Alexa O'Brien

Alexa O'Brien is an American journalist and activist.

Alexa O'Brien
O'Brien at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, 2013
BornSeattle, Washington, United States
OccupationInvestigative researcher, analyst, and writer[1]
Education
Website
alexaobrien.com

Activism

In March 2011, Alexa O'Brien started "US Day of Rage" (USDOR), a campaign to demand "free and fair elections" to "remedy a myriad ills and abuses of a government that preys on the resources and the spirits of citizens. ... Either we do this now or wait a hundred years and have our children grow up in a totalitarian nightmare."[3][4] Later that year, USDOR organized all the nonviolent civil disobedience actions at Occupy Wall Street (OWS).[3] In his book Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse, author Nathan Schneider relates that during the early stages of OWS, O'Brien's "press releases and tweets became so ubiquitous that people started referring to #OCCUPYWALLSTREET and US Day of Rage interchangeably."[5]

In a group discussion on Julian Assange's World Tomorrow 2012 TV program, O'Brien told the WikiLeaks founder that her advocacy of "'one citizen, one dollar, one vote', so to speak, is so radical that it's gotten me ... tied to al-Qaeda. I'm getting private messages from security contractors that have relationships with the FBI telling me, 'Be careful, you're somehow connected to al-Qaeda'. That tells me immediately—it's an intimidation tactic."[6]

That same year, O'Brien was a plaintiff in Hedges v. Obama, a lawsuit in opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA). In 2013, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to challenge the NDAA.[7]

In 2015, O'Brien's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State Department seeking documents related to internal government discussions about WikiLeaks forced the first official release of an email from Hillary Clinton's private account used to conduct official business while Secretary of State.[8]

Journalism

In January 2011, two months after its debut,[9] O'Brien began blogging[10] at WikiLeaks Central, a global news site that, according to its administrator and editor-in-chief, Heather Marsh, "was requested, announced, promoted, endorsed and hosted by WikiLeaks."[11] Until December 2011, O'Brien recalls, "I was a blogger, who wrote mostly extramurally."[12] In March 2011 she wrote, "It's a testament to Assange that WikiLeaks has lasted as long as it has, and that the institution has managed to publish what it has published in the face of constant attack and murderous tabloid coverage. I only hope that the bastards out to get Assange and WikiLeaks fall on their own words and swords."[13]

From mid-December 2011 until summer 2013, O'Brien created an extensive archive of the only available pretrial transcripts of the court-martial of accused WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning.[14] In May 2013, O'Brien was co-recipient with blogger Kevin Gosztola of an $8,500 grant from Freedom of the Press Foundation to cover the trial,[15] which began on June 3 and stretched over 80 days. On August 21, immediately after the trial concluded with Manning's sentencing, O'Brien obtained the first exclusive interview with lead civilian defense counsel, David Coombs.[16]

During the Manning trial, The New York Times referred to testimony in the soldier's pretrial hearings "as transcribed by Alexa O'Brien, an activist who was present in court."[17] In response, O'Brien emailed Margaret Sullivan, then public editor of The Times, protesting that she was a journalist and should be referred to as one.[18] To O'Brien, the term activist as used in this instance was "pejorative."[19] Two days after publication, The Times revised its article to identify her as "an activist and independent journalist who was present in court" (emphasis added), explaining that their original wording "referred incompletely to Alexa O'Brien. While Ms. O'Brien has participated in activist causes like Occupy Wall Street and US Day of Rage, she also works as an independent journalist; she is not solely an activist."[20]

In 2013, O'Brien was shortlisted for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in the United Kingdom.[21] O'Brien's work has been published in The Cairo Review of Global Affairs,[22] The Guardian,[23] Salon,[24] and The Daily Beast.[25] She has been featured on the BBC,[23] PBS Frontline,[26] NPR's On The Media,[27] Democracy Now!,[28] Public Radio International (PRI),[29] and teleSUR's Days of Revolt.[30]

Manning court record and WikiLeaks

In January 2020, O'Brien posted a disclaimer at her blog.[12] Beginning about six months into the 2012 pretrial proceedings, and for eight or nine months thereafter, she wrote, her documentation of PFC Manning's court-martial "was supported in part (both financially and morally)" by Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. CCR later utilized O'Brien's FOIA requests and investigative research in a lawsuit (to which O'Brien was party)[31] that in March 2014 won release of an unclassified record of Manning's court-martial.[32] Ratner was also at the time the constitutional lawyer for WikiLeaks in the U.S. Around spring 2013, O'Brien recalls, "I discussed with Ratner how I needed to avoid any conflict of interest, as my work documenting the trial at Fort Meade ... was becoming the unofficial repository of the trial record." She does not further describe this discussion.[12]

Following Manning's July 2013 conviction, O'Brien was approached by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "(after arrangements were made by Ratner) to see if I would be available to work for WikiLeaks once their submission system was running." In January 2014, O'Brien moved to Berlin for six months to continue her "work on the Manning court-record and the U.S. investigation of WikiLeaks." Andy Müller-Maguhn, who coauthored Assange's 2012 book Cypherpunks, helped arrange letters in support of O'Brien's German work permit from, among others, WikiLeaks spokesperson and Berlin resident Jacob Appelbaum. During her time there, O'Brien lived with[12] then WikiLeaks section editor[33] Sarah Harrison, who has been described as Julian Assange's closest adviser[34] and whom O'Brien interviewed live onstage at the May 2014 re:publica conference.[35]

"While I don't know for certain," O'Brien concludes, "my understanding is that financial support from Ratner during those portions of the Manning pre-trial and in 2014" via French advocacy group La Quadrature du Net "came from the WikiLeaks defense fund" via the Wau Holland Foundation,[12] which by late 2010 had collected over $1.2 million for WikiLeaks.[36]

By mid-February 2020, however, O'Brien had turned against Assange. "He is a mother f*cker," she tweeted from her verified account, "and deserves ridicule for being a self-centered narcissist clown, IMO."[37] Two days later, she tweeted that although she'd been approached by agents over the last decade to write a book on Manning or her work, she was glad she had not done so. "If I ever write it," she joked, "title will be Useful Idiot, an autobiography."[38]

Recent work

In late 2015 and early 2016, O'Brien collaborated with military scholar William M. Arkin on a multi-month VICE News investigation into U.S. institutions of higher education with the greatest number of students employed by the Intelligence Community (IC), with the closest relationships with the national security state, and with the greatest profit from the U.S. war footing.[39] A follow-up investigation by Arkin and O'Brien revealed that one in 50 members of the IC with Top Secret security clearances and doctoral degrees had obtained the degrees from unaccredited schools.[40]

In July 2019, a report written by O'Brien was published by Airwars, a London-based nonprofit that assesses allegations of civilian casualties from airstrikes during international military actions.[41] For the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, she coauthored "The Ethics of Applied Intelligence in Modern Conflict" (July 2019)[42] and "By the Numbers: Former U.S. Intelligence Officials Discuss Personal Opinion versus Professional Obligation" (February 2020).[43]

Awards

In May 2020, O'Brien was named 2020 Tropaia Outstanding Student in Applied Intelligence by Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, which conferred on her a Master of Professional Studies degree.[2]

References
  1. O'Brien, Alexa. "About". Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  2. "Tropaia Exercises 2020" (PDF). Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies. May 13, 2020. p. 20. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  3. Messina, Felipe (20 October 2011). "MR Interview – Alexa O'Brien of USDOR & OWS". Media Roots. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  4. Slaughter, Dustin M. (21 August 2011). "America's Day of Rage Is Coming, and It's Just the Beginning". The David and Goliath Project. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  5. Schneider, Nathan (17 September 2013). Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse. University of California Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0520276802. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  6. "Episode 7". The World Tomorrow with Julian Assange. Russia Today. 29 May 2012. Archived from the original on 11 June 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  7. Dolmetsch, Chris (17 July 2013). "Ruling That Struck Down Military Detention Power Rejected". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  8. Leopold, Jason (9 March 2015). "Here Is the State Department's First 'Official' Release of a Hillary Clinton Email". Vice. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  9. "2019-11-19". WL Central. 20 November 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  10. O'Brien, Alexa (22 January 2011). "Wikileaks, Antipolitics, and the Post Modern State". WL Central. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  11. Marsh, Heather (7 April 2018). "Democracy vs Cambridge Analytica and Facebook". Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  12. O'Brien, Alexa (1 January 2020). "I plan to write about U.S. v. Assange and related WikiLeaks espionage cases, so here is my disclaimer". alexaobrien.com. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  13. O'Brien, Alexa (5 March 2011). "The Passive Aggressive Political Philosophy of Domscheit-Berg". WL Central. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  14. O'Brien, Alexa. "Unofficial Transcripts – US v Pfc. Manning". alexaobrien.com. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  15. Reitman, Rainey and Trevor Timm (9 May 2013). "Freedom of the Press Foundation Crowd-Funding A Court Reporter To Transcribe Bradley Manning's Trial". Freedom of the Press Foundation. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  16. "The Sentencing of Chelsea Manning: Alexa O'Brien's Exclusive Interview with Attorney David Coombs on Vimeo". Vimeo.com. 2013-08-23. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  17. Carr, David and Ravi Somaiya (26 June 2013). "WikiLeaks, Back in News, Never Left US Radar". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  18. Sullivan, Margaret (29 June 2013). "Who's a Journalist? A Question With Many Facets and One Sure Answer". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  19. Ludlow, Peter (2014). Living Words: Meaning Underdetermination and the Dynamic Lexicon. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198712053.
  20. Carr, David and Ravi Somaiya (24 June 2013). "Assange, Back in News, Never Left U.S. Radar". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  21. "The Bureau's drone project nominated for prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize - The Bureau of Investigative Journalism". Thebureauinvestigates.com. 2016-07-12. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  22. "The Cairo Review of Global Affairs". Aucegypt.edu. 2015-10-29. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  23. "Alexa O'Brien". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  24. "Bradley Manning's full statement". Salon.com. 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  25. "Alexa O'Brien". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  26. "The "Indie" Journalists At the Center of the Bradley Manning Trial | WikiSecrets | Frontline". PBS.org. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  27. Gladstone, Brooke (14 March 2013). "Covering the Manning Trial". On the Media. WNYC Studios. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  28. "Shows featuring Alexa O'Brien". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  29. "Alexa O'Brien | Public Radio International". Pri.org. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  30. "Days of Revolt: Militarizing Education". Therealnews.com. 2015-11-24. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  31. O'Brien, Alexa. "Official Court Docket – US v Pfc. Manning". alexaobrien.com. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  32. O'Brien, Alexa (March 2014). "Official Record of Trial (Text Searchable) – US v Pfc. Manning". Alexa O'Brien. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  33. "Sarah Harrison: "It's not the journalist's role to decide what the public can see"". European Centre for Press and Media Freedom. 5 August 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  34. Kelley, Michael (24 June 2013). "Meet Sarah Harrison, The Wikileaks Representative Travelling With Edward Snowden". Business Insider. Allure Media. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  35. "Video: Alexa O'Brien interviews WikiLeaks' Sarah Harrison". Courage Foundation. 20 May 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  36. Stark, Holger (13 December 2010). "Donations Were Never as Strong as Now". Spiegel International. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  37. O'Brien, Alexa [@alexadobrien] (February 19, 2020). "PERSONAL OPINION" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2020 – via Twitter.
  38. O'Brien, Alexa [@alexadobrien] (February 21, 2020). "I have had 2 agents approach me about a book" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 21, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2020 – via Twitter.
  39. Arkin, William M. and Alexa O'Brien (6 November 2015). "The Most Militarized Universities in America: A VICE News Investigation". Vice. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  40. Arkin, William M. and Alexa O'Brien (27 January 2016). "Doctors of Doom: What a PhD Really Means in the US National Security Community". Vice. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  41. O'Brien, Alexa (July 2019). "News In Brief: US media coverage of civilian harm in the war against ISIS". Airwars. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  42. Lundy, Larry and Alexa O'Brien, Christine Solis, Aaron Sowers & Jeffrey Turner (July 2019). "The Ethics of Applied Intelligence in Modern Conflict". International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. 32 (3): 587–599. doi:10.1080/08850607.2019.1607693.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  43. O'Brien, Alexa and Luis E. Rodriguez (February 2020). "By the Numbers: Former U.S. Intelligence Officials Discuss Personal Opinion versus Professional Obligation". International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. 33: 1–26. doi:10.1080/08850607.2020.1716297.
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