1

Filosofi A

Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet

VT 2012

THE MORAL DILEMMA AND OBLIGATIONS OF

BRADLEY MANNING, US MILITARY, US

GOVERNMENT AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Author: Alexander Wall N3H

Teacher: Kaj Finnström

2

Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Facts ......................................................................................................................................................... 4

Discussion ................................................................................................................................................ 7

Reference list ......................................................................................................................................... 11

3

Introduction The whistleblower organization Wikileaks has published millions of classified documents.

The exposure of confidential information has provided a unique insight into government,

agency and military policy. One reaction has been to label Wikileaks and their supporters

lawbreakers. In spite of this judgment supporters of Wikileaks’ attack against confidentiality

continue to grow.

This study analyzes the moral dilemma that Bradley Manning was confronted with when

having access to top secret databases that contained thousands of reports of war crimes. In

addition, the roles of different actors such as the US military, US government, and

mainstream media will be discussed ethically. Have the different institutions fulfilled their

moral responsibility to their people?

4

Facts by time

In July 2007 the Washington Post published an article describing an US operation in

Baghdad. US soldiers in an Apache helicopter had open fire on what they called Iraqi

insurgents and had killed 11 civilians in the process, including two Reuter’s journalists

and harming two children (Partlow & Finkel, 2007).

Reuter employees requested access to the footage of the operation through the

Freedom of Information Act, the Pentagon blocked this attempt (McGreal, 2010).

PFC Bradley Manning contacted anonymously as “bradass87” ex-hacker Adrian Lamo

in May 2010, stating that he had previously leaked a video to the whistleblower

organization WikiLeaks, the video is titled “Collateral Murder” (Zetter & Poulsen,

2010).

The video showing US soldiers in an apache helicopter opening fire on civilians,

including two Reuter’s journalists, killing a total of 11 individuals, as well as harming

two children (Sunshinepress, 2010), was made public by Wikileaks. Part of the

conversation from the video with indication of time in minutes is below.

o 04:50 – US soldiers open fire.

o 06:30 – US soldiers comment on the corpses: “Oh yeah look at those dead

bastards” – “Nice”.

o 09:02 – US soldiers confirm a van approaches to pick up the bodies.

o 09:38 – US soldier requests permission to shoot: “Come on, let us shoot!”.

o 10:09 – US soldiers start shooting at the van.

o 12:06 – US soldier comment: “Oh yeah, look at that. Right through the

windshield!” – “Haha!”

o 14:38 – Shows US soldier carrying one of the two children that were harmed

during the attack.

o 15:27 – US soldier comments: “Well, it’s their fault for bringing their kids into

a battle”.

o 15:58 – Footage reveals that the US soldiers were fully aware of the presence

of children in the van before opening fire.

Quotes from Bradley’s chat with Adrian Lamo (Hansen, 2011):

5

o “If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible

things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on

some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?” –

bradass87.

o “I want people to see the truth…because without information, you cannot

make informed decisions as a public.” – bradass87.

o “I prefer a painful truth over a blissful fantasy” – bradass87.

Adrian Lamo reported to the US military about his chat with Bradley Manning. In July

2010 Bradley Manning was incarcerated in Quantico, Virginia where he was denied

proper exercise, sunlight and social interaction with other inmates. Also, he was

forced to sleep without clothing (Nakashima, 2011).

Bradley Manning was held in solitary confinement for nearly one and a half years

without any verdict or right to a trial.

Bradley Manning has been charged of 22 crimes, including “aiding the enemy” which

could result in life-time imprisonment or capital punishment (Bradley Manning

Support Network, 2012).

Among the documents leaked by WikiLeaks that Bradley Manning are accused of

sharing with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange the following was revealed.

o There is an official policy to ignore torture in Iraq.

The “Iraq War Logs” contained thousands of reports of prisoner abuse.

The logs also described the existence of “Frago 242”, which was a

direct order to ignore torture of detainees of war (Spillius, 2010).

o US officials were told to cover up evidence of child abuse in Afghanistan

(Boone, 2010).

o Egyptian torturers received training from the FBI in Quantico, Virginia (Tencer,

2011).

o The Japanese and US governments had been warned about the seismic threat

at Fukushima (Huffington Post, 2011).

When asked during a public hearing about the circumstances of Bradley Manning’s

incarceration President Obama stated “He [Bradley Manning] broke the law”. This

shows that the US government has placed a verdict before trial, completely ignoring

the presumption of innocence.

6

For his alleged decision to share this information with WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning

had received many supporters for his cause. Including:

o Daniel Ellsberg, a former US military analyst at FBI, leaked the Pentagon

Papers in 1971 (Wikipedia, 2012).

o Lt. Dan Choi, from the US military. Claims that Bradley Manning did the right

thing by making the war crimes known to the public. “He is the only soldier in

his entire chain of command who stood by the army values” (liamh2, 2011)

During a preliminary hearing for Bradley Manning, Dan Choi was

ejected out of the courtroom in handcuffs and injured by military

police without having done anything. During an interview Dan Choi

explains that the judge or investigating officer is under the direct

command of Barack Obama. “President Obama has already called

Private Manning guilty, he’s already called the entire game, nobody in

the military is going to go against their Commander-in-Chief”, explains

Dan Choi (MOXNEWSd0tC0M, 2011).

7

Discussion

The aim of this discussion is to concentrate on the moral dilemma that Bradley Manning was

confronted with when having access to top secret information. The numerous reports of war

crimes that were kept secret, including the “Collateral Murder video”, describe a military

policy that sees humanitarian resources as expendable in war, how is this ethically

justifiable? Can the treatment of Bradley Manning and his supporters be constitutionally and

morally accurate? Lastly, what role has mainstream media played in describing these events,

have they fulfilled their moral responsibility of serving truth to the public?

“A hypothetical question…if you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw

incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some

server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?” – bradass87. This

statement from Bradley Manning’s chat with Adrian Lamo describes the moral dilemma that

Bradley is confronted with. “I want people to see the truth…I prefer a painful truth over a

blissful fantasy…because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a

public” – bradass87. Can these reasons be righteous motives for leaking classified

information? Analyzing the situation, what was treated as truth and what was kept secret

until WikiLeaks published the “Collateral Murder Video”? Before the video became official

the circumstances surrounding the attack were unclear, was the attack provoked by Iraqi

insurgents? Were the soldiers in the helicopter aware of the presence of civilians, Reuter’s

journalists and 2 children? When the footage was accessible to the public it revealed how

the US soldiers had continuously asked for permission to open fire, although no direct threat

was presented towards the attackers. The video also reveals that the soldiers commented

and laughed about the corpses, showing disrespect for the victims of the attack and that

they were fully aware of the presence of children when they opened fire. Undoubtedly, the

truth was more painful than the lie that was told to the Reuter’s employees. Does this truth

allow us to make informed decisions? Absolutely, the circumstances surrounding this attack

and other military operations in Iraq are of huge importance when deciding for war or peace

between USA and Iraq. When the Iraqi government learned about the military conduct in

Iraq, they refused to renew the Status of Forces pact that allowed US soldiers to be immune

to law during their service in Iraq, thus bringing the war to an official end in December 2011

(Bradley Manning Support Network, 2011)(Brook, 2011).

8

During his incarceration, Bradley has been reading Immanuel Kant (Nicks, 2010). Considering

Kant’s categorical imperative Bradley should have acted in a manner that he wanted to

implement as law. A common motive for whistleblowers is that they think the people

deserve to know, in other words, we have a right to information, especially if it tells a

different story than what we have been told by our governments. To prevent that such

information is kept from public knowledge, the classification of documents falls under

certain restrictions. “In no case shall information be classified… in order to: conceal

violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person,

organization or agency--- or prevent or delay the release of information that does not

require protection in the interest of national security” (Office of the Press Secretary, 2009).

In this sense, Bradley Manning followed the teachings of Kant, he felt a moral responsibility

to inform the public about what was happening and followed the law. In this regard Bradley

was legally and morally justified to do what he did.

“In war, truth is always the first casualty” – Aeschylus (525-456 BC) (The Quotations Page,

2012). This quote can be related to how the Pentagon blocked the attempt from Reuter

employees to obtain footage from a military operation by the Freedom of Information Act.

By denying the newspaper access to the video the Pentagon refused them the truth, as well

as hiding knowledge from the American public. The “Collateral Murder Video” shows a

completely disregard for human life by the US soldiers. The “Iraq War Logs” describe

numerous cases of torture, a direct violation of human rights. The following quote comes

from Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux “One murder makes a villain, millions a hero”

(RedUmbrellaUnite, 2009). This comments on the absurdity of sentencing a murderer to

prison but giving medals of honor to soldiers from war, who are most likely responsible for

more deaths than a murderer. The common way to justify this from an ethical perspective is

by believing in the myth that sometimes violence is necessary, but always as a last resort. “I

don’t believe in good guys versus bad guys anymore…only a plethora of states acting in self-

interest” – bradass87 (Hansen, 2011). If this was the image that Bradley Manning perceived

from the top secret databases, that the war was unnecessary bloodshed, would it not be

absurd and immoral if he ignored what was known to him?

Instead of being treated as a whistleblower, Bradley Manning is considered a criminal or spy

and sentenced under the 1917 Espionage Act, which has been used more times by the

9

Obama administration than all other Presidencies combined (Madar, 2011) (Goodman,

2012). Obama himself has shown a clear and simple judgment of Bradley Manning “He broke

the law”. Which is a very interesting statement since Obama himself denied Bradley

Manning the right to a trial for nearly one and a half years. Obama must also have known

about the information kept hidden in FBI that the Pentagon refused to share with the

Reuter’s journalists. Being aware of this and still not using his authority as President to

prevent it is a form of hypocrisy only outmatched by his conviction to sentence Bradley

Manning to life imprisonment. “We should pursue the truth, not its messengers” (Goodman,

2012).

Has mainstream media fulfilled its moral responsibility to the people? The American author

Helen Thomas believes that ever since the events of 9/11, and even before then, journalism

has given up their only weapon, skepticism. “They [the press] went along with everything

the White House said…after 9/11 they rolled over and played dead”, explains Helen

(humbleguy2, 2010). Considering the quote from above by Amy Goodman (2012), what has

mainstream media focused on? To my knowledge, the events portrayed in the leaked

documents have thus far not been subject to discussion in Western media. Yet, there has

been an intense focus on Julian Assange and whether or not he is a threat to the world. But

there is a lack of discussion regarding the morals behind his actions and it seems the thing

that will ultimately decide whether or not Julian Assange and Bradley Manning are guilty of

treason is the US government. The same government who lied to its people about

circumstances regarding the war, the same government who allowed war crimes in Iraq and

the same government who imprisoned and tortured a whistleblower in his early twenties,

without having presented any evidence. In other words; a government to be questioned.

To summarize this philosophical analysis on moral dilemmas, let’s compare Bradley

Manning’s ordeal to that of a Greek philosopher Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC). He believed he

was blessed from the Gods to tell the people of Athens the truth about their rulers, he saw

them unfit to rule as they were either cruel tyrants or ignorant democrats. Also, he rejected

the notion of “might makes right” that was very common in Greece during his lifetime. For

speaking against the ruler’s credibility, he was sentenced to death (Wikipedia, 2012). The

willingness to eliminate any threat to their credibility is equally shared by the US

government today. By supposedly releasing classified information to WikiLeaks Bradley

10

Manning has exposed the American government as a hypocritical institution that acts out of

self-interest instead of national interest. As David Rovics, musician and activist, puts it in his

Song for Bradley Manning “Now it’s all out on the table and everybody knows, the emperor

is naked he’s not wearing any clothes” (Pisquethethird, 2011). In war, it seems, the first

casualty is truth and the second are its messengers.

11

Reference list Boone, J. (2010) Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals,

Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/foreign-contractors-hired-

dancing-boys [13 May 2012].

Bradley Manning Support Network (2011) Truth enables peace. [Online], Available at:

http://www.bradleymanning.org/learn-more/truth-enables-peace [6 May 2012].

Bradley Manning Support Network (2012) Bradley Manning, [Online], Available at:

http://www.bradleymanning.org/learn-more/bradley-manning [7 Apr 2012].

Brook, T. V. (2011) U.S. formally declares end of Iraq War, Available:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/story/2011-12-15/Iraq-war/51945028/1 [5

May 2012].

Goodman, A. (2012) Stratfor, WikiLeaks and the Obama administration’s war against truth,

Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/01/stratfor-

wikileaks-obama-administration [7 May 2012].

Hansen, E. (2011) Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed, Available:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/manning-lamo-logs/ [11 May 2012].

Huffington Post (2011) Japan Earthquake 2011: WikiLeaks Reveals Government Warned

About Nuclear Plant Safety In 2008, [Online], Available:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/16/japan-earthquake-nuclear-warning-

wikileaks_n_836529.html [13 May 2012].

Humbleguy2 (2010) Helen Thomas- an American hero 911 truth exposed, [online video],

Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cotjfDfcPw& [14 May 2012].

Liamh2 (2011) Lt. Dan Choi: "Bradley Manning is a Good Solider!", [online video], Available

at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2dVA_V5CXQ& [13 May 2012].

Madar, C. (2011) Why Bradley Manning Is a Patriot, Not a Criminal, Available:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/10-6 [14 May 2012].

12

McGreal, C. (2010) Wikileaks reveals video showing US air crew shooting down Iraqi civilians,

Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/05/wikileaks-us-army-iraq-attack [13

May 2012].

MOXNEWSd0tC0M (2011) Lt Dan Choi Thrown Out Of Bradley Manning Courtroom In

Handcuffs & Injured By Military Police, [online video], Available at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQx63-JduXU& [13 May 2012].

Nakashima, E. (2011) In brig, WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning ordered to sleep without

clothing, Available: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2011/03/05/AR2011030503624.html. [5 May 2012].

Nicks, D. (2010) Bradley Manning’s Life Behind Bars, Available:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/12/17/bradley-manning-wikileaks-alleged-

sources-life-in-prison.html [14 May 2012].

Office of the Press Secretary (2009) Executive Order 13526, Sec. 1.7. Classification

Prohibitions and Limitations, [Online], Available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-

office/executive-order-classified-national-security-information [7 May 2012].

Partlow, J. & Finkel, D. (2007) U.S., Shiite Fighters Clash in Baghdad, Available at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2007/07/12/AR2007071202357.html [13 May 2012].

Pisquethethird (2011) David Rovics – Song for Bradley Manning (official video), [online

video], Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljh5RRrPHsQ [14 May 2012].

RedUmbrellaUnite (2009) Monsieur Verdoux – Charlie Chaplin, [online video], Available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8NBHNG9Dsw [14 May 2012].

Spillius, A. (2010) Wikileaks: Iraq War Logs show US ignored torture allegations, Available:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/8082223/Wikileaks-Iraq-

War-Logs-show-US-ignored-torture-allegations.html [5 May 2012].

Sunshinepress (2010) Collateral Murder – WikiLeaks – Iraq [online video], Available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5rXPrfnU3G0 [11 May

2012].

13

Tencer, D. (2011) Cables: FBI trained Egypt’s state security ‘torturers’, Available:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/09/cables-fbi-trained-egypt-torturers/ [13 May

2012].

The Quotations Page (2012) Aeschylus Quotes, [Online], Available at:

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Aeschylus/ [7 May 2012].

Wikipedia (2012) Daniel Ellsburg, Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg

[14 May 2012].

Wikipedia (2012) Socrates, Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates [14 May

2012].

Zetter, K. & Poulsen, K. (2010) Army Intelligence Analyst Charged With Leaking Classified

Information. Available: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/manning-charges/. [28

Apr 2012].