WikiLeaks, Greenwald & Wired (oh my)
by Gaius Publius on 1/02/2011 05:03:00 PM
This is for fans of weedy issues, and contains mainly background and links. As we say in the Biz, this is a developing story. Stay tuned.
The background. You know that Bradley Manning is being held in a military brig within the U.S., in conditions that would be called "torture" if applied by al-Qaeda to our own people. He hasn't been charged with a crime, except in the court of public opinion (the one with the hanging tabloid judge).
His offense? Allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables (and maybe the Baghdad assault helicopter tape) to WikiLeaks.
And that's as far as most people go. At this point, Mr. and Ms. Busy America switch to a football game, of which we have many. Thank you, friendly media, for doing our thinking for us.
But a key question remains - how do we know that Bradley Manning is the leaker? Answer - by the word of one man, an ex-hacker and known government informant named Adrian Lamo. And that's all. Lamo somehow got into an IM-type chat with Manning (he's changed his story about that), and Manning somehow confessed. Somehow.
So where are the chat logs in which Manning confessed? Wired.com has them, and you can't read those parts.
And here's where the weeds start, and the links. If you're a fan of mystery stories, potential government sting ops, embedded informers within hacker-darling publication Wired, secret chat logs and "public enemies", this is for you. It's a puzzle waiting to be solved, and new pieces appear every week.
There are far too many open questions. For example, when did Lamo start working with the Feds, before his forced hospitalization or after? (Intrigued? I sure am.)
For an analysis of the Manning-Lamo-Wired timeline, click here.
For Greenwald's response to Wired's ad hominem counterattack, click here. (Greenwald's "crime" - asking for the part of the logs that verifies any of Lamo's stories.)
For Greenwald's most recent analysis of the events so far, click here.
For Greg Mitchell's ongoing daily blog of all things WikiLeaky, click here.
Or you could google "lamo wired assange".
To keep the complexity at bay, just keep the government goal in mind. If I'm the Feds, my perfect world includes a confession from Manning that he personally handed the leaks to Julian Assange, preferably over mocha cappuccino.
Why? Because that's a conspiracy, they can indict and extradite him, and then they can spend the next twenty years wiping that smile off his face; or not.
Enjoy.
GP
This is for fans of weedy issues, and contains mainly background and links. As we say in the Biz, this is a developing story. Stay tuned.
The background. You know that Bradley Manning is being held in a military brig within the U.S., in conditions that would be called "torture" if applied by al-Qaeda to our own people. He hasn't been charged with a crime, except in the court of public opinion (the one with the hanging tabloid judge).
His offense? Allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables (and maybe the Baghdad assault helicopter tape) to WikiLeaks.
And that's as far as most people go. At this point, Mr. and Ms. Busy America switch to a football game, of which we have many. Thank you, friendly media, for doing our thinking for us.
But a key question remains - how do we know that Bradley Manning is the leaker? Answer - by the word of one man, an ex-hacker and known government informant named Adrian Lamo. And that's all. Lamo somehow got into an IM-type chat with Manning (he's changed his story about that), and Manning somehow confessed. Somehow.
So where are the chat logs in which Manning confessed? Wired.com has them, and you can't read those parts.
And here's where the weeds start, and the links. If you're a fan of mystery stories, potential government sting ops, embedded informers within hacker-darling publication Wired, secret chat logs and "public enemies", this is for you. It's a puzzle waiting to be solved, and new pieces appear every week.
There are far too many open questions. For example, when did Lamo start working with the Feds, before his forced hospitalization or after? (Intrigued? I sure am.)
For an analysis of the Manning-Lamo-Wired timeline, click here.
For Greenwald's response to Wired's ad hominem counterattack, click here. (Greenwald's "crime" - asking for the part of the logs that verifies any of Lamo's stories.)
For Greenwald's most recent analysis of the events so far, click here.
For Greg Mitchell's ongoing daily blog of all things WikiLeaky, click here.
Or you could google "lamo wired assange".
To keep the complexity at bay, just keep the government goal in mind. If I'm the Feds, my perfect world includes a confession from Manning that he personally handed the leaks to Julian Assange, preferably over mocha cappuccino.
Why? Because that's a conspiracy, they can indict and extradite him, and then they can spend the next twenty years wiping that smile off his face; or not.
Enjoy.
GP