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142-564: The system deals primarily with intelligence information and was one of the networks accessed by Chelsea Manning , in the leaking of sensitive footage and intelligence during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to whistleblower organization WikiLeaks in 2010, primarily the video used in WikiLeaks' Collateral Murder prior to leaking a trove of US diplomatic cables . In 2023, it was also accessed by Jack Teixeira who leaked information about

284-458: A PhD in physics, she enlisted in September that year. She told her Army supervisor later that she had also hoped joining such a masculine environment would resolve her gender dysphoria . Manning began basic training at Fort Leonard Wood , Missouri, on October 2, 2007. She wrote that she soon realized she was neither physically nor mentally prepared for it. Six weeks after enlisting, she

426-438: A TS/SCI security clearance ( Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information ). According to Nicks, this security clearance, combined with the digitization of classified information and the government's policy of sharing it widely, gave Manning access to an unprecedented amount of material. Nicks writes that Manning was reprimanded while at Fort Huachuca for posting three video messages to friends on YouTube in which she described

568-401: A camera and Chmagh is talking on his mobile phone. Two other men in the group appear to have rifles. Another has a long cylindrical object which a U.S. army general investigating the incident said was a rocket-propelled grenade. The Apache gunner says that there are "five to six individuals with AK-47s" and requests permission to engage the group which is granted. Noor-Eldeen walks ahead of

710-719: A dying, unarmed journalist to pick up a weapon as he tried to crawl to safety and that "the Apache crew open[ed] fire on civilians". When the crew were informed that a child had been injured by their attack, one initially responded, "Ah damn. Oh well", and a minute later continued, "Well, it's their fault for bringing kids into a battle". Smith describes this reaction as inhuman. She draws parallels with soldiers who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder in earlier wars. She continued, "the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting huge psychological damage on combatants". In refusing to recognize this,

852-456: A fairy wand on her desk. When she told her roommate she was attracted to men, he responded by suggesting they not speak to each other. Manning's working conditions included 14- to 15-hour night shifts in a tightly packed, dimly lit room. On December 20, 2009, during a counseling session with two colleagues to discuss her poor time-keeping, Manning was told she would lose her one day off a week for persistent lateness. She responded by overturning

994-461: A female gender identity since childhood and wanted to be known as Chelsea Manning. Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst , Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010, she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo , an online acquaintance. Lamo indirectly informed the Army's Criminal Investigation Command , and Manning

1136-408: A few blocks away, which I was involved in, and they’re carrying weapons, one of which is an RPG. …Their overall mission that day was to protect us, to provide support for us, so I can see where the initial attack on the group of men was warranted. However, personally I don't feel that the attack on the van was warranted. I think that the people could have been deterred from doing what they were doing in

1278-641: A good day. Manning, January 9, 2010 On January 5, 2010, Manning downloaded the 400,000 documents that became known as the Iraq War logs. On January 8, she downloaded 91,000 documents from the Afghanistan database, later known as part of the Afghan War logs. She saved the material on a CD-RW and smuggled it through security by labeling the CD-RW media " Lady Gaga " and storing it in a Gaga CD case. She lip-synced to Lady Gaga music to make it appear that she

1420-424: A hard thing to see. It's painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. But you—you talked about the fog of war. These people were operating in split second situations.". The New Yorker praised its release, calling it "a striking artifact—an unmediated representation of the ambiguities and cruelties of modern warfare". Daniel Ellsberg , a former United States military analyst who

1562-538: A hostile force". The Washington Post reported it was unclear whether the journalists were killed by U.S. fire or by shooting from the targeted Iraqis. Captain James Hall stated they couldn't drive in Bradleys in fear of running over bodies. Major Brent Cummings claimed they took great pains to prevent the loss of innocent civilian lives. Reuters reported that it could locate no witnesses who had seen gunmen in

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1704-498: A house with five acres of land, where they kept pigs and chickens. Manning's sister told the court-martial that both their parents were alcoholics , and that their mother drank continually while pregnant with Chelsea. Captain David Moulton, a Navy psychiatrist, told the court that Manning's facial features showed signs of fetal alcohol syndrome . The sister became Manning's principal caregiver, waking at night to prepare

1846-586: A key issue surrounding JWICS is the threat of cyberterrorism. Foundations like JWICS present critically important assets that if infiltrated, can lead to information and/or strategic advantages. This is not dissimilar to how strategic points like bases or fortresses would be infiltrated in regular warfare. The vulnerability of cyber networks lies in their construction. Structures are created through software written by individuals whose mistakes create vulnerabilities for those who want to protect information, and opportunities for those seeking it. In addition, cyberterrorism

1988-641: A memorandum of understanding the improve collaboration between the agencies." The 2008 Russian infiltration of SIPRNET led to large reforms in terms of defense strategy. In 2008, then defense Secretary Robert Gates moved to create a dedicated infrastructure dealing specializing with cyber warfare strategy – the Cyber Command. Cyber command was originally designed by Colonel Paul Nakasone , Lieutenant Colonel Jen Easterly , Navy Captain T. J. White, and Air Force Colonel Stephen Davis. These four became colloquially known as 'The Four Horsemen' and set out to create

2130-554: A message that she wanted to speak to him in confidence; she said she had been involved in some "very high-profile events, albeit as a nameless individual thus far". On May 19, according to Army investigators, she emailed Eric Schmiedl, a mathematician she had met in Boston, and told him she had been the source of the Baghdad airstrike video. Two days later, she began the series of chats with Adrian Lamo that led to her arrest. WikiLeaks

2272-490: A photograph of herself dressed as a woman and with the filename breanna.jpg . She wrote: This is my problem. I've had signs of it for a very long time. It's caused problems within my family. I thought a career in the military would get rid of it. It's not something I seek out for attention, and I've been trying very, very hard to get rid of it by placing myself in situations where it would be impossible. But, it's not going away; it's haunting me more and more as I get older. Now,

2414-521: A pro-protection standpoint, media does have a role in defining the limits of public interest in their publications to protect the safety of certain stakeholders. JWICS operates as the highest level network in the DoD's information cyberspace. It is a controlled network, and the information contained within it is of great importance to both the US, and other parties looking for information. Because of its importance,

2556-429: A pro-public interest perspective that JWICS allows government to manipulate releases of information (as occurred in "Collateral Murder") to shirk accountability for wrongdoings. Others, who take a more conservative approach to information release, cite the importance of protecting troops on the ground and deny the idea that full transparency is essential for democracy. With the development of secure intranet networks and

2698-547: A result. The virus, once gaining access to these networks, acted as a 'beachhead' which allowed the transfer of data to foreign computers The hack was, at the time, the largest compromise of US cybersecurity in history, and initially led to a ban on the use of thumb-drives. this was later repealed. JWICS is structured slightly differently to SIPRNET. JWICS is accessed via "terminals" in protected facilities known as Secret Compartmentalized Information Facilities. These physical facilities are highly protected as physical structures. This

2840-457: A soldier in the Humvee (Hotel 2–6) under attack from the same position used by Namir Noor-Eldeen to photograph the vehicle. According to a military review, soldiers in that company "had been under sporadic small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire since" the operation—described as "clearing their sector and looking for weapons caches"—began. The Air Weapons Team (AWT) of two Apache AH-64s from

2982-407: A statement that the more she had tried to fit in at work, the more alienated she became from everyone around her. The relationship with WikiLeaks had given her a brief respite from the isolation and anxiety. On April 24, 2010, Manning sent an email to her supervisor, Master Sergeant Paul Adkins—with the subject line "My Problem"—saying she was suffering from gender identity disorder . She attached

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3124-456: A table, damaging a computer that was sitting on it. A sergeant moved Manning away from the weapons rack, and other soldiers pinned her arms behind her back and dragged her out of the room. Several witnesses to the incident believed her access to sensitive material ought to have been withdrawn at that point. The next month, January 2010, she began posting on Facebook that she felt hopeless and alone. Manning said her first contact with WikiLeaks

3266-460: A threat." He said that WikiLeaks "does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. He is seen swinging the weapon below his waist while standing next to the man holding the RPG". The WikiLeaks edited video did not add arrows pointing to these men, or label them, as it did with the men carrying cameras. WikiLeaks stated that "some of the men appear to have been armed [although]

3408-593: Is an American activist and whistleblower . She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents. She was imprisoned from 2010 until 2017 when her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama . A trans woman , Manning said in 2013 that she had

3550-629: Is because they present strategic advantage. If one terminal is accessed by an enemy, all of JWICS is available to them until that terminal is disconnected from the network. Because of JWICS' structure, allowing access only through secure facilities, it is relatively protected from outside threats. However, there is an intrinsic vulnerability in JWICS that is summarized by Clarke and Knake in Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to do About It : Access to these terminals

3692-493: Is believed that Manning's decision to supply the files to WikiLeaks began partly as a result of directly experiencing "war porn", graphic videos watched by analysts for entertainment. A notable video viewed by Manning that would later also capture public attention involved a US Apache helicopter firing on civilians . This video would be named "Collateral Murder." Manning was also uncomfortable with and perceived censorship of Iraqi citizens in their published opinions on government, and

3834-418: Is heard to say: "Well, it’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle". The ground troops who secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. There is a period of 20 minutes not included on the leaked tape. According to the internal legal review, the helicopters engaged a group of armed insurgents, and that some were seen entering a nearby building. As

3976-569: Is more restricted because of their location, but the information flowing on the network still has to go across fiber optic cables and through routers and servers, just as with any other network. Routers can be attacked to cut communications. The hardware used   ... can all be compromised at the point of manufacture of later one. Therefore we cannot assume that even this network is reliable. The mounting threat to US cybersecurity has led to some developments surrounding defense. In 2011, Leon Panetta and other intelligence officials gave statements about

4118-448: Is not restricted by geographical bounds. Networks can be hacked remotely from across the globe without warning. This creates jurisdictional issues for enforcement. A key vulnerability for secret level networks such as JWICS is what is described as a 'sneakernet threat.' These systems are designed to be separate from the unclassified internet, creating a protection from malware. However, the systems also rely on users uploading documents from

4260-666: Is the hub for non-classified but still specialized information relating to important logistics and planning. Above this lies the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET). SIPRNET deals with information classified as Confidential or Secret. SIPRNET is another of the networks accessed by Chelsea Manning (See Automation bias , #JWICS, WikiLeaks, and Chelsea Manning ). Finally, the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System houses

4402-582: Is the second child of Susan Fox, who is Welsh , and Brian Manning, an American. Brian had joined the United States Navy in 1974, at age 19, and served five years as an intelligence analyst . He met Susan while stationed in Wales at RAF Brawdy . Manning has an older sister. The couple returned to the U.S. in 1979, settling first in California. After moving near Crescent, Oklahoma , they bought

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4544-456: Is to get political impact?" Assange responded: Yes, absolutely… Our promise to the public is that we will release the full source material. So if people have a different opinion, the full material is there for them to analyse and assess. On 19 April 2010, Ethan McCord, who appears on the ground in the video, and Josh Steiber, a member of the same company who was not present on the day, wrote an open Letter of Reconciliation & Responsibility to

4686-440: Is undertaken. Cybersecurity concerns are often discussed with a focus on hacking and external threats, but Mark Ambidner of The Atlantic highlighted the susceptibility of defense networks to trusted actors: All it took was one disaffected young man [Sic] with a rudimentary knowledge of computer systems to bring down an entire edifice of code names, secret networks, compartmented channels, and protected information. Some argue from

4828-503: The Baghdad helicopter attack ("Collateral murder") video in a Judge Advocate 's directory and passed it to WikiLeaks on or around February 21. In late March, she sent them a video of the May 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; this was the video later removed and apparently destroyed by Daniel Domscheit-Berg when he left the organization. Between March 28 and April 9, she downloaded

4970-604: The Democratic nomination for the United States Senate election in her home state of Maryland . She received 6.1% of the vote; Cardin won renomination with 79.2%. From March 8, 2019, to March 12, 2020, Manning was jailed for contempt and fined $ 256,000 for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange . Born in 1987 in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma, Manning

5112-470: The Iraqi insurgency which followed the invasion of Iraq . On April 5, 2010, the attacks received worldwide coverage and controversy following the release of 39 minutes of classified gunsight footage by WikiLeaks . The video, which WikiLeaks titled Collateral Murder , showed the crew firing on a group of people and killing several of them, including two Reuters journalists, and then laughing at some of

5254-529: The MIT researcher who was later allowed to visit her in jail. In November 2008, she gave an anonymous interview to a high-school reporter during a rally in Syracuse in support of gay marriage: I was kicked out of my home and I once lost my job. The world is not moving fast enough for us at home, work, or the battlefield. I've been living a double life. ... I can't make a statement. I can't be caught in an act. I hope

5396-646: The Russian invasion of Ukraine . Because of the information it houses, JWICS is subject to discussion around cybersecurity and the United States' vulnerability to cyber threats. Opinions surrounding the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication system are varied. Some emphasize its importance as a measure to protect intelligence that helps to ensure the safety of US military interests and personnel. Others scrutinize

5538-509: The bolt from her weapon, making it unable to fire, and she was sent to work in the supply office, although her security clearance remained in place. As punishment for the altercation with Showman, she was demoted from Specialist (E-4) to Private First Class (E-3) three days before her arrest on May 27. Ellen Nakashima writes that, on May 9, Manning contacted Jonathan Odell, a gay American novelist in Minneapolis, via Facebook, leaving

5680-530: The drill sergeants screamed at her, she would scream at them—to the point where they started calling her "General Manning". The decision to discharge her was revoked, and she started basic training again in January 2008. After graduating in April, she moved to Fort Huachuca , Arizona, to attend Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 35F, intelligence analyst, receiving

5822-506: The "don't ask, don't tell" construct surrounding homosexuality in the US military. All of this information was contained in secure networks such as JWICS, causing their legitimacy as a form of a protection, rather than censorship, to be widely scrutinized in media and academic discourse. Manning was sentenced in 2013 to 35 years at Fort Leavenworth . This sentence was commuted by the Obama administration for release after 7 years in 2017. Manning

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5964-406: The 15 months Manning spent with her aunt were among the stablest of her life. Manning had a boyfriend, took several low-paid jobs, and spent a semester studying history and English at Montgomery College but left after failing an exam. Manning's father spent weeks in 2007 asking her to consider joining the Army. Hoping to gain a college education through the G.I. Bill , and perhaps to study for

6106-512: The 17-minute version of the video are Noor-Eldeen with a camera and Chmagh talking on his mobile phone. Both videos depict the attack on the van, van driver, and two other men, and the aftermath when the two seriously injured children were evacuated by U.S. ground forces who arrived on the scene. The longer video shows the third attack, in which Hellfire missiles were fired into a building. In an Al Jazeera English interview on April 19, 2010, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange explained why WikiLeaks titled

6248-584: The 1st Cavalry Division had been requested by the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment (2–16), 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich, before July 12 to support Operation Ilaaj. Tasked to conduct escort, armed reconnaissance patrols, and counter-IED and counter-mortar operations, the two helicopters left Camp Taji at 9:24 a.m. They arrived on station in New Baghdad at 9:53 a.m., where sporadic attacks on coalition forces continued. In

6390-526: The 250,000 diplomatic cables and on April 10, uploaded them to a WikiLeaks dropbox. Manning told the court that, during her interaction with WikiLeaks on IRC and Jabber, she developed a friendship with someone there, believed to be Julian Assange (although neither knew the other's name), which she said made her feel she could be herself. Army investigators found 14 to 15 pages of encrypted chats, in unallocated space on her MacBook's hard drive , between Manning and someone believed to be Assange. She wrote in

6532-591: The Baghdad airstrike video "Collateral Murder", and Assange released it on April 5, 2010, during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The video showed two U.S. helicopters firing on a group of 10 men in the Amin District of Baghdad . Among the people killed in the attack were two Reuters employees, who were there to photograph an American Humvee under attack by

6674-1059: The Dark —after which Manning cried for hours. By September 2009, her relationship with Watkins was in trouble; they reconciled for a short time, but it was effectively over. After four weeks at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Fort Polk , Louisiana, Manning was deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer, near Baghdad, arriving in October 2009. From her workstation there, she had access to SIPRNet (the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network) and JWICS (the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System). Two of her superiors had discussed not taking her to Iraq; it

6816-504: The Department of Defense and CDNE database. These items have already been sanitized of any source identifying information. You might need to sit on this information for 90 to 180 days to best send and distribute such a large amount of data to a large audience and protect the source. This is one of the most significant documents of our time removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare. Have

6958-697: The DoD, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Justice Department. Conversely, SIPRNet and NIPRNet account for the overwhelming bulk of usage within DoD and non-intelligence government agencies and departments. There are three main router networks operated by the Department of Defense. Each is separated by the types of information they deal with. At the most open level, the Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNET)

7100-464: The Iraq and Afghan War logs via Tor . She returned to Iraq on February 11, with no acknowledgment from WikiLeaks that they had received the files. On or around February 18, she passed WikiLeaks a diplomatic cable, dated January 13, 2010, from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík , Iceland. They published it within hours, which suggested to Manning that they had received the other material, too. She found

7242-610: The Iraqi People apologising for the events in the video. They wrote that: What was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region. Ahlam Abdelhussein Tuman,

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7384-488: The Mahdi Army. The U.S. pilots mistook their cameras for weapons. The helicopters also fired on a van, targeted earlier by one helicopter, that had stopped to help wounded members of the first group. Two children in the van were wounded, and their father was killed. The pilots also attacked a building where retreating insurgents were holed up. The Washington Post wrote that the video, viewed by millions, put WikiLeaks on

7526-522: The Mannings a troubled family. As a child, Manning was opinionated about the intersection of religion and politics. For example, she invariably remained silent during the part of the Pledge of Allegiance that makes reference to God. In a 2011 interview, Manning's father said, "People need to understand that he's a young man that had a happy life growing up." He also said that Manning excelled at

7668-592: The New York Times. In publishing documents, the Times employed censorship efforts, consulting the CIA and the DoD about what to omit from their publication. The central counterargument to protection is that releases must balance the opposing forces of public interest and potential harm. Pro-public interest speaker Simon Jenkins states that "The Job of Media is not to protect power from embarrassment." Nonetheless, from

7810-425: The U.S. Army stated that the two children were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital via Forward Operating Base Loyalty , then transferred to an Iraqi medical facility the next day. The Guardian stated "It is unclear if some of the men are armed but Noor-Eldeen can be seen with a camera". Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com said that "the vast majority of the men were clearly unarmed". Greenwald called

7952-407: The US military fails both its own soldiers and their victims. She concluded that command structures need to be in place to identify "combatants with serious psychological problems". On Democracy Now! , Josh Stieber, who was at the time assigned to Bravo Company 2–16, said that although it's natural to "judge or criticize the soldiers", in fact "this is how [they] were trained to act". He said that

8094-417: The assessment that the group of men were carrying a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). Assange stated that the attack on the van was the most damning part of the video: "I'm very sceptical that was done under the rules of engagement; and, if it was legal, the rules of engagement must be changed". Fox News reported in 2010 that the rules of engagement in Iraq had not been changed since the incident occurred. On

8236-418: The baby's bottle. The court heard that Manning was fed only milk and baby food until the age of two. As an adult she reached 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) and weighed around 105 pounds (48 kg). Manning's father took a job as an information technology (IT) manager for a rental car agency, The Hertz Corporation , which required travel. The family lived several miles out of town, and Manning's mother

8378-580: The behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed" in the introductory text of the shorter video. In an interview with Fox News Assange said that "it's likely some of the individuals seen in the video were carrying weapons" and "based upon visual evidence I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I'm not sure that means anything. ... Nearly every Iraqi household has a rifle or an AK. Those guys could have just been protecting their area". Fox News later stated that "although it could be argued AK-47 rifles are common household items, RPGs are not". A draft version of

8520-406: The building and seven residents had died, including his wife and daughter. The report stated that the helicopter crew did not know how many people were in the building when they destroyed it with missiles, and that "there is evidence that unarmed people have both entered and are nearby". It concluded that an investigating officer would want to know how the armed men were identified as combatants from

8662-437: The building with several AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. According to Tom Raju, a reporter at CNN, "the soldiers of Bravo Company, 2–16 Infantry had been under fire all morning from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms on the first day of Operation Ilaaj in Baghdad". Al Jazeera stated that the Army had received "reports of small arms fire", but were unable to positively identify the gunmen. Apache helicopters were called in by

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8804-508: The card in Manning's room in her aunt's home in Potomac, Maryland . On January 23, Manning flew to the U.S. via Germany for two weeks of leave. It was during this visit that she first went out dressed as a woman , wearing a wig and makeup. After her arrest, Manning's friend Tyler Watkins told Wired that Manning had said during the visit that she had found some sensitive information and

8946-418: The case of military operations, JWICS is also said to protect troops on the ground by safeguarding their strategy and movements. Pro-protection parties argue that leaking agents such as Wikileaks need to better censor the identities of individuals contained in their leaks to prevent harm. In several of WikiLeaks' leaks involving JWICS in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they worked alongside publications such as

9088-515: The casualties, all of whom were civilians. An anonymous U.S. military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage, which provoked global discussion on the legality and morality of the attacks. In the first strike, the crews of two Apaches directed 30 mm cannon fire at a group of ten Iraqi men. Among the group were two Iraqi war correspondents working for Reuters , Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen . Seven men (including Noor-Eldeen) were killed during this first strike; Chmagh, who

9230-585: The charges. The trial on the remaining charges began on June 3, 2013, and on July 30, she was convicted of 17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others, but acquitted of aiding the enemy. She was sentenced to 35 years at the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. On January 17, 2017, Obama commuted Manning's sentence to nearly seven years of confinement dating from her arrest in May 2010. After release, Manning makes her living through speaking engagements. In 2018, Manning challenged incumbent Senator Ben Cardin for

9372-460: The consequences of it are dire, at a time when it's causing me great pain in itself. Adkins discussed the situation with Manning's therapists, but did not pass the email to anybody above him in his chain of command ; he told Manning's court-martial that he was concerned the photograph would be disseminated among other staff. Captain Steven Lim, Manning's company commander, said he first saw

9514-647: The context of justifying the title 'Collateral Murder' that the word 'RPG' was not used until after permission to engage was given, he leaves the impression that the soldiers were given the okay to open fire on a group of unarmed men, or men believed to be unarmed. But the video and accompanying audio make clear that the soldiers in the helicopter said they spotted 'weapons' among those in the group—later identified by an internal army investigator as an AK-47 and an RPG." Assange later said "Based upon visual evidence, I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I'm not sure that means anything". The legal review carried out by

9656-406: The day of the attack the U.S. military reported that the two journalists were killed along with nine insurgents, and that the helicopter engagement was related to a U.S. troop raid force that had been attacked by small-arms fire and RPGs. U.S. forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl later stated: "There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against

9798-528: The debate should be re-framed, that it is more appropriate to ask "questions of the larger system" that teaches "doing these things is in the best interests of my own country". In 2009, Stieber left the military as a conscientious objector and became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War . In a later interview on the World Socialist Web Site , Stieber said that the attack "exposes so clearly

9940-429: The earlier engagement; would question the nature of the collateral-damage estimate carried out by the crew before the missiles were launched; and would wish to determine whether a missile attack was a proportionate response to the threat. A Pentagon spokesman said the video did not contradict the official finding that the helicopters' crew acted within the rules of engagement and said that the military's own inquiry backed

10082-420: The email after Manning's arrest, when information about hormone replacement therapy was found in Manning's room on base; at that point Lim learned that Manning had been calling herself Breanna. Manning told former " grey hat " hacker Adrian Lamo that she had set up Twitter and YouTube accounts as Breanna to give her female identity a digital presence, writing to Lamo: "I wouldn't mind going to prison for

10224-467: The end, communication became too difficult. The boss told the newspaper that "nobody's been taking care of this kid for a really long time". By then, Manning was living as an openly gay man. Her relationship with her father was apparently good, but there were problems between Manning and her stepmother. In March 2006, Manning reportedly threatened her stepmother with a knife during an argument about Manning's failure to get another job; her stepmother called

10366-750: The enemy , which was the most serious charge and could have resulted in a death sentence . She was held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico in Virginia, from July 2010 to April 2011, under Prevention of Injury status—which entailed de facto solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused domestic and international concern —before being transferred to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas, where she could interact with other detainees. In February 2013 she pleaded guilty to 10 of

10508-520: The engagement was somehow justified as 'payback' for an earlier attack that led to the death of a soldier." The footage was released by the nonprofit media organization WikiLeaks during an April 5 press conference at the US National Press Club , and subsequently on a designated website titled Collateral Murder . WikiLeaks stated that the footage shows the "murder of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists". WikiLeaks identified

10650-454: The events". Hanzlik said images gathered during a military investigation of the incident show multiple weapons around the dead bodies in the courtyard, including at least three RPGs. "Our forces were engaged in combat all that day with individuals that fit the description of the men in that video. Their age, their weapons, and the fact that they were within the distance of the forces that had been engaged made it apparent these guys were potentially

10792-495: The fallacy of using war as a tool of foreign policy or as a way to supposedly spread 'freedom and democracy' around the world". Ethan McCord, a soldier who arrived on the scene after the attack, stated in an interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation : From being in the perspective of the Apache helicopter crew, I can see where a group of men gathering, when there's a firefight just

10934-484: The files, in which case he could be charged with conspiracy. Manning told Lamo in May 2010 that she had developed a working relationship with Assange, communicating directly with him using an encrypted Internet conferencing service, but knew little about him. WikiLeaks did not identify Manning as their source. Army investigators found pages of chats on Manning's computer between Manning and someone believed to be Assange. Nicks writes that, despite this, no decisive evidence

11076-540: The framework for Cyber Command, the US's dedicated cyber-strategy wing. In 2016, Cyber Command gained separation from the NSA, elevating it to have a direct line to the White House. The Trump administration has further stretched the team's authority, allowing them to take a more offensive approach to cyber strategy. Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning , December 17, 1987)

11218-414: The ground troops of the van and requested permission to engage the vehicle before the ground troops arrived. The Apache crew saw unarmed men exit the vehicle and move to Chmagh. The Apache crew requested permission to engage, stating it "looks like [the men] possibly, picking up bodies and weapons" from the scene, and repeated their request to shoot, before they received permission to begin firing on

11360-440: The ground troops to move up to the position of the attack to clear the area. As the ground troops advanced, a wounded Chmagh was seen crawling and attempting to stand. As the U.S. soldiers moved towards the site of the attack, a van stopped near Chmagh. The military said that the van was "fair game under Army rules", because it had no visible markings to suggest it was an ambulance or a protected vehicle. The Apache crew alerted

11502-403: The group and peers around a street corner to aim his long-lensed camera at U.S. Humvees which are about 100 metres down the street. Noor-Eldeen's camera is misidentified by the Apache gunner who says "He's got an RPG!" Three pictures of the U.S. Humvee were found on his camera's memory card when it was recovered by U.S. soldiers. The men become obscured behind a building as the Apache moves around

11644-405: The group. Both helicopters strafe a group of ten men with 30 mm rounds once they became visible again. After the lead helicopter fires, one of the crew shouts "Hahaha. I hit 'em" and another member of the crew responds "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards". Seven men were killed, including Noor-Eldeen, with three others being wounded. Once the group is eliminated, the Apache pilots direct

11786-405: The growing vulnerability of the US to cyber attacks. This stemmed from Pentagon Reports about critical security breaches in government and business networks. Since then the Department of Defense has rolled out and continually developed 'Einstein' software aimed at detecting and preventing intrusion into federal government networks. In addition, "the Department of Homeland Security and the NSA signed

11928-443: The helicopter and fire two more missiles into the upper floors of the building WikiLeaks said in the preface to one of their videos of the incident that "some of the men appear to have been armed [although] the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed" in the introductory text of the shorter video. Julian Assange said "permission to engage was given before the word 'RPG' was ever used". Politifact stated: "When Assange points out in

12070-400: The immediate area. Reuters also stated that local police described the attack as "random American bombardment". Reuters subsequently asked the U.S. military to probe the deaths. They asked for an explanation of the confiscation of the journalists' two cameras, access to the on-board footage and voice communications from the helicopters involved, and access to the reports of the units involved in

12212-480: The incident, particularly logs of weapons taken from the scene. On July 25, 2007, during an off-the-record briefing in Baghdad by the U.S. military, two Reuters editors were shown "less than three minutes of video from the Apache’s gun camera, up to the exact moment it opened fire the first time." The editors asked to see the remaining footage so Reuters could check whether it had been edited or manipulated. Their request

12354-460: The increased use of technology in government and military operations, networks such as JWICS have come under scrutiny due to their perceived capacity to keep public interest information behind closed networks. At the heart of pro-public interest arguments is the desire to hold governments accountable for their wrongdoings. Academics posit that pre-1991 there was a layer of separation allowing organizations to be selective about what they released to

12496-410: The individuals in the building with weapons, go ahead and engage the building". As the pilot positions the helicopter to attack the building, two unarmed men walk towards, and perhaps into, the building. As the gunner fires the first missile, another man is seen walking along the street in front of the building. The missile hits the building, and the man is caught in the explosion. The crew then reposition

12638-510: The information might no longer exist. The Pentagon eventually blocked the FOIA request despite several follow-up requests by Reuters. An internal legal review by staff at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq during July 2007 stated that the helicopters had attacked a number of armed insurgents within the rules of engagement , and that in an apparent case of civilian casualties two reporters working for Reuters had also been killed. The review

12780-858: The inside of the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) where she worked. Upon completion of her initial MOS course, Manning received the Army Service Ribbon and the National Defense Service Medal . In August 2008, Manning was sent to Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New York , where she joined the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division , and trained for deployment to Iraq. In late 2008, while stationed there, she met Tyler Watkins, who

12922-482: The internet. This creates a risk of viruses being passed on along with the information into the secure system. An example of this threat came to reality in 2008 when Russian malware made its way into the SIPRNET system by way of a thumb-drive which was plugged into classified-level computers accessing the network. These computers lacked virus protection due to their detachment from the internet, and were compromised as

13064-418: The leak's source as "a number of military whistleblowers". Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, a U.S. Defense official confirmed the authenticity of the leaked audio and video. The military reported that it could not find its copy of the video. WikiLeaks released a 39-minute version, which shows all three incidents, and a 17-minute version, which shows only the first two incidents. Highlighted in

13206-510: The map. According to Nicks, Manning emailed a superior officer after the video aired and tried to persuade her that it was the same version as the one stored on SIPRNet . Nicks writes that it seemed as though Manning wanted to be caught. July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike On July 12, 2007, a series of air-to-ground attacks were conducted by a team of two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah , New Baghdad , during

13348-484: The neighborhood and that one of the men was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade." Captain Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command stated that the airstrike video "gives you a limited perspective, [it] only tells you a portion of the activity that was happening that day. Just from watching that video, people cannot understand the complex battles that occurred. You are seeing only a very narrow picture of

13490-498: The network can be sent in prioritized premarked packets, meaning that the most important and sensitive information can be sent on the fastest and most secure routes   ... Once transmitted, the information is housed on JWICS and is accessible from "highly secured rooms known as Secret Compartmentalized Information Facilities. Such rooms are incredibly important facilities, and can be highly vulnerable if compromised. The vulnerability of secure networks such as JWICS to insider threats

13632-460: The people in the van have been separated, but they still deliberately target him. This is why we called it Collateral Murder . In the first example maybe it's collateral exaggeration or incompetence when they strafe the initial gathering, this is recklessness bordering on murder, but you couldn't say for sure that was murder. But this particular event—this is clearly murder. Stephen Colbert , in an interview with Assange in April 2010, asked him about

13774-498: The police, and Manning was asked to leave the house. Manning drove to Tulsa in a pickup truck her father had given her. At first she slept in it, before moving in with a friend from school. The two got jobs at Incredible Pizza in April. Manning moved on to Chicago before running out of money and again having nowhere to stay. Her mother arranged for Brian's sister, Debra, a lawyer in Potomac, Maryland , to take Manning in. American journalist and Manning biographer Denver Nicks wrote that

13916-615: The public support changes. I do hope to do that before ETS [Expiration of Term of Service]. Nicks writes that Manning traveled back to Washington, D.C., for visits. An ex-boyfriend helped her find her way around the city's gay community, introducing her to lobbyists, activists, and White House aides. Back at Fort Drum, she continued to display emotional problems and by August 2009 had been referred to an Army mental-health counselor. A friend told Nicks that Manning could be emotionally fraught, describing an evening they had watched two movies together— The Last King of Scotland and Dancer in

14058-475: The public. Thus, the advent of the World Wide Web in 1991 was viewed as a triumph of public interest, allowing individuals to "freely share what they knew." Since then, however, the development of secure networks such as JWICS has reinstated levels of separation between individuals and government and has again prevented the public from holding government to account. This has been exacerbated since 9/11 with

14200-590: The rest of my life [for leaking information], or being executed so much, if it wasn't for the possibility of having pictures of me ... plastered all over the world press ... as [a] boy ... the CPU is not made for this motherboard". On April 30, she posted on Facebook that she was utterly lost, and over the next few days wrote that she was "not a piece of equipment", and was "beyond frustrated" and "livid" after being "lectured by ex-boyfriend despite months of relationship ambiguity". On May 7, according to Army witnesses, Manning

14342-425: The saxophone, science, and computers, and created a website at the age of 10. Manning learned how to use PowerPoint , won the grand prize three years in a row at the local science fair, and in sixth grade, took top prize at a statewide quiz bowl . A childhood friend of Manning's, speaking about a conversation they had when Manning was 13, said: "he told me he was gay". The friend also said that Manning's home life

14484-407: The second airstrike a "plainly unjustified killing of a group of unarmed men carrying away an unarmed, seriously wounded man to safety". The Australian newspaper said the group was displaying "no obvious hostile action". In The Independent on April 8, 2010, human rights activist Joan Smith wrote that the engagements were like a game to the helicopter crew. She wrote that the co-pilot urged

14626-607: The system for standing in the way of the transparency and accountability of government. The Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) is a secure intranet system utilized by the United States Department of Defense to house "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information" In day-to-day usage, the JWICS is used primarily by members of the Intelligence Community , such as the DIA within

14768-410: The tape resumes, two men, one holding an AK-47, are seen walking. They split up and the footage follows one who appears to be armed. He walks into a building which has been identified as the source of fire at U.S. ground troops. They request permission to fire a missile at the building, describing it as "abandoned" or "under construction". The ground controller responds, "If you've [positively identified]

14910-415: The time was embedded with Bravo Company 2–16 Infantry, later covered the incidents of the day in his book, The Good Soldiers . At a February 2013 pretrial hearing, Manning stated that Finkel "was quoting, I feel in verbatim, the audio communications of the aerial weapons team crew". She said that she was "aghast" at Finkel's portrayal of the incident. "Reading his account," she explained, "one would believe

15052-466: The title: "You have edited this tape, and you have given it a title called 'Collateral Murder'. That's not leaking, that's a pure editorial." Assange responded: The promise we make to our sources is that not only will we defend them through every means that we have available – technologically, legally and politically – but we will try and get the maximum possible political impact for the material that they give to us. Colbert asked "So 'Collateral Murder'

15194-521: The top level of data, consisting primarily of top-secret intelligence information. The system deals with transmissions coming from across the globe. The transmission of information across the JWICS network is summarized by Jeffrey R. Cares in the Encyclopedia of Cyber Warfare : See Joint All-Domain Command and Control JWICS can utilize satellite network connections, and the traffic moving across

15336-501: The town's Tasker Milward secondary school. A school friend there told Ed Caesar for The Sunday Times that Manning's personality was "unique, extremely unique. Very quirky, very opinionated, very political, very clever, very articulate." Manning's interest in computers continued, and in 2003, she and a friend, James Kirkpatrick, set up an online message board , angeldyne.com, that offered games and music downloads. The only American at her school, and viewed as effeminate , Manning

15478-401: The van and its occupants. Chmagh was killed along with three other men, while two children, not known to be in the van to the U.S. forces, were injured. The children, a girl and boy, suffered injuries. The girl suffered from a stomach wound and glass in her eyes, and the boy a head injury. Just as the van was destroyed, U.S. ground troops made their final turn and arrived on the road with

15620-482: The van by simply firing a few warning shots versus completely obliterating the van and its occupants. On June 7, 2010, The New Yorker reported that Kristinn Hrafnsson , an investigative reporter who worked on the Collateral Murder video and later became a spokesman for WikiLeaks, said he had found the owner of the building involved in the incident. The owner told him that three families were living in

15762-409: The van. The Apache crew then alerted the ground troops that they believed that they could see an injured child moving around inside the destroyed van. On the video, it is then seen that Army soldiers establish a perimeter around the site and extract the children from the burning van. When the helicopter pilots discover that they have killed a number of Iraqi civilians and wounded two children, one of them

15904-401: The video Collateral Murder : And you can see that they also deliberately target Saaed, a wounded man there on the ground, despite their earlier belief that they didn't have the rules of engagement—that the rules of engagement did not permit them to kill Saeed when he was wounded. When he is rescued, suddenly that belief changed. You can see in this particular image he is lying on the ground and

16046-490: The video WikiLeaks produced made reference to the AK-47s and RPGs, but WikiLeaks said that ultimately they became unsure about the RPG, believing the long object could have been a camera tripod, so they decided not to point it out in the released version. Assange also said "it's ludicrous to allege that we have taken anything out of context in this video". U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing

16188-404: The video a work of antiwar propaganda, WikiLeaks also released a version that didn't call attention to an Iraqi who was toting a rocket-propelled grenade and packaged the manipulated version under the tendentious rubric Collateral Murder ." The New York Times wrote that "Critics contend that the shorter video was misleading because it did not make clear that the attacks took place amid clashes in

16330-515: The video on the morning of July 12, 2007, the crews of two United States Army AH-64 Apache helicopters observe a gathering of men near a section of Baghdad in the path of advancing U.S. ground troops. The crew estimates the group is twenty men. Among the group are two journalists working for Reuters , Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh . While the two are carrying media cards, a military officer claimed they were not wearing distinctive clothing identifying themselves as such. Noor-Eldeen has

16472-428: The video without providing any context. "These people can put out anything they want, and they're never held accountable for it. There's no before and there's no after". Gates said that the video provides the public with a view of warfare "as seen through a soda straw". Gates stated: "They're in a combat situation. The video doesn't show the broader picture of the firing that was going on at American troops. It's obviously

16614-495: The war on terror providing a 'scape-goat' for governments in hiding public interest information (such as the shooting of Iraqi journalists in "collateral murder") under the guise of protecting against foreign interests and terrorism. One of the main pro-protection arguments surrounding JWICS is that JWICS is essential to prevent the identities of individuals from being released. By releasing these documents en-masse without adequate care, leakers are putting these individuals at risk. In

16756-554: The widow of the man who had been driving the van, and the mother of the children McCord had carried out, responded to the open letter in 2010: I can accept their apology, because they saved my children, and if it were not for them, maybe my two little children would be dead. I would like the American people and the whole world to understand what happened here in Iraq. We lost our country and our lives were destroyed. Bill Keller of The New York Times wrote, "But in its zeal to make

16898-460: Was again jailed after refusing to testify at the grand jury investigation against Wikileaks, and was released in March 2020. The events surrounding Manning led to widespread reforms. Training and monitoring is now in place to identify risk factors in analysts to prevent them using their position to leak documents from secure networks. In addition, more widespread monitoring of the daily use of networks

17040-488: Was arrested in May 2010. The material included videos of the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables ; and 482,832 Army reports that came to be known as the " Iraq War Logs " and " Afghan War Diary ". The material was published by WikiLeaks and its media partners between April 2010 and April 2011 . Manning was charged with 22 offenses, including aiding

17182-425: Was becoming too ill to cope, Manning returned to the U.S. She moved in with her father, then living in Oklahoma City with his second wife and her child. Manning landed employment as a developer for the software company Zoto. She was apparently happy there, but was let go after four months. Her boss told The Washington Post that on a few occasions Manning had "just locked up" and would simply sit and stare, and in

17324-412: Was bullied. In Oklahoma, she had come out to a few friends as gay, but was not open about it at school in Wales. The students frequently mocked her accent. Once, they abandoned her during a camping trip. Her aunt told The Washington Post that Manning had awoken to an empty campsite after the other campers had left without her. After completing high school in 2005 at age 17 and fearing her mother

17466-468: Was clear Manning was in crisis, partly because of her gender concerns, but also because she opposed the kind of war in which she found herself involved. Manning was by all accounts unhappy and isolated. Because of the military's " Don't ask, don't tell " (DADT) policy (in effect until September 20, 2011), she was unable to live as an openly gay man without risk of being discharged. But she apparently made no secret of her orientation: her friends said she kept

17608-499: Was considering leaking it. In 2021, Manning said that while home on leave in 2010, she had reached out to her then-Congressman, Chris Van Hollen , but got no response. Manning contacted The Washington Post and The New York Times to ask whether they were interested in the material; the Post reporter did not sound interested, and the Times did not return the call. Manning decided to give it to WikiLeaks, and on February 3 sent them

17750-471: Was denied at the briefing and they were told to seek access under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Reuters requested a copy of the full video under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on the same day. In a personal statement during her court-martial, Chelsea Manning stated that the military had access to the video, and was actively examining it, yet it told Reuters in response to the FOIA request that

17892-487: Was directly involved in the leaks known as " Collateral Murder ," " The Iraqi War Logs ," " The Afghan War Diary ," and " Cablegate ". Manning is allegedly responsible for the leaking of over 700,000 files. At the time this was the largest data leak in US military history. Manning was arrested in late 2010 after confiding in fellow hacker, Adrian Lamo , who reported Manning to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It

18034-456: Was felt she was a risk to herself and possibly others, according to a statement the Army later issued—but the shortage of intelligence analysts dictated their decision to take her. In November 2009, she was promoted from Private First Class to Specialist . In November 2009, Manning wrote to a gender counselor in the U.S. that she felt female and discussed having surgery. The counselor told Steve Fishman of New York magazine in 2011 that it

18176-427: Was found curled in a fetal position in a storage cupboard; she had a knife at her feet and had cut the words "I want" into a vinyl chair. A few hours later she had an altercation with an intelligence analyst, Specialist Jihrleah Showman, during which she punched Showman in the face. The brigade psychiatrist recommended a discharge, referring to an "occupational problem and adjustment disorder". Manning's supervisor removed

18318-520: Was found of Assange's offering Manning any direction. On February 18, 2010, WikiLeaks posted the first of the material from Manning, the diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík , a document now known as "Reykjavik13". On March 15, WikiLeaks posted a 32-page report written in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Defense about WikiLeaks itself, and on March 29 it posted U.S. State Department profiles of politicians in Iceland. WikiLeaks named

18460-455: Was in January 2010, when she began to interact with them on IRC and Jabber . She had first noticed them toward the end of November 2009, when they posted 570,000 pager messages from the September 11 attacks . Items of historic significance of two wars Iraq and Afghanistan Significant Activity, Sigacts, between 0001 January 2004 and 2359 31 December 2009 extracts from CSV documents from

18602-402: Was injured, died in the second strike. The second strike, also using 30 mm rounds, was directed at a van whose driver, Saleh Matasher Tomal, drove by and helped the wounded Chmagh. Both Chmagh and Tomal were killed in the second strike, and two of Tomal's children were badly wounded. In a third strike, Apache pilots watched people, including some armed men, run into a building and attacked

18744-537: Was known for having leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media, said of the airstrike: It would be interesting to have someone speculate or tell us exactly what context would lead to justifying the killing that we see on the screen. As the killing goes on, you obviously would see the killing of men who are lying on the ground in an operation where ground troops are approaching and perfectly capable of taking those people captive, but meanwhile you're murdering before

18886-468: Was not good and that her father was very controlling. Around this time, Manning's parents divorced. She and her mother, Susan, moved out of the house to a rented apartment in Crescent, Oklahoma. Susan's instability continued, and in 1998 she attempted suicide; Manning's sister drove their mother to the hospital, with the 11-year-old Manning sitting in the back of the car trying to make sure their mother

19028-448: Was not released in full until 2010, after the video of the incident had been released by WikiLeaks. After the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement", WikiLeaks released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing the rules before, during, and after the attacks. Washington Post reporter David Finkel , who at

19170-421: Was revealed with the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret US intelligence documents, the largest in US history at the time. At the epicenter of these leaks was an intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning . While serving in Iraq in 2010, Manning accessed JWICS, along with its lower-level counterpart SIPRNET , to leak documents to WikiLeaks, a non-profit platform for whistleblowers headed by Julian Assange . Manning

19312-430: Was sent to the discharge unit. She was allegedly being bullied, and according to another soldier, was having a breakdown. The soldier told The Guardian : "The kid was barely five foot ... [She] was a runt, so pick on [her]. [She's] crazy, pick on [her]. [She's] a faggot, pick on [her]. The [girl] took it from every side. [She] couldn't please anyone." Nicks writes that Manning, who was used to being bullied, fought back—if

19454-479: Was set up in late 2006 as a disclosure portal, initially using the Misplaced Pages model, where volunteers would write up restricted or legally threatened material submitted by whistleblowers. Julian Assange—an Australian Internet activist and journalist, and the de facto editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks—had the idea of creating what Ben Laurie called an "open-source, democratic intelligence agency". The open-editing aspect

19596-496: Was soon abandoned, but the site remained open for anonymous submissions. According to Daniel Domscheit-Berg , a former WikiLeaks spokesperson, part of WikiLeaks's security concept was that they did not know who their sources were. The New York Times wrote in December 2010 that the U.S. government was trying to discover whether Assange had been a passive recipient of material from Manning or had encouraged or helped her to extract

19738-424: Was still breathing. Manning's father remarried in 2000, the same year as his divorce. His new wife, also named Susan, had a son from a previous relationship. When the son changed his surname to Manning too, Chelsea felt rejected, telling her mother, "I'm nobody now, Mom." In November 2001, aged 14, Manning and her mother left the U.S., moving to Haverfordwest , Wales, where her mother had family. Manning attended

19880-449: Was studying neuroscience and psychology at Brandeis University , near Boston. Watkins was her first serious relationship, and she posted happily on Facebook about it, regularly traveling 300 miles (480 km) to Boston for visits. Watkins introduced Manning to a network of friends and the university's hacker community . She also visited Boston University 's " hackerspace " workshop, known as "Builds", and met its founder, David House,

20022-453: Was unable to drive. She spent her days drinking, while Manning was left largely to herself playing with Lego toys or on the computer. Brian stocked up on food before his trips and left signed checks that the sister mailed to pay the bills. A neighbor said that whenever Manning's elementary school went on field trips, she would give her own son extra food or money so he could make sure Manning had something to eat. Friends and neighbors considered

20164-431: Was using the classified computer's CD player to listen to music. She then copied it onto her personal computer. The next day, she wrote a message in a readme.txt file, which she told the court was initially intended for The Washington Post . Manning copied the files from her laptop to an SD card for her camera so that she could take it with her to the U.S. while on R&R leave. Army investigators later found

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