Chelsea Manning Breaks Silence
A U.S. soldier imprisoned for leaking documents to WikiLeaks broke her silence in a fiery editorial accusing the United States of lying about Iraq. Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years...

By: WochitGeneralNews

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Chelsea Manning Breaks Silence - Video

Chelsea Manning accused the U.S. of consistently lying about the war in Iraq and slammed the process of embedding journalists in military units in the New York Times on Sunday.

Manning, who has been mostly silent since being convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing classified materials to WikiLeaks, said that in light of the recent surge of violence in Iraq it is time to question "how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan."

"I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance," she wrote in the op-ed, titled "The Fog Machine of War."

Manning cited failures in press freedom when reports described the 2010 Iraq elections as a success -- a milestone that signified the creation a free and democratic system. Contrary to these reports, Manning wrote that at the time, military and diplomatic reports said political dissidents of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki were detained, tortured and killed by the federal police.

The fact that this was never reported by western media, Manning said, shows a lack of press freedom regarding military operations. During her deployment she says she never saw more than 12 embedded journalists in Iraq because the military controls the process.

The process of limiting press access to a conflict begins when a reporter applies for embed status. All reporters are carefully vetted by military public affairs officials. This system is far from unbiased. Unsurprisingly, reporters who have established relationships with the military are more likely to be granted access.

Less well known is that journalists whom military contractors rate as likely to produce 'favorable' coverage, based on their past reporting, also get preference. This outsourced 'favorability' rating assigned to each applicant is used to screen out those judged likely to produce critical coverage.

Manning said military public affairs officers could strip a journalist of embed status if they report something the military does not like.

Freedom of the press in the U.S. did see a significant decline in 2013. Reporters Without Borders released a report in February that showed the U.S. had dropped from the 32nd to the 46th spot in a list of countries ranked by press freedom. Manning's conviction contributed to the drop in ranking.

"Opinion polls indicate that Americans' confidence in their elected representatives is at a record low. Improving media access to this crucial aspect of our national life -- where America has committed the men and women of its armed services -- would be a powerful step toward re-establishing trust between voters and officials," Manning concluded.

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Chelsea Manning Accuses US of Lying About Iraq | Military.com

PVt. Chelsea Manning, formerly named Bradley, was convicted last year of sending classified documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks

For the first time since she was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the leak, Manning writes at length in an opinion column published by The New York Times on Sunday.

Manning, who was formerly known as Bradley, says that as the U.S. considers renewed military action in Iraq, she thinks some of the issues she exposed have yet to be addressed.

Mainly, Manning writes about the lack of information in the United States. Manning says that even back in 2010, she saw a complicated reality on the ground, while the U.S. media painted a rosy picture of successful elections.

Manning writes:

"If you were following the news during the March 2010 elections in Iraq, you might remember that the American press was flooded with stories declaring the elections a success, complete with upbeat anecdotes and photographs of Iraqi women proudly displaying their ink-stained fingers. The subtext was that United States military operations had succeeded in creating a stable and democratic Iraq.

"Those of us stationed there were acutely aware of a more complicated reality.

"Military and diplomatic reports coming across my desk detailed a brutal crackdown against political dissidents by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and federal police, on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. Detainees were often tortured, or even killed.

"Early that year, I received orders to investigate 15 individuals whom the federal police had arrested on suspicion of printing 'anti-Iraqi literature.' I learned that these individuals had absolutely no ties to terrorism; they were publishing a scholarly critique of Mr. Maliki's administration. I forwarded this finding to the officer in command in eastern Baghdad. He responded that he didn't need this information; instead, I should assist the federal police in locating more 'anti-Iraqi' print shops."

The whole piece is worth a read, so we encourage you to click over.

Read more:
Chelsea Manning Says She Leaked Classified Info Out Of Love For Country