Louis Theroux in 'most awkward' interview ever with WikiLeaks whistleblower

05 December 2023 , 16:45

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Louis Theroux sits down with Chelsea Manning

Louis Theroux sits down for an incredibly tense interview with WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning in what's being dubbed his "most awkward interview".

The two appear to sit in silence in scenes set to air in an upcoming episode of Louis Theroux Interviews on BBC Two. "I've got a high tolerance for awkwardness, but yours if off the charts," he tells Chelsea in a teaser clip shared on Instagram.

"You seem to be more comfortable sat in silence. You're even better at it than I am," he explained. Manning responds: "I've done it for a long time. Way longer than you can imagine, Louis. I was in solitary confinement and that's all that was."

Louis interviews Chelsea in an upcoming episode of Interviews

She was previously sentenced to 35 years behind bars

Chelsea, who is transgender, previously spent seven years in military prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified US documents in 2010. The ex-Army intelligence analyst was released from Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia in 2020.

She was being held for refusing to testify in a US investigation into WikiLeaks. A judge ordered she should be immediately released from prison following an attempt to take her own life before being raced to the hospital. "Needless to say we are relieved and ask that you respect her privacy while she gets on her feet," Manning's defence team said at the time.

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Manning was convicted of espionage and aiding the enemy after leaking classified data to the WikiLeaks website that became famous for publishing secret information from anonymous sources. She gave more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to the anti-secrecy group.

Among the files Manning leaked in 2010 was a gunsight video of a US Apache helicopter firing on suspected Iraqi insurgents in 2007 - an attack that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It also included thousands of confidential messages from US embassies around the world - which caused an embarrassing diplomatic crisis.

The US state department voiced concerns at the time that Manning had endangered the lives of Americans based in all corners of the globe. Manning was convicted at a court martial in 2013 - and sentenced to 35 years in prison. The sentence was widely condemned by her supporters - especially as she was forced to live as a man in prison and faced long periods of solitary confinement.

Now she's set to sit down with Louis, who teased on social media: "The most famous whistleblower in US history, Chelsea Manning, joins us for the latest instalment of #LouisTherouxInterviews. It was a pleasure getting to know Chelsea.

"She hasn't done many long form interviews on TV before, or even on podcasts, so I had the privilege of hearing her open up on some deeply personal subjects for the first time. The conversation was serious, naturally, and even harrowing at times. But there were almost moments of lightness and unexpected comedy. We spoke for four hours or so, with some breaks for coffee… We recorded it in June, but it is if anything even more relevant now, with everything that’s going on in the world. Please tune in on @bbctwo or @bbciplayer and let me know what you think."

Harry Rutter