Julian Assange - Wikileaks: Warrior For True Part 14

Treason, yes, perhaps, but with good cause.

History will judge by its own laws."

27.

SHOCKWAVES.

"I've been so isolated so long... I just wanted to be nice, and live a normal life... but events keep forcing me to figure out ways to survive... smart enough to know what's going on, but helpless to do anything... no one took any notice of me..."

These are the first words Bradley Manning wrote on May 22, 2010 to a hacker who became his confidant. It was Adrian Lamo who went from confidant to denunciator by delivering Manning to the authorities a few days later. When they talked, Manning was very uncomfortable, tired, anxious and revolted. By then WikiLeaks had already released the film, Collateral Murder, on April 5, to the world.

Bradley Manning was born in 1987, and it was noticed early on that he was peculiar. His father was in the Navy, a very strict man, often away from home. His mother was Welsh and had difficulty adjusting to life in the United States. After his parents' divorce in 2001, his mother left with him to the United Kingdom, where Bradley continued his schooling at Tasker Milward in Wales. Tom Dyer, one of his school friends said: "He's always had this sense that 'I'm going to right a big wrong.' He was like that at school. If something went wrong, he would speak about it. If he didn't agree with something, he said so. He would even have altercations with teachers if he thought something was not right."

After high school, his mother sent him to his father in the United States, who, when he found out he was gay, threw him out of the house. Out on the street, he lived in his car, doing odd jobs where he was always getting into fights. At one point, he had a short stint at a software company. His boss remembers this young man with round cheeks and bright look being very good at programming, but with "the personality of a bull in a china shop."

Following the advice of a friend, Bradley joined the army in 2007, hoping to find somewhere he would fit in. He was recognized for his IT skills, and was posted in Iraq as an agent for the Intel section. Manning had a hard time hiding his h.o.m.os.e.xuality while expected to adhere to the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. This law was enforced as of 1993, but was repealed by President Barack Obama in December 2010, allowing gay personnel to serve their country regardless of their s.e.xual orientation. Before then, legislation stopped anyone serving in the army from disclosing their h.o.m.os.e.xuality, bis.e.xuality or from even talking about marriage between two people of the same s.e.x or gay parenting. As for the army, it wasn't authorized to do any research into the private lives of its recruits, knowing that the law continued to refuse anyone who "demonstrated a propensity or intent to engage in h.o.m.os.e.xual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence would "create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability."

At the barracks, Manning was the object of innuendo, mockery and bullying. In April 2010, he was dismissed due to a brawl with another soldier and was discharged from his duties with the Intel department. From that moment on, he felt very bad and wrote to Adrian Lamo, saying: Manning: I'm self-medicating like crazy when I'm not toiling in the supply office (my new location, since I'm being discharged, I'm not officially intel anymore) Manning: I just want the material out there... I don't want to be a part of it Manning: I can't believe what I'm telling you :( After releasing the video Collateral Murder online and after the shockwave it caused, two former American soldiers of the Bravo Company 2-16 wrote an open letter to the Iraqi people.

Ethan McCord was the soldier who got the children out of the van. In April 2010, he spoke about what he had witnessed in Iraq many times back in July 2007, following the helicopter attack: "Myself and the team I was with were the first dismounted soldiers to arrive on the scene. I saw what appeared to have been three men in a corner. It was an extreme shock to my system. They didn't look human, I know they had to be at one time but the destroyed carnage that I was looking at didn't appear to be. Then there was the smell. The smell was unlike anything I've smelled before, a mixture of feces, urine, blood, smoke, and something else indescribable. I saw an RPG next to the men and an AK-47. Crying! I hear crying. Not cries of pain, but that of a small child who had woken up from a horrible nightmare. I saw that there was a minivan and the cries appeared to be coming from it. Myself and another soldier, a twenty-year-old private, walked up to the pa.s.senger side of the van. We looked inside, the private I was with reeled back, began to vomit, and quickly ran away.

What I saw was a small girl about four years old on the pa.s.senger side of the bench seat. She had a severe belly wound and was covered in gla.s.s."

McCord also pulled a seven-year-old child out of the van that he thought was dead at first glance. He ran toward the army truck that would transport the little girl to the hospital, praying for it not to take off. The boy fainted in his arms. He placed him as best as he could in the truck, when the platoon leader screamed: "What the f.u.c.k are you doing McCord? You need to quit worrying about these f.u.c.king kids and pull security!" "Roger that, sir," he said immediately, and went to a rooftop to pull security.

Back at the base, alone in his room, Ethan tried to clean the child's blood from his uniform. He rubbed it vigorously, as if trying to erase the images from his memory. It was impossible: the blood had permanently stained his clothes. He was distraught. He went to his sergeant to ask for mental health help.

Then he exposed the response of his superior in Wired, a San Francisco magazine that focused on technological incidents in the field of culture, economy and politics: "I was called a p.u.s.s.y and that I needed to suck it up and a lot of other horrible things. I was also told that there would be repercussions if I were to go get mental health care.

They're smoking you, they're making you tired. I was told that I needed to get the sand out of my v.a.g.i.n.a... So I just sucked it up and tried to move on with everything. I've had nightmares. I was diagnosed with chronic, severe post-traumatic stress disorder."

His request for mental health was denied and that was when he realized that he was part of a system he could no longer accept. With his teammate Josh Stieber, he decided to write a letter to the Iraqi people that was published on the site of Iraq veterans against the war: To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the "Collateral Murder" WikiLeaks video: We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses.

We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions.

There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize what we have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.

We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation's leaders, and to extend our hands to you.

With such pain, friends.h.i.+p might be too much to ask. Please accept our apology, our sorrow, our care, and our dedication to change from the inside out.

Solemnly and Sincerely, Josh Stieber, former specialist, U.S. Army.

Ethan McCord, former specialist, U.S. Army.

Manning supplied the images of this tragedy to WikiLeaks in February 2010. On May 25, he kept chatting with his new friend Adrian: Manning: Event occurs in 2007, I watch video in 2009 with no context, do research, forward information to group of FOI activists, more research occurs, video is released in 2010, those involved come forward to discuss event, I witness those involved coming forward to discuss publicly, even add them as friends on FB... without them knowing who I am.

Manning: They touch my life, I touch their life, they touch my life again... full circle While Bradley Manning poured out his feelings, Adrian Lamo satisfied his curiosity. Bradley trusted him and answered: Lamo: *random* are you concerned about CID (*Criminal Investigation Department) looking into your Wiki stuff? I was always paranoid.

Manning: CID has no open investigation. State Department will be uber-p.i.s.sed... but I don't think they're capable of tracing everything... so, it was publicly damaging, but didn't increase attacks or rhetoric...

Lamo: Why does your job afford you access? Except for the UN Manning: Because I have a workstation Manning: I had two computers... one connected to SIPRNET (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, where the cables are) the other to JWICS (Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System used by USDOD & US Dpt of State to transmit cla.s.sified info)...

Lamo: So you have these stored now?

Maninng: No, they're government laptops Manning: They've been zero-filled Manning: Because of the pullout Manning: Evidence was destroyed... by the system itself Manning: They were stored on a centralized server...

Lamo: What's your endgame plan, then?

Manning: hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms Manning: If not... than [sic] we're doomed Manning: I will officially give up on the society we live in if nothing happens Manning: the reaction to the video gave me immense hope Manning: I want people to see the truth... regardless of who they are... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public Manning: If I knew then, what I knew now... kind of thing...

Manning: Or maybe I'm just young, naive, and stupid...

Still on May 25, Manning came back to the fact that would later push him to supply images to WikiLeaks: Manning: Was watching fifteen detainees taken by the Iraqi Federal Police... for printing "anti-Iraqi literature"... the Iraqi federal police wouldn't cooperate with US forces, so I was instructed to investigate the matter, find out who the "bad guys" were, and how significant this was for the FPs... it turned out, they had printed a scholarly critique against PM Maliki... I had an interpreter read it for me... and when I found out that it was a benign political critique t.i.tled "Where did the money go?" and following the corruption trail within the PM's cabinet... I immediately took that information and *ran* to the officer to explain what was going on... he didn't want to hear any of it... he told me to shut up and explain how we could a.s.sist the FPs in finding *MORE* detainees...

Manning: Everything started slipping after that... I saw things differently Manning: I had always questioned the way things worked, and investigated to find the truth... but that was a point where I was a *part* of something... I was actively involved in something that I was completely against...

It was with a different outlook on life that Bradley Manning continued his work. It was very easy to get data outside the base. Co-workers at his office would come with piles of music CDs. You could just show up with a rewritable CD labeled 'Lady Gaga' for example, erase it and burn some data onto it. You wouldn't be searched. The door had a five-digit code, but you just needed to knock for someone to open it. Most people sat down at their desks to watch videos, car chases, build explosions and copy them on CDs and DVDs.

The most difficult and most controversial part was copying the secret data. Manning knew this, but he felt like he had no other choice. He was emotionally bothered. Intel officers would leave unprotected data on servers.

He was worried about possible reprisals and he "even asked the NSA guy if he was able to find any suspicious activity coming out of local networks... he shrugged and said 'it's not a priority.'" Manning's opinion on the security system was: "weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counter-intelligence, inattentive signal a.n.a.lysis... a perfect storm."

It was really easy for someone like him. He explained it to Lamo: "If I were someone more malicious, I could have sold to Russia or China and made bank." When Lamo asked him why he didn't, he answered: "Because it's public data [...] I mean the cables," Manning specified. "It belongs in the public domain. Information should be free."

As for the helicopter images, at first he thought it was just the usual, "but something struck me as odd with the van thing... and also the fact it was being stored in a JAG (Judge Advocate General) officer's directory... so I looked into it... eventually tracked down the date, and then the exact GPS co-ord... and I was like... OK, so that's what happened... cool... then I went to the regular Internet... and it was still on my mind... so I typed into goog... the date, and the location... and then I see this http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html"

He saw the article of The New York Times dated mid-July 2007 reporting the van explosion, with a photo to support it. The article read: "The American military said in a statement late Thursday that 11 people have been killed: nine insurgents and two civilians. According to the statement, American troops were conducting a raid when they were hit by a small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The American troops called in reinforcements and attack helicopters. In the ensuing fight, the statement said, the two Reuters employees and nine insurgents were killed."

"There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against hostile force," said Lt. Col. Scott R. Bleichwehl, a spokesman for multinational forces in Baghdad.

Manning was still deeply bothered by this article, and so he decided to send the images he had to WikiLeaks. Manning eventually got rid of any original 'material': the images of the helicopter attack in Baghdad, diplomatic cables, information on prisoner detention in Guantanamo as well as the images of a raid in Afghanistan referring to a military attack that killed one hundred forty civilians.

What pushed Manning to tell all to Adrian Lamo? He felt alone. He saw information go by that he couldn't keep to himself and his action, which could be judged as treason by the government, was also a heavy burden to bear.

Lamo already knew a lot about Manning's plans and how he felt about it all. But after chatting for two days, had he already contacted the authorities?

Lamo was very quickly interested in Manning's relations.h.i.+p with a.s.sange. The young soldier told him that it took him four months to figure out that the person he was sharing information with was Julian himself. His contact didn't give up much about himself. He said that he was being watched by a team of North European diplomats. He was trying to figure out who was following him and why. Manning asked him about this. His followers were trying to discover how he had received a diplomatic telegram from Reykjavik, which cost Icelandic amba.s.sador to the United States his position. It was in fact the first leak-test sent by Manning.

Adrian Lamo's questions were more specific on May 25. He asked Manning whether he knew about the army CID investigating WikiLeaks. He responded that he didn't have any evidence of his activities and that everything was erased from his computer. Lamo tried again to find out how a.s.sange and the WikiLeaks members communicated with the young soldier. After a lot of questions, Manning ended up writing: "He *might* use the ccc. dejabber server... but you didn't heard that from me."

Manning put the seriousness of his act in perspective: he reported that journalist and author David Finkel had already been in possession of the images delivered to a.s.sange. David Finkel, Pulitzer Prize winner in 2006 for his work at The Was.h.i.+ngton Post, wrote about his stay in Baghdad for several months with the battalion known as 2-16 Rangers in his book The Good Soldiers. The 2-16 Rangers was the company Ethan McCord and Josh Stieber were part of to stabilize a portion of the Iraqi capital. Protecting his sources, David Finkel still hasn't confirmed or denied this statement.

The last sentences exchanged by the two men on May 25, 2010 were eloquent. Manning talked about himself. Lamo had a clear idea of WikiLeaks: Manning: I couldn't be a spy...

Manning: Spies don't post things up for the world to see Lamo: Why? WikiLeaks would be the perfect cover Lamo: They post what's not useful Lamo: And keep the rest Adrian Lamo was a well-known hacker in the United States where they called him the 'homeless hacker.' He would roam the country sleeping at friends' places, in cheap hotels or squatting in abandoned buildings. He did most of his hacking from cyber cafes. He gained his reputation by breaking into several high-profile computer networks, including those of The New York Times, Yahoo, Microsoft and the Bank of America.

In 2004, he pled guilty to charges made against him. He was ordered to pay 65,000 dollars and a.s.signed to live with his parents for six months, coupled with two years of probation. He was twenty-three years old at the time.

Following an article published on the Cryptome site, Lamo contacted the authorities on May 22. As of this date, he was working together with federal authorities to get Manning. Lamo explained a few days later: "Informing on him was a very hard decision for me, one of the hardest I have ever made. I was also arrested [around] his age, so I know what it's like"

At the same time, he was in contact with a Wired journalist to whom he offered an exclusive on his chats, with the condition that he would have to give the green light on the article about him. Without Lamo and the journalist knowing it, Manning was called out on May 26 2010.

At the start of July, Manning was accused of eight criminal counts and four violations of the military code. He was accused of the 'transfer of confidential data on his computer and the download of the electronic program not allowed on a cla.s.sified secret information system' and illegally obtaining 'more than 150,000 diplomatic cables.' If he is to be found guilty, he would be looking at fifty-two years in jail.

In the following months, the American government tried to prove that there had in fact been a link between Bradley Manning and Julian a.s.sange. In the mean time, the newspapers sifted through the diplomatic cables, while the media extensively discussed the American government's embarra.s.sment, and while other countries laid low. The United States had Manning, and in the name of world diplomacy, it wanted to use him to bring down Julian a.s.sange. Manning had become the Wikileaks' collateral damage.

On July 5 2010, the young man was incarcerated in Kuwait, in the Theater Field Confinement Facility, a short-term detention center. On July 29, he was transferred to the military base in Quantico, Virginia.

Julian publicly maintained that WikiLeaks couldn't know if the source of the leaked doc.u.ments that were received in those past months came from Bradley Manning. "Our technology means we don't know who is submitting us materials. But the name Bradley Manning was first heard by us when we read an article about his arrest in Wired magazine," Julian said. He qualified the allegations that WikiLeaks conspired with Manning as nonsense.

Some media wrote that a.s.sange and WikiLeaks left the young twenty-three-year-old soldier to his own devices without giving him any help for his defense while a.s.sange's defense costs hundreds of thousands of euro, dollars or pounds. Help would be to recognize the link between the two and guarantee a court martial for the boy-faced soldier.

Manning is currently suffering isolation twenty-three hours a day in a cell. The prisoner was judged potentially suicidal, which helped reinforce and exaggerate his detention conditions. David House, researcher at MIT (Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology) is one of the rare persons to have met him since he was incarcerated at Quantico. He sounded the alarm in mid-January 2011, after having visited the prisoner again, accompanied by American blogger and producer Jane Hamsher.

Bradley Manning was placed on suicide watch in order to reinforce his detention conditions. Commander James Averhart, who has authority over his conditions, admitted his mistake on January 25 2011.

By putting him on suicide watch, Manning is fed antidepressants, has to strip down to his underwear at night and give his clothes to the guards before sleeping under an anti-suicide blanket. He explained to David House that it was "similar in weight and heft to lead ap.r.o.ns used in X-ray laboratories, and similar in texture to coa.r.s.e and stiff carpet." Manning "expressed concern that he had to lie very still at night to avoid receiving carpet burns."

Manning explained that he hasn't seen daylight for four weeks, and that he only had contact with other people a few hours on the weekend. Jane Hamsher reported that the prisoner "was beginning to exhibit some of the damaging symptoms of prolonged isolation, including emotional withdrawal and impaired cognitive function. He seemed slow to respond when they spoke, and could not process information as quickly as he normally did."

This confinement may last until the end of the investigation by authorities. Given the treatment inflicted to the soldier, Julian declared that Manning could be considered a political prisoner.

Despite the army's efforts, no link has yet been found between a.s.sange and Manning.

At the start of 2011 Manning was called a victim in the war on truth, while Julian continues his fight, like a knight in s.h.i.+ning armor on a crusade for freedom.

28.

AN UNEXPECTED PARTNERs.h.i.+P36.

Brussels, Thursday, January 13 2011: in a cafe down the street from the European Parliament meeting with Ian Traynor, journalist and correspondent in Brussels for the Guardian.

Ian Traynor: a.s.sange came here to attend a session the European Parliament is holding a propos freedom of expression. He was talking about the new Icelandic legislation. Birgitta Jonsdottir also came and they were staying at Leopold. I went because I knew about the Manning case, and I knew about a.s.sange and I knew about WikiLeaks. I thought it was interesting, so I went to the there to listen to the session, organized by a parliamentarian.

elise: Yes, Dutch Parliamentarian Marietje Schaake.

Ian Traynor: Yes. I went to listen and I got to speaking to them. But I already knew that a.s.sange was coming from Nick Davies who called me from London and told me that it would be useful to talk to that guy. I wrote the story that day. I interviewed him briefly. It was the first time he appeared in public since Manning had been arrested. He was just back from Iceland and stayed a few days at the Leopold. Then I spoke to him. I told him that we could be interested in collaborating.

elise: So it was your initiative then.

Ian Traynor: To a degree, yes. He said he was interested, so we took it from there. I informed my bosses in London and the Editor-in-chief decided that he wanted to proceed with it. So the next day, he sent Davies here, and we both went to meet a.s.sange and have a longer conversation with him. We met him again at the Leopold.

Monday, June 21 2010 in Brussels, headquarters of the European Parliament.

June is usually a hot, sunny and dry month. That day, Julian was in Brussels to speak at the conference '(Self) Censors.h.i.+p New Challenges for Freedom of Expression in Europe'. He was invited by German Parliamentarian Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Dutch Parliamentarian Marietje Schaake of the Group Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. The other speakers that day were Birgitta Jonsdottir, Lars Vilks, Naema Tahir, Flemming Rose and Alastair Mullis. The theme was "What happens in Europe doesn't just affect Europe. It's used as justification for even more extreme forms of abuse around the rest of the world." In this panel discussion, Swedish artist Lars Vilks, and Dutch author Naema Tahir shared their personal experiences with freedom of expression in Europe. Professor Alastair Mullis, UK Defamation Law expert, Julian a.s.sange and Birgitta Jonsdottir spoke on the legal and political questions concerning freedom of expression.

For the second part of the seminar, Birgitta explained the idea behind the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative as well as the collective and legal process that convinced Parliament to adopt it. Julian described how abandoned alliances that guaranteed the protection of values from the European enlightenment had been disappearing since the end of the Cold War. He gave some examples of British libel law cases that he called "realization of Orwellian horrors" just like in the novel 1984, and explained how secret state censors.h.i.+p blacklists, politically framed to combat child p.o.r.nography, are used to gag dissident voices.

Julian appeared for the first time in public since Manning was arrested, and was just back from Iceland. He came in relaxed. He sat down and adjusted the microphone, which was giving him some trouble. He turned this incident into an introduction, joking in order to ease the tension. He then slipped into his intervention.

In the hall of the European Parliament, among others, there were Ian Traynor and Christian Engstrom, European Parliamentarian of the Pirate Party and his a.s.sistant, Henrik Alexandersson.

Julian was very comfortable. He spoke with poise, arms crossed and placed on the desk, sitting behind the console to the right of Lambsdorff. Having flown in straight from the North, he was still wearing a thick wool sweater with gray patterns.

Here's a telegraphic style overview of his intervention: Julian introduced his speech with a summary of his cla.s.sic subjects: IMMI, the Kaupthing Bank affair and the injunction of the RUV in Iceland.

He continued with a small allegory on authoritarianism defeated by a historic alliance between liberals and democrats, an alliance that no longer exists today. However, authoritarianism still exists on the Internet.

Later, he explained how the Guardian was obliged to delete articles from its archives because of a legal European loophole.

He pointed out the similarities it had to Orwell's novel 1984 in which The Ministry of Truth changes the archives to meet its needs. In fact, all you have to do is hire a big prestigious London law firm to delete a part of its journalistic heritage. He explained that during the manipulation of newspapers' archives, the removal as such is not clearly specified, but a 'file not found'-type error appears to quell any curiosity.

A collision between two s.h.i.+ps in the night can inflect the state of the sea. An interaction between states on the Internet can create backwash in other states. If laws are created to regulate the Internet, and the activity thereupon, and avoid this turmoil, it will block the communication of newspapers with their readers, parties with their partisans, as all exchanges will go through the Internet.

In Australia, one of the first leaks from WikiLeaks published the list of sites blocked by a national firewall. The justification was to block pedophile sites, but in fact, there was only thirty-two per cent of said sites, the rest were sites deemed inappropriate by the government itself.

Parallel relative to the laws: the ones applied in Africa come from the Commonwealth; every country has an influence on the rest of the world.

"Can we do in Europe what we did in Iceland?" Julian doubted it, but he asked the audience anyway.

Brussels. Tuesday, January11 2011: European Parliament meeting with Christian Engstrom and his a.s.sistant Henrik Alexandersson.

Christian: At the end of the conference, lots of people wanted to talk to Julian, and I wanted to talk to him as well. We wanted to tell him that the Swedish Pirate Party was prepared to offer a.s.sistance to WikiLeaks, technical a.s.sistance with services, etc. I mentioned that very briefly, but then the journalist held an interview with the two of us. That was really all there was time for, because then afterward there was a queue of other journalists who wanted to talk to a.s.sange. [...] I met him briefly. I met other activists for freedom on the Internet and the names you've heard about, they're all very special people. You have to be really focused in order to become a global icon, of course.

Henrik: I would say he doesn't really care if people get upset when he talks. This conference, for instance, how did he put it? Yes, that during the Cold War, the conservatives and the liberals had a common goal but now after the Soviet and the Communist was gone it's becoming more and more obvious that the conservatives... How did he put it? That there are different goals between the liberals and the conservatives. The conservatives are a bit more 'big-business' oriented, corporatist. a.s.sange kind of warned the liberals... That, of course, didn't go down very well with everyone. But he doesn't blink. He says those things and either takes it or leaves it. [...] I admire his style very much, because in some situations there are just time for so much bulls.h.i.+t and people will give you as much bulls.h.i.+t as you can take. So it's always refres.h.i.+ng when someone just cuts to the core. If people get annoyed, that's their problem. Information should be judged from the content and people should be judged by what they are doing. Niceties are always nice, but action is as important and I think a.s.sange is a very action-orientated individual.