The Passion of Bradley Manning

Presented by The New Inquiry, Verso Books and Brooklyn Voices.

Sarah Leonard and Chase Madar explore why whistleblowers are usually less popular than war criminals

On Tuesday, April 30th The New Inquiry, Verso and Brooklyn Voices present a discussion between The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story Behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower author Chase Madar and Sarah Leonard, New Inquiry Editor and Associate Editor at Dissent. The discussion will be part of the Brooklyn Voices series, a program of St. Joseph’s College, in partnership with Greenlight Bookstore and theBrooklyn Rail.

In the past three years, Wikileaks has released thousands of classified documents about the Iraq War, the Afghan War and American statecraft in general, the basis for thousands of important stories in major media across the world. The source? A 22-year-old US Army Intelligence Private First Class from Crescent, Oklahoma by the name of Bradley Manning. After three years of pretrial detention, his court martial will begin June 3rd of this year. He faces 22 charges including espionage and Aiding the Enemy, carrying a possible life term.

The case of Bradley Manning is both a coda and a key to the long debacle of America’s militarized response to the 9/11 attacks. What are the consequences of charging–and perhaps convicting–Pfc. Manning with the capital offense of “Aiding the Enemy”? Why aren’t the New York Times and other Establishment media vigorously defending the source of so many of their important stories? What power does information have to change policy and halt wars? What power doesn’t it have? And why are whistleblowers usually less popular than war criminals?

Chase Madar and Sarah Leonard will discuss.

This event is free and open to all.

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CHASE MADAR is a civil rights attorney in New York who writes for The London Review of Books, Le Monde diplomatique, TomDispatch,CounterPunch, The Nation, The American Conservative (where he is a contributing editor), and the National Interest.

SARAH LEONARD is an editor at The New Inquiry. She is also an editor atDissent magazine, and a co-editor of Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America (Verso, 2011).

THE NEW INQUIRY is a space for discussion that aspires to enrich cultural and public life by putting all available resources—both digital and material—toward the promotion and exploration of ideas. The New Inquiry is a 501(c)3 non-profit and is not affiliated with any political party, government agency, university, municipality, religious organization, cadre, or other cult. TNI was co-founded by Mary Borkowski, Jennifer Bernstein, and Rachel Rosenfelt.

BROOKLYN VOICES was created in collaboration with Saint Joseph’s College, Greenlight Bookstore and the Brooklyn Rail. Its aim is to promote and enhance the creative vitality of these institutions’ home neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill by providing local writers, artists and intellectuals with a forum in which to discuss and present their works to neighbors, patrons and students.