The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Chelsea Manning - README.txt

Episode Date: October 23, 2022

American transparency activist Chelsea Manning discusses pulling off one of the largest intelligence leaks in history, copying government files onto CDs with band names to avoid being caught and writing “README.txt” to be more of a coming of age story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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military operation. Let's start with, I guess, the inception of the idea to write a book. After pulling off one of the largest intelligence leaks in American history, you were vilified, you served time, you were labeled as a traitor. And it felt like the story tapered off over time. And now you've come back, and you've reignited many of the conversations with traitor. And it felt like the story tapered off over time and now you've come back and you've reignited many of the conversations with this book. My question to you is why? Why? I think

that it's the fact that my own version of the story, my first draft of history if you will, hasn't been talked about as much. I feel like there's been all the discussion of things that have happened around me and involving the military, involving other personalities like President Obama who commuted my sentence. But I feel like my story, my coming of age story really, you know, for trying to tell the story of how I became who I am today has been kind of left out of the picture, and so I wanted to tell that story. Yeah, in many ways you became a lightning rod and an idea because what you did shook the world.

You came out as a whistleblower and you just, I mean, to name a few of the leaks, and you'll add to them, I mean, it was leaks about murders that the American military had committed and not told anybody about. You know you had told the world about collateral damage and how you know this wasn't what we thought it was and right there were way more deaths than than had been previously reported. As I put it the true face, the true reality of asymmetric 21st century warfare which is basically like how an occupation, how holding territory with a large occupying army during an insurgency actually plays out. It's not surgical.

It's very, very messy. What did you hope to achieve by leaking the information? Infor, I wanted another person like me, to feel as informed as I did finally about this true reality. I mean, that's why I called it, read me.text, because that is the document, I mean, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, it, it, it, the, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, true reality. I mean, that's why I call it read me text, because that is the document, I mean, that's what I said in the document. Did you hope it would change what the US military was doing in the Middle East?

Or did you think it would shift public perception? The public discourse, I feel like is what I really wanted to impact. I feel like at least if the public is informed, toe, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the to, to, the to, the to, to, to, the to, to, to, the, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I, the, the, the, I, the, the, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, to, to, the, the, is, the, the, is, the, the, the, the, right, the, the, the, the, the public is informed, then at least, you know, like being a doctor, like having conversation with your doctor, you have informed consent. Right. I just always assumed that you went straight to WikiLeaks. I didn't know how hard you try to get American media outlets to look at the information and have first dibs at it. Why do you think they said no and why do you think nobody got back to you? Well? Well? Well? Well it was the the the they. Well, they. Well, they, they, they, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, like, and, like, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, and, and, the, and, the, and, and, the, and, and, the, the, and, and, the, the, and, the, and, and, and, the, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, like, to, to, to, like, the, the, like, like, to, the, like, to you? Well, it was very difficult. So it was the technical difficulties, you know, we didn't have the tools like signal, encryption wasn't widely adopted by traditional media outlets. And you know, trying to, and I didn't trust the telephone system, right? And it didn't trust email. And I didn't trust e' eib email email email email email email email email email email, eail email, they email, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they. Yeah, they. Yeah, they. Yeah, they. Yeah, th. Yeah, thrust, thrust, they. they. Yeah, they. thi. their, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, they. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I. Yeah, I. Yeah, I'm, I'm, they. Yeah, they. Yeah, they. Yeah, they. Yeah, they. Yeah, the. Yeah, the. Yeah, the. Yeah, the. Yeah, I. Yeah, I. Yeah, I. Yeah, I. So I, you know, trying to avoid that, but also trying to do a physical

thing while I only have a limited amount of time and there was a blizzard. It was just very logistically difficult. And if any one thing, as a, you know, somebody asked me earlier today, like if any one thing had changed, like, yeah, this would have never happened. Interesting. So you were trying to maintain, uh, I th. th. th. thu. thu. thu. th. th. th. th. thin, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. th. th. th. th. th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. th. th. the. th. the. th. the. the. the. th. th. the. th. was a point in in the book where I talk about how I you know or I was sitting at Starbucks and uploading the stuff and it wasn't working and because of Starbucks internet I it almost didn't happen. I will say there are parts of the book that are almost comical unintentionally because you talk about copying what what is it, 750,000 government files onto CDs, and then you just labeled them, you just wrote band names?

Right, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga. So I wanted to know when I was reading this, like, did you write those artists because you assumed that military personnel would be like, oh, that's, there's no harm? Pretty much. Okay. So you do you think there was some artists where they would be like, I want to listen to what's on that CD? Is that what? Yes. Okay.

Because it's really interesting. You had these CDs. You go to the Starbucks. You start to the knew this information. I worked with it every day. I mean and you know and I think about like you know senior public officials whenever they have access this information they don't understand it. Well that's scary. I mean it's our job to tell them but you know it's a question as as to whether they're not the list or not. So you're basically explaining it to them and then they're working off what you've tole told told the told they. told. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. So. So. So. So. So. So. So, their, their, their, to be, their, their, their, their, their, so, their, their, so, their, so, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their. their, their, their. their, their, their. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, they. their. their their. their their they. their their their their their, their, their them and then they're working off what you've told them. Maybe. Wow.

Depends on how they interpret it. I couldn't help reading through the book and wondering how much of your life has informed the latter part of your journey. You know, you weren't just famous for being one of the biggest whistleblowers in American history. You also then became famous as somebody who transitioned at a time when the conversation was was really, you even speak about it in the book, you know, was there not a part of you that thought, I'm dealing with my gender, I'm dealing with a world that

doesn't accept me the way I am, right? Why get involved in leaking military secrets? Maybe deal with one thing at a time. I didn't think of it like that. I thought, you know, I, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, thin, thi, tooooooomoomooomoooomooomorrow, tooomorrow, toea, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, thi, thi, thi, their, the at a time. I didn't think of it like that. I thought, you know, this, this, despite my background, despite everything else, it was just, it was just so clear to me. Like it was just, it was crystal clear that something had to be done and and I just, you know, I mean I was very young. And I didn't, and I think it's also important to remember that the consequences for this weren't clear, right? I thought I was going to lose my job, which was a big deal. You didn't think you'd be sentenced to three decades. Right.

Uh, nobody had ever gone to prison before me. Do you think the American military is more honest now in its operations? Do you think you've shifted the paradigm even slightly? I think that obviously, the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war the war tha tha? thiii? thi? thi? thi? tho tho? I'm thi? I'm thi? I'm tho. thi. thi. thi. I's, thi. I, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I, thi. I, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I's, thi. I'm thi. I'm, thi. I'm, thi. I'm thi. I'm toeea. I'm just just just justa. I'ma. I'ma. I'ma. I'ma. I'm just just justa. I'ma. I'ma. I'ma. I'm thia. I'm th you've shifted the paradigm even slightly? I think that obviously the context has changed. I mean I look at the war in Ukraine and I always find it fascinating that as the Russians invaded Ukraine I knew more about what was happening in the, you know, from my laptop at home than I would have known about what was going on in Iraq while I was actually deployed there in an intelligence center. Like this is just the sheer fire hose of information that we receive from every single different angle and I actually think that it's shifted from not having access to information

to having access to so much information that you can't filter out accurate from inaccurate, misinformation from disinformation and that this is going to be the main struggle that we have moving forward. And now I was really, just like Joy poured out of me for you when I found out that you're now DJing as well? Yes. It's like a cool journey to be on. Yeah. I'm DJing my own. I'm DJing my own release party.

What do you play? What I play? Yeah. release party. What do you play? What do you play? Electronic dance music, Hyperpop. Oh I love that. Okay, so it's not Taylor's with Gaga. Like none of you. That's... That's my... Okay, you don't, do you listen? I mean, I had a Blakwetting to era. Okay, I like that. Well, congratulations on your journey. Thank you so much for joining me on the show. And it'sights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

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