WASHINGTON: Harvard University reversed its decision to name Chelsea Manning a visiting fellow early Friday, a day after CIA Director Mike Pompeo scrapped a planned appearance over the title for the soldier who was convicted of leaking classified information.
Douglas Elmendorf, the dean of the university’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, wrote in a statement posted to the university’s website that naming Manning a visiting fellow was a mistake, even though he said the title carries no special honor.
“We invited Chelsea Manning to spend a day at the Kennedy School,” he wrote. “On that basis, we also named Chelsea Manning a Visiting Fellow. We 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.”
Elmendorf apologized to Manning and to “many concerned people” he said he had heard from “for not recognizing upfront the full implications of our original invitation.” Manning is still invited to spend a day at the school and speak to students, though without the visiting fellow title, he wrote.
Manning responded on Twitter early Friday, writing that she was “honored to be 1st disinvited trans woman visiting @harvard fellow.”
“They chill marginalized voices under @cia pressure,” she said while also accusing the school of letting the CIA determine “what is and is not taught.”
Elmendorf delivered the news in a brief phone call with Manning and three of her representatives hours after the canceled Pompeo event Thursday, according to a member of Manning’s team who was the room with her.
One of Manning’s assistants questioned Elmendorf on why two other visiting fellows, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, could keep their titles as visiting fellows, the team member told The Associated Press.
Elmendorf explained that the former Trump aides had something to teach Harvard students, which Manning’s team took as an implication that she did not, according to the team member, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
Elmendorf didn’t immediately return a request for comment Friday.
Manning’s publicist didn’t immediately respond when asked if she would still accept Harvard’s invitation to visit the school.
The 29-year-old Manning is a transgender woman who was known as Bradley Manning when she was convicted in 2013 of leaking a trove of classified documents. She was released from a military prison in May after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence, which was commuted by President Barack Obama in his final days in office. Obama said in January he felt justice had been served. Manning explained on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in a recent interview that she was prompted to give the information to WikiLeaks because of the human toll of the “death, destruction and mayhem” she saw while serving in Iraq.
Pompeo was a last-minute cancelation at a speaking event at Harvard on Thursday night. Minutes after the event was to begin, Elmendorf took the stage and told the audience Pompeo was not there and would not speak.
The CIA later released a letter that Pompeo, who has a law degree from Harvard, wrote to a university official. Pompeo said an appearance would betray the trust of CIA employees and stressed that his decision had nothing to do with Manning’s transgender identity.
“It has everything to do with her identity as a traitor to the United States of America and my loyalty to the officers of the CIA,” Pompeo said.
Earlier Thursday, Mike Morell, a former deputy director and acting director of the CIA, resigned from his post as a senior fellow at the Kennedy School, telling Elmendorf in a letter that he could not be part of an organization that “honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.”
In addition to Manning, Harvard this week invited Spicer, Lewandowski and MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to serve as visiting fellows.
Harvard scraps decision to give Chelsea Manning a fellowship
Harvard scraps decision to give Chelsea Manning a fellowship
WHO chief says reasons US gave for withdrawing ‘untrue’
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO
- And in a post on X, Tedros added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue”
GENEVA: The head of the UN’s health agency on Saturday pushed back against Washington’s stated reasons for withdrawing from the World Health Organization, dismissing US criticism of the WHO as “untrue.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that US announcement this week that it had formally withdrawn from the WHO “makes both the US and the world less safe.”
And in a post on X, he added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue.”
He insisted: “WHO has always engaged with the US, and all Member States, with full respect for their sovereignty.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO.
They accused the agency, of numerous “failures during the Covid-19 pandemic” and of acting “repeatedly against the interests of the United States.”
The WHO has not yet confirmed that the US withdrawal has taken effect.
- ‘Trashed and tarnished’ -
The two US officials said the WHO had “trashed and tarnished” the United States, and had compromised its independence.
“The reverse is true,” the WHO said in a statement.
“As we do with every Member State, WHO has always sought to engage with the United States in good faith.”
The agency strenuously rejected the accusation from Rubio and Kennedy that its Covid response had “obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical information that could have saved American lives and then concealed those failures.”
Kennedy also suggested in a video posted to X Friday that the WHO was responsible for “the Americans who died alone in nursing homes (and) the small businesses that were destroyed by reckless mandates” to wear masks and get vaccinated.
The US withdrawal, he insisted, was about “protecting American sovereignty, and putting US public health back in the hands of the American people.”
Tedros warned on X that the statement “contains inaccurate information.”
“Throughout the pandemic, WHO acted quickly, shared all information it had rapidly and transparently with the world, and advised Member States on the basis of the best available evidence,” the agency said.
“WHO recommended the use of masks, vaccines and physical distancing, but at no stage recommended mask mandates, vaccine mandates or lockdowns,” it added.
“We supported sovereign governments to make decisions they believed were in the best interests of their people, but the decisions were theirs.”
- Withdrawal ‘raises issues’ -
The row came as Washington struggled to dislodge itself from the WHO, a year after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to that effect.
The one-year withdrawal process reached completion on Thursday, but Kennedy and Rubio regretted in their statement that the UN health agency had “not approved our withdrawal and, in fact, claims that we owe it compensation.”
WHO has highlighted that when Washington joined the organization in 1948, it reserved the right to withdraw, as long as it gave one year’s notice and had met “its financial obligations to the organization in full for the current fiscal year.”
But Washington has not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, and is behind around $260 million.
“The notification of withdrawal raises issues,” WHO said Saturday, adding that the topic would be examined during WHO’s Executive Board meeting next month and by the annual World Health Assembly meeting in May.
“We hope the US will return to active participation in WHO in the future,” Tedros said Saturday.
“Meanwhile, WHO remains steadfastly committed to working with all countries in pursuit of its core mission and constitutional mandate: the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right for all people.”
