by Mel Green

In advance of its broadcast tonight of the documentary WikiSecrets about the leak last spring of over a half-million classified documents on WikiLeaks, Frontline has an exhaustive archive of the Facebook postings of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the gay soldier allegedly behind the leaks.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Accused Wikileaker Pfc Bradley Manning, September 2009"][/caption]Tonight the PBS documentary program Frontline will air WikiSecrets, about the leak last spring of over a half-million classified documents on WikiLeaks — the largest intelligence breach in U.S. history.

Through in-depth interviews with [accused leaker Pfc Bradley] Manning’s father, [WikiLeaks founder Julian] Assange, and others close to the case, veteran FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith tells the full story behind the leaks. He also reports on the U.S. government’s struggle to protect national security information in a post 9/11 world.

Now in advance of the broadcast, Frontline has published an exhaustive archive of the Facebook postings of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the gay soldier allegedly behind the leaks.  According to Frontline,

Manning’s Facebook postings are a vivid, if partial, portrait of his life in the military and of the political and social issues that he followed closely. They reflect his commitment to gay rights and defiance of the military’s ban on openly gay or lesbian soldiers.

The Advocate writes,

Wikileaks suspect Pfc. Bradley E. Manning made little effort to hide his sexual orientation and expressed deep frustration over “don’t ask, don’t tell” on his Facebook page, obtained and published by Frontline.

In the exhaustive archive of posts…Manning, 23, is open about his relationship difficulties with another man and expressed great interest in LGBT news events, including the Proposition 8 trial in 2010.

And at Yahoo News’ The Lookout:

In the postings, the army intelligence analyst broadcasts his gay rights activism, joining scores of groups like “LGBT Rights” and “REPEAL THE BAN–End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,'” and shares thoughts about his boyfriend, in apparent violation of the military’s ban on gays serving openly. But the postings, which span nearly three years, also depict a young man who by last year had grown deeply frustrated by the need to hide his sexuality from his colleagues, and was fighting feelings of despair and isolation.

To be sure, there’s also evidence that Manning’s qualms about the civilian deaths caused by the military, and his broader discomfort with the direction of U.S. foreign policy helped stoke his sense of disillusion and alienation. But taken as a whole, the Facebook archive suggests that anger about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT)–which was repealed by Congress last December, but remains in place for now–may also have played a role in Manning’s alleged act of rebellion. In other words, that Manning may have responded to the strain of being made to keep his own secrets for so long by revealing U.S. government secrets of a far more consequential nature.

Manning is currently being detained at a military correctional facility in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.

Alaska blogger Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska has been written a number of posts about Manning, particularly about his questionable treatment under detention. In March, Phil wrote a letter to Alaska Sen. Mark Begich signed by a number of Alaska bloggers — including me — asking Sen. Begich to look into the harsh treatment to which Manning was subjected at Marine Base Quantico brig. To my knowledge, Phil has yet to receive an answer.  Phil’s most recent post about Sen. Begich and Pfc. Manning was on April 21, just as news broke that Manning was being transferred from Quantico to Ft. Leavenworth.

Regardless of your view on the rights or wrongs of Wikileaks publication of classified material, WikiSecrets promises to provide a lot of insight into what motivated Pfc Bradley Manning to leak the material.

WikiSecrets airs tonight at 8:00 PM tonight on public TV stations in Alaska (KAKM in Anchorage, KUAC in Fairbanks, KTOO in Juneau, KYUK in Bethel), and will available later online at the Frontline website.

References

• Bradley Manning. Wikipedia article.
• 5/24/2011. “Bradley Manning’s Facebook Page” (Frontline).
• 5/24/2011. “Frontline Publishes Manning’s Facebook Posts” (Advocate.com).
• 5/24/11. “Facebook posts show WikiLeaks suspect’s anger over military’s gay ban” by Zachary Roth & Liz Goodwin (The Lookout, Yahoo News)
• 4/21/2011. “Catching Up on the Bradley Manning Case – Here, in DC, Leavenworth and With the President This Morning in San Francisco” by Phil Munger (Progressive Alaska).
• 3/7/2011. “Our Letter to Sen. Begich on the Treatment of PFC Bradley Manning – Will You Co-sign? – Updated” by Phil Munger (Progressive Alaska).

Photo of Bradley Manning via Wikimedia Commons.