Who is Chelsea Manning and why was she jailed?
A former US Army intelligence analyst once based in Iraq, Chelsea Manning is America's most famous convicted leaker of government secrets
EX-ARMY intelligence analyst and WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning has again been released from prison.
Here, we look at the rollercoaster battle of Manning, who was convicted of leaking secret documents in 2013 but then had her sentence commuted by former US President Barack Obama.
Who is Chelsea Manning?
Chelsea Manning, 32, is a former intelligence analyst who was last year incarcerated for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.
Manning said she opposed the grand jury system on general principle and would rather starve to death than testify.
A year later, on March 12, US District Judge Anthony Trenga ordered Manning's release from her second bout in jail after prosecutors reported that the grand jury which subpoenaed her has disbanded.
The Alexandria sheriff's office in Virginia confirmed Thursday night that Manning had been released.
She had originally served seven years in a military prison for leaking a trove of documents to WikiLeaks.
What information did Chelsea Manning leak to WikiLeaks?
Manning first made contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in January 2010 - but the pair have never met.
The whistleblower leaked more than 700,000 classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This included 251,287 diplomatic cables from foreign embassies and 482,232 Army reports.
The leak contained a July 2007 video clip of a US helicopter crew killing 12 people including Saeed Chmagh and Namir Nour-Eldeen, who were Iraqi journalists with the Reuters news agency.
After the lead helicopter opens fire, one of the crew is heard to say: "Hahaha. I hit 'em."
One of the cables revealed then UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband helped the US avoid a ban on cluster bombs.
Another report exposed how American troops executed 10 Iraqi civilians including an infant and 70-year-old woman before calling an air strike to destroy the evidence.
Manning eventually confided in Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance, about leaking the documents.
Within weeks of Lamo informing United States Army Counterintelligence, Manning was arrested near Baghdad, thrown into a military prison and held behind bars for three years until her trial in 2013.
When was Chelsea Manning jailed?
Manning was charged with 22 offences, of which she pleaded guilty to ten.
In 2013, her court-martial began and she was imprisoned after eventually being found guilty on 20 counts.
This included violations of the Espionage Act, but she was acquitted of aiding the enemy - a charge which can result in the death penalty.
A military judge sentenced her to 35 years' prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
In January 2017, however, President Obama announced Manning would have her sentence commuted, and she was released from prison in May that same year.
Fast forward to early 2019, and she was back behind bars serving an indefinite sentence.
A federal judge caged her for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.
Federal prosecutors alleged in an unsealed court filing that Assange and Manning had reason to believe that leaking US military reports "would cause injury" to the country.
It followed the unsealing of an American indictment charging Assange with conspiring with Manning to gain access to a government computer as part of one of the largest compromises of classified information in US history.
British police arrested Assange at Washington's request after Ecuador revoked his seven-year asylum.
Prosecutors said US military reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq included information about the "identity and significance of local supporters of US and allied forces in Afghanistan."
When American forces raided the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was hiding out, for example, they found a letter that showed the Al Qaeda leader was interested in copies of Pentagon documents published on WikiLeaks, the prosecutors said.
Has she undergone gender reassignment surgery?
The day after her initial sentencing in 2013, Manning said she wanted to be known as Chelsea, and was to begin transitioning into a woman.
But she had to fight the Army to undergo the process of gender transition.
Years later, a thrilled Manning posted a pic on Twitter in October 2018, showing her recovering in a hospital bed after undergoing gender reassignment operation.
Manning explained: "After almost a decade of fighting - thru prison, the courts, a hunger strike, and thru the insurance company - I finally got surgery. [sic]"
Who are Chelsea Manning's family?
Chelsea Manning was born Bradley in Oklahoma City in 1987.
Although she was born in the US, she has a Welsh-Irish family.
Her mum is Susan Manning (nee Fox) who, according to the , hails from Haverfordwest in Wales after her grandad, Billy Fox, moved there from Rathmines in Dublin during the 1940s.
Her American dad is Brian Manning, who served the US Navy as an intelligence analyst.
During Manning's WikiLeaks trial, the court heard that she was only fed milk and baby food until the age of two, and that she showed signs of foetal alcohol syndrome.
After her parents divorced during her teens she moved to Wales with her mum - and she was reportedly relentlessly bullied for her foreign accent and feminine personality.
Manning then returned to the US in 2005, aged 17, and began living as an openly gay man.
She lived with her dad and stepmum before moving in with a friend and finally with her aunt in Maryland.
Manning spent one semester at university and worked numerous low-paid jobs before enlisting in the US Army in 2007.
In 2009, Manning was deployed to a base near Baghdad, where she worked as an intelligence analyst.
