The New York Times Editorial Staff - Whistleblowers: Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Others

Published in 2019 by New York Times Educational Publishing in association with The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

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Title: Whistleblowers: Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and others / edited by the New York Times editorial staff.

Description: New York : New York Times Educational Publishing, 2019. | Series: Public profiles | Includes glossary and index. Identifiers: ISBN 9781642821819 (library bound) | ISBN 9781642821802 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781642821826 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Whistle blowingUnited StatesJuvenile literature. | Leaks (Disclosure of information) United States Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC JF1525.W45 W457 2019 |

DDC 353.4'60973dc23

Manufactured in the United States of America

On the cover: Payouts in the millions for whistleblowers may be creating perverse incentives for people to look for a possible case in their own companies; Harry Campbell/The New York Times.

is a whistleblower a hero or traitor? It depends on who you ask. It also depends on the information shared, the era in which it is shared and the response by the public to the leaked information. One thing that all whistleblowers have in common: they believe they are right to have shared the information.

Whistleblowers expose illegal or unconscionable acts by a government, the dangerous practices or fraud of a corporation and other usually top secret information that they believe the public should know. Daniel Ellsberg, W. Mark Felt (better known as Deep Throat), Chelsea (then known as Bradley) Manning and Edward Snowden each held positions within the United States government or with one of its contractors. Jeffrey Wigand was a biochemist and vice president at a major tobacco company. Each was granted access to highly confidential information. And each believed the public should know what they knew.

Daniel Ellsberg was a military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers, a massive report revealing the United States escalating political and military involvement in Vietnam. Ellsberg had come to believe the conflict in Vietnam was an unjust war of United States aggression. He was vocal about his opposition to the war, attending rallies, writing letters to the media and adding his voice to other experts who called for an end to the conflict. But the United States continued to send in more troops. In 1971, in what he considered an act of extreme patriotism, Ellsberg shared copies of the report with The New York Times in hopes they would publish parts of it. They did. When a court order temporarily prevented The Times from publishing more articles on the report, Ell-sberg shared copies with The Washington Post and other newspapers. The result was an enormous swell of public support for the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, along with a new and deep suspicion of the federal government. All charges against Ellsberg were ultimately dismissed once the court learned of the governments illegal surveillance of him. Ellsberg remains a committed anti-war, free-speech activist.

In 1972, during his tenure as associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, W. Mark Felt provided critical information to two reporters from The Washington Post about the politically motivated break-ins at the Watergate Hotel. The information pointed straight to illegal actions by President Richard Nixon, who ultimately resigned. The reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and The Post kept the identity of Deep Throat the Posts nickname for Felt secret for 30 years. Persuaded by his daughter, Felt finally revealed that he was Deep Throat in 2005. What remains unclear, however, is exactly why he leaked the information to begin with. Some people believe it was for patriotic reasons. Others think it was a thwarted attempt to become head of the F.B.I. Felt died of heart failure in 2008 at the age of 95.

Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley, was an intelligence analyst in the army in 2009. Granted access to databases containing sensitive information, Manning leaked nearly 750,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks the following year. Among them were videos of American military operations in which civilians were killed. Manning pleaded guilty to 10 offenses. Sentenced to 35 years in prison, Manning announced that she identified as a woman, gave her name as Chelsea, and began hormone replacement therapy. President Barack Obama commuted Mannings sentence in 2017, and she was released. Manning is now an activist and a public speaker. She ran for political office in 2018.

Edward Snowden is a former National Security Agency contractor. In 2013, shortly after leaving his job, Snowden leaked nearly two million classified N.S.A. documents to three journalists. Articles based on those documents were published in major newspapers around the world. They disclosed details about the United States federal electronic surveillance program, which collected information on private citizens without their consent. The United States charged Snowden with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and revoked his passport. Anticipating this, Snowden had already flown to Hong Kong, and then to Russia, which granted him political asylum. Considered heroic by some, including Daniel Ellsberg, and a threat to U.S. security by others, Snowdens actions initiated an intense debate about unwarranted surveillance and the right to privacy.

Jeffrey Wigand was a different type of whistleblower altogether. A biochemist, Wigand had worked as vice president of research and development at the tobacco company Brown & Williamson until he was fired in 1993. In 1996, Wigand disclosed in a television interview that the company intentionally added to tobacco chemicals that were known to be carcinogenic and addictive to increase the effect of nicotine in cigarette smoke. This revelation helped fuel a massive change in the tobacco industry. Wigand is an anti-tobacco advocate, lecturer and consultant on tobacco control policies.

Whistleblowers leak information for many reasons. Ambition, guilt, outrage, patriotism and power are just a few. Some leaks put people in grave danger. Others change the world for the better. Its impossible to know where any given leak will lead. But as long as there are government and corporate secrets, there are likely to be whistleblowers.

CHAPTER 1

A Harvard graduate and former Marine, Daniel Ellsberg served his country in many ways. He was a nuclear strategic analyst for a company that advised the United States Armed Forces. He worked on international security issues at the Pentagon. He spent two years in South Vietnam as a member of the State Department. He was a patriot. And he adamantly opposed the United States' escalating involvement in the Vietnam War. Ellsberg risked his family, his career and his reputation by leaking a copy of a classified 7,000-page study on the war to The New York Times. And he helped end the war.