Saturday, July 31, 2010

Manning Aided By Civilian

It’s beginning to look more and more like Wikileaks is a bit more involved than merely being the data repository. 

A military official, who was not identified, acknowledged to the Times on Friday that Army investigators were looking into whether Manning physically handed compact discs containing classified information to someone in the U.S. Manning, an intelligence analyst who was deployed over the past year in Iraq with the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division at a remote base east of Baghdad, visited friends in Boston during a home leave in January, the Times reported.

Adrian Lamo, the Sacramento, Calif.-based computer hacker who turned in Bradley to military authorities in May, claimed in a telephone interview Saturday he had firsthand knowledge that someone helped Manning set up encryption software to send classified information to WikiLeaks.

Lamo, who’s cooperating with investigators, wouldn’t name the person but said the man was among a group of people in the Boston area who work with WikiLeaks. He said the man told him “he actually helped Private Manning set up the encryption software he used.”

Lamo said the software enabled Manning to send classified data in small bits so that it would seem innocuous.

(9) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1628 hrs
Law + Military + Politics + Politics - General

  1. Where does it say Wikileaks was involved?  The story indicates it is possible that a person helped Manning, and that this person also works “with” Wikileaks. But that doesn’t me he works “for” Wikileaks or that Wikileaks was necessarily involved at that point.

    You’re streeeeeeetching (unsurprisingly)

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 31, 2010 at 2023 hrs


  2. Two words: So what?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 31, 2010 at 2032 hrs


  3. What I am wondering is why a guy who is stationed in a remote area of Iraq would have secret intelligence reports about Afghanistan.
    The whole thing is troubling and it looks like to me they, the government, is going to let Manning take the fall and let everyone else slide.
    There ought to be heads rolling on this but nothing is really happening.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 31, 2010 at 2215 hrs


  4. Wikileaks (Julian Assange) is like the guy who hosts is child porn newsgroup or listserv.  He may not be the original producer of the material, but his distribution reach fuels the demand.  And he should be prosecuted and punished in the same manner as the original producer of the content.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 01, 2010 at 2258 hrs


  5. Your attempt to invoke the emotional distaste for child pron is misplaced. What is the “demand” that Wikileaks is fueling in your comparative?  (government transparency?)

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 01, 2010 at 2339 hrs


  6. Your attempt to invoke the emotional distaste for child pron is misplaced. What is the “demand” that Wikileaks is fueling in your comparative?  (government transparency?)

    These documents have little to do with government transparency. They are field reports from low level officers with VERY little importance to the overall Afghan war.

    However, because the Wikileaks idiots were too stupid to redact any of the names in the documents, there is an inherent likelihood that these documents will get someone killed, because guess what…. The “bad guys” can read internet websites too.

    What transparency does the leak actually provide? To me it looks like it is simply a place for the anti-war left to point and say “look, man, war is bad…... bro….. they are, like, killing civilians over there, man….” Civilians die in military conflict, it is a reality of life. Sometimes they are killed, seemingly, without reason… That is a part of war.

    If we really want to talk about the Afghan conflict, I think it is time to have the discussion about whether or not we really need to have our boys in that meat grinder. I think we accomplished our mission when we ousted the taliban, and I see absolutely no reason for us to stay there and prop up a government that has no desire to help us anyway. The purpose of the United States military is not to build nations, it is to blow things up and kill people.

    I think it is time to wrap up our middle-east affairs. I could be swayed to agree that it would be smart to keep a presence in Iraq, and that it would be in our best interest to negotiate that with the Iraqi government, but I think our active military campaigns over there should be ramped down.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 02, 2010 at 0837 hrs


  7. If we really want to talk about the Afghan conflict, I think it is time to have the discussion about whether or not we really need to have our boys in that meat grinder. I think we accomplished our mission when we ousted the taliban, and I see absolutely no reason for us to stay there and prop up a government that has no desire to help us anyway. The purpose of the United States military is not to build nations, it is to blow things up and kill people.

    I suspect the prupose/timing to the leak was to spur just this conversation (instead of media attention on political celebrity of the day), which is precisely what has been accomplished.

    (and you really think Taliban are scouring the documents for the name of an enlisted foot soldier, and then will seek that single individual down?  c’mon)

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 02, 2010 at 0845 hrs


  8. (and you really think Taliban are scouring the documents for the name of an enlisted foot soldier, and then will seek that single individual down?  c’mon)

    Muslim extremists have been known to do some really crazy things… I have absolutely no doubt that there are people over there charged with scouring these documents for things that can actively be used against the United States.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 02, 2010 at 0905 hrs


  9. Wait, you mean to tell me it’s possible that somebody may die in a military conflict?  Unbelievable!  Julian Assange must pay!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 02, 2010 at 1024 hrs


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