Thomas L. Reinecke on Chelsea Manning

Dear Sir John, Warden Kiss, and Rhodes Trustees,

I wish to express my strong objection to the invitation for
Chelsea Manning to participate in a Forum on ‘government transparency
and ethical implications for artificial intelligence’ at Rhodes House. 
He was an Army intelligence analyst who gave thousands of top secret and
highly classified security documents and videos to Wikileaks for
widespread publication, and he was court marshaled for doing so.  These
actions have undermined national security and placed at risk the lives
of dedicated service personnel.

For more than a century the Rhodes Scholarships have been
dedicated to high intellectual standards, outstanding personal
integrity, and broad perspectives.  It is highly inappropriate for
Rhodes House to recognize a person who has irresponsibly undermined key
national security interests by the indiscriminate exposure of large
amounts of highly classified security information.  In addition, it is
unlikely that Chelsea Manning has any significant background in the
challenging new fields of artificial intelligence and related
technologies and their potential impacts on society.  There are well
recognized world leaders available to discuss the important issues and
implications in these emerging new fields.

An invitation to Chelsea Manning can only diminish the long
standing reputation of the Rhodes Scholarships.

Yours sincerely,
Thomas L. Reinecke, D.Phil.
Wisconsin and St John’s 1968