On May 24, 2011, PBS’ Frontline program ran a program called, “WikiSecrets: The inside story of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and the largest intelligence breach in U.S. history” (see the episode here). The program had some strengths as well as some fairly serious weaknesses.

First, the weaknesses. The first part of the program featured extensive coverage of Bradley Manning’s private life, his friendships, his romance and breakup, his harassment in the army, and his association with a group of “hackers” in the Boston area. A primary source for this part is Arian Lamo, the person who turned Manning in. Lamo speaks at length and is not challenged in any of his assertions. The music, tone, and words of the narrator sound dark and ominous, projecting an image of Manning’s social life as somehow sinister and evil. Yet if one views this information more dispassionately, one sees simply the normal struggles of a young man growing up, finding his way in the world, and developing himself under particularly difficult circumstances.

Moreover, when the program then moves into the part where Arian Lamo chats with Manning and turns him in, the program presents an impression that Manning’s personal struggles are the reason that he allegedly released secret documents to WikiLeaks. Not mentioned in this section is that according to Lamo’s own chat logs, Manning was alleged to have said that during his service in Iraq, he found a huge trail of corruption and war crimes being covered up, that the world deserved the truth, and that only the truth could lead to debate and positive change. Thus, Bradley Manning is a whistleblower in the highest sense, and this motive should have gotten at least equal time with his personal struggles.

Frontline also doesn’t mention that there is debate about the chat logs (including by Assange in his complete Frontline interview: http://wikileaks.ch/WikiSecrets-Julian-Assange-Full.html), their accuracy is uncertain, and the public has no unquestioned evidence as to what Manning may or may not have actually done. Frontline uses the word “alleged” sparingly, whereas given the uncertainly of the case, it should be used strongly and often. There is no mention of the fact that other soldiers have leaked classified information with no consequences, including General Stanley McChrystal (http://www.inthemindfield.com/2011/04/17/general-injustice-the-asymmetry-of-the-cases-of-private-manning-and-general-mcchrystal/).

The program never mentions that Arian Lamo is a convicted felon who hacked into The New York Times in 2004. Lamo has a history of mental illness including hospitalizations, and a history of publicity seeking via his journalist friend at Wired magazine, Kevin Poulson – who is also a convicted hacking felon and who appears in the Frontline program giving his opinion of Bradley Manning (see: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/18/wikileaks/).

Despite Lamo’s felony conviction, he is the prime speaker in the first half of the program and is portrayed as the victim, while Manning’s friends at a party in Boston are portrayed as “hackers” with a dark tone and “X-Files” style music. Yet none of those people have ever been convicted of anything, and most have respectable jobs.

There are more weaknesses, but let’s move on to the program’s strengths. The program features extensive footage of an interview with Julian Assange, who lays out his case and states clearly that WikiLeaks does not know if Manning is their source or not. Assange explains very clearly why WikiLeaks in particular and transparency in general is important. Frontline shows that disclosures from WikiLeaks exposed the corruption in Tunisia, which ignited the “Arab Spring” now sweeping across the Middle East and advocating democracy, inter-religious understanding, and non-violent change.

The program shows the Bradley Manning Support Network demonstrating at Quantico, where we hear Daniel Ellsberg speaking out, and David House stating that the solitary confinement of Bradley might have been an effort by the government to get him to crack. It’s pointed out that no major harm has come to the United States because of these disclosures and that on balance things have turned out OK. The program ends with a quote from Bradley’s alleged statements in Lamo’s chat logs in which Bradley says, “I wouldn’t mind going to prison for the rest of my life…its important that it gets out…I feel for some bizarre reason, it might actually change something.”

By Michael Wong,  Bradley Manning Support Network