Brandon Wayne Bryant (born November 18, 1985, in
Missoula
Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...
,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
) is an American
whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
. From 2006 to 2011 he was a
camera operator
A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task.
In filmmaking ...
(''sensor operator'') of
unmanned drone
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s of the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
. His job was
targeted killing
Targeted killing is a form of murder or assassination carried out by governments outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield.
Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention within and betw ...
.
On December 10, 2012, the German magazine ''
Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' reported about Bryant, his former work and his post traumatic stress disorder.
He gave his testimony to an expert council of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
and to the
.
Jesselyn Radack
Jesselyn Radack (born December 12, 1970) is an American national security and human rights attorney known for her defense of whistleblowers, journalists, and hacktivists. She graduated from Brown University and Yale Law School and began her caree ...
is his lawyer.
In April 2015 Brandon Bryant gave his first public keynote 'Inside the Predator' on the drone-system and his experience as a drone operator at the conference 'DRONES: Eyes from a Distance', the opening event of the
Disruption Network Lab in Berlin, Germany.
In 2015 the
Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler and the German section of the
International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms
The International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) is an international non-governmental organisation headquartered in Berlin. It was founded in 1988 and seeks "to build and strengthen international legal efforts to ban the use a ...
awarded Bryant with the
Whistleblower Award.
In November 2015 the theatrical play ''Ramstein Airbase: Game of Drones'' premiered at
Staatstheater Mainz
The Staatstheater Mainz (Mainz State Theatre) is a theatre in Mainz, Germany, which is owned and operated by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Situated on the Gutenbergplatz, the complex comprises two theatres which are connected by an undergrou ...
. Brandon Bryant is a central character and was played by Denis Larisch.
In May 2016 the Norwegian documentary filmer
Tonje Hessen Schei
Tonje Hessen Schei is a Norwegian film director, producer and screenwriter. She has directed the documentary film ''DRONE'' and ''Play Again'', and has directed and produced the films ''Independent Intervention'' and ''iHuman''. She produced ''P ...
produced the documentary ''Drone – This Is No Game!''. Drone pilots Brandon Bryant and Michael Haas are shown as examples of how the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
recruits video gamers and trains them to kill by remote control. An earlier version of the film won awards at several festivals in 2015. At the
Bergen International Film Festival
The Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) is a film festival held annually in October in Bergen, Norway since 2000, and is the largest film festival in the nation in number of films. The festival celebrated its 20th edition in 2019, featuring ...
it won the "Best Documentary Award“ and the "Human Rights Award“. At the
Cinema for Peace Foundation
The Cinema for Peace Foundation is a registered, non-profit organization based in Berlin, Germany. It supports film-based projects dealing with global humanitarian and environmental issues, and coordinates the Cinema for Peace awards.
History
T ...
in Berlin it won the award as "Most Valuable Documentary of the Year“. At the San Sebastián Human Rights film festival the team that made the documentary won the "Amnesty International Award“.
''Preisgekrönte Dokumentation „Drone – This Is No Game!“''
(in German) ''bundeswehr-journal.de''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Brandon
American whistleblowers
Living people
1985 births
United States Air Force airmen