2LT National News

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia – On International Women’s Day former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been thrown back in jail indefinitely, for refusing to give evidence against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

U.S. Eastern District of Alexandria Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning be sent to jail immediately for contempt of court on Friday after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she would not answer questions. She told the judge she would “accept whatever you bring upon me.”

Manning objected to the secrecy of the grand jury process, and insisted she had previously revealed all that she knows at her court-martial.

The judge was unmoved and ordered the former Army private to stay in jail until she agrees to testifiy or until the grand jury concludes its work.

Manning’s lawyers had asked the judge to agree to home confinement because of health issues she has.

The judge responded by saying U.S. marshals could deal with her health issues. Prosecutor Tracy McCormick told the cour the the marshals have assured the government her medical needs can be met.

In a statement before Friday’s hearing, Manning said she invoked her First, Fourth and Sixth amendment protections when she appeared before the grand jury in Alexandria on Wednesday. She said she had already answered every substantive question during her 2013 court-martial, and was prepared to face the consequences of refusing to asnswer questions on the same subject again.

“I will not comply with this, or any other grand jury. Imprisoning me for my refusal to answer questions only subjects me to additional punishment for my repeatedly-stated ethical objections to the grand jury system,” she said.

The grand jury’s questions pertained to disclosures from nine years ago, and took place six years after an in-depth  computer forensics case, in which I testified for a full day about thes events. I stand by my previous public testimony.”

“I will not participate in a secret process that I morally object to, particularly one that has been historically used to entrap and persecute activists for protected political speech,” Mannimng added.

Manning served years in prison, often in solitary confirement and enduring treament described in part as torture, before being tried and convicted in a court-martial, and then jailed for 35 years. Despite undergoing a sex change, the U.S. army continued to house her in an all-male prison. Several court actions were required before the army agreed to a sex change operation and switch to a female prison. After 7 years of her term, President Barack Obama commuted the remainder of her sentence.

Manning’s lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, said she believes jailing Manning is an act of cruelty given her medical issues, and said Manning’s one-bedroom apartment would be a sufficient manner of confinement.

Outside the courthouse, about a dozen protesters rallied in her support.

“Obviously prison is a terrible place,” Moira Meltzer-Cohen, Manning’s lawyer said Friday, describing the court’s move as ‘an act of cruelty.’

“I don’t see the purpose to incarcerate people,” she said.

The Wikileaks investigation has been going on for years, and in secret. The Australian and UK governments have said they were unaware of its existence.

Its activities were revealed last year inadvertently when prosecutors in the Eastern District of Alexandria accidently disclosed that Assange, an Australian holed up in the Equadorian embassy in London for the past six years, was facing unspecified, sealed criminal charges in the district.