Imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning writes, "I filed my Freedom of Information Act request in 2014 for Training Material related to the
Insider Threat Program. I had almost forgoten about it, when the package arrived in the mail. In it was this slideshow."
"I was expecting the training material to be bad, but this was really
frightening and disturbing. I hesitated in having it published at first,
but I figured it would better to speak out about it instead."
As evidenced by a slideshow obtained in February 2016 through a FOIA request, internal training material based on my own psychological profile and history – using male pronouns and my old name, despite it being legally changed in April 2014 – has been widely published and presented. The program alleges that I am "disgruntled" based on my perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, questioning my "self-image as a man" while acknowledging that "he [sic] wanted to be an openly accepted female." It describes me as "an advocate for homosexuals openly serving" in the military, and my concern and advocacy of queer and trans rights as being expressed "obsessively".
The broad sweep of the program means officials have been given a blank check for surveillance. Agencies implementing the Insider Threat program could examine anyone who has motives of "greed", "financial difficulties," is "disgruntled," has "an ideology" a "divided loyalty," an "ego" or "self-image," or "any family/personal issues" – the words used to describe my motives. Such subjective labelling could easily be applied to virtually every single person currently holding a security clearance.
This lack of focus has already led to the program becoming industrialized. In an April 2015 report to the US House Armed Services Committee, the US Department of Defense revealed the existence of "continuing evaluation" of 100,000 personnel on and off the job.
When will the US government stop persecuting whistleblowers?
[Chelsea Manning/The Guardian]
The Insider Threat: PVT Bradley Manning [DoD/Documentcloud]
