Adrian Lamo snitches on “Collateral Murder” video leaker
8 June 2010 by Mike GogulskiPosted in crime | 19 Comments »
Convicted ex-hacker and now government informant Adrian Lamo has ratted on the US Army intelligence analyst who claims to have provided WikiLeaks with the “Collateral Murder” video (which shows US Imperium soldiers in Baghdad wantonly slaughtering innocent people).
According to Wired, via cryptogon.com:
[SPC Bradley] Manning came to the attention of the FBI and Army investigators after he contacted former hacker Adrian Lamo late last month over instant messenger and e-mail. Lamo had just been the subject of a Wired.com article. Very quickly in his exchange with the ex-hacker, Manning claimed to be the Wikileaks video leaker.
“If you had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months, what would you do?” Manning asked.
From the chat logs provided by Lamo, and examined by Wired.com, it appears Manning sensed a kindred spirit in the ex-hacker. He discussed personal issues that got him into trouble with his superiors and left him socially isolated, and said he had been demoted and was headed for an early discharge from the Army.
When Manning told Lamo that he leaked a quarter-million classified embassy cables, Lamo contacted the Army, and then met with Army CID investigators and the FBI at a Starbucks near his house in Carmichael, California, where he passed the agents a copy of the chat logs. At their second meeting with Lamo on May 27, FBI agents from the Oakland Field Office told the hacker that Manning had been arrested the day before in Iraq by Army CID investigators.
You utter bastard, Lamo!
But it gets worse:
Lamo has contributed funds to Wikileaks in the past, and says he agonized over the decision to expose Manning — he says he’s frequently contacted by hackers who want to talk about their adventures, and he’s never considered reporting anyone before. The supposed diplomatic cable leak, however, made him believe Manning’s actions were genuinely dangerous to U.S. national security.
“I wouldn’t have done this if lives weren’t in danger[...]“
Lives most emphatically are in danger every day in Iraq. And in Afghanistan. And in Yemen and Somalia and all of the 75 countries where President “Change!” Obama has either deployed or opted to continue the deployment of US Special Forces — that is, the American Imperium’s elite death&destruction squads.
But Mr. Lamo is worried about “US national security”, meaning the ability of the American Imperium to continue tax-harvesting its free-range chattel submittizens, legalizing massive privilege to favored members of the American and global ruling classes, carrying out wanton, unlimited bloodletting overseas and generally making life a living hell for millions upon millions of people, all without challenge.
I am not one to praise soldiers, but Bradley Manning did one of the most admirable things he could do as a volunteer member of the gang of evil thugs calling itself the “United States Army” by leaking the video and the other information. Maybe we’ll find out what his reasons were, some day when he’s out of whatever dark hole the US Imperium’s “justice” system throws him into, but he did say some things in his chats with Lamo which interest me:
“Hillary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning, and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public,” Manning wrote.
[...]
“Everywhere there’s a U.S. post, there’s a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed,” Manning wrote. “It’s open diplomacy. World-wide anarchy in CSV format. It’s Climategate with a global scope, and breathtaking depth. It’s beautiful, and horrifying.”
Somehow, Adrian Lamo doesn’t think this is a good thing, and feels so strongly about it that he’s quite okay with Bradley Manning being kidnapped and caged with real criminals, possibly for a very long time.
Adrian Lamo, go die in a hole. Alone. Screaming. And take your “national security” with you.
19 Responses to “Adrian Lamo snitches on “Collateral Murder” video leaker”
By TC Bell on 8 June 2010
Hell yes!
By Mike Gogulski on 8 June 2010
@TC Bell: I’m not entirely sure what you’re “Hell yes!”ing to, but I do like the enthusiasm!
By b-psycho on 8 June 2010
What a bitch…
By Mike Gogulski on 8 June 2010
@Big angry negro: I would prefer “awful person”, but yes.
By b-psycho on 8 June 2010
LMAO @ that fucking traitor keeping a Facebook page, btw.
“…how all of a sudden, snitchin’ became cool?”
-E-40
By Mike Gogulski on 8 June 2010
@Big angry negro: I don’t like the word “traitor”. It is too often connected with a meaning like “one who quote-unquote ‘betrays’ a bullshit construct”. To whom is he a traitor? To all humans? To all anarchists? To all sentient beings everywhere in the universe? That isn’t clear. Still… I want to call him “unclefucker”. Is that okay?
By b-psycho on 8 June 2010
Unclefucker works.
Y’know what else works? Founders Brewing’s Dirty Bastard. I’z had 3 already.
By Mike Gogulski on 8 June 2010
@Big angry negro: Yesh, I suppose. Meanwhile I approach .3L of this splendidly cheap supermarket vodka
By E. on 8 June 2010
Adrian: You’re an asshole. Die.
By Justen on 9 June 2010
What a piece of shit.
By Jim Davidson on 10 June 2010
“World-wide anarchy in CSV format.” The sentiment would be beautiful if I knew why he chose comma separated values format. With all those blocks of text, one would think a format that didn’t invoke a new field every time one encounters a comma might be better.
It is exceedingly nice that Lamo has such a lame sounding name. So, that’s fitting. I anticipate “Lamo” to be the new “dullard.”
What has happened here to Manning illustrates the importance of the lone actor having the self-confidence and esteem to stfu. When you act against the state, you should discipline yourself not to brag, not to seek sympathy, not to ask others for understanding, and not to open your big fat mouth. While Lamo is certainly blameful, there is also an aspect of his problems made by Manning himself. When you act alone, leave it alone. Don’t go watch the fires you’ve set. Don’t talk to other people about it. STFU and say nothing to anyone, ever. The life you save from misery may be your own.
“Whatever you say, say nothin’ when you talk about you know what. For if you know who should hear you, then you know what you’d get. They’d take you away to you don’t know where for you wouldn’t know how long. So whenever you think about talkin’ just remember the words to this song.”
By Mike Gogulski on 10 June 2010
@Jim: Solid point on the STFU practice. As for the CSV, I’ve got to imagine that the data he referred to was stored in that format before he obtained it, but who knows. WikiLeaks has said the claim that Manning sent 260,000 diplomatic cables to them was “incorrect”, so it isn’t clear at all what might yet come out of this.
By hiroprotagonist on 15 June 2010
considering lamo has a past record and is more than likely still being monitored by the feds, had he not handed over the info he could be in violation of title 18 ” Misprision of felony”.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/718/usc_sec_18_00000004—-000-.html
I can’t say i wouldn’t have done the same thing. manning should have kept his mouth shut rather than confiding in people he didn’t even know.
i’m just saying. boasting always gets you in trouble.
By Mike Gogulski on 15 June 2010
@hiro: Yeah, I’ve heard both sides, and both are plausible. Still, Lamo could have done the right thing rather than the safe thing, and kept his fucking trap shut, let alone pass the information on to Poulsen, his “journalist” buddy at Wired, to break the story well after the poor bastard had already been thrown into a cage.
I do suspect that if the entire communication between Manning and Lamo were public, it would be plain just what a massive betrayal Lamo perpetrated here.
Love the nickname, btw. I’m planning on moving to The Mews at Windsor Heights any day now
By hiroprotagonist on 16 June 2010
the whole thing is a mess. i think the best thing would’ve been for lamo to simply cut off all the chatting with manning after he saw where the conversation was going. this manning guy wasn’t exactly subtle in how he divulged the info. it should make for an interesting hope conference. last i heard lamo was still planning on showing up.
…from the burbclave
By Doolio on 17 June 2010
Adrian Lamo deserves to be destroyed for this.
By Mike Gogulski on 17 June 2010
@Doolio: Let’s get Bradley out of the gulag, then consider this. Priorities, and stuff.
By adrian lame-o on 1 August 2010
what a snitch ass motherfucker. he deserves to be in that cage, not bradley.
By xyloman on 2 August 2010
This Lamo is the Scum of The Earth! I would love to sucker punch him. Bastard. Die.