BRADLEY MANNING [Kindle Edition]

Greg Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

NOTE: This book can be bought separately here but it also now appears as Part I of the new book "Truth and Consequences: The U.S. vs. Bradley Manning," written with Kevin Gosztola, and covering the legal case up to March 2012. Link for the new book is:

http://amzn.to/GIepUN

The first book about the U.S. Army private accused of leaking classified information to the whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks -- whose incarceration has now inspired international attention and protest. It's written by award-winning author Greg Mitchell, whose daily blog on WikiLeaks for The Nation magazine and recent book "The Age of WikiLeaks" have gained a wide following. (Both books are also available in print at www.blurb.com.)

In "Bradley Manning: Truth and Consequences," Mitchell traces Manning from his childhood in Oklahoma to Baghdad, where he was arrested in May 2010 and charged with sending to WikiLeaks explosive secret reports relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and diplomatic cables exposing sensitive U.S. relations around the world. Then Mitchell probes the controversy that has swirled around Manning's harsh treatment in the brig at the Marine base in Quantico, Va., which has led to repeated charges of "cruel and unusual punishment," the firing of the chief U.S. State Department spokesman, and demonstrations all over the world -- even as some pundits and politicians in the U.S. call for Manning's execution.

The book follows the Manning story right up to April, 2011, and includes for the first time in print lengthy excerpts from the online "chat logs" used as evidence to arrest him, and from Manning's remarkable recent letter detailing inhumane conditions he endures in prison. It also explores the documents that Manning allegedly leaked and their ongoing impact in the U.S. and around the globe, along with an updated look at the continuing saga of WikiLeaks and its leader, Julian Assange.

Mitchell is the author of eleven previous books for major publishers, including "The Campaign of the Century" (winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize) and "So Wrong for So Long" (on Iraq and the media). He co-authored, with Robert Jay Lifton, "Hiroshima in America" and "Who Owns Death?" He is the former editor of Editor & Publisher magazine.

Praise for Mitchell's previous book, "The Age of WikiLeaks":

"From the moment I discovered Greg Mitchell's amazing WikiLeaks blog it has become indispensable. 'The Age of WikiLeaks' follows in the footsteps of his brilliant books on nuclear threat, the Iraq war, the media and American politics." ----- DANIEL ELLSBERG

"One of the nation's most insightful journalists, Greg Mitchell, tackles in this book one of the most fascinating and important political controversies of the last decade: WikiLeaks. Few commentators know more about this vital topic. Mitchell's daily blog has been a must-read for anyone following the WikiLeaks saga." ----- GLENN GREENWALD, Salon.com

Product Details

• File Size: 217 KB
• Print Length: 105 pages
• Publisher: Sinclair Books (March 21, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004TAF0VG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #464,352 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A useful summary of an appalling and disgraceful situation April 2, 2011

By Brian Walker

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Greg Mitchell provides a lucid and thorough review of what is known to date about Bradley Manning's past, the possible motivation for his alleged leak of the Collateral Murder video and hundreds of thousands of State Department cables to Wikileaks, his ongoing torture by the US government, and what it all means about Manning, our government, and President "Hope & Change" Obama. This is what emerges:

1. Bradley Manning knew that he was, as a member of the United States military, a party to wrong: the ongoing torture and murder of innocents. He felt an ethical obligation to reveal the depth and extent of the wrongs in which he had become unwittingly complicit. If the portions of his chat logs with Adrian Lamo that we have been able to read are accurate (the government and WIRED magazine are concealing most of them), his hope was that "worldwide discussions, debates, and reforms" would ensue.

2. Boy have they ever -- and what's being discussed and debated is the corruption of our own government (senseless murder of more than a hundred thousand innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan, spying in the UN at the direction of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the bombing of countries like Yemen with which we're not at war and displacement of responsibility for same onto their governments, plenty more) and lots of other governments around the world (publications as staid as the Economist have called Tunisia "the first Wikileaks revolution", and the revolutions in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and elsewhere have been similarly fueled).

3. The government of the United States is intent upon killing the messenger -- or, in Manning's case, torturing him out of his mind. He is charged with a capital crime, "aiding the enemy", though plainly he had no such intent. Though he has been a model inmate in the brig at Quantico where he has been held nearly a year, Manning -- an untried and unconvicted American citizen -- is being held under conditions so harsh and bizarre they beggar belief, including enforced nudity, constant isolation, and other measures known to destroy the human psyche.

4. In spite of the fact that Amnesty International, the United Nations, the ACLU, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Social Responsibility have called Manning's torture "cruel and unusual" and called for its end, President Barack Obama (a man for whom I campaigned and voted, and to whom I donated) has defended his treatment of Manning as "appropriate".

Late in the book, Mitchell likens Manning to Daniel Ellsberg, a man now rightly recognized as an American hero for his leaking of the Pentagon Papers. He quotes Glenn Greenwald, perhaps the best journalist writing on the subject of Manning today: "Nonetheless, the notion that Daniel Ellberg's leak was noble and justified has become consecrated orthodoxy among most Democrats, progressives and even among the American media -- because it's very easy to cheer on challenges to authority and political power from four decades earlier, when the targets of the whistle-blowing no longer wield power. Yet even though Manning's actions are so similar to Ellsberg's both in intent and effect -- as Ellsberg himself has repeatedly stated -- the reaction to Manning is radically different: both because Manning's actions challenge the policy of current authorities who actually wield power now and because it's a Democratic President prosecuting him. That Ellsberg is viewed as a hero while Manning is viewed as a death-deserving villain makes no logical sense."

Obama's hypocrisy is hardly rare in our culture. The owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos -- a man who became a multi-billionaire through the distributive powers of the internet -- yanked Wikileaks from the Amazon server cloud last fall, though Wikileaks has plainly acted as a journalist and committed no crimes (nor been accused of any). The owner of Ebay, Pierre Omidyar -- another man who became a multi-billionaire through the distributive powers of the internet, and one who travels the globe trumpeting his affection for transparency and accountability -- cut off the principal means by which the entire world supported the efforts of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning, which were the Paypal accounts of their defense funds.

But plutocrats will do plutocratic things. It is Obama's hypocrisy that glares the brightest, for it is he -- a former professor of Constitutional law -- who is torturing one of his own citizens and calling it "appropriate". Greg Mitchell's detailed documentation of this contemptible and wholly illegal abuse is admirable. Every American ought to read this book and familiarize him- or herself with what our government is doing to this young man in our names. Bradley Manning took a heroic step, and took it with the understanding that it might cause him to lose either his liberty or his life. That one has been erased while the other hangs in the balance -- in the hands of a President who campaigned on a platform of transparency and accountability in government -- is a national disgrace.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the only non-biased source of information on manning April 8, 2011

By V. Banti

Format:Kindle Edition

what greg mitchell did for wikileaks he now does for bradley manning: providing real, authoritative and in-depth reporting (you know - journalism! that thing that so many people pretend to do now-a-days) on his life, his motivations, and the situation surrounding his ongoing detention. no matter what your opinion of this young man's alledged actions is, this book is the ONLY reliable telling of his story. i cannot recommend it enough. thank you, greg mitchell, for your coverage.

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable June 12, 2012

By R. Mcbride

Format:Kindle Edition

Mitchell has provided an essential overview of Bradley Manning's case. An indispensable summary of the proceedings to date. Mitchell may have a critical perspective, but that does not interfere with his respect for the facts.

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