UPDATED: Harvard University withdraws fellowship invitation to Chelsea Manning

MSN

(Also here at Townhall) "Harvard did the right thing, but it’s probably going to be a very triggering day for progressives." 

"Harvard University on Friday withdrew a fellowship invitation to Chelsea Manning, the transgender U.S. Army soldier who was convicted of leaking classified data, after two top intelligence experts distanced themselves from the school over the invite.

"Manning, 29, was released in May from a U.S. military prison in Kansas where she had been serving time for passing secrets to the WikiLeaks website in the biggest breach of classified data in the history of the United States.

"Harvard Kennedy School of government announced on Wednesday that it had invited the controversial figure to be a visiting fellow and speak at a forum. The invitation to speak at the university still stands, said Douglas Elmendorf, the dean of Harvard Kennedy School, in a statement.

" 'I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a visiting fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility," Elmendorf said. "I see more clearly now that many people view a visiting fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations.' " . . .

Thank you Mike Morell and Mike Pompeo for injecting sense into the equation.  

" 'While I have served my country as a soldier in the United States Army and will continue to defend Ms. Manning's right to offer a defense of why she chose this path, I believe it is shameful for Harvard to place its stamp of approval upon her treasonous actions," Pompeo wrote." . . .

Excellent, in-depth discussion of academic - I have to say this - silliness: 

Harvard’s repudiation of the Chelsea Manning fellowship offer is a rebuke to the campus mindset

. . . "But here is what got the attention of the real powers at Harvard:

Please know that I am fully aware that Belfer and the IOP are separate institutions within the Kennedy School. And that most likely Belfer had nothing to do with the invitation of Ms. Manning to be a fellow at IOP. But as an institution, The Kennedy School’s decision will assist Ms. Manning in her long-standing effort to legitimize the criminal path that she took to prominence, and attempt that may encourage others to leak classified information as well. I have an obligation to my conscience – and I believe to the country – to stand up against any efforts to justify leaks of sensitive national security information.

"It is not very often that we see a major university rebuke its members for living in a bubble."

Monica Showalter: Chelsea Manning's sneering, self-pitying tweets about getting dumped by Harvard   "Chelsea Manning has been making quite a spectacle of himself out on Twitter, taking Michael Morrell's and Mike Pompeo's exit from the school as a welcome new opportunity to call attention to himself. He starts with an emoji-filled cheer at news of Morrell's resignation from Harvard after the school's bad judgment in bringing "Manning in as a fellow to 'mentor' students. Manning declared it 'good' that Morrell has pulled out." . . .