Another Biden administration official has resigned over the U.S.’s unconditional support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza — this time a senior officer in the U.S. Army who also served as an intelligence official for the Pentagon.
In a letter posted on LinkedIn on Monday, Harrison Mann wrote that he felt complicit in the “most horrific and heartbreaking images imaginable” being broadcast from Gaza while in his role. Mann was an officer in the intelligence agency of the Pentagon, working on the Middle East and Africa, according to his LinkedIn profile, as well as an army major. He also noted that he is separating from the army.
Mann said that he submitted his resignation on November 1, feeling “incredible shame and guilt” over his contributions to the Pentagon’s policies in Gaza, and circulated the letter in April. He cited his Jewish heritage as a reason he felt it morally necessary to resign.
“Each of us signed up to serve knowing we might have to support policies we weren’t fully convinced of. Our defense institutions couldn’t function otherwise,” Mann wrote. “However, at some point it became difficult to defend the outcomes of this particular policy. At some point — whatever the justification — you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not.”
“[A]s the descendent of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing … where the paramount importance of ‘never again’ and the inadequacy of ‘just following orders’ were oft repeated,” Mann continued.
Mann is one of only a few Biden administration officials to publicly resign over the U.S.-backed genocide of Gaza. Each official who has spoken about their resignation has expressed extreme frustration and disappointment over the administration’s support of Israel at a time when, internally, the government is seeing a historic amount of dissent and disagreement with the policies handed down from top brass.
Last month, the administration saw the first U.S. diplomat to resign over Gaza. Hala Rharrit, the Arabic language spokesperson for the State Department, called the government’s support of the genocide “inhumane” and in violation of international law. Many people within the administration are afraid to speak up against the genocide for fear of reprisal or are silenced when they do, Rharrit has said.
In his letter, Mann said that he felt isolated within the Pentagon as someone who objected to the U.S.’s staunch support of Israel. He said that he was afraid to step out of line and of “violating our professional norms.”
“The hardest part of the past six months was feeling totally alone — like I was the only one disturbed by the footage from Gaza. The only one who felt like a participant, not just a passive observer, in the destruction there,” Mann wrote. “For six months, I never heard anyone speak about the war in those terms, ever. I felt like I was living in an alternate universe. I now realize the obvious — if I was afraid to voice my concerns, you were too.”
Mann’s resignation is also significant due to his role in the army. Military officers are discouraged from acts of public political dissent, but the severity of the Gaza genocide has prompted many to speak out.
Active duty Air Force member Larry Hebert embarked on a hunger strike in March in protest of the genocide, in particular citing Israel’s famine campaign in the region. Hebert is now seemingly facing recourse from the military due to his protest.
In February, active duty U.S. Air Force member Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., screaming “free Palestine” and saying: “I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy