Bradley Manning: From ‘Collateral Murder’ to Court-Martial …

Almost two years ago, in early April 2010, WikiLeaks surged to worldwide fame with the release of the Collateral Murder video, which Julian Assange said revealed a US war crime in Iraq. Three other sensational and significant WikiLeaks releases followed that year: the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and Cablegate.

A US Army private named Bradley Manning would be charged with being the man behind all of these leaks, and now faces life in prison, possibly even death, for aiding the enemy.

Now Ive written, with Kevin Gosztola, the first book that traces the Manning case from his life in the Army right up to last week. Gosztola, who as aNationintern assisted me with two other books on this subject and helped me write about WikiLeaks daily here, was one of the few journalists to attend Mannings key pre-trial hearings last December and then in mid-March. The book is titledTruth and Consequences: The US vs. Bradley Manning(Sinclair Books) and is available now as an e-book and in print in a week or so.

Here is an excerpt from the Appendix, first published here last summer.

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For months we have followed the story of Ethan McCord, a former US Army specialist who took heroic actions to help save the two children in the van badly injured in the incident captured in the Collateral Murder video released by WikILeaks in April 2010. He has since spoken out against the Iraq war and is featured in a new documentary,Incident in New Baghdad, that won a top prize at the recent Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Now he has responded to the lengthy profile of Bradley Manning published in last weeksNew Yorkmagazine. On its site the magazine has printed brief excerpts, but we have obtained the full letter and here it is (below).

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byEthan McCord

Serving with my unit 2nd battalion 16th infantry in New Baghdad Iraq, I vividly remember the moment in 2007, when our Battalion Commander walked into the room and announced our new rules of engagement:

Listen up, new battalion SOP (standing operating procedure) from now on: Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every [expletive] in the street!

We werent trained extensively to recognize an unlawful order, or how to report one. But many of us could not believe what we had just been told to do. Those of us who knew it was morally wrong struggled to figure out a way to avoid shooting innocent civilians, while also dodging repercussions from the non-commissioned officers who enforced the policy. In such situations, we determined to fire our weapons, but into rooftops or abandoned vehicles, giving the impression that we were following procedure.

On April 5, 2010, American citizens and people around the world got a taste of the fruits of this standing operating procedure whenWikiLeaksreleased the now-famousCollateral Murdervideo. This video showed the horrific and wholly unnecessary killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians and Reuters journalists.

I was part of the unit that was responsible for this atrocity. In the video, I can be seen attempting to carry wounded children to safety in the aftermath.

The video released by WikiLeaks belongs in the public record. Covering up this incident is a matter deserving of criminal inquiry. Whoever revealed it is an American hero in my book.

Private First Class Bradley Manning has been confined for over a year on the governments accusation that he released this video and volumes of other classified documents to WikiLeaksan organization that has been selectively publishing portions of this information in collaboration with other news outlets.

If PFC Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, then it is clearfromchat logsthat have been attributed to himthat his decision was motivated by conscience and political agency. These chat logs allegedly describe how PFC Manning hopes these revelations will result in worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.

Unfortunately, Steve Fishmans articleBradley Mannings Army of OneinNew Yorkmagazine (July 3, 2011) erases Mannings political agency. By focusing so heavily on Mannings personal life, Fishman removes politics from a story that has everything to do with politics. The important public issues wrapped up with PFC Mannings case include: transparency in government; the Obama Administrations unprecedented pursuit of whistle-blowers; accountability of government and military in shaping and carrying out foreign policy; war crimes revealed in the WikiLeaks documents; the catalyzing role these revelations played in democratic movements across the Middle East; and more.

The contents of the WikiLeaks revelations have pulled back the curtain on the degradation of our democratic system. It has become completely normal for decision-makers to promulgate foreign policies, diplomatic strategies, and military operating procedures that are hostile to the democratic ideals our country was founded upon. The incident I was part ofshown in the Collateral Murder videobecomes even more horrific when we grasp that it was not exceptional. PFC Manning himself is alleged to describe (in the chat logs) an incident where he was ordered to turn over innocent Iraqi academics to notorious police interrogators, for the offense of publishing a political critique of government corruption titled, Where did the money go? These issues deserve discussion, debates, and reformsand attention from journalists.

Fishmans article was also ignorant of the realities of military service. Those of us who serve in the military are often lauded as heroes. Civilians need to understand that we may be heroes, but we are not saints. We are young people under a tremendous amount of stress. We face moral dilemmas that many civilians have never even contemplated hypothetically.

Civil society honors military service partly because of the sacrifice it entails. Lengthy and repeated deployments stress our closest relationships with family and friends. The realities, traumas, and stresses of military life take an emotional toll. This emotional battle is part of the sacrifice that we honor. That any young soldier might wrestle with his or her experiences in the military, or with his or her identity beyond military life, should never be wielded as a weapon against them.

If PFC Bradley Manning did what he is accused of, he is a hero of mine; not because hes perfect or because he never struggled with personal or family relationshipsmost of us dobut because in the midst of it all he had the courage to act on his conscience.

Chelsey Manning Wikileaks

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Bradley Manning: From 'Collateral Murder' to Court-Martial ...