Brandon Bryant

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Brandon Bryant

Brandon Wayne Bryant (born November 18, 1985 in Missoula , Montana ) is an American whistleblower . From 2006 to 2011 he was a sensor operator of drones of the United States Air Force . During this time he was used for targeted killing operations.

Life

“ Predator ” type drone launching a “ Hellfire ” missile

Bryant, the only son and the eldest of three children of the single teacher LanAnn Bryant (born June 9, 1961 in Garden Grove, California ), graduated from high school in Montana . He then began training as a journalist at college , which he broke off after one semester. In July 2005, at the age of 19, he joined the US Air Force, where from April 2006 he began studying and training as a remotely piloted aircraft sensor operator for drones at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas ( Nevada ) General Atomics MQ-1 ("Predator") went through. On December 3, 2006 he had his first flight assignment. In January 2007 he worked for missions in Iraq . In 2008 he began working in a secret special unit for targeted killings. For this purpose, he worked in an air-conditioned container at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico . This mission, which consisted of drone operations in Iraq, Afghanistan , Pakistan , Somalia and Yemen under the supervision of a Joint Terminal Attack Controller , was difficult for him. In a complex system based on division of labor, he was in the rank of Airman responsible for the remote control of cameras that are on board the drones and provide daylight and infrared images of the operations. His task was also to use laser control to direct the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles on board the drone into the assigned target. In this role, he witnessed the killing of people in real time. He criticized individual actions, expressed his concern to superiors and began to think about a career change. Increasing psychological pressure led to insomnia and eventually to a breakdown at work. After several months of sick leave, he started working in the container again. He resigned from his post on July 4, 2011, because he could not stand his job. Lucrative offers could not dissuade him from this decision. When he was honorably discharged from military service with the rank of Senior Airman , he was certified that his unit had carried out 1,626 targeted killing operations. He himself estimated that he was directly involved in 13 killings using drones, including the collateral killing of a child. At the time of his discharge, he was suffering from severe, persistent post-traumatic stress disorder , which was accompanied by periodic loss of active memory. In summer 2012 he returned to the US Air Force as a reservist. During a training session, however, he suffered a fall with injuries to his spine, shoulder and hips, the consequences of which, despite treatment, led to a long-term inability to work. He left the military permanently with the rank of staff sergeant and experienced a deep crisis in the weeks that followed. Bryant then lived in very simple circumstances in a secluded forest area of ​​Montana.

Whistleblowing

On September 2, 2012, the German television program Das Erste published a report on Bryant, his earlier work and his illness for the first time on the Weltspiegel program . Bryant had further conversations with journalists, for example with Nicola Abé, who published an article about him in Der Spiegel magazine on December 10, 2012 . On November 28, 2013, Bryant appeared on the German television program Beckmann . On April 1, 2014, Bryant spoke at an event organized by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin . In these conversations and lectures, he contradicted the notion that the drone attacks enabled "precise and clean" killings of suspected terrorists. In fact, many innocent people fell victim to these operations. During the operations, the drone pilots would often hardly be able to see on their screens whether they were an active fighter or civilian, whether they were killing adults or minors. The United States' drone program is "manhunt" of a "killing machine". He confirmed the statement by former CIA director Michael V. Hayden that the killings were based on metadata . He also explained to the journalists the crucial function of the Ramstein Air Base , located on German territory, as a relay station for the use of US combat drones for targeted killings. There, the incoming signals via satellite would be amplified and forwarded to locations in the United States via a fiber optic cable. Ramstein is the "epicenter of all information flows for the US overseas operations". In his 6000 hours of flight and in the thousands of missions, there would have been no operation that he did not call Ramstein to connect to his drone. Orders for kills in Africa would come from the United States Africa Command in Stuttgart- Möhringen . He also stated that the US secret service CIA commissioned the US Air Force's drone fleet and provided specific targets for them. The NSA investigative committee of the German Bundestag invited him as a witness. On October 15, 2015, he answered his questions in the Europa Hall of the Paul-Löbe-Haus after he had already reported in October 2013 to a panel of experts at the United Nations , including the UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson . Among other things, he discussed before the NSA committee of inquiry how the location of target persons using the Gilgamesh device , which is on board the combat drones and pretends to be a transmission device for a cell for cell phones , works. A spokeswoman for the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) judged Bryant's statements to be harmless to the USAFE. The military at Ramstein Air Base stated that no facilities there were used to " directly fly or control remote-controlled aircraft ", but they did not Bryant's statement contradicts that Ramstein acts as a relay station.

The Association of German Scientists and the German section of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms honored Bryant with the 2015 Whistleblower Award . Bryant received the award on October 16, 2015 in Karlsruhe City Hall .

Brandon Bryant's mother, LanAnn, received a visit from two men who identified themselves as employees of the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations in Missoula on October 15, 2015, the day her son testified before the NSA Investigative Committee. They told her that her name had been leaked to the terrorist organization Islamic State through a "leak" in a database of the United States Office of Personnel Management , and that it had been put on a "death list" by them. They then gave her a leaflet on safe social media behavior and advised her to call 911 if she saw anything unusual. Bryant's attorney Jesselyn Radack and Bryant themselves consider this to be an attempt to intimidate the US government.

In November 2015 during a stay in Norway, Bryant expressed his wish to go into exile in Berlin because he “lost the ground under his feet” and “had no more home”, felt safe in the local community and needed “allies” . In the same month it became known that he and whistleblowers Cian Westmoreland, Stephen Lewis and Michael Haas had sent an open letter to US President Barack Obama , his Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter and CIA Director John O. Brennan . In it, they jointly charged that the US drone war was actually fueling terrorism. The killing of innocent civilians, which happens in this type of warfare, works like a "recruitment program for terrorists" and is "one of the most devastating drivers of terrorism and destabilization worldwide". In their statement, they referred to the terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris : "We cannot sit still and watch tragedies like in Paris, knowing the devastating effect our drone program is having abroad and at home."

Bryant is now a frequent guest at events promoting the United States' drone program.

reception

At the end of November 2015, director Jan-Christoph Gockel, who grew up near Ramstein Air Base, staged the play Ramstein Airbase: Game of Drones in the Mainz State Theater . Brandon Bryant - played by Denis Larisch - forms a central figure in it and was present as a guest at the premiere of the piece in Mainz .

The Norwegian documentary filmmaker Tonje Hessen Schei produced under the title Drone - This Is No Game! published a documentary in May 2016 , in which she described, using the example of former drone pilots Brandon Bryant and Michael Haas, how the CIA is targeting video game talent and training them in bomb-dropping by remote control. An earlier version of the film won several awards at renowned festivals in 2015. He received the "Best Documentary Award" and the "Human Rights Award" at the Bergen International Film Festival. At the awards of the Cinema for Peace Foundation in Berlin, it was voted “Most Valuable Documentary of the Year”. At the San Sebastián Human Rights Film Festival the makers of the documentary received the "Amnesty International Award".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LanAnn Bryant , website, et al. a. with birth dates of Brandon Bryant, retrieved from wrestlingusa.com on October 14, 2015
  2. ↑ Kai Biermann: One phone number is enough to kill people . Article from October 15, 2015 in the zeit.de portal , accessed on October 16, 2015
  3. ↑ Video: USA: Clean Drone War . Website in the daserste.de portal , accessed on November 18, 2016
  4. ↑ Nicola Abé: Dreams in Infrared . Article from December 10, 2012 in the portal spiegel.de , accessed on December 15, 2016
  5. ↑ The US drone war and the role of Germany . Website with video of Brandon Bryant's lecture on April 1, 2014, accessed October 15, 2015
  6. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Ex-drone pilot in the NSA committee: Boys from 12 as “legitimate targets” . Article from October 15, 2015 in the heise.de portal , accessed on October 17, 2015
  7. ↑ Drone News: News and analysis from the drones team at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ): Abigail Fielding-Smith, Owen Bennett-Jones and Jack Serle. Podcast (episode 44) from October 15, 2015 on the hipcast.com portal , accessed on October 16, 2015
  8. ↑ Panorama No. 779 of April 3, 2014: Germany: Control center in the global drone war , PDF in the daserste.ndr.de portal , accessed on October 16, 2015
  9. ↑ "The data are always flowing through Ramstein" . Article from April 4, 2014 in the portal sueddeutsche.de , accessed on October 15, 2015
  10. ↑ "German trust exploited" . Article from October 14, 2015 in the portal tagesschau.de , accessed on October 14, 2015
  11. ↑ Anna Biselli: Live blog from the intelligence service committee of inquiry: Brandon Bryant, Ms. K. and Renate Leistner-Rocca on the netzpolitik.org portal
  12. ^ Friedhelm Greis: Heavy Metal for the people hunters . Article from October 15, 2015 in the portal golem.de , accessed on October 15, 2015
  13. ↑ Jeremy Scahill , Glenn Greenwald : The NSA's Secret Role in the US Assassination Program . Article dated February 10, 2014 in theintercept.com portal , accessed on November 11, 2015
  14. ^ John Goetz, Antonius Kempmann, Christian Baars: Has the Federal Government been informed for some time? Article from November 6, 2015 in the portal tagesschau.de , accessed on November 7, 2015
  15. ↑ Jennifer H. Svan: Former US Drone Operator to Get German Whistleblower Award . Article from October 16, 2015 on the military.com portal , accessed October 16, 2015
  16. ^ Marie Wehrhahn: US whistleblower speaks in Karlsruhe . Article from October 16, 2015 in the ka-news.de portal , accessed on October 18, 2015
  17. ↑ Thorsten Denkler: Whistleblower's mother allegedly on IS death list . Article from October 21, 2015 in the portal sueddeutsche.de , accessed on October 21, 2015
  18. ↑ Kevin Gosztola: Air Force Office Tells Drone Whistleblower's Mom She is on ISIS 'Hit List' . Article from October 20, 2015 in the shadowproof.com portal , accessed on October 21, 2015
  19. ^ Diani Barreto, Antonius Kempmann: Ex-drone pilot Bryant: mother allegedly threatened by IS . Article from October 22, 2015 in the daserste.ndr.de portal , accessed on October 24, 2015
  20. ↑ Lauren Walker: Air Force Told Mother of Drone Critic That ISIS Is After Her . Article from October 21, 2015 in the newsweek.com portal , accessed on October 24, 2015
  21. ↑ Former US drone pilot wants to go into exile in Berlin . Article from November 11, 2015 in the zeit.de portal , accessed on November 11, 2015
  22. ↑ Open letter from Brandon Bryant, Cian Westmoreland, Stephen Lewis and Micheal Haas, undated , PDF in the assets.documentcloud.org portal
  23. ↑ US drone pilots accuse: "We are always producing new terrorists" . Article from November 19, 2015 in the focus.de portal , accessed on November 22, 2015
  24. ↑ Letter to Obama: Ex-pilots blame the US drone war for terror . Article from November 19, 2015 in the portal spiegel.de , accessed on November 22, 2015
  25. ^ Murtaza Hussain: Former Drone Operators Say They Were "Horryfied" By Cruelty of Assassination Program . Article from November 19, 2015 in theintercept.com portal , accessed on November 22, 2015
  26. ↑ Ed Pilkington, Ewen MacAskill: Obama's drone was a "recruitment tool" for Isis, say US air force whistleblowers . Article from November 18, 2015 on theguardian.com portal , accessed on November 22, 2015
  27. ↑ David Hesse: "We waited until they went to bed and killed them in their sleep" . Article of November 23, 2015 in the tagesanzeiger.ch portal , accessed on December 20, 2015
  28. ↑ Constanze Kurz: Brandon Bryant: "My country must be held accountable" . Article from March 19, 2016 in the netzpolitik.org portal , accessed on June 19, 2016
  29. ↑ Constanze Kurz: Recording of the discussion with Brandon Bryant . Article from March 21, 2016 in the netzpolitik.org portal , accessed on June 19, 2016
  30. ↑ Walter Schumacher: Human chain around the Ramstein US Air Base . Article from June 14, 2016 in the kraz.ac portal , accessed on June 19, 2016
  31. ↑ Katharina Hölter: Weltpolitik im Theater: Ramstein, Drones and a Marilyn ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Article from November 27, 2015 in the saarbruecker-zeitung.de portal , accessed on December 20, 2015
  32. ↑ Drone , website with trailer in the dronethedocumentary.com portal , accessed on June 19, 2016
  33. ↑ Award-winning documentation "Drone - This Is No Game!" Article from June 5, 2016 in the portal bundeswehr-journal.de , accessed on June 19, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Bryant, Brandon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bryant, Brandon Wayne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American whistleblower
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH Missoula , Montana