We’ve already asked the questions. Now, Mark Thompson of Time magazine is
asking them as well: How was homosexual Army soldier Bradley Manning, the alleged source for WikiLeaks, accepted in the military as an openly gay person when there was supposed to be a policy in place against it? How did he get a secret clearance?
Thompson suggests looking for answers in a provocative piece written by Denver Nicks for the website
This Land – Relevant Readings Regarding Oklahoma. But this piece raises even more questions.
Among the revelations:
While based at Fort Huachuca, Manning was “reprimanded for putting mundane video messages to friends on YouTube that carelessly revealed sensitive information.” Nevertheless, he graduated from training as an intelligence analyst with a security clearance.
Based at Fort Drum in upstate New York, Manning “was pulling for the celebrity freshman senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.”
When California’s Proposition 8 was passed, banning gay marriage, Manning “went to a rally against Proposition 8 in front of city hall in Syracuse, New York, and an hour and a half from Ft. Drum. At the rally, a soldier was interviewed anonymously by high school senior Phim Her for Syracuse.com, a local news website.”
Manning told her, “‘I was kicked out of my home, and I once lost my job [because I am gay]. The world is not moving fast enough for us at home, work, or the battlefield.’ Brad told her that, for him, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is the worst thing about being in the military. ‘I’ve been living a double life,’ he said.”
After Proposition 8 passed, the article went on, “Brad’s Facebook wall becomes a flurry of activity, much of it related to the gay rights movement…”
So where were the enforcers of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT)?”
Nicks adds, “For an active duty soldier, he was remarkably transparent about his sexuality on his Facebook wall… Over the next several months Brad’s posts are nearly all related to progressive politics or his boyfriend. He seems happy and confident, comfortable in his life and positive about the future.”
But when gay marriage failed on the ballot in Maine, he posted, “Bradley Manning feels betrayed…again.”
Eventually, this betrayal—and a grudge against the U.S. Government over DADT—would apparently spark the downloading and release of classified information to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is now under arrest, on charges unrelated to the acceptance and publication of classified information, and Manning has been in prison, presumably waiting for charges and a trial that some think should get him the death penalty.
But most of our media would prefer to talk about Assange, the recipient of the leak, not the leaker itself. Why? It is obviously because a focus on Manning and his homosexuality might derail the case for Senate passage of legislation to repeal DADT.
