Bradley Edward Manning (born December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to the whistleblower website, WikiLeaks. He was charged over the following months with a number of offenses, including communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source, and aiding the enemy, a capital offense, though prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty.[1]
Assigned as an intelligence analyst in October 2009 to an army unit based near Baghdad, Manning was given access to several databases used by the United States government to transmit classified information. He was arrested after Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker, told the FBI that Manning had confided during online chats that he had downloaded material from these databases and passed it to WikiLeaks. The material, much of it published between April and November 2010, included videos of a 2007 helicopter gun attack in Baghdad and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan, 250,000 United States diplomatic cables, and 500,000 army reports that came to be known as the Iraq and Afghan War logs. It was the largest set of restricted documents ever leaked to the public.[2]
Manning was held from July 2010 in the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico, Virginia, under Prevention of Injury status, which entailed de facto solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused international concern. In April 2011, 295 academics – many of them prominent American legal scholars – signed a letter arguing that the detention conditions violated the United States Constitution. Later that month the Pentagon transferred him to a medium-security jail at Fort Leavenworth, allowing him to interact with other detainees. He was arraigned in February 2012 at Fort Meade, Maryland, where he declined to enter a plea. The trial is expected to begin in September.[3]
Reaction to his arrest, and to the news that he may face life imprisonment, was mixed. Denver Nicks writes that the material published by WikiLeaks, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, and that Manning himself was viewed as both a 21st-century Tiananmen Square Tank Man and as an embittered traitor. Several commentators, including The Washington Post, focused on why an apparently very unhappy Army private had access to classified material, and why no security measures were in place to prevent it being copied through unauthorized downloads.[4]
Manning was born to Susan Fox, originally from Wales, and her American husband, Brian Manning, in Crescent, Oklahoma, a small town already associated with a famous whistleblower, Karen Silkwood. His father had joined the United States Navy in 1974 when he was 19 and served for five years as an intelligence analyst, meeting Susan when he was stationed in Wales at Cawdor Barracks. Manning's sister, eleven years his senior, was born in 1976. The couple returned to the United States in 1979, moving at first to California, then to a two-story house several miles north of Crescent, with an above-ground swimming pool and five acres of land where they kept pigs and chickens. Manning's father later worked as an IT manager for a rental car agency, which saw him regularly travel overseas.[5]
Manning was small for his age – as an adult, he reached just 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) and weighed 105 lb (47.6 kg) – good at the saxophone and science, and even in elementary school said he wanted to join the army. He was a straight-A student who was particularly good with computers. Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post writes that, when he was seven or eight, his father taught him how to use the C++ programming language, and his father told PBS that Manning created his first website when he was ten years old. He taught himself how to use Powerpoint, won the grand prize three years in a row at the local science fair, and in sixth grade took top prize at a state-wide quiz bowl. By the age of 13 he was rewriting lines of video-game code to change the appearance of the characters.[6]
His mother had difficulty adjusting to life in the United States and suffered from poor health; she was living several miles out of town, never learned to drive, had not learned to read or write well, and developed a drinking problem. She was by all accounts too soft with her son, while his father veered in the opposite direction, to the point where Manning seemed to fear him. With his father away much of the time, Manning was largely left to fend for himself; Nakashima writes that he was dressing himself and preparing his own breakfast by the time he was six. His father would stock up on food for the house before his business trips, and leave pre-signed checks for the children to pay the bills. A neighbor told The New York Times that, when the school went on field trips, she would give her own son extra food or money so he could make sure Manning had something to eat.[7]
Rick McCombs, now his school's principal and then a teacher, told Denver Nicks that Manning always had an opinion about things, even in middle school, and it was clear he had a mind of his own. This sometimes translated itself into behavioral problems, and by the age of nine or ten, he had started to lose his temper and throw things when crossed, according to an aunt and a former classmate. He was openly opposed to religion; he would refuse to do homework related to the Bible, and remained silent during the parts of the Pledge of Allegiance that refer to God. His father's strictness may have contributed to his becoming introverted and withdrawn, something that deepened when at age 13 he began to question his sexual orientation.[8]
His father moved out of the family home in 1999. Manning told Lamo there had been a big fight, where his father had pulled out a gun, and social workers became involved. The couple divorced in 2000 when Manning was 13, and his father remarried; Manning and his mother moved out of the house to a rented apartment in Crescent. His father's second wife was also called Susan, and Manning apparently took it hard when the second's wife son by a previous relationship changed his surname to Manning. His mother had to call a family friend round to the apartment one day in 2001, when Manning was 13, to help calm him down when he found out about it; he started taking running jumps at the walls, and told his mother: "I'm nobody now."[9]
High Street in
Haverfordwest, Wales, where Manning went to secondary school.
In November 2001 Manning and his mother left the United States and moved overseas to Haverfordwest, Wales, where his mother had family. Manning attended the town's Tasker Milward secondary school, where they nicknamed him "Bradders." A schoolfriend there, James Kirkpatrick, told Ed Caesar for The Sunday Times that Manning's personality was "unique, extremely unique. Very quirky, very opinionated, very political, very clever, very articulate." His interest in computers continued, and in 2003 he and a friend set up a website, angeldyne.com, a message board that offered games and music downloads.[10]
He became the target of bullying at the school because he was the only American. The students would imitate his accent, and they apparently abandoned him once during a camping trip. His aunt told The Washington Post: "[H]e woke up, and all the tents around him were gone. They left while he was sleeping." He was also targeted for being effeminate. Nicks writes that he had told two of his friends in Oklahoma that he was gay, but he was not open about it at school in Wales.[11]
He feared that his mother was becoming too ill to cope with him, so he decided in 2005 when he was 17 to return to the United States after sitting his General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs). On his way through London to renew his passport for his return home, he arrived at the King's Cross underground station on the day of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, and said he heard the sirens and the screaming. He moved in with his father in Oklahoma City, where his father was living with his second wife and her child, and got a job as a developer with a software company, Zoto. He was apparently happy for a time, but was let go after four months. His boss, Kord Campbell, told The Washington Post that on a few occasions Manning had "just locked up," and would simply sit and stare, including once when Campbell was teaching him to drive, and in the end communication became too difficult. Campbell told the newspaper he felt that "nobody’s been taking care of this kid for a really long time."[12]
Manning was by then living as a gay man, which his father accepted, but there were problems in the relationship with his stepmother. According to Fishman, she wanted Manning to pay his way, and believed he was faking being gay to get attention, to which he responded by wearing eye make-up and bringing a boyfriend back for the night. In March 2006, Manning reportedly threatened her with a knife during an argument about his failure to get another job; she called the police, and he was asked to leave the house.[13]
He decided to strike out on his own, and drove to Tulsa in a pick-up truck his father had given him, sleeping in it for a while, then moving in with a friend from school. Manning had to sleep in an upstairs closet because the friend's father was not aware that he had moved in. The two of them got jobs at Incredible Pizza in April, then Manning spent some time in Chicago, before he called his mother in desperation, having run out of money and with nowhere to stay. His mother in turn called his father's sister, Debra, a lawyer in Potomac, Maryland, and it was agreed that Manning could stay there for awhile. Nicks writes that the 15 months he spent with his aunt were among the most stable of his life. He had a boyfriend, took several low-paid jobs – including in July 2007 with Starbucks, then Abercrombie & Fitch – and spent a semester studying history and English at Montgomery College, though he left after failing an exam.[14]
In October 2007, he decided to enlist in the army. His father had spent weeks persuading him to consider it because he was concerned about his son's future, and Manning, for his part, hoped to gain a college education and saw no other way to get it – according to Ellen Nakashima he wanted to study for a PhD in physics. When he told his aunt his plans, she tried to stop him, but he had already signed up.[15]
He went through basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, but six weeks after enlisting was sent to the discharge unit after doubts arose about his stability. He was allegedly being bullied, and in the opinion of a soldier who spent time with him there, he was having a breakdown. The soldier told The Guardian: "The kid was barely five foot ... He was a runt, so pick on him. He's crazy, pick on him. He's a faggot, pick on him. The guy took it from every side. He couldn't please anyone." Nicks writes that Manning, who was used to being bullied, fought back – if the drill sergeants screamed at him, he would scream at them – to the point where they started calling him "General Manning."[16]
The decision to discharge him was revoked, and he was "recycled," because the army needed his IT skills. He started basic training again in January 2008 and after graduating in April moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where he trained as an intelligence analyst, receiving a TS/SCI security clearance (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information"). According to Nicks, this security clearance, combined with the digitization of classified information and the American government's policy of sharing it widely, gave Manning access to an unprecedented amount of classified material. Nicks writes that he was reprimanded while at Fort Huachuca for posting three video messages to friends on YouTube, in which he described the inside of the "Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility," or SCIF, that he was working in.[17]
Manning in September 2009
In August 2008, he was sent to Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New York, where he joined the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, and trained for deployment to Iraq. It was while stationed there in the fall of 2008 that he met Tyler Watkins, who was studying neuroscience and psychology at Brandeis University, near Boston. Watkins was his first serious relationship, and he posted happily on Facebook about it, regularly traveling 300 miles to Boston on visits.[18]
Watkins introduced him to a network of friends and the university's hacker community. He also visited Boston University's "hackerspace" workshop, known as "Builds," and met its founder, David House, the computer scientist and MIT researcher who was later allowed to visit him in jail. In November 2008, he gave an anonymous interview to a high-school reporter during a rally in Syracuse in support of gay marriage, telling her: "I was kicked out of my home and I once lost my job. The world is not moving fast enough for us at home, work, or the battlefield. I've been living a double life. ... I can't make a statement. I can't be caught in an act. I hope the public support changes. I do hope to do that before ETS [Expiration of Term of Service]."[19]
Nicks writes that Manning would travel back to Washington, D.C. for visits, where an ex-boyfriend helped him find his way around the city's vibrant gay community, introducing him to lobbyists, activists, and White House aides. Back at Fort Drum, he continued to display emotional problems and by August 2009 had been referred to an Army mental-health counselor, a chaplain. A friend told Nicks that Manning could be emotionally fraught, describing an evening they had watched two movies together – The Last King of Scotland and Dancer in the Dark – which reduced Manning to tears for hours. By September 2009, his relationship with Watkins was in trouble, and although they reconciled for a short time, it was effectively over.[20]
After several few weeks engaging in simulations at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana, he was deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer, near Baghdad, arriving in October 2009. From his workstation there, he had access to SIPRNet (the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network) and JWICS (the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System). Two of his superiors had discussed not taking him to Iraq – one of them said it was felt he was "a risk to himself and possibly others," according to a statement later issued by the army – but again the shortage of intelligence analysts held sway.[21]
A month later, in November 2009, he was promoted from Private First Class to Specialist. That same month, according to his chats with Lamo, he made his first contact with WikiLeaks, shortly after it posted 570,000 pager messages from the 9/11 attacks, which it released on November 25.[22] Also in November, Manning wrote to a gender counselor in the United States, said he felt female, and discussed having sex reassignment surgery. The counselor told Steve Fishman of New York Magazine that it was clear Manning was in crisis, partly because of his gender confusion, but also because he was opposed to the kind of war he found himself involved in.[23]
He was by all accounts unhappy and isolated. Because of the army's "don't ask, don't tell" policy (known as DADT and repealed in September 2011), he was not allowed to be openly gay, though he apparently made no secret of it – his friends told reporters that he kept a fairy wand on his desk. When he told his roommate he was gay, the roommate responded by suggesting they not speak to each other. The working conditions did not help his mental health. He was doing 14–15 hour night shifts in a secure room, which he described to a friend as "a dimly lit room crowded to the point you cant move an inch without having to quietly say 'excuse me sir,' 'pardon me sergeant major' ... cables trip you up everywhere, papers stacked everywhere ..."[24]
On December 20, 2009, after being told he would lose his one day off a week for being persistently late, he overturned a table in a conference room in what witnesses described as a fit of rage, damaging a computer that was sitting on it – and in the view of one soldier looked as though he was about to grab a rifle from a gun rack, before his arms were pinned behind his back. Several of those who witnessed the incident believed his access to sensitive material ought to have been withdrawn at that point. The following month, he began posting on Facebook that he felt alone and hopeless.[25]
Army investigators told a pre-trial hearing (see below) that they believed Manning downloaded the Iraq and Afghan war logs around this time, in January 2010. WikiLeaks tweeted on January 8 that they had obtained "encrypted videos of US bomb strikes on civilians," and linked to a story about the May 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan. During the same month, he traveled to the United States via Germany for a two-week holiday, arriving on January 24, and attended a party at Boston University's hacker space. It was during this visit that Manning first lived for a few days as a woman, dressing in women's clothes, wearing a wig and going out. After his arrest, his former partner, Tyler Watkins, told Kevin Poulsen of Wired that Manning had said during the January visit that he had found some sensitive information and was considering leaking it.[26]
Manning later told Lamo he had passed the Baghdad helicopter attack ("Collateral murder") video to WikiLeaks shortly after this, in February 2010. In April, just as WikiLeaks published the video, Manning sent an e-mail to his master sergeant, Paul Adkins, saying he was suffering from gender identity disorder and attaching a photograph of himself dressed as a woman. Captain Steven Lim, Manning's commander, said he first saw the e-mail after Manning's arrest – when information about hormone replacement therapy was found in his room in Baghdad – and learned that Manning had been calling himself Breanna.[27]
Manning told Adrian Lamo that his commander had found out about the gender confusion before his arrest, after looking at his medical files at the beginning of May. He told Lamo he had set up Twitter and YouTube accounts in Breanna's name to give her a digital presence, writing in the chat: "i wouldn't mind going to prison for the rest of my life, or being executed so much, if it wasn't for the possibility of having pictures of me ... plastered all over the world press ... as [a] boy ... the CPU is not made for this motherboard ..."[28]
On April 30, he posted on Facebook that he was utterly lost, and over the next few days that "Bradley Manning is not a piece of equipment," that he was "beyond frustrated," and "livid" after being "lectured by ex-boyfriend despite months of relationship ambiguity ..." On May 7, he seemed to spiral out of control. According to army witnesses, he was found curled into a fetal position in a storage cupboard, with a knife at his feet, and had cut the words "I want" into a vinyl chair. A few hours later, he had an altercation with a female intelligence analyst, Specialist Jihrleah Showman, during which he punched her in the face. The brigade psychiatrist referred to an "occupational problem and adjustment disorder," and recommended a discharge. His master sergeant removed the bolt from his weapon, and he was sent to work in the supply office, though at this point his security clearance remained in place. He was demoted from Specialist to Private First Class just two days before his arrest on May 26.[29]
Ellen Nakashima writes that, on May 9, Manning contacted Jonathan Odell, a gay American novelist in Minneapolis, via Facebook, leaving a message that he wanted to speak to him in confidence, saying he had been involved in some "very high-profile events, albeit as a nameless individual thus far." On May 19, according to army investigators, he e-mailed Eric Schmiedl, a mathematician he had met in Boston, and told him he had been the source of the "Collateral Murder" video. Two days later, he began the series of chats with Adrian Lamo that led to his arrest.[30]
WikiLeaks was set up in late 2006 as a disclosure portal, initially using the Wikipedia model, where volunteers would write up and analyze classified or restricted material submitted by whistleblowers, or material that was in some other way legally threatened. It was Julian Assange – an Australian Internet activist and journalist, and the de facto editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks – who had the idea of creating what Ben Laurie called an "open-source, democratic intelligence agency." The open-editing aspect was soon abandoned, but the site remained open for anonymous submissions.[31]
According to Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former WikiLeaks spokesman, part of the WikiLeaks security concept was that they did not know who their sources were. The New York Times wrote in December 2010 that the U.S. government was trying to discover whether Assange had been a passive recipient of material from Manning, or had encouraged or helped him to extract the files; if the latter, Assange could be charged with conspiracy. Manning told Lamo in May 2010 that he had developed a relationship with Assange, communicating directly with him using an encrypted Internet conferencing service, but knew little about him. WikiLeaks did not identify Manning as their source. Army investigators told a pre-trial hearing that they had found 14–15 pages of chats between Manning and someone they believed to be Assange, but Nicks writes that no decisive evidence was found of Assange offering Manning any direction.[32]
On February 18, 2010, WikiLeaks posted the first of the material allegedly from Manning, a diplomatic cable dated January 13, 2010, from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland, a document now known as Reykjavik13. In the chat log, Manning called it a "test" document. On March 15, WikiLeaks posted a 32-page report written in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Defense about WikiLeaks itself. On March 29, it posted U.S. State Department profiles of politicians in Iceland.[33]
Manning told Lamo that he had found and passed on the video of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, which WikiLeaks named the "Collateral Murder" video. He told Lamo: "At first glance it was just a bunch of guys getting shot up by a helicopter. No big deal ... about two dozen more where that came from, right? But something struck me as odd with the van thing, and also the fact it was being stored in a JAG officer’s directory. So I looked into it."[35]
On April 5, Julian Assange called a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and released the video. It showed an American helicopter firing on a group of around 12 men in Baghdad; one of the men was carrying an anti-tank grenade launcher (an RPG-7), and two were Reuters employees carrying cameras that the pilots mistook for guns. The helicopter also fired on a van that stopped to help the injured members of the first group; two children in the van were wounded and their father killed. The Washington Post wrote that it was this video, viewed by millions, that put WikiLeaks on the map. According to Nicks, Manning e-mailed one of his superiors after the video aired and tried to persuade her that it was the same version as the video of the attack that was stored on SIPRnet; Nicks writes that it seemed as though Manning wanted to be caught.[36]
On July 25, WikiLeaks and its three partners – The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel – began publishing the 91,731 documents that became known as the Afghan War logs, and on October 22 the Iraq War logs, 391,832 classified military reports covering the period January 2004 to December 2009. Nicks writes that the publication of the former was a watershed moment, the "beginning of the information age exploding upon itself." Manning told Lamo he was also responsible for the leak, known as "Cablegate", of 251,287 State Department cables, written by 271 American embassies and consulates in 180 countries, dated December 1966 to February 2010. The cables were passed by Assange to his three media partners, plus El País and others, and published in stages from November 28, 2010, with the names of sources removed. WikiLeaks said it was the largest set of confidential documents ever released into the public domain.[37]
The rest of the cables were published unredacted by WikiLeaks on September 1, 2011, after David Leigh and Luke Harding of The Guardian inadvertently published the passphrase for a file that was still online; Nicks writes that one Ethiopian journalist had to leave his country and the U.S. government said it had to relocate several sources. Manning is also thought to have been the source of the Guantanamo Bay files leak, originally obtained by WikiLeaks in 2010 and published by The New York Times over a year later on April 24, 2011.[38]
On May 20, 2010, Manning contacted Adrian Lamo, a former "grey hat" hacker convicted in 2004 of having accessed The New York Times computer network two years earlier without permission. Lamo had been profiled that day by Kevin Poulsen in Wired magazine; the story said he had been involuntarily hospitalized and diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.[40]
Poulsen, by then a reporter, was himself a former hacker who had used Lamo as a source several times since 2000.[39] Indeed, it was Poulsen who in 2002 had told The New York Times, on Lamo's behalf, that Lamo had gained unauthorized access to its network. Poulsen then wrote the story up for SecurityFocus. Lamo would often hack into a system, tell the organization he had done it – using Poulsen as an intermediary – then offer to fix their security.[41]
According to Fishman, Lamo had worked on an LGBT youth task force, and this, combined with his fame as a hacker, would have encouraged Manning to confide in him.[42] Lamo said Manning sent him several encrypted e-mails on May 20 after seeing a tweet from Lamo about WikiLeaks. Lamo said he was unable to decrypt the e-mails but replied anyway, not knowing the recipient or being able to read the content, and invited the e-mailer to chat on AOL IM. Manning sent him more e-mails, also encrypted. Lamo said he later turned the e-mails over to the FBI without having read them.[43]
In a series of chats from May 21 until May 25/26, Manning – using the handle "bradass87" – told Lamo that he had leaked classified material. He began by introducing himself as an army intelligence analyst, and within 17 minutes, without waiting for a reply, began a tentative discussion about the leaks.[44]
May 21, 2010:
(1:41:12 PM) bradass87: hi
(1:44:04 PM) bradass87: how are you?
(1:47:01 PM) bradass87: im an army intelligence analyst, deployed to eastern baghdad, pending discharge for "adjustment disorder" in lieu of "gender identity disorder"
(1:56:24 PM) bradass87: im sure you're pretty busy…
(1:58:31 PM) bradass87: if you had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months, what would you do?[44]
Lamo replied several hours later. At first they chatted about Manning's gender confusion. Before Manning started discussing the leaks, Lamo told him: "I'm a journalist and a minister. You can pick either, and treat this as a confession or an interview (never to be published) & enjoy a modicum of legal protection." They talked about restricted material in general, then Manning made his first explicit reference to the leaks: "This is what I do for friends." He linked to a section of the May 21, 2010, version of Wikipedia's article on WikiLeaks, which described the WikiLeaks release in March that year of a Department of Defense report on WikiLeaks itself. He added "the one below that is mine too"; the section below in the same article referred to the leak of the Baghdad airstrike ("Collateral Murder") video.[45]
Manning told him he felt isolated and fragile, and was reaching out to someone he hoped might understand: "im very isolated atm ... lost all of my emotional support channels ... family, boyfriend, trusting colleagues ... im a mess."[44]
May 22:
(11:49:02 AM) bradass87: im in the desert, with a bunch of hyper-masculine trigger happy ignorant rednecks as neighbors... and the only safe place i seem to have is this satellite internet connection
(11:49:51 AM) bradass87: and i already got myself into minor trouble, revealing my uncertainty over my gender identity ... which is causing me to lose this job ... and putting me in an awkward limbo [...]
(11:52:23 AM) bradass87: at the very least, i managed to keep my security clearance [so far] [...]
(11:58:33 AM) bradass87: and little does anyone know, but among this "visible" mess, theres the mess i created that no-one knows about yet [...]
(12:15:11 PM) bradass87: hypothetical question: if you had free reign [sic] over classified networks for long periods of time ... say, 8–9 months ... and you saw incredible things, awful things ... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC ... what would you do? [...]
(12:21:24 PM) bradass87: say ... a database of half a million events during the iraq war ... from 2004 to 2009 ... with reports, date time groups, lat-lon locations, casualty figures ...? or 260,000 state department cables from embassies and consulates all over the world, explaining how the first world exploits the third, in detail, from an internal perspective? [...]
(12:26:09 PM) bradass87: lets just say *someone* i know intimately well, has been penetrating US classified networks, mining data like the ones described ... and been transferring that data from the classified networks over the “air gap” onto a commercial network computer ... sorting the data, compressing it, encrypting it, and uploading it to a crazy white haired aussie who can't seem to stay in one country very long =L [...]
(12:31:43 PM) bradass87: crazy white haired dude = Julian Assange
(12:33:05 PM) bradass87: in other words ... ive made a huge mess :’([44]
Manning said he had started to help WikiLeaks around Thanksgiving in November 2009 – which fell on November 26 that year – after WikiLeaks had released the 9/11 pager messages; the messages were released on November 25. He told Lamo he had recognized the messages had come from an NSA database, and that it had made him feel comfortable about stepping forward. Lamo asked what kind of material he was dealing with, and Manning replied: "uhm ... crazy, almost criminal political backdealings ... the non-PR-versions of world events and crises ..." Although he said he dealt with Assange directly, he also said Assange had adopted a deliberate policy of knowing very little about him, telling Manning: "lie to me."[44]
He told Lamo that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning, and finds [sic] an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format to the public ... everywhere there's a US post ... there's a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed ... Iceland, the Vatican, Spain, Brazil, Madascar, if its a country, and its recognized by the US as a country, its got dirt on it."[44]
May 22:
(1:11:54 PM) bradass87: and ... its important that it gets out ... i feel, for some bizarre reason
(1:12:02 PM) bradass87: it might actually change something
(1:13:10 PM) bradass87: i just ... dont wish to be a part of it ... at least not now ... im not ready ... i wouldn't mind going to prison for the rest of my life, or being executed so much, if it wasn't for the possibility of having pictures of me ... plastered all over the world press ... as [a] boy ...
(1:14:11 PM) bradass87: i've totally lost my mind ... i make no sense ... the CPU is not made for this motherboard ... [...]
(1:39:03 PM) bradass87: i cant believe what im confessing to you :’([44]
At that point, Lamo again assured him that he was speaking in confidence. Manning wrote: "but im not a source for you ... im talking to you as someone who needs moral and emotional fucking support," and Lamo replied: "i told you, none of this is for print."[44]
He said the incident that had affected him the most was when 15 detainees had been arrested by the Iraqi Federal Police for printing anti-Iraqi literature. He was asked by the army to find out who the "bad guys" were, and discovered that the detainees had printed what he called a scholarly critique of the Iraqi prime minister that followed what Manning said was a corruption trail within the Iraqi cabinet. He reported this to his commanding officer, but said "he didn't want to hear any of it"; he said the officer told him to help the Iraqi police find more detainees. Manning said it made him realize, "i was actively involved in something that i was completely against ..." He explained that "i cant separate myself from others ... i feel connected to everybody ... like they were distant family," and cited Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, and Elie Wiesel. He said he hoped the material would lead to "hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms. if not ... than [sic] we're doomed as a species."[44]
He said he had downloaded some of the material onto music CD-RWs that he had brought to work; he would erase the music and replace it with a compressed split file. Part of the reason no-one noticed, he said, was that staff were working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and "people stopped caring after 3 weeks."[44]
May 25:
(02:12:23 PM) bradass87: so ... it was a massive data spillage ... facilitated by numerous factors ... both physically, technically, and culturally
(02:13:02 PM) bradass87: perfect example of how not to do INFOSEC
(02:14:21 PM) bradass87: listened and lip-synced to Lady Gaga's Telephone while exfiltratrating [sic] possibly the largest data spillage in american history [...]
(02:17:56 PM) bradass87: weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counter-intelligence, inattentive signal analysis ... a perfect storm [...]
(02:22:47 PM) bradass87: i mean what if i were someone more malicious
(02:23:25 PM) bradass87: i could've sold to russia or china, and made bank?
(02:23:36 PM) info@adrianlamo.com: why didn't you?
(02:23:58 PM) bradass87: because it's public data [...]
(02:24:46 PM) bradass87: it belongs in the public domain
(02:25:15 PM) bradass87: information should be free [...][44]
Nicks writes that, with this last point – "information should be free" – Manning was echoing the hackers' ideal, first expressed at a conference in 1984 by Steward Brand as "information wants to be free." The phrase summed up the view that information ought to be widely available to encourage collaboration and competition, whether it be science, software, or state secrets. Nicks argues that Manning's use of the phrase supports the view that his motivation was altruistic.[46]
Lamo told Wired he had given money to WikiLeaks in the past, and that the decision to go to the authorities had not been an easy one. He said he believed lives were in danger. He told Ed Caesar of The Sunday Times: "I get approached by people [hackers] on pretty much a daily basis confessing to crimes. I don't turn them in, because most of them are crimes of curiosity and have no real impact on people's lives or livelihoods. It's when someone comes to me and says, 'Hi, my name's Brad, and I'd like to tell you about my state treason' that the issue becomes fuzzy. I believed he was leaking stuff that was endangering lives."[47] Lamo was largely ostracized by the hacker community for reporting Manning, as well as for becoming a confidential informant for the government afterwards. Nicks argues, on the other hand, that it was thanks to Lamo that the government had months to prepare for the release of the diplomatic cables, and to ameliorate any harm they might have caused.[48]
Lamo contacted the FBI shortly after the first chat with Manning on May 21. Lamo had discussed the chat with Chet Uber of the volunteer group, Project Vigilant, which researches cyber crime, and a friend who had worked in military intelligence. The friend asked Lamo about a code word Manning had used. Ed Caesar writes that the friend replied: "[N]ever repeat those words again," at which point Lamo knew Manning was the real thing. Both men advised Lamo to go to the FBI, and they reported what he had told them to the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command.[47]
Glenn Greenwald of
Salon strongly criticized
Wired's failure to release the full chat logs.
[49]
On May 25, Lamo met with FBI and Army officers at a Starbucks near his home in California, where he showed them the chat logs. On or around that date, he also passed the story to Kevin Poulsen of Wired, and on May 27 gave him the chat logs and Manning's name under embargo. He saw the FBI again that day, at which point they told him Manning had been arrested in Iraq the day before. Poulsen and Kim Zetter broke the news of the arrest in Wired on June 6, described by Daniel Domscheit-Berg as the worst moment in the history of WikiLeaks.[50] Wired published around 25 percent of the chat logs on June 6 and June 10, saying the remainder either infringed Manning's privacy or compromised sensitive military information. Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post published excerpts on June 10 that she obtained from Lamo, and on June 19 BoingBoing published what it said was a more complete version.[49]
Glenn Greenwald, writing in Salon in December 2010, called the failure by Wired to publish the logs in full "easily one of the worst journalistic disgraces of the year," writing that Poulsen and Wired were, in effect, shielding Lamo and the government from having the sequence of events scrutinized.[49] Greenwald wrote this before material had leaked out about Manning's gender identity confusion; Wired's editor, Evan Hansen, replied that there was sensitive personal information in the logs, without elaborating. Wired eventually published the full logs in July 2011, after some of the personal material had appeared elsewhere.[51]
Manning–Wikileaks
timeline
|
|
|
Oct 2009: Manning sent to Iraq.
Nov: Manning finds Apache Baghdad footage.
Nov 25: Wikileaks publishes 9/11 pager
messages.
Nov: Manning allegedly contacts Wikileaks.
Feb 18, 2010: Wikileaks releases Reykjavik 13
cable, purportedly from Manning.
Mar 15: Wikileaks releases Defense Dept
report about Wikileaks, purportedly from Manning.
Mar 29: Wikileaks releases State Dept profiles
of Icelandic politicians, purportedly from Manning.
Apr 05: Wikileaks releases Apache Baghdad
footage, purportedly from Manning.
May 21–25/6: Manning chats with Adrian Lamo.
May 26: Manning arrested in Iraq.
Jun 06: Wired publishes partial Manning-Lamo
chat logs.
Jul 05: Manning charged.
Jul 25: Wikileaks releases Afghan War Diary,
purportedly from Manning.
Jul 29: Manning transferred to the U.S.
Oct 22: Wikileaks releases Iraq War logs,
purportedly from Manning.
Nov 28: Newspapers publish U.S.diplomatic
cables from Wikileaks, purportedly from Manning.
Jan 2011: United Nations Special Rapporteur
submits inquiry to U.S. about Manning.
Mar 01: Manning charged with 22 more offenses.
Dec 16: Article 32 hearing begins.
Feb 03, 2012: Manning ordered to stand trial.
|
|
Manning was arrested on May 26, 2010, and held at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.[52] He was charged on July 5, 2010, with a number of offences, which were replaced on March 1, 2011, by 22 charges, including violations of Articles 92 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and of the Espionage Act. The most serious of the charges is "aiding the enemy," a capital offense. Prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty, but if convicted he would face life imprisonment.[53]
On July 29, 2010, Manning was moved from Kuwait to the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and classified as a maximum custody detainee. He was assigned Prevention of Injury (POI) status, though according to a letter from Manning to the army, the brig psychiatrist repeatedly recommended that the POI status be removed. Manning complained that he regarded the decision to prolong his POI status as pre-trial punishment.[54]
POI status is one stop short of suicide watch, entailing checks by guards every five minutes. His lawyer, David Coombs, a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve and former military attorney, said he was not allowed to sleep between 5 am (7 am at weekends) and 8 pm, and was made to stand or sit up if he tried to. He was required to remain visible at all times, including at night, which entailed no access to sheets, no pillow except one built into his mattress, and a blanket designed not to be shredded. He was required to sleep in boxer shorts, and said he had experienced chafing of the skin from the heavy blanket.[55]
His cell was 6 x 12 ft with no window, containing a bed, toilet, and sink. The jail had 30 cells built in a U shape, and although detainees could talk to one another, they were unable to see each other. His lawyer said the guards behaved professionally, and had not tried to harass or embarrass Manning. He was allowed to walk for up to one hour a day, meals were taken in the cell, and he was shackled during visits. There was access to television when it was placed in the corridor, and he was allowed to keep one magazine and one book – Nicks writes that he had a subscription to Scientific American, and that one book on his request list was Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781). Because he was in pre-trial detention, he received full pay and benefits.[55]
On January 18, 2011, the jail classified him as a suicide risk after an altercation with four of the guards. There had been a protest outside the jail the previous day, and Manning wrote in a letter to the army that he believed the guards were responding to that. He said the guards began issuing conflicting commands, such as "turn left, don't turn left," and upbraiding him for responding to commands with "yes" instead of "aye." Shortly afterwards, he was placed on suicide risk, had his clothing and eyeglasses removed, and was required to remain in his cell 24 hours a day. The suicide watch was lifted on January 21 after a complaint from his lawyer, and the brig commander who had ordered it was replaced.[56]
On March 2, 2011, he was informed that his request to be removed from maximum custody and Prevention of Injury status had been denied. His lawyer said Manning joked to the guards that, if he wanted to harm himself, he could do so "with the elastic waistband of his underwear or with his flip-flops." The comment resulted in him having his clothes removed again at night, though he was not formally classified as a suicide risk – the brig psychiatrist subsequently deemed him at low risk of suicide – and had to present himself outside his cell naked one morning for inspection, reports of which triggered more protests.[57]
The detention conditions prompted national and international concern. The army said he was being held under a Prevention of Injury order for his own safety; President Obama confirmed he had received assurances from the Pentagon to this effect. A Quantico spokesman said Manning was able to talk to guards and other prisoners, though he could not see the prisoners from his cell, and left his cell for a daily hour of exercise, as well as for showers, phone calls, meetings with his lawyer, and weekend visits by friends and relatives. Nevertheless, there were allegations of impropriety. Daniel Ellsberg, the Marine veteran who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers – a Department of Defense study of the United States involvement in Vietnam – and himself a WikiLeaks supporter, said the treatment amounted to "no-touch torture" intended to demoralize Manning so he would implicate Julian Assange.[59]
Juan E. Mendez, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, requested a meeting with the State Department, later publishing a report that the detention conditions had been "cruel, inhuman and degrading." In January 2011, Amnesty became involved, asking the British government to intervene because of Manning's status as a British citizen by descent, and the case was raised in the British parliament, though Manning's lawyer said he did not regard himself as a British citizen.[60] The controversy claimed a casualty in March 2011, when State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley, speaking to a small audience, called Manning's treatment "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid," and resigned two days later.[61]
In early April 2011, 295 academics (most of them American legal scholars) led by Yochai Benkler of Harvard Law School and Bruce Ackerman of Yale Law School, signed a letter arguing that the treatment was a violation of the United States Constitution, specifically the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, and the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against punishment without trial. On April 20, the Pentagon transferred Manning to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, a new medium-security facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was placed in an 80-square-foot cell with a window and a normal mattress, able to mix with other pre-trial detainees, write whenever he wanted, and keep personal objects in his cell.[62]
In April 2011, a panel of experts ruled that Manning was fit to stand trial. An Article 32 hearing, presided over by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Almanza, was convened on December 16, 2011, at Fort Meade, Maryland, to determine whether to proceed to a court martial. The hearing resulted in Almanza recommending that Manning be referred to a general court-martial. He was arraigned on February 23, and declined to enter a plea.[63]
The prosecution, led by Captain Ashden Fine, presented 300,000 pages of documents in evidence, including chat logs and classified material.[64] The court heard from two army investigators, Special Agent David Shaver, head of the digital forensics and research branch of the army's Computer Crime Investigative Unit (CCIU), and Mark Johnson, a digital forensics contractor from ManTech International, who works for the CCIU. They testified that they had found 100,000 State Department cables on a workplace computer Manning had used between November 2009 and May 2010; 400,000 military reports from Iraq and 91,000 from Afghanistan on an SD card found in his basement room in his aunt's home in Potomac, Maryland; and 10,000 cables on his personal MacBook Pro and storage devices that they said had not been passed to WikiLeaks because a file was corrupted. They also recovered 14–15 pages of encrypted chats, in unallocated space on Manning's MacBook's hard drive, between Manning and someone believed to be Julian Assange. Two of the chat handles, which used the Berlin Chaos Computer Club's domain (ccc.de), were associated with the names Julian Assange and Nathaniel Frank.[65]
Johnson said he found SSH logs on the MacBook that showed an SFTP connection, from an IP address that resolved to Manning's aunt's home, to a Swedish IP address with links to WikiLeaks.[65] There was also a text file named "Readme" attached to the logs, a note apparently written by Manning to Assange, which called the Iraq and Afghan War logs "possibly one of the most significant documents of our time, removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century assymmetric warfare."[66] The investigators testified they had also recovered an exchange from May 2010 between Manning and Eric Schmiedl, a Boston mathematician, in which Manning said he was the source of the Baghdad helicopter attack ("Collateral Murder") video. Johnson said there had been two attempts to delete material from the MacBook. The operating system was re-installed in January 2010, and on or around January 31 an attempt was made to erase the hard drive by doing a "zero-fill," which involves overwriting material with zeroes. The material was overwritten only once, which meant it could be retrieved.[65]
Manning's lawyers argued that the government had overstated the harm the release of the documents had caused, and had overcharged Manning to force him to give evidence against Assange. The defense also raised the issue of his gender identity disorder, whether it had affected his judgment, and whether the "don't ask, don't tell" policy had made it difficult for Manning to serve in the army.[67]
Billboard erected in Washington, D.C., by the Bradley Manning Support Network
Frankfurt, Germany, January 2012.
The publication of the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, attracted in-depth coverage across the globe, with several governments blocking websites that contained embarrassing details. Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, one of several news outlets that entered into an agreement with Assange to publish the material, said of the diplomatic cable leaks: "I can't think of a time when there was ever a story generated by a news organisation where the White House, the Kremlin, Chávez, India, China, everyone in the world was talking about these things. ... I've never known a story that created such mayhem that wasn't an event like a war or a terrorist attack."[69]
Nicks writes that Manning's name "appended like a slogan to wholesale denunciations and exultations alike" – he was either a "Tiananmen Square Tank Man," or "the worst kind of traitor," someone had betrayed his country out of personal anger with the military. United States Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the leaks had placed the lives of American soldiers and Afghan informants in danger. The Washington Post wrote that grass-roots activists saw Manning as a hero, while Glenn Greenwald argued that he was the most important whistleblower since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. A Washington Post editorial asked why an apparently unstable Army private had been able to access and transfer sensitive material in the first place. According to Nicks, Manning's sexuality came into play too. "Don't ask, don't tell" was repealed not long after his arrest, with Manning illustrating for a right-wing fringe that gays were not fit for military service, while the mainstream media presented him as a gay soldier driven mad by bullying.[70]
Manning and WikiLeaks were credited as catalysts for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, when waves of protesters threatened or toppled rulers across the Middle East and North Africa after the leaked cables exposed government corruption. Heather Brooke writes that, in Tunisia, where the uprisings began on December 17 with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in protest at being unable to make a living, one of the cables – published around 10 days earlier – showed that the President's daughter and her husband had their ice-cream flown in from Saint-Tropez. As Time magazine designated "the protester" as its 2011 person of the year, Brooke writes that WikiLeaks came under tremendous pressure, experiencing distributed denial-of-service attacks that shut down their servers, and finding themselves unable to receive donations when PayPal, banks, and credit card companies refused to process them.[71]
Mike Gogulski, an American expatriate in Slovakia, formed the Bradley Manning Support Network in June 2010, and was soon joined by a friend of Manning's, Danny Clark, freedom of information activist Nadim Kobeissi, and several notable figures, including Daniel Ellsberg and filmmaker Michael Moore. Rallies were held, as well as protests outside the jail – Ellsberg, by then in his 80s, was one of 30 protesters arrested during one of them – and by May 2012 over 11,000 people had donated $600,000, including $15,100 from WikiLeaks. Manning also had support from the hacker group, Anonymous, which threatened in March 2011 to disrupt activities at Quantico by cyber-attacking communications if he was not given access to clothing, bed clothes, reading material, and a ball. They called it "Operation Bradical."[72]
Manning was one of 241 candidates listed for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, and was nominated again in 2012 by the Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Peace Research and three members of the Icelandic parliament. Graham Nash and James Raymond wrote a song in his support in 2011, naming it after a phrase Manning's lawyer had used to describe his mental health – "Almost Gone."[73]
- Material associated with Manning
- Note: Articles used as references repeatedly, or which are central to the story, are presented in shortened form in this section, as are books; for full citations for those sources, see the References section below. Other references are cited in full in this section.
- ^ Nicks, September 23, 2010.
- For the initial charges, see "Soldier faces criminal charges", United States Division—Center, Media Release, July 6, 2010.
- Also see "Charge sheet", Cryptome, accessed December 26, 2010; and "Charge sheet", The Washington Post.
- For the additional charges, see Miklaszewski, Jim and Kube, Courtney. "Manning faces new charges, possible death penalty", msnbc.com, March 2, 2011.
- ^ Leigh and Harding 2011, pp. 194ff, 211.
- ^ a b "WikiLeaks Suspect Transferred to Fort Leavenworth", Associated Press, April 20, 2011.
- For the letter from the legal scholars, see Ackerman, Bruce and Benkler, Yochai. "Private Manning’s Humiliation", The New York Review of Books, accessed April 5, 2011 (see a later correction here).
- For the significance of the letter, see Pilkington, Ed. "Bradley Manning: top US legal scholars voice outrage at 'torture'", The Guardian, April 10, 2011.
- For the arraignment, see Rizzo, Jennifer "Bradley Manning charged", CNN, February 23, 2012.
- That he was found fit to stand trial, see "Panel Says WikiLeaks Suspect Is Competent to Stand Trial", Associated Press, April 29, 2011.
- ^ For the comparisons, see Nicks 2012, p. 3, and for the Arab Spring, see pp. 212–216.
- For the "access to sensitive material" questions, see for example "The right response to WikiLeaks", The Washington Post, editorial, November 30, 2010.
- Also for the access issue, see Greenwald, June 18, 2010.
- For more on the access issue, see Nicks 2012, pp. 116–117: "Though he was a lowly private in the chain of command, the digitization of classified communications and the government's twenty-first century information-sharing initiatives conspired to him give unprecedented access to state secrets."
- ^ Fishman, July 3, 2011, pp. 2–3.
- ^ For his weight and height, see Kirkland, Michael. "Under the U.S. Supreme Court: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks martyr?", United Press International, March 13, 2011.
- For C++, the quiz bowl, and rewriting video code, see Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- For the interview with the father, see Smith, March 2011, from 02:25 mins (transcript).
- Also see Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 4.
- ^ For his mother not adjusting, Manning fending for himself, and the neighbor, see Thompson, August 8, 2010, p. 1.
- For the mother's health issues, and the pre-signed checks, see Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- For the father stocking up on food, see "Interview Brian Manning", PBS Frontline, March 2011.
- For Manning fearing him, see "Interview Jordan Davis", PBS Frontline, March 2011.
- ^ For Rick McCombs, see Nicks, September 23, 2010.
- For early independence and behavioral issues, see Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- For religion, see Thompson, August 8, 2010, p. 1.
- For the father being strict with him, and his sexual orientation, see Smith, March 2011:
-
- ^ Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- For the fight and the social workers, see Hansen, July 13, 2011, at "(11:36:34 AM) bradass87".
- Also see Nicks 2012, pp. 19–20.
- ^ For James Kirkpatrick's views, see Caesar, December 19, 2010.
- For the website, see angeldyne.com, December 7, 2003.
- For Manning referring to the website as his, see Hansen, July 13, 2011, at "(11:40:25 AM) bradass87".
- For "Bradders," see Nicks 2012, p. 21.
- ^ For being the only American in the school and being impersonated, see Leigh and Harding 2011, p. 24.
- ^ Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 3.
- ^ Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 3.
- ^ Nicks 2012, pp. 24–25, 51–56.
- *Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 3.
- *Also see Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- *For the jobs, see "Bradley Manning's Facebook Page", PBS Frontline, March 2011.
- ^ Nicks 2012, p. 57.
- ^ For concerns about his stability, see Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- For basic training, and the video interview with the soldier, see Smith et al, May 27, 2011; soldier's interview begins 07:10 mins.
-
- For the drill sergeants and "General Manning," see Nicks 2012, p. 62.
- ^ For his restarting basic training in January 2008, see Nicks 2012, p. 73.
- For the army needing intelligence analysts, and for the top-security clearance, see Nakashima, May 4, 2011, and for the "TS/SCI security clearance," see Nicks 2012, p. 116.
- For the "unprecedented access to state secrets," see Nicks 2012, p. 117.
- Also see Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 2.
- For the reprimand regarding YouTube, see Nicks, September 23, 2010; also see Nicks 2012, p. 75.
- For the 10th Mountain Division, 2nd Brigade, see Nicks 2012, p. 82.
- ^ Leigh and Harding 2011, pp. 27–28.
- ^ For his introduction to the hacker community, see Leigh and Harding 2011, pp. 27–28.
- For the anonymous interview, see Her, Phim. "Teen hears peoples' stories at LGBTQ rally", syracuse.com, November 17, 2008.
- That the interviewee was Manning, see Nicks, September 23, 2010, and Nick 2012, p. 82.
- For Manning's reference to the interview on Facebook, see "Bradley Manning's Facebook Page", PBS Frontline, March 2011.
- ^ For the introduction to lobbyists and others, see Nicks 2012, p. 85.
- For the emotional problems and referral to a counsellor, see Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 1, and Nicks 2012, p. 114.
- For the films, see Nicks 2012, p. 88.
- For the relationship with Watkins, see Nicks, September 23, 2010, and Nicks 2012, p. 122.
- ^ For his time in Fort Polk, and for "risk to himself and possibly others," see Nicks 2012, pp. 114–115; for Forward Operating Base Hammer, see pp. 123–124.
- For "risk to himself," also see Nakashima, May 4, 2011, and "Accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning's Dream of Becoming President", Newsweek, April 12, 2012 (excerpt from Nicks 2012).
- For the promotion, see "Bradley Manning's Facebook Page", PBS Frontline, March 2011.
- ^ Leigh and Harding, 2011, p. 31, and Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- ^ Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 5.
- ^ For the fairy wand, see Thompson, August 8, 2010, p. 2. l* For the roommate, see Rushe, Dominic and Williams, Matt. "Bradley Manning pre-trial hearing – Monday 19 December", The Guardian, December 19, 2011.
- ^ For a description of the incident, and the view that his access to sensitive material ought to have been withdrawn, see Nicks 2012, pp. 133–134.
- For the same incident, also see Radia, Kirit and Martinez, Luis. "Bradley Manning Defense Reveals Alter Ego Named 'Breanna Manning'", ABC News, December 17, 2011.
- For the gun rack, see Williams, Matt. "Bradley Manning hearing told of lax security at military intelligence unit", The Guardian, December 18, 2011.
- For the Facebook comments, "Bradley Manning's Facebook Page", PBS Frontline, March 201, and Blake, Heidi; Bingham, John; and Rayner, Gordon. "Bradley Manning, suspected source of WikiLeaks documents, raged on his Facebook page", The Daily Telegraph, July 30, 2010.
- ^ Nicks 2012, pp. 131–135, 137–138.
- For his living as a woman, see Nicks 2012, p. 146.
- For the WikiLeaks tweet, see "Have encrypted videos ...", Twitter, January 8, 2010 (archived from the original, May 8, 2012. The tweet said: "Have encrypted videos of US bomb strikes on civilians ... bit.ly/wlafghan2 we need super computer time http://ljsf.org/"
- For Tyler Watkins statement to Wired, see Poulsen and Zetter, June 6, 2010.
- For the details of his leave, see "Bradley Manning's Facebook Page", PBS Frontline, March 2011.
- For the reference to the "Collateral murder" video in February 2010, see Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- ^ For the e-mail to his master sergeant about Breanna Manning, see Nicks 2012, pp. 162–163.
- ^ Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- ^ For the Facebook comments, see Nicks 2012, p. 164, and "Bradley Manning's Facebook Page", PBS Frontline, March 2011.
- For the storage cupboard, the psychiatrist, and the discharge, see Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- For the same incident, see Nicks 2012, pp. 161–163.
- For the altercation with the woman officer, see Sanchez, Raf. "Bradley Manning 'attacked female soldier and sent picture of himself as a woman'", The Daily Telegraph, December 18, 2011.
- Also see O'Kane, Maggie et al. "Bradley Manning: the bullied outsider who knew US military's inner secrets", and "WikiLeaks accused Bradley Manning 'should never have been sent to Iraq'", The Guardian, May 27, 2011.
- ^ For Jonathan Odell, see Nakashima, May 4, 2011.
- ^ a b Leigh and Harding 2011, pp. 52–56.
- ^ For WikiLeaks security, see Domscheit-Berg 2011, p. 165.
- For the U.S. government trying to determine whether Assange encouraged Manning, see Savage, Charlie. "U.S. Tries to Build Case for Conspiracy by WikiLeaks", The New York Times, December 15, 2010.
- For Manning's chats with Lamo, see Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- For the 14 pages of chats between Manning and Assange, see Nicks 2012, p. 155, and Zetter, Kim. "Jolt in WikiLeaks Case: Feds Found Manning-Assange Chat Logs on Laptop", Wired, December 19, 2011.
- ^ For the publishing sequence, see Leigh and Harding 2010, p. 70.
- For more information about the "Reykjavik 13" cable and the State Department profiles of politicians, see Myers, Steven Lee. "Charges for Soldier Accused of Leak", The New York Times, July 6, 2010.
- For "test" document, see Hansen, July 13, 2011 and Nicks, September 23, 2010.
- For the leak of the Defense Dept report on WikiLeaks, see Kravets, David. "Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army", Wired, March 15, 2010.
- For the Defense Dept report itself, see Assange, Julian. "U.S. intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks", WikiLeaks release on March 15, 2010, of Horvath, Michael D. "Wikileaks.org—An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups?", United States Army Counterintelligence Center, Department of Defense Counterintelligence Analysis Program, March 18, 2008.
- ^ "Open Secrets: WikiLeaks, War and American Diplomacy," The New York Times.
- ^ Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- ^ Nicks 2012, pp. 157–161.
- ^ Leigh and Harding, 2010, p. 70 for the publishing sequence; p. 194ff for the material WikiLeaks published; and p. 211 for the number of documents and comment from WikiLeaks.
- For Nicks's analysis, see Nicks 2012, pp. 191–193; for the number of documents in the Afghan and Iraq War logs and Cablegate, and for the publication dates, see pp. 204, 206. Note: there were 91,731 documents in all in the Afghan War logs; around 77,000 have been published as of May 2012.
- For Manning's chat with Lamo, see Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- ^ For the Ethiopian journalist and the relocation of sources, see Nicks 2012, p. 208.
- For the inadvertent publication of the passphrase, see:
-
- Greenwald, Glenn. "Facts and myths in the WikiLeaks/Guardian saga", Salon, 2 September 2011; archived from the original on March 7, 2012.
- Stöcker, Christian. "A Dispatch Disaster in Six Acts", Der Spiegel, 1 September 2011; archived from the original on March 7, 2012.
- Mackey, Robert et al. "All Leaked U.S. Cables Were Made Available Online as WikiLeaks Splintered", The New York Times, 1 September 2011; archived from the original on 7 March 2012.
- ^ a b For Poulsen's relationship with Lamo, see Last, January 11, 2011.
- ^ For Poulsen's article about Lamo, see Poulsen, May 20, 2010.
- ^ Hulme, George V. "With Friends Like This", InformationWeek, July 8, 2002.
- ^ Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 6.
- ^ Greenwald, June 18, 2010.
- Greenwald, Glenn. Email exchange between Glenn Greenwald and Kevin Poulsen, June 14–17, 2010.
- Greenwald wrote: "Lamo told me that Manning first emailed him on May 20 and, according to highly edited chat logs released by Wired, had his first online chat with Manning on May 21; in other words, Manning first contacted Lamo the very day that Poulsen's Wired article on Lamo's involuntary commitment appeared (the Wired article is time-stamped 5:46 p.m. on May 20).
"Lamo, however, told me that Manning found him not from the Wired article – which Manning never mentioned reading – but from searching the word "WikiLeaks" on Twitter, which led him to a tweet Lamo had written that included the word "WikiLeaks." Even if Manning had really found Lamo through a Twitter search for "WikiLeaks," Lamo could not explain why Manning focused on him, rather than the thousands of other people who have also mentioned the word "WikiLeaks" on Twitter, including countless people who have done so by expressing support for WikiLeaks."
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- Also see Nicks 2012, pp. 171–184.
- ^ Hansen, July 13, 2011.
- ^ Nicks 2012, pp. 183–184.
- ^ a b Caesar, December 19, 2010.
- ^ Nicks 2012, pp. 225–233; p. 232 for the point about the government having months to prepare.
- ^ a b c Greenwald, December 27, 2010.
- ^ For the first Wired story, see Poulsen and Zetter, June 6, 2010.
- For the sequence of events, and Lamo meeting with the FBI, see Greenwald, June 18, 2010.
- For Domscheit-Berg's view, see Domscheit-Berg 2011, p. 164.
- ^ Hansen and Poulsen, December 28, 2010.
- ^ Poulsen and Zetter, June 16, 2010.
- ^ Nicks 2012, p. 247.
- ^ Manning, March 10, 2011, p. 7.
- ^ a b For Manning's lawyer's description of the detention, see "A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning", The Law Offices of David E. Coombs, December 18, 2010; archived from the original on April 6, 2012.
-
- The list was: Decision Points by George W. Bush; Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant; Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant; Propaganda by Edward Bernayse; The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins; A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn; The Art of War by Sun Tzu; The Good Soldiers by David Finke; and On War by Gen. Carl von Clausewitz.
- For a description of the jail, see Nakashima, Ellen. "In brig, WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning ordered to sleep without clothing", The Washington Post, March 5, 2011.
- For full pay and benefits, see Marshall, Serena. "Court Martial for Bradley Manning in Wikileaks Case?", ABC News, December 22, 2011, p. 2.
- ^ Nicks 2012, pp. 240–242.
- ^ Manning, March 10, 2011, p. 9ff.
- Nakashima, Ellen. "In brig, WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning ordered to sleep without clothing", The Washington Post, March 5, 2011.
- For a sleep garment having been supplied, see Nakashima, Ellen. "WikiLeaks suspect's treatment 'stupid,' U.S. official says", The Washington Post, March 12, 2011.
- For a description of the smock, see "Editorial; The Abuse of Private Manning", The New York Times, March 15, 2011.
- ^ Ackerman, Bruce and Benkler, Yochai. "Private Manning’s Humiliation", The New York Review of Books, accessed April 10, 2011.
- ^ For the Quantico spokesman, see Shane, Scott. "Accused Soldier in Brig as WikiLeaks Link is Sought", The New York Times, January 13, 2011.
- For President Obama, see Zengerle, Patricia. "Obama asked Pentagon about Wiki soldier's treatment", Reuters, March 11, 2011.
- For Daniel Ellsberg, see Ellsberg, Daniel. "This shameful abuse of Bradley Manning", The Guardian, March 11, 2011.
- Also see:
-
- Greenwald, Glenn. "The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention", Salon, December 15, 2010.
- Sontheimer, Michael. "I Have Watched My Friend Degrade over Time", Der Spiegel, March 14, 2011.
- "State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley decries Bradley Manning's treatment as 'counterproductive,' 'stupid'", CBS News, March 11, 2011.
- ^ For the UN, see Zetter, Kim. "UN Torture Chief: Bradley Manning Treatment Was Cruel, Inhuman", Wired, March 12, 2012.
- For Amnesty, see "Letter from Amnesty International to Robert M. Gates", Amnesty International, London, January 19, 2011, courtesy of Allvoices.com, accessed February 15, 2011.
- For Amnesty's approach to the British government, see Pilkington, Ed; McGreal, Chris; and Morris, Steven. "Bradley Manning is UK citizen and needs protection, government told", The Guardian, February 1, 2011. The newspaper wrote that under the British Nationality Act 1981 anyone born outside the UK after January 1, 1983 whose mother is a British citizen by birth is British by descent.
- For Manning's view of his nationality, see Coombs, David E. "Clarification Regarding PFC Manning's Citizenship", Law Offices of David E. Coombs, February 2, 2011: "There has been some discussion regarding PFC Bradley Manning's citizenship. PFC Manning does not hold a British passport, nor does he consider himself a British citizen. He is an American, and is proud to be serving in the United States Army. His current confinement conditions are troubling to many both here in the United States and abroad. This concern, however, is not a citizenship issue."
- For the British embassy and the case being raised in parliament, see Addley, Esther and Leigh, David. "Bradley Manning supporters welcome UK government's expression of concern", The Guardian, April 5, 2011; for Ann Clywd raising the issue in the House of Commons, see "MPs raise concerns over Bradley Manning's treatment", BBC, April 4, 2011.
- Also see "Bradley Manning needs consular visit, mother tells William Hague", The Guardian, April 13, 2011.
- ^ For Philip J. Crowley's comments, see Nakashima, Ellen. "WikiLeaks suspect's treatment 'stupid,' U.S. official says", The Washington Post, March 12, 2011.
- ^ For the letter, see Ackerman, Bruce and Benkler, Yochai. "Private Manning’s Humiliation", The New York Review of Books, accessed April 10, 2011.
- ^ That he was deemed fit to stand trial, see "Panel Says WikiLeaks Suspect Is Competent to Stand Trial", Associated Press, April 29, 2011.
- For the order that he stand trial, see Zetter, Kim. "Bradley Manning to Face All Charges in Court-Martial", Wired, February 3, 2012.
- For the arraignment, see Rizzo, Jennifer "Bradley Manning charged", CNN, February 23, 2012.
- ^ Rath, Arun. "What Happened At Bradley Manning’s Hearing This Week?", PBS Frontline, December 22, 2011.
- ^ a b c For the army investigators' testimony, see Zetter, December 19, 2011.
- For more from the army investigators, including the reference to Eric Schmiedl, see Dishneau, David and Jelinek, Pauline. "Witness: Manning said leak would lift 'fog of war'", Associated Press, December 19, 2011.
- Also see "Investigators link WikiLeaks suspect to Assange", Agence France-Presse, December 20, 2011.
- ^ Nicks 2012, pp. 137–138; also see Zetter, December 19, 2011.
- ^
- For the government overcharging Manning, see Zetter, Kim. "Army Piles on Evidence in Final Arguments in WikiLeaks Hearing", Wired, December 22, 2011.
- For the gender issues, see Radia, Kirit and Martinez, Luis. "Bradley Manning Defense Reveals Alter Ego Named 'Breanna Manning'", ABC News, December 17, 2011.
- ^ For example, see Horne, Nigel. "Tunisia: WikiLeaks had a part in Ben Ali's downfall", The Week, January 15, 2011, and Rosenbach, Marcel and Schmitz, Gregor Peter. "US Determined to Punish Bradley Manning", Der Spiegel, December 15, 2011.
- ^ Brooke 2011, p. 223.
- ^ For the quotes from Denver Nicks, and his discussion of gays in the military, see Nicks 2012, pp. 3, 196–197.
- For Michael Mullen, see Jaffe, Greg and Partlow, Joshua. "Mullen says leak put troops and Afghans in danger; WikiLeaks documents include names of informants helping U.S.", The Washington Post, July 30, 2010.
- For "grass-roots activists" regarding Manning as a hero, see Savage, Michael. "Army analyst celebrated as antiwar hero; Many rally to soldier's defense after disclosure of classified documents", The Washington Post, August 14, 2010; also see Last, January 11, 2011.
- For the Washington Post editorial, see "The right response to WikiLeaks", The Washington Post, editorial, November 30, 2010.
- For Glenn Greenwald, see Fishman, July 3, 2011, p. 8.
- ^ For the ice-cream from Saint-Tropez, see Brooke 2011, p. 225.
- For the ice-cream and the WikiLeaks connection, also see Horne, Nigel. "Tunisia: WikiLeaks had a part in Ben Ali's downfall", The Week, January 15, 2011.
- For the cable mentioning the ice-cream, see "A Selection From the Cache of Diplomatic Dispatches", The New York Times.
- For the approximate date of the ice-cream cable's first publication, and Tunisia's blocking of a Lebanese website covering it, see Black, Ian. "WikiLeaks cables: Tunisia blocks site reporting 'hatred' of first lady", The Guardian, December 7, 2010.
- For the cables and WikiLeaks as catalysts, see Malinowski, Tom. "Whispering at Autocrats", Foreign Policy, January 25, 2011.
- For WikiLeaks and the newspapers that published the material as catalysts, see Walker, Peter. "Amnesty International hails WikiLeaks and Guardian as Arab spring 'catalysts'", The Guardian, May 13, 2011.
- For the same view, see "Introduction", Annual Report 2011, Amnesty International, accessed April 7, 2012.
- Also see Rosenbach, Marcel and Schmitz, Gregor Peter. "US Determined to Punish Bradley Manning", Der Spiegel, December 15, 2011.
- For more on Manning and the protests, see "In the year of the protester, Bradley Manning is the great dissenter", The Irish Times, December 24, 2011.
- For analysis of Manning's impact, see Nicks 2012, pp. 212–216.
- For Time, see "Time's Person of the Year: the Protester", Time magazine, December 14, 2011.
- For WikiLeaks coming under pressure, see Brooke 2011, p. 223.
- ^ For how the support network was formed, see Nicks 2012, pp. 222–223.
- For Michael Moore, see Dishneau, David. "Michael Moore Praises Suspected WikiLeaks Source", Associated Press, August 21, 2010.
- For Mike Gogulski and the Courage to Resist, see Savage, Michael W. "Army analyst linked to WikiLeaks hailed as antiwar hero", The Washington Post, August 14, 2010.
- For the rallies, see "Montreal protesters rally in support of WikiLeaks", The Montreal Gazette, December 18, 2010.
- For Ellsberg's arrest, see Fears, Darryl. "Protesters arrested near Quantico as rally for alleged WikiLeaks source turns tense", The Washington Post, March 20, 2011.
- For the $15,100 from WikiLeaks, see "WikiLeaks contributes to Manning defense, support group says", CNN, January 15, 2011; and for other donations, see "The Bradley Manning Defense Fund", Courage to Resist, accessed March 3, 2012.
- For Anonymous, see Greenberg, Andy. "Anonymous Hackers Target Alleged WikiLeaker Bradley Manning’s Jailers", Forbes, March 7, 2011.
- ^ For the Nobel Peace Prize nominations, see:
-
- Fouche, Gwladys. "Nobel Peace Prize may recognise Arab Spring", Reuters, September 27, 2011.
- Capps, Ron. "The Nobel Betrayal Prize?", Time magazine, February 8, 2012.
- "Pfc. Bradley Manning nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Oklahoma anti-war group", February 10, 2012.
- "Bradley Manning nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 2012", February 7, 2012.
- Books
- Brooke, Heather. The Revolution Will Be Digitised. William Heinemann, 2011.
- Domscheit-Berg, Daniel. Inside WikiLeaks. Doubleday, 2011.
- Fowler, Andrew. The Most Dangerous Man in the World. Skyhorse Publishing, 2011.
- Leigh, David and Harding, Luke. WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy. Guardian Books, 2011.
- Nicks, Denver. Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History. Chicago Review Press, 2012.
- Key articles
- Caesar, Ed. "Bradley Manning: Wikileaker", The Sunday Times, December 19, 2010; archived from the original on April 7, 2012.
- Fishman, Steve. "Bradley Manning’s Army of One", New York Magazine, July 3, 2011.
- Greenwald, Glenn. "The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks", Salon, June 18, 2010.
- Last, Jonathan V. "The Left's Canonization of St. Bradley Manning", CBS News, January 11, 2011.
- Manning, Bradley. "Memorandum", released by David Coombs, March 10, 2011; archived from the original on April 6, 2012.
- Nakashima, Ellen. "Bradley Manning is at the center of the WikiLeaks controversy. But who is he?", The Washington Post, May 4, 2011; archived from the original on April 7, 2012.
- Nicks, Denver. "Private Manning and the Making of Wikileaks", This Land, September 23, 2010.
- PBS Frontline. "Bradley Manning's Facebook Page", March 2011; archived from the original on April 7, 2011.
- Thompson, Ginger. "Early Struggles of Soldier Charged in Leak Case", The New York Times, August 8, 2010.
- Zetter, Kim. "Jolt in WikiLeaks Case: Feds Found Manning-Assange Chat Logs on Laptop", Wired, December 19, 2011.
- Key articles regarding the Lamo-Manning chat log, in order of publication
- Poulsen, Kevin. "Ex-Hacker Adrian Lamo Institutionalized for Asperger’s", Wired magazine, May 20, 2010.
- Poulsen, Kevin and Zetter, Kim. "U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in WikiLeaks Video Probe", Wired magazine, June 6, 2010.
- Poulsen, Kevin and Zetter, Kim. 'I Can't Believe What I'm Confessing to You': The WikiLeaks Chats", Wired magazine, June 10, 2010.
- Nakashima, Ellen. "Messages from alleged leaker Bradley Manning portray him as despondent soldier", The Washington Post, June 10, 2010.
- Greenwald, Glenn. Email exchange between Glenn Greenwald and Kevin Poulsen, June 14–17, 2010.
- Poulsen, Kevin and Zetter, Kim. "Three Weeks After Arrest, Still No Charges in WikiLeaks Probe", Wired magazine, June 16, 2010.
- Xeni, Jardin. "WikiLeaks: a somewhat less redacted version of the Lamo/Manning logs", Boing Boing, June 19, 2010.
- Greenwald, Glenn. "The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired", Salon, December 27, 2010.
- Hansen, Evan and Poulsen, Kevin. "Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs", Wired magazine, December 28, 2010.
- Greenwald, Glenn. "Wired's refusal to release or comment on the Manning chat logs", Salon, December 29, 2010.
- Firedoglake. "Manning/WikiLeaks timeline", published as a complete version of the released excerpts, accessed March 14, 2011; archived from the original on March 28, 2012.
- Hansen, Evan. "Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed", Wired magazine, July 13, 2011; archived from the original on March 28, 2012.
- Audio/video
- Broom, Kyle. "Prevention of Injury (POI)", a short dramatization of the account given by Manning in his letter to the army (Manning, March 10, 2011); also see ImDb, accessed April 8, 2012.
- Nicks, Denver. "Private Manning Speaks", This Land, September 22, 2010 (audio).
- Smith, Martin. "The Private Life of Bradley Manning", PBS Frontline, March 7, 2011.
-
- Articles
- Khatchadourian, Raffi. "No Secrets", The New Yorker, June 7, 2010.
- The Guardian. "Afghanistan: The War Logs", accessed May 9, 2012.
- The Guardian. "Iraq: The War Logs", accessed May 9, 2012.
- The New York Times. "The War Logs, accessed May 9, 2012.
- Wired. "Bradley Manning", accessed May 8, 2012.
- Books
- Assange, Julian and O'Hagan, Andrew. Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography. Canongate, 2011.
- Madar, Chase. The Passion of Bradley Manning. OR Books, 2012.
- Mitchell, Greg and Gosztola, Kevin. Truth and Consequences: The U.S. vs. Bradley Manning. Sinclair Books, 2012.
- Video
- Gonzales, Juan and Goodman, Amy. "Glenn Greenwald on the Assange Extradition Ruling, the Jailing of Bradley Manning ...", Democracy Now!, February 24, 2011.
- Miller, Michelle. "Private", CBS News, 26 April 2012; interview with Denver Nicks, author of Private (2012), Manning's biography.
- Legal documents
| Persondata |
| Name |
Manning, Bradley E. |
| Alternative names |
|
| Short description |
US soldier arrested for leaking classified information about Iraq and Afghanistan Wars |
| Date of birth |
December 17, 1987 |
| Place of birth |
Crescent, Oklahoma |
| Date of death |
|
| Place of death |
|
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Geographic data related to 
Virginia: 
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