Headlines are announcing the early release of US Army whistle-blower Private Manning from a jail sentence that began in 2013 and was to last 35 years. Manning is accused of passing US government documents to information clearing house Wikileaks before being arrested and charged for “espionage” in 2010.

Manning’s release indicates an admission by the US of unjust imprisonment. However, the US has so far failed to acknowledge this fact publicly, assign blame, or hold responsible those who played a direct role in Manning’s arrest, trial, conviction, and now over 6 year imprisonment.

Manning’s release, however, was a carefully timed, politically-motivated stunt, devoid of moral convictions, principles, or mercy – as the stunt is designed to appear. At any time during the administration of Barack Obama, Manning’s sentence could have been both vigorously opposed and commuted. However it was not. Manning was left to languish in prison, unjustly confined, so an exiting US president could perform a spectacle, adding to the illusion of both his own legacy, and to that of the office itself.

It is fitting that the United States, at this juncture in its history, cannot even exhibit positive qualities without polluting them with self-serving, political, and manipulative agendas.

Regardless of the depravity that defined both Manning’s imprisonment and release, it should be remembered by all that despite Obama’s “pardon,” for each day Manning was imprisoned unjustly – or anyone for that matter – a crime is being committed against us all.

Meanwhile, there are vast number of other political prisoners languishing either in American prisons or defacto in legal limbo under threat of arrest or assassination, including NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. and lesser known prisoners including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.