Michael Morell, former acting and deputy director of the CIA, resigned Thursday from his teaching position at Harvard University in protest of the school’s naming of Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier convicted of leaking classified information, as a Visiting Fellow.
“I cannot be a part of an organization - The Kennedy School - that honors a convicted felon,” Morell said in an open letter announcing his departure from Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where he had been a non-resident Senior Fellow.
His resignation is effective immediately. Harvard’s Kennedy School confirmed to The Cipher Brief that it had received Morell’s letter, but offered no further comment.
Shortly after Morell's announcement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo released his own statement, in which he withdrew from a scheduled public appearance at the university.
“Ms. Manning stands against everything the brave men and women I serve alongside stand for,” Pompeo’s statement read, and called Manning a “traitor to the United States of America.”
The next day, the Dean of the Kennedy School, Douglas Elmendorf, released a statement rescinding the university’s offer of the title, calling it a “mistake.” According to Elmendorf, Manning is still welcome to spend a day at the Kennedy School and speak to students, but will no longer receive the title of Visiting Fellow.
“While my preference would be that she not be permitted to speak at all, I was impressed by Dean Elmendorf's decision in light of the fact that Ms. Manning had already been invited,” Morell told The Cipher Brief on Friday.
“He showed courage in admitting that a mistake had been made in offering her a title of honor and then he showed wisdom in walking a fine between the values of the University (hear all voices) without giving Ms. Manning a title that some could see (including me) as the University endorsing the crimes she committed.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Morell would go back to his position, or if Manning would decline Harvard’s revised offer. A Guardian article suggests she won’t.
Former Director of National Intelligence and Cipher Brief expert James Clapper, himself a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center, said he was likely to also resign from the school.
"I'm going to sleep on it, but I anticipate I will follow suit", he responded in an e-mail to the Cipher Brief.
Clapper said he thought Morell's letter was "very compelling" and that he thought Morell did "the right thing."
Manning was convicted in 2013 of passing a trove of classified cables and documents to WikiLeaks and sentenced by a military court to 35 years in prison. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in January, and she has been free since May after serving seven years in total.
“Senior leaders in our military have stated publicly that the leaks by Ms. Manning put the lives of U.S. soldiers at risk,” Morell continued in his letter. “I have an obligation to my conscience - and I believe to the country - to stand up against any efforts to justify leaks of sensitive national security information.”
While saying he was sad to leave Harvard, Morell also added that the decision to hire her “will assist Ms. Manning in her long-standing effort to legitimize the criminal path she took to prominence, an attempt that may encourage others to leak classified information as well.”
Clapper reiterated this sentiment, telling the Cipher Brief that Manning's hire "would seem to reward the damaging behavior of a convicted felon, who caused great damage. Is Edward Snowden next?"
Manning has emerged as an important figure for digital privacy activists and skeptics of U.S. military operations abroad. On Wednesday, the day before Morell sent his letter, Manning published an opinion piece in the New York Times saying that the world she returned to in 2017 was a “an eerily banal dystopian novel,” warning against the automation of algorithms by intelligence and law enforcement to surveil society.
Manning’s first response to Morell’s resignation came Thursday in a one word tweet “good #WeGotThis” followed later by “no more secrecy, surveillance, torture, murder, and genocide ?? abolish the @cia ??? #WeGotThis"
WikiLeaks’ disclosure of thousands of diplomatic cables and sensitive documents that were provided by Manning, turned her into a leaker for some, and a whistleblower for others.
What do you think about Morell’s resignation and Manning’s new role at Harvard? Here's what we've received so far:
From one reader: "I could not possibly be more supportive of the position both Messrs Morell and Pompeo are taking re Harvard. Salutations to both! Chelsea Manning is nothing but an absolute traitor to this country and, accordingly, warrants ostracizing..not embraced by any American institution of higher learning, let alone Harvard."
Not everyone agreed: "I read with keen interest all the noise made by Michael Morell concerning the hiring of Chelsea Manning by Harvard University. I can only shake my head to what extent people can go. Chelsea Manning made a mistake, has apologised, sentenced and pardoned, I think that should be enough. Sometimes many want to hold on to moral standards that they don't have. Going by the impact of the leak, I am just wondering how many American soldiers have been killed between now and then. My view is that Chelsea Manning should...sue for character assassination."
Send your thoughts to DeadDrop@thecipherbrief.com and we’ll post the ones that make substantive points.
