But, first I’ll tell you guys something about what actually happened. Chelsea Manning, former United States Army Private First Class Bradley E. Manning, joined the army in 2007. In 2009 she was deployed to Baghdad. There, Manning saw what war really was like. She felt out of place, as she was struggling with her gender identity disorder and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. As an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to a lot of classified information. Manning began to feel worse and worse about what was happening in Baghdad. In November 2009, Manning makes first contact with the site WikiLeaks. Manning never receives any confirmation of WikiLeaks that they got the files she sent them. In February 2010, WikiLeaks publishes the Reykjavik 13 Cable. Manning had allegedly sent this file to WikiLeaks. The next few months WikiLeaks publishes more files that Manning, supposedly, had sent them. In May, Manning chats with Adrian Lamo, a hacker, who reported the chats to the Army Counterintelligence. Manning was arrested shortly after in Baghdad. On August 21, 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years of prison.
The things Manning brought to light when she leaked the files to WikiLeaks, shocked the world. Me too, when I saw them. The part that shocked me most was the Baghdad Airstrike video. In this video, you can see how two helicopters shoot down Iraqi men carrying guns. The part where men carrying guns, who were heading for a troop of American ground soldiers, were shot down wasn’t the part that shocked me most. The audio footage shows that they were a threat, what shocked me more was that when a van with unarmed men were trying to help a wounded, unarmed man. WikiLeaks was for Manning the way to get attention to what she thought was important. Many people surf the internet but not many can be found on WikiLeaks, a website designed to publish secret information and classified media from anonymous sources. News reporters, however, do frequent this site to look for information. This was the way for the Baghdad Airstrike video, and war logs to become known to the whole world. Via the internet, the information leaked spread to television and newspapers.
Edward Snowden did something else entirely. He was a computer specialist and used to work for the CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, and NSA, National Security Agency. While working at these agencies, he found details of top-secret mass surveillance programs conducted by the US and British government. He send the details he had to the British newspaper The Guardian. He wanted to bring to light that innocent citizens all over the world are being tracked by what they are saying on the internet. He deliberately said it was him who leaked the information to spare his colleagues from a witch-hunt for the one responsible for the leaks. Snowden fled from the USA and is now hiding out in Russia.
Snowden used a completely different form of media to leak his information, but he got the same result and shocking reactions as Manning did. The information leaked went viral on the internet. I wonder, what if the American government is reading along with this blog, would they like what their reading? Probably not, but I live halfway across the world from them, and am not a United States citizen, so they can’t do anything to me. But what about when I want to travel to the USA, is that going to be a problem for me? The internet should be a place where you can voice your opinion and where not all information can be traced back to a person sitting behind his computer, who just happened to write that. Maybe it’s a school project or maybe the site is private and no one was supposed to read it except for the reader.
Both whistle-blowers used the media to get attention to what they thought was important and unacceptable. They had to pay for that. Manning is serving time in prison and Snowden knows that he will most likely never be able to return to the United States. What both whistle-blowers did understand was how publishing your findings in times like these can be very effective. In the past, your findings would be published in the national newspaper, later it would make the news on TV, but now… If you send your findings to a newspaper like Snowden did, the article won’t only be published in the newspaper but also on the website. As soon as something can be found on the internet and it is of importance to a normal citizen, things will go viral. Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites help in spreading this kind of information. Media is one of the most effective ways to make people believe you and to get someone to take a side in debates concerning many different subjects.
