her hair is trimmed into a pixie cut; her makeup softens, but won’t hide, a dust of freckles. “I don’t know if I’ll know anybody,” she fretted earlier, but she seems to have quelled what nerves remain. She is accompanied by a couple of men who surround her like guards. For the first time in a long time, that’s a welcome thing.”

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It’s bad enough that we have super-obese women posing as Sports Illustrated models[7], but this isn’t that much better in terms of showcasing the height of female elegance and beauty.

Back to to Fellowship.

The Dean of Harvard, Douglas W. Elmendorf said, in retracting his invitation, that the school “did not intend to honor her in any way or to endorse any of her words or deeds, as we do not honor or endorse any Fellow… I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake.”

“We are withdrawing the invitation to her to serve as a Visiting Fellow—and the perceived honor that it implies to some people—while maintaining the invitation for her to spend a day at the Kennedy School and speak in the Forum.”

So, they’re not handing over the fancy title, but she’s still going to be speaking. The lecturer who resigned isn’t coming back and the CIA director who is refusing to speak won’t change his mind either.