THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013
CAMPUS
PAGE 11A
Graduate student awarded fellowship with NASA
JOSE MEDRANO
jmedrano@kansan.com
Theresa Stumpf, an electrical engineering and computer science graduate student at the University's Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, was recently awarded a $90,000 NASA Fellowship. Stumpf is researching and developing a new type of radar that will accurately map ice sheets by penetrating the ice until it meets bedrock
ing the ice until it meets bedrock. "What I proposed were techniques to image the bed over a wide swath on that system, the Ultra Wideband System," Stumpf said. "It requires some finesse, because it's such broad range of frequencies that conventional models for mapping the bed are poorly constrained so it requires some modification to properly use." Stumpf's radar imaging will allow ice sheets to be accurately mapped and collect a finer resolution by penetrating the ice.
Stumpf's radar imaging will al-
edition by penetrating the CRISI develop new technology and gathers data from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica in order to develop computer models and accurate predictions. Stumpf's work will focus on designing signal beams and a signal processing system that will effectively map ice sheets in a wide swash fly over.
"It's a very pressing scientific question." Stumpf said concerning the proper imaging and computer models of ice sheets. "The biggest uncertainty is what role Earth's ice sheets are going to play in rising sea levels." Stumpf's three year fellowship will allow her to build the radar beams and technology to accurately measure ice sheets, thus allowing researchers to predict sea levels more accurately. Since scientists can't estimate an accurate upper bound with the data that is currently available, it is important that the ice sheets are properly mapped in order to predict sea level rise by the end of the century, Stumpf said. Stumpf is one of a few female graduate students conducting research within CReSIS. CReSIS will be conduct-
ing more field research on the ice sheets in November. Currently Stumpf's work is in the first stages of development and will start fielding the equipment once it is ready for testing.
- Edited by Jessica Mitchell
NATIONAL
Manning seeks presidential pardon for WikiLeaks conviction
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning hold up banners as they protest outside of the gates at Fort Meade, Md., Aug. 21 before a sentencing hearing in Manning's court martial
27
HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning is seeking a presidential pardon for sending reams of classified information to Wikileaks, a leak she says was done "out of a love for my country and sense of duty to others," according to documents released Wednesday.
Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, sent the Petition for Pardon/Commutation of Sentence on Tuesday to
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama through the U.S. Justice Department, and to Army Secretary John M. McHugh.
The White House said last month that a Manning request for a presidential pardon would be considered like any other.
Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, is serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for her conviction July 30 on 20 counts for disclosing the information while working as an intelligence analyst in
Iraq in 2010. Manning has said she wants to live as a woman and receive hormone therapy for gender dysphoria — the sense that she is physically the wrong gender.
The leak of hundreds of thousands of battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and a video of a U.S.helicopter attack that killed civilians was the largest-volume leak of classified material in U.S.history
Manning got the longest sentence ever for disclosing U.S. government secrets to others for publication. The Obama administration has cracked down on security breaches, charging seven people with leaking to the media. Only three
were prosecuted under all previous presidents combined. Mark Osler, a law professor and founder of a commutation clinic at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis, gave Manning's petition a "zero percent" chance of success, given the relatively low num-
they were over-sentenced or that they underwent extraordinary rehabilitation in prison, Olser said.
ber of pardonsgranted by Obama. The president has granted 39 pardons and one commutation since taking office, and denied 1,333. That's a lower rate than any recent predecessors, Osler said. It's also very early in Manning's confinement for the White House to seriously consider such a request,
"When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and sense of duty to others."
Pardon applicants can request a waiver of the five-year waiting period, according to the federal Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department. Manning's application doesn't mention a waiver.
CHELSEA MANNING Convicted leaker
Oster said. Pardon applicants ordinarily must wait five years after their release to be eligible for consideration. Those seeking to have their prison sentence commuted to time served generally must show
Coombs said in an emailed response to The Associated Press that a waiver request is implicit in the filing. Manning signed the petition with her legal name.
"Bradley Manning," not Chelsea. Coombs has said anything having to do with the pardon or court-martial would have to be in Bradley's name. Officials at Fort Leavenworth say Manning would have to get a legal name change to be known as Chelsea. Manning wrote in the petition that she started questioning the morality of U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan while reading secret military reports on a daily basis in Iraq. "When I chose to disclose
classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and sense of duty to others."
Manning, author of *Stoke the law, adding, "I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States." That's different from her unsworn courtroom statement Aug. 14, when Manning told a military judge: "I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I'm sorry that they hurt the United States." Coombs said in an email that Manning's statements about harm are not contradictory.
Manning acknowledged she broke the law, adding, "I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the
At Manning's trial, government witnesses testified that some of the leaked information endangered information sources, forced ambassadors to be reassigned, were used as al-Qaida propaganda and even obtained directly by Osama bin Laden.
"The harm offered by the Government during the trial was speculative at best. The majority of the instances provided by the Government for potential harm either were unrealized or had other more plausible causes, rather than Private Manning's conduct, for the potential harm." Coombs wrote.
However, Coombs wrote in a cover letter to Manning's petition that none of Manning's disclosures caused any "real damage" to the United States and that the documents were not sensitive information meriting protection.
Coombs submitted 11 documents in support of Manning's petition. The submissions include five documents pertaining to Sgt. 1st Class Paul Adkins, one of Manning's former supervisors. The sergeant
testified that he was reprimanded and demoted, apparently for failing to report Manning's troubling behavior — including a photo of the soldier in a blond wig and lipstick — partly because he couldn't
risk losing an intelligence analyst. Also among the documents was a letter from Amnesty International, which said Manning's leaks exposed potential human rights violations.
The University of Kansas School of Business PRESENTS
WALTER S. SUTTON
LECTURE SERIES