(Washington, D.C., November 22, 2024) — Former U.S. Army Major Harrison Mann, who resigned from his position as an executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency in protest of U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza, has joined DAWN as its inaugural Military Affairs Fellow, DAWN announced in a statement issued today.
"We are thrilled that Harrison is joining DAWN as our first Military Affairs Fellow, bringing his firsthand knowledge and experience of the inner workings of the Department of Defense and how it shapes our country's failed policies in the Middle East and North Africa," said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director. "As Harrison has rightly warned, unconditional U.S. support for Israel has not only caused catastrophic harm to the Palestinian people but a moral injury to America."
In his 13-year career in the U.S. military, Mann served in numerous positions as a foreign intelligence analyst and military officer, in regions from the Middle East to Ukraine. As Mann wrote in his resignation letter, unconditional U.S. support for Israel had "enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians" in Gaza.
Mann will expand DAWN's expertise on U.S. defense policy, joining a group of 20 other Non-Resident Fellows at DAWN whose expertise complements and advances the organization's mission, research, and advocacy to promote democracy and reform U.S. policy in the MENA region. Like all of DAWN's fellows, he will contribute to DAWN's online journal, Democracy in Exile, and offer insight, analysis, and policy recommendations on behalf of DAWN.
"I'm honored to join forces with the exceptional team of academics, advocates, and experts at DAWN," Mann said. "I look forward to supporting one of the most tenacious and effective champions for a just and rational U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East."
Prior to his posting at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Mann worked at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, in its Office of Security Cooperation, and led Army Civil Affairs teams combating regional smuggling under U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in Bahrain. He began his Army career as an infantry officer. Mann is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the College of William and Mary. He is also a senior fellow at Win Without War.
Mann participated in an online event, "Voices of Conscience," organized by DAWN on July 17, 2024 that brought together nine former U.S. government officials who all resigned in protest of the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza. "My assessment was, and our assessment together is, that Israel's campaign in Gaza and U.S. support for it has been disastrous by every measure," he said at the time. "The Israelis could not have continued in Gaza for this long, or at this scale, without an endless flow of weapons and ammunition from the U.S."
Harrison Mann is available for interviews with the media, along with DAWN's other Non-Resident Fellows. For inquiries, please contact press@dawnmena.org.
DAWN, founded in 2018 by Jamal Khashoggi, is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa and advocates for U.S. policies that align with these goals.
