Amidst the Wikileaks Saga, One Other Thing…
By LarryE at Lotus – Surviving a Dark Time. Reprinted with permission.
There is one part of this I have not addressed, one interested party who I have not considered. He is in some ways the “forgotten man” in the whole business, the central figure whose name often doesn’t come up.
He is Private First Class Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst now held in the military prison at Quantico, Virginia on suspicion of being an American hero.
Manning, of course, is the man suspected of leaking documents to WikiLeaks including not only cablegate but the earlier documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars including the notorious “Collateral Murder” video. He was arrested in July.
In the media, he has been subjected to the typical combination of amateur psychoanalysis and subtle smears that always get inflicted on those who do not act in accordance with our sterilized “don’t make waves, trust your betters” social norms.
He grew up, we’ve been told, and I emphasize that all that follows here is just a sample, “teased” and “taunted.” He “had trouble fitting in at school,” we hear. He was a high school dropout, “adrift,” as he “hopscotched through various jobs” (including at a pizza parlor which for some reason was found relevant enough to specify) before enlisting.
But, the tale goes on, the military provided “no respite.” He felt “alone, invisible,” that his life was falling apart. He felt “he had no future.” He was “anguished.” “Isolated.” And of course, of course, as just everyone seemed to think was starkly-stand-out relevant, he was a homosexual “bridling” under the demands of DADT.
“With doors closing all around him, Private Manning searched for a window.” And so this “troubled young man,” “fuelled by vanity,” “used his proximity to sensitive documents to inflate his own sense of importance” and single-handedly destroyed, destroyed I say, the whole of international diplomacy.
And his reference to a hope that the leak might “actually change something?” That wasn’t a reference to US foreign policy, oh no. It was a forlorn reflection on the conditions of his personal life.
In the face of all that, there’s only one thing to do: We must tch-tch our way to sympathy for this obviously disturbed young man of the troubled childhood, the troubled adolescence, and the troubled young adulthood, the troubled soul who acted out of emotional desperation. Because, clearly, clearly, no sane person would do what he did. And we say that out of compassion, being unlike – and quite superior – to those who would have him killed as a traitor.
Or so we are by clear implication told.
In Quantico he is held in solitary confinement and is under a suicide watch, a status most often used as an excuse to humiliate a prisoner by stripping them of their belt, shoelaces, and anything sharp or breakable while implying (to them and to anyone outside) that they are not in their right mind.
But, it should be noted, there is another view of Bradley Manning, one that appears in the reporting of Denver Nicks. In it, he describes an incident that took place while Manning was still in school.
Bradley Manning, still effectively a boy, had few friends, and his family had all but fallen apart. In a time before Facebook and sustained long-distance friendships, he was leaving his two best friends for what could easily have been the last time…. He didn’t need to tell them he was gay in order to confess a hidden affection, to explain a behavior or even to allow his friends to know him better–in a short time he would be gone. And yet, presumably for no other reason than that he was who he was and wanted to live honestly in his own skin, he felt compelled, in a conservative, religious town, to confide in his friends that he was a homosexual. Not only must it have taken tremendous courage for such a young man, it displays a crucial aspect of Brad’s personality. As his Facebook profile still says today, “Take me for who I am, or face the consequences!”
Nicks also punched holes in the “disturbed young man” theory of why Manning leaked the documents. He first demonstrated that Manning was likely the source of the so-called Reykjavik13 memo, published by WikiLeaks on February 18, 2010.
The timing debunks the overarching narrative in the media that Brad was an anti-social outcast lashing out at the world and crying for attention when he decided to leak military secrets,
as this was several months before the exchanges with Adrian Lamo, the creep who turned him in and whose last name, if there is any justice in the world, is pronounced with long vowels.
Over the next several months[ after February], when Brad may have leaked most of the documents, he appears happy and carefree,
Nicks reports.
In his own words, Manning hoped the cables would spur “worldwide discussion, debates, and reform.”
I want people to see the truth[, he said,]… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.
Combine that and Nicks’ reporting with the frequent media references to Manning’s “liberal” or “progressive” Facebook entries and you have the makings of the psychological profile not of a “troubled young man” but of a variety of ’60s radical, someone who grew up believing in the US of the civics classes but who ultimately was faced with proof that could not be denied that the US they had believed in was not the US that stood before them. Given the opportunity to act on that realization, he took it.
So, bottom line, as expressed by Sheldon Richman, writing in the Christian Science Monitor: “What are we to make of him?”
Is he a hero or a villain?
I say hero. When a government secretly engages in such consequential activities as aggressive wars justified by at best questionable and at worst fabricated intelligence, covert bombings and assassinations, and diplomatic maneuvering designed to support such global meddling, the people in whose name that government acts – and who could suffer retaliation – have a right to know.
I’m with him. Bradley Manning is an American hero. And he deserves to be recognized and supported as such.
Be aware, however: There can be a price to be paid for that support, at least if you’re vocal about it, as Glenn Greenwald has shown:
In July of this year, U.S. citizen Jacob Appelbaum, a researcher and spokesman for WikiLeaks, was detained for several hours at the Newark airport after returning from a trip to Holland, and had his laptop, cellphones and other electronic products seized — all without a search warrant, without being charged with a crime, and without even being under investigation, at least to his knowledge. He was interrogated at length about WikiLeaks, and was told by the detaining agents that he could expect to be subjected to the same treatment every time he left the country and attempted to return to the U.S. …
November 3, David House, a 23-year-old researcher who works at MIT, was returning to the U.S. from a short vacation with his girlfriend in Mexico, and was subjected to similar and even worse treatment. House’s crime: he did work in helping set up the Bradley Manning Support Network, an organization created to raise money for Manning’s legal defense fund, and he has now visited Manning three times in Quantico….
The government is expanding its intensifying campaign against WikiLeaks to include those who have supported Bradley Manning. That, however, should not be taken as a sign to back off but to step up.
So I say Free Bradley Manning! No, I have no expectation that will happen. But some things should be said just because they should be said, not because you expect them to happen. Free Bradley Manning! Free the American hero.
A Footnote: In a footnote because it refers to someone who deserves to be no more than a footnote. It is frequently mentioned that it was in conversations with the Lame-o guy where Manning described how he obtained the documents he leaked. What I have yet to see mentioned anywhere other than a Glenn Greenwald piece (if it’s out there, someone tell me) is that Lame-o lied to Manning, getting him to open up by telling him he was a journalist and he continued to pump him for details even after he – that is, Lame-o – had informed federal cops what Manning had said.
Lame-o, himself a convicted hacker, sanctimoniously allowed as how he hopes that Manning has “the same chance” to “reinvent” himself as he did – such “reinvention” apparently to include becoming a government snitch.
Should not PFLAG or Lady Gaga come out in support?
I am grateful that his name is rarely brought up these days. All the events are focused on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, and I believe, for now, this is a welcome distraction. I believe, like it or not, that we need to save Julian and WikiLeaks first. If we don’t, then Bradley is doomed. If we do, there’s a better chance that good Americans will step forward and truly save Bradley. We will give him the heroes’ welcome home he deserves.
Captain -
The counter-argument, I suppose, would be that without Bradley Manning and those like him, WikiLeaks has nothing to pass on. But I really don’t see any need to raise the necessity of defending one above the other.
BTW, you might no know that I did address the WikiLeaks side of this, in fact in four separate posts:
They say that information wants to be free, December 5
And it’s still trying to be, December 5
It’s not information, it’s disinformation!, December 6
Once more into the breach, December 7
Mr. Bradley Manning is my hero. I was taught in my family in this US society & culture that the most important part of a persons character was that they chose to do what is right.
Mr. Bradley Manning tried to save millions of lives, like Daniel Ellsberg, Martin Luther King & 1,000′s of US Soliders who both were publicly stating how wrong the Vietnam war was and that the US needed to stop allowing both the US soldier and the millions of Vietnam and from the war destruction the Cambodian children & families to be killed. Of course there were also 1,000′s of soldiers no longer following the order to kill innocent victims. Some soldiers were caught & some have told their story since Vietnam and were not caught or charged.
I would hope the young men I have known would chose to be like the young man who got beat up rather than part of the “Kill Team” killing innocent people as a sport. I would also hope my son would chose arrest rather than torture & be one of the 1,000′s who have committed later suicide.
As Martin Luther King said that the most important thing to determine how respected a person should be is his character and not his skin.
Thank YOU to:
Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, Amie Goodman, Andy Worthington, Cynthia McKinney, Jermey Scahill, and all those who are like the first US patriots who were willing to go against the mob or cult culture or even the gov. when it is brutal to the people instead of yielding liberty & justice for all and a respect for the rights of all human beings with the inalienable right to life without torture, assassination, kidnapping, or incarceration with a FAIR & FAST trial. Thank you for standing for what is right.
If PFLAG or Lady Gaga come out in support it might do more harm than good. But if GOProud would issue a press release in support of Bradley it would rock the house at CPAC!
In response to Bruce: I think a great # of public figures gay or straight HAVE the ETHICAL responsibility to do so as well. The problem seems to be that people are paranoid enough to not even mail him for fear of their fingerprints being traced!(TRUE Story) As long as we allow fear to control our Morality we are NOT FREE! I HOPE this changes! I do somewhat understand the confusion of the gay community organizations (being unsure if their support would cause more harm than good), seeing the HATE and MORONIC statements saying Bradley is justification of DADT that have been thrown around this week, BUT First and foremost Bradley is a human being and all of us concerned w/ freedom cannot ignore this! Thanks to CertainQuirk as well!
There are number of facts that are more than enough proves that Mr Bradley manning has broken the walls of massive deception in America and has broken barrier of the fear that Americans were living under.
Perhaps, he was not mistaken when he successfully exposed the reality of those who are ruling U.S beside exposing the psychological brainwashing on that Americans.
In America, honesty and truthfulness is regarded as unforgiven’s crime by U.S administration and those who are associated with whether covertly or overtly.
Regardless of deception of the mainstream and local media, the facts remain that there was a hero who brought the facts to the people all around the world and that hero will be the best example to be emulated and will remain living in the people conscience as long as this earth is presented.
I belive he should be hailed as one of the biggest hero’s america has ever had. he has done something that took an enourmous amount of courage, and was promptly labeled for his troubles. i saw the video, and it disturbed me very deeply. the fact that it was covered up was worse; this is the kind of stuff people need to see.
I don’t Facebook or MySpace but I’ve been posting in my online blog since the beginning of the year, about Pfc. Bradley Manning after it was known to me that a fellow xy contributor was the one to sell him out. Now that Assange’s ugly ass can’t stop being played on tv I continue to remind me very military family that the real hero in all of this (if there was one) is Manning!
people try to make a petition to avaaz is more easy for us for signatures..Thanks! Support from Greece
Susan, your comment brought me to tears. I am so very proud to know you. I love you so, so much. Thank you for standing up for Bradley.
The news about Bradley Manning is only getting out here (Northern Ireland). I was appalled to hear the news tonight about his imprisonment and the conditions of his incarceration. How we were lectured here about justice by the US over many years. It is about time the US tried to retake the moral high ground and released this man.
I feel for Bradley and hope that one day he will be free for the courage of revealing what is probably the tip of the iceberg. Apart from the obvious need to spill the beans, it was perhaps unfortunate that he had to tell someone. The pressure must have been enormous.
Happy Birthday for today Bradley, our thoughts and wishes are with you.
What a way for a true American Hero who followed his conscience to spend his 23rd. birthday. Alone in solitary confinement. While those who perpetrated these crimes and those who lamely use the excuse that “they were just following orders” are free to live their normal lives.
“America Home of the free, Land of the brave” Yeah right,what a joke
Bradley Manning is an American phenomenon. Selfless act for the common good. This is the definition of who is an American, not those who are born in United States or whose parents are American citizens.
The World is better becoz of Bradley Manning. I want to send him a bouquet of roses to let him know he is loved,admired & adored.
The effect of this imprisonment and abuse is first, to further damage the USA’s claim to possess a just legal system free of state influence, and thus to make it difficult for its government to adopt a moral superiority to regimes which are corrupt in this respect: and second, to sow serious doubts in the mind of its allies about the advisability of honouring extradition treaties with it. One of the most important considerations in matters of extradition, which may shortly become an important issue, is whether the accused person is likely to receive just and humane treatment in the requesting country.
Being a retired medical officer of the german army I can measure, how much courage it needs, to trespass military orders.
Being a retired psychiatrist I know that deprivation from social contacts will do harm his psychic health and is nothing else than torture.
Hopefully he will be free soon or at least get a fair trial as soon as possibel!
To those who say we must save Assange first, I’ll tell you this.
Lamo has been “neutralized” by the government. Theres really not more they can do to shut him up. But they havent shut Assange up yet.
See the real reason he’s been treated so poorly is to get Assange. If they can torment him enough, they can convince him on a plea bargain to claim that Assange coerced him into it so that they can get Assange on conspiracy charges.
Thus if we want to save Assange, we must save the brave young patriot who , we think, risked his own neck to provide Assange the evidence he needed to bring truth to America, and save its soul.
You can’t let this brave young man rot and expect to save Assange, because the US govt will try Anything to take down Assange, including torturing and destroying manning.
We MUST support Manning, if we wish to support Assange.
Bradley Manning is part of a long and honourable tradition of public servants who will not connive at the state’s corruption. Like the rest he will pay for his courageous stand. In the “land of the free” the oubliette is still in regular use.
As the frantic effort by the controlling creatures of government to bridle the internet reaches a crecendo we can expect to see their true nature more and more nakedly exposed. This is a fight to the death, and it could not be more elemental in its character. If we want to avoid a global police state we need to face the reality.
Shane O. You are so right on this one!!! The U.S. government will DO ANYTHING to break him!!! He is not simply imprisoned, he is denied the most basic of human needs, in an attempt to make him so psychologically damaged the Govt. could use him as ammunition against both Assange and FREE SPEECH as we have known it!!This is more than obvious!! His freedom is our freedom. I am glad outlets such as Salon.com and Democracy Now ARE paying attention to his inhumane treatment!! We should all feel less free this Holiday season knowing the state of his condition there!! THANK YOU ALL SUPPORTERS! Give all you can, or @ least send him some support!! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Accuracy requires me to note that in the time since my post was put up, it’s become clear it contains an error: Bradley Manning is not on a suicide watch and apparently never was. That does not take anything away from the extreme harshness (to the point of being torture) of the conditions of his confinement – at least some of which, such as being under 24-hour surveillance, are consistent with a suicide watch – but it should be corrected.
In fairness to myself, I’ll note that I said that the watch was intended as humiliation, not that it was in any way necessary or advisable.
I am reminded of Martin Luther King’s phrase: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” I am ashamed that the media’s response is tittle tattle, instead of crusading against the evils that Bradley Manning and Julian Assange have exposed.
Bradley and Julian did the right thing, would the rest of us have the courage to do the same?
My full respect to you Bradley Manning ! Some more of your kind and the world would look a little better.
I hope you stay strong and that the conscience of having done something so important makes you inviolable.
History will keep a place for you !
Another thing I want to say is that I am very disappointed of Julian Assange !
How can he be so stupid ? He is getting all the these infos from Bradley, that BM is sitting in jail for now and that him sooo afmous all over the world ….and he doesnt realize the serious matter and instead needs to f… around in Sweden?
Keep your willies inside while you fight against the machine, guys !!!
Clinton, Vanunu and other men destroyed their mission through their willies….
If JA cant handle the situation and his position he should be removed to a place nearby the PC.
Even crazy Gaddafi knows why his life guard is 100% female : “Men are easily corrupted by sex and money ! ”
May god help you Bradley !
Free Manning!!!
Free Manning
Bradley Manning is a very brave man who puts his desire for an honest and humane society above his own personal safety. True Sacrifice. Heroic. My love and prayers go out for him.
Our world needs more people like Bradley Manning!
All the governments are corrupt, and do not work for the good of their people anymore.
Free Bradley Manning, and don’t treat him like a criminal!
Birgit,
Governments have never worked for the good of the people, unless they’re the people inside of government. As for governing bodies outside of government, they’ve never worked for the good of government too– only for themselves.
Pfc Bradley Manning is a true hero! And far too many people regard him as a “traitor.” He has yet to be charged – when the government gets around to it eventually, he will be given an Article 32 session which is similar to a grand jury proceeding before he is charged with any offense. So why is he undergoing a psychic crucifixion? Because that’s exactly what his solitary confinement is! As for those who claim he was on a suicide watch, now a POI watch, I say this: those watches appear to be excuses and our out-of-control government is intent on BREAKING him.
All our freedoms are on the line including the Second Amendment which the conservatives (along with a lot of others) cherish if Bradley Manning is not released without charge — the sooner the better!
Is it possible to get a letter or note to Bradley Manning just letting him know you care? I did this sort of thing with Amnesty Int. We know why he is “buried alive”, it would be good to let him know we care.
Bradley Manning has my full support. A very brave and honourable person.
I fear that he will be treated very badly by the USA if recent history is a guide.
The USA has many fine parts to its society but it is falling into a morass of paranoia and pure nastiness.
I guess that the data mining will get all of us for supporting Bradley Manning. Why charge someone when the government can just put the person in prison now without charges, psychologically destroy the person and intimidate the jury to get a guilty verdict (if the government ever bothers to bring the case to trial)?
I’m trying to figure out who won the presidential election in 2008. I think that one candidate said that he would have a very transparent administration if he won. I guess that he didn’t win.
My hero! What courage this young man has and like many have said here before me…BRADLEY MANNING will go down in history as a hero of all times..those videos he leaked say it all. I only wish I could do something to set him free…maybe just signing the petition will help.
A proud Oklahoman! Thank you Bradley!
In my last post I finished with “the sooner the better!!” I am making my self clear that when I said that I meant that the sooner Bradley Manning is released without charge, the better!
He did absolutely nothing that Daniel Ellsberg didn’t 40 years ago and Ellsberg’s conviction was overturned on Constitutional grounds!!
Revealing evidence of war crimes is no crime: to know and not reveal is collusion.
Bradley Manning’s actions were heroic. He did not say “I did not know”
He is a human hero.
He is worthy of love…
from the entire human species.
He is all of us…if we could but find the courage.
History will celebrate him !
Hi, everyone. Loved reading your comments. I’m soo sick of the amateur psychologists’ b.s. I don’t know Brad but from what I’ve learned (just the facts), he’s nothing like the “news” reports are trying to make him look.
Poor permanently screwed-up kid, his parents got a divorce. That describes at least half the kids in this country! And OMG, he “used big words.” Obviously, he has narcissistic delusions of grandeur. He can’t simply be brilliant. His story reminds me of the sci-fi dystopian hero “Harrison Bergeron,” a short story by Kurt Vonnegut.
Here’s the link to Courage to Resist for info on how how to write Bradley. There’s more
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/blogcategory/64/122/
A soldier’s honour is his bigest pride.
They can put you in chains, court-martial you or any other facist way to brake you, but in the end, the most importante thing is, in the eyes of millions you will keep your HONOUR because you’ve done the honourable thing.
They will be left with no shred of honour.
For that, I Salute you.
What about Obama? He is your president. He could tell the military to make the conditions of Bradley Manning better. Why not tell him to do so?
Oh. You already know. Obama will do nothing. Sure. He is president. But he is not running the country. The military is running the country.
Obama has been told by the military to shut up. And that is what he is doing. The puppet, the coward. Obama shuts up.
Of course he shuts up. He is afraid. He knows. If he does not shut up, then he will be killed. Look at John F. Kennedy. He did not listen. They killed him.
Maybe. If we all write a letter to Obama. We tell him how he is in the pockets of the military and then we ask him to show us he is not.
If we do that. Maybe the shithead will tell the military the change the conditions of Bradley Manning. Maybe. A very maybe.
Look. Obama is a true politician. The American people do not know. That is why they elected him. That is why he was made president of the US.
Look. That is a politician. During elections he promises the world to the people. And once in the office he does nothing. He doesn’t care.
Representative Dennis Kucinich has been refused visitation with Bradley Manning.
Call Kucinich and recommend he arrive at Quantico with a busload of reporters:
Dennis J. Kucinich
Phone: (202) 225-5871
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/13/rep-kucinich-unable-to-visit-accused-wikileaks-source/