Backstabber Report

Wired’s Poulson and Convicted Hacker Adrian Lamos Backstab SPC Bradley Manning

For those not keeping up with current events and likely the biggest event in half a century, SPC Bradley Manning was a 22 y/o Army analyst working in Iraq. Pfc Manning put his own freedom on the line to reveal the truth and lies of our military and government.

As lines are being drawn by Hawks, Doves, and those with different views of what it means to have “transparency in government” on both sides of the issue of war, the stories of what occurred are beginning to drift farther and farther away from the truth.

As of this writing  charges filed, after a month of being held in confinement, but no decision has been officially made if he will face a courts martial. He has now been transferred to a holding facility in Quantico, Virginia. We can assume he is the “leaker” who got his hands on the “Collateral Murder” video that showed US Apache pilots chuckling as they shot down Iraqi civilians in cold blood and may have also leaked a video showing an apparently much bloodier massacre in Garani, Afghanistan, carried out by US forces. Wikileaks is said to be preparing its release soon, though Washington has asked Wikileaks, in a public request, not to release anything more than they already have.

Though there is nothing official from the government, it has been reported by the mainstream media that the CIA has begun a manhunt for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who would like to question him and “discourage” him from releasing the remaining 15,000 documents and over 290,000 diplomatic cables Wikileaks says it has in their possession. Julian Assange has canceled planned public appearances and gone into hiding fearing not only his freedom, but his life.

Probably not just a paranoid state of mind, considering Mr. Daniel Ellsberg, famous for leaking the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War was targeted for silencing, fearing he would expose other sensitive information he had knowledge of.

So, how was Bradley Manning discovered? The story was broken by Wired, and how they became privy to knowing it was Manning is a great example of backstabbing a trust.

As the website, Antiwar.com breaks down the events, it occurred as follows:

“Adrian Lamo, the once-homeless “hacktivist” who broke into Yahoo and the New York Times web sites, claims to have been contacted by Manning – a total stranger — who then immediately confessed (“boasted” or “bragged” is the word used in news accounts) about what he had done. Lamo, who says he’s a “supporter” of Wikileaks, immediately turned him in. Why? Because “lives were in danger,” and it was his “patriotic duty,” and, well, he was just diagnosed with something called “Asperger’s Syndrome,” which supposedly leaves its victims without any empathy for other human beings. A perfect syndrome for a snitch.

Lamo is said to be a publicity hound, but this piece describing the life of the “infamous” hacker illustrates the principle that not all PR is good PR:

“On Thursday afternoon, Adrian Lamo sat quietly in the corner of a Starbucks inside the Carmichael Safeway, tapping on a laptop that requires his thumbprint to turn on and answering his cell phone.

“The first call, he said, came from an FBI agent asking about a death threat Lamo had received.

“The second was from a Domino’s pizza outlet. One of his many new enemies had left his name and number on a phony order.

“The third was from Army counterintelligence, he said.

“In other circumstances, it might be easy to dismiss his claims.

“He is an unassuming 29-year-old who lives with his parents on a dead-end street in Carmichael [California] and was recently released from a mental ward.”

This is somebody – a “reformed” criminal who’s just been released from the loony bin – whose word we are supposed to accept as good coin, and whose recounting of the “facts” surrounding the Manning case is being repeated in the media as if it were the gospel truth.

To begin with, Wired reporter Kevin Poulsen and Adrian Lamo are good friends (in spite of Lamo’s unconvincing denial): they share a “hacktivist” (i.e. criminal) background, and Poulsen has acted as his de facto attorney in all this, vouching for his rather fanciful story and giving Lamo the publicity he seems to crave. Although Poulsen never admits to being actually engaged in the operation, except to break the story, the whole affair looks to be a COINTELPRO-type operation, with the two of them working together in drawing out their quarry and then framing the public discourse once Manning is safely held incommunicado in the brig.

How convenient for the government: no Miranda rights, no constitutional protections for Manning, just a couple of dicey “hacktivists,” one masquerading as a “journalist,” and the deed was done.

Which makes one wonder: is the entire staff of Wired magazine afflicted with Snitch Syndrome? Or have they just become an arm of the federal government?

The weirdness of the Manning affair is exacerbated by the really odd character of the media coverage: the mainstream media has, for the most part, stayed away from the story, except for a perfunctory piece in the New York Times and a number of brief items repeating what is already known. The hi-tech press, however, is all over this, with negative coverage – echoing Lamo’s dubious assertions virtually word for word – predominating. Take, for example, this piece in Zdnet, which is nothing but arbitrary assertions, padded with irrelevant head-scratching:

“Life is full of little decisions. What to make for dinner. What color T-shirt to wear. Whether it’s time to mock Apple fans again. You know, those little, simple decisions of daily life. But for Adrian Lamo, the decision was whether or not to call the U.S. Government and turn in a U.S. Army intelligence analyst. Adrian made the right decision.”

Why was this the right decision? For paragraph upon paragraph, in the course of which we are deluged with Lamo’s fanciful account of how he supposedly caught a “spy,” the piece simply states and re-states the author’s moral evaluation of Manning’s actions, without bothering to make an argument. “Manning was wrong. Manning is a traitor. Adrian is not.” The entire article is written in this kind of baby talk:

“An Army intelligence analyst leaked secrets, those secrets need to be recovered, and the leaker must be punished. Lamo’s a hero and Assange is a bad guy.”

The author, one David Gewirtz, is as odd as his rhetorical style: president and founder of something called the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, which sounds like a government agency and would certainly like to be a government agency but isn’t – quite yet. Gewirtz has a number of “projects” his Institute is pursuing, including a “National Skills Database,” which sounds very much like a proposal for a government contract, and a system through which one can always “Buy American” instead of being  a traitor by buying “foreign” goods. (That also sounds like a candidate for some lucrative government subsidies.) He is the author of numerous articles detailing how we can use online social networks to track down terrorists, and the logo of his Institute tells us all we need to know about his view of how government can use technology to keep an eye on us all.” ~ Antiwar.com

Antiwar goes further within the article to point out more that is occurring. A smear campaign and claims by some relatively unknowns that Manning, because he is a whistle blower, has low self-esteem issues. It seems being a whistle blower and exposing dirty secrets of the most powerful government in the world puts your self-worth in doubt. Referring back to Daniel Ellsberg, any intelligent person would find this argument hard to believe. Further, Mr. Ellsberg himself, has lauded the actions of Bradley Manning as heroic after seeing the American public becoming content to let their government revert back to the days of Nixon and Vietnam.

What should be noted is that Lamo was looking for the limelight. He may have well expected to be lauded for his backstabbing. He still owes The NY Times $68,000 from his hacking conviction and it isn’t known if he was paid for turning in Manning to the feds. One thing by his own admission… He told Manning he was a “journalist” and that everything Manning told him would remain in confidence. Once he got all the information he thought was available he immediately ran to Wired.

It is unlikely that Bradley Manning will not escape a conviction. The military and government takes a dim view of having their dirty laundry hung out for everyone to see. However, he still deserves the credit for displaying a bravery to put his freedom on the line for the rest of us while fame seekers like Adrian Lamo and Kevin Poulsen claim to be patriots, concerned with the best interests of America.

Some secrets need to be exposed and if American citizens aren’t outraged at being lied to over the course of years about a war that is costing billions of dollars and young American lives,it is indeed a sad time in our history.

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