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Dec 05, 2016 ANOHNI By Christopher Roberts

ANOHNI released a new album, HOPELESSNESS, back in May via Secretly Canadian. Now she has shared a video for “Obama,” a song about President Barack Obama. It features close ups of two different women as they sing the song. Watch it below. To accompany the video ANOHNI has also shared an open letter to Obama asking him to free Chelsea Manning before Donald Trump comes into office. “If you leave Chelsea Manning in prison for whistle blowing,” she writes, “you send the final message to our nation that the Obama administration brutally punished moral courage in these unforgiving United States.”

Manning is a United States Army private who was court marshaled in 2013 and sentenced to a 35 year jail sentence for violating the espionage act by leaking classified and sensitive materials to WikiLeaks (nearly three quarters of a million documents). The material exposed civilian deaths in Iraq due a U.S. helicopter attack, among many other things. She’s also a trans woman.

Here’s ANOHNI full statement:

Published on Dec 5, 2016

ANOHNI IMPLORES PRESIDENT OBAMA TO FREE CHELSEA MANNING

Condemned under Obama’s administration to 35 years for blowing the whistle on US war crimes, America’s number one political prisoner is a transgendered former soldier who sits in solitary confinement after leaking video footage of US drone execution of a Reuters journalist.

“OBAMA, I voted for you. I campaigned for you across Europe.
Like thousands of others, in the newspapers and on TV, I told European press that you were a feminist, a kind and reasonable man, a just and fair man, that you would restore our country’s dignity.

OBAMA, Please let Chelsea Manning out of prison.
Recognize her tremendous sacrifice, and her vulnerability.
With Trump incoming, if you leave Chelsea in prison,
she will never see the light of day, or worse.

If you leave Chelsea Manning in prison for whistle blowing
You send the final message to our nation
that the Obama administration brutally punished moral courage
in these unforgiving United States.

She has suffered Enough, President Obama.
She poses no threat.

Show us the heart of the Obama administration now.

The election is over.
There is no political advantage left in allowing Chelsea to perish in prison.

Have mercy on her, Obama,
friend of the trans community:
I implore you to Free Chelsea Manning.”

- ANOHNI