back to article Wikileaks' US army 'leaker' arrested

US military authorities have arrested an intelligence analyst who allegedly passed classified material to Wikileaks following a tip-off from a former hacker. Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, has reportedly been held in Kuwait for almost two weeks on suspicion of leaking a video of a helicopter attack in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What an arse

    Hope this "intelligence" analyst spends the next 50 years in prison.

    1. Cameron Colley

      Fine.

      But then let's put the badly-trained shit-for-brains butchers who decided to "light up" a bunch of civilians in prison too.

    2. Anomalous Cowherd Silver badge

      Yeah, right on

      We can strip him naked and stack him into a pyramid with the other inmates, then leak THOSE photos. That'll show him. GO USA.

  2. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    I don't see how this could undermine Wikileaks.

    From the sound of it the guy blew the whistle on himself.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wotz

      needed now is a US Army leak of a classified document claiming that if they can't identify a whistleblower in order to damage the viability of wikileaks, they should provide a fake. And if no-one leaks that document, the rumour alone should do.

  3. Andus McCoatover
    Unhappy

    Silly Bunny, Lamo.

    Only by 'whistleblowers' will we know the real truth that Governments want to hide. More of your kind bring 1984 closer to reality. OK, we're close, but..

    Did you see the Wikileaks video? Murder. You can't say anything different, and now, indirectly, you've condoned state murder.

    You'd shop the whistleblower of My Lai, Afghan's Al Graib prison photos., etc.

    If there were more like you there'd never have been a Watergate. Dr. David Kelly might have survived.

    Sheesh, double your dose of Kool-aid, FFS.

    You had my respect once. Not anymore.

    1. Brutus
      Stop

      Hang on a mo'

      I think you're going off the deep end here, Andus!

      Lamo's defense is that he was worried about operational security in Iraq. Without going to wikileaks (not advisable from the office) I can't comment on whether this worried was justified or not, but I know I'd be rather pissed off if one of my friends was killed as result of the leaked intel.

      Had Manning confined himself to leaking the videos, I bet Lamo wouldn't have done anything, but the 260,000 diplomatic cables could easily contain info useful to 'terrorists' and other 'bad people'. There's no way Manning read all that info before releasing it - there's just too much to read.

      1. PCMcGee
        IT Angle

        This leak would endanger your imaginary friend how?

        I mean, beyond being in 2 wars in countries we're not wanted in, shooting and bombing innocent civilians based on lies,... but, the exposure of those types of lies would be more of a danger to this imaginary soldier, on his 6th tour of duty in the desert, with his DU ammo and IED's unsecured all over the country, how?

        I have yet to see any info on Wikileaks that has done any harm to our troops. If the information released by Wikileaks results in us bringing them home sooner because of growing disaproval of the war, then lives would actually be saved. Ours and thiers.

    2. henrydddd
      Thumb Down

      Shades of Vietnam

      This video only shows our Afghan involvement is in the shadow of Vietnam.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Being held?

    Shouldn't he be getting a medal or something? Why aren't the guys in the helicopter being held? This story makes no sense!

    It's almost as if the whole world was being run by warmongering lunatics who hate having their murderous actions known to the public, and I know that can't be right.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Everyone should be held accountable

    All should be held accountable but there is quite a difference between a legitimate mistake and leaking materials that will get other people killed.

    1. Rob Dobs

      I don't think the whole story is out to judge

      I have to give some credit, that Lamo must have known he was in a damned if you do/don't situation and have some sympathy for that. I expect that he felt this information really would put people in danger, and until you know the scope of what was to be exposed its hard to judge.

      Really, he did the only smart legal thing he could have with such information, take it to the authorities. Don't blame him for Big Brother, when someone is doing something criminal you have to be able to trust the authorities/govt. It may be that our govt sucks, and is getting too big brother like, but that is not the fault of Lamo.

      That said, state sanctioned murder is the worst kind, and should be exposed in ANY circumstance. If it generally makes us less safe in warzone (due to this, or pictures in AbuGarab etc) that's tough shit, don't act that way then. It is unbelievably cowardly and craven to brutalize a people, get caught doing it, then whine like a little bitch "oh you can't expose our bad behavior, or it might make us less safe. Well fucking duh! I feel bad for the troops that become more at risk, who didn't behave this way, but I am familiar with military life, and I know how much all these "innocents" look the other way, and don't report abuse by their fellow troops ...almost EVER. I can also sympathize with someone watching people brutally killed, and wanted to expose our awful hypocrisy.

      I really do think when its all said and done its best to have the truth out there. This crap the US is doing in all of our names is the truth, and should be stopped. I don't think America ever (officially anyways) has claimed superiority over the rest of the world. What I think keeps the world respecting and trying to emulate America is our dedication to the truth and justice. Yes we are violent nation of assholes who will torture detainees and kill innocent civilians, but we are also a society of people who protested the same war, exposed the torture and murder, and in most cases even bring those Americans who behave wrong to the world to justice. By now means does the US does this perfect, or even well sometimes (see 8 years of Bush).

      I imagine that the world view of the US is probably helped by the fact that someone would risk themselves to expose an injustice.

      I hope that this is not a case of a self-hating anti-US loon, just trying to attack from within. If that's the case them lock him up as a spy (or hang him as is expected for treason).

      Either way I am glad the video got seen.

      Wikileaks - the last line of defense against big brother?

  6. Jamie Kitson

    Really?

    > Lamo is claiming a Facebook post by Manning would have alerted authorities if he had not.

    > "I didn't break the story; Manning did with his Facebook post. It was only a matter of time from there, so I went whole-hog," he wrote.

    I'm not sure that quite follows. Manning may have just broken the news of his arrest on Facebook.

    1. Thomas 18
      Joke

      Indeed

      I believe you are now allowed to make "1 free blog post" in addition to your free phone call. Theres some discussion about allowing 2 tweets since they are much shorter but its a hotbed of controversy.

  7. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Alarming particularly,

    that "a deadly helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007 that killed civilians" is a piece of "foreign policy".

    And U.S. rocket attacks on Pakistan continue, presumably.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Yes. Drone attacks have been stepped up...

      ..and there is talk of "boots on the ground".

      Can you say "Cambodia"?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Grenade

        Opening a can of whoop ass...

        Or Laos?

        Received end of the heaviest arial bombardment in history. Singularly unreported by western news media.

        I mean, as much as we vilify them at least the Chinese communists make no secret of their censorship and manipulation of news media - which is more than you can say for the so called "free" countries of the west.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A true whistleblower

    The American military actually are above the law; they really can go anywhere and kill anyone they want, without having to answer to anyone. For example, today it was revealed that an attack in Yemen in December, which had been attributed to Yemeni forces, was actually a cruise missile launched from a US ship or submarine (they found bits of it). This was reported by the Yemeni government (i.e. not the "terrorists") as having killed about 40 civilians, and probably not the intended target.

    In Iraq, these bastards just fly around killing whoever they want, because they enjoy it. Think about Derrick Bird in Cumbria for a moment. So he decided that he was going to kill his brother and himself. OK, so why did he also go and kill 12 other people? Perhaps because he had always wondered what it would be like to kill someone; maybe he thought he might enjoy it, like how so many people enjoy violent video games, but hadn't been able to find out for real until the opportunity of being about to end his own life presented itself. So, if you're not about to kill yourself, how else do you act out your enjoyment of killing? Easy, join the army and go to Iraq or Afghanistan and kill a few Muslins.

    If you think that sounds far-fetched, you clearly haven't seem the video that this guy leaked or even read the transcript. It's quite plain that the fuckers in this helicopter were cruising around playing "Kill a Muslim" for fun, just like a video game. If you were shocked by it, well, welcome to the real world. Fancy joining in next time there's a protest? Do please come.

    This guy is a hero. Real shame that he got caught.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Grenade

      the US military

      aren't averse to killing other nation's friendlies either (they killed more Brits in the first Gulf War than the Iraqis did)

      they are also very good at refusing to hand over evidence to inquests on such incidents, as the Brits and Italians know only too well

      and they're supposed to be our allies?

  9. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Flame

    Lamo...

    ..."worried about opsec"...

    More like worried about looking at serious trouble if he didn't snitch before The Man finds out that the knew but didn't tell.

    Well, can't blame him. No-one wants to be interrogated at Bagram or in a Syrian cellar.

  10. tas
    FAIL

    Leaking != Whistleblowing

    By definition Whistleblowing is the reporting of insider information to a higher authority or the general public (arguably the highest authority) due to concern regarding specific wrongdoings, misconduct, or believed illegal activities within an organisation.

    Just because Whistleblowing uses the tools of Leaking does not making it simply Leaking.

    In this case, acting as continuous leak over time of as much information that can be conveniently and arbitrarily harvested from "Top Secret" sources is not Whistleblowing at all but arguably just as illegal or wrong as some of the very activities Manning originally reported on.

    It basically looks like Manning let a successful spot of Whistleblowing go to his head and he thought he'd *leak* everything he could get his hands on as a way of further inflating his ego.

    In short, if a whistleblower has an ego, they've already failed since by definition they are meant to be putting themselves at considerable risk for everyone else's sake!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      I couldn't agree more

      Speaking as a whistleblower, the absolute last thing I would want would be to become known as a whistleblower.

      My little stunt caused me a two week nervous breakdown and I was lucky I didn't get blacklisted from working in the industry ever again.

      I'd do it again if the situation arose, but I damned well aint going to go looking for it I can tell you.

      I'll raise a pint to this guy's original leak, but it looks like he lost the plot and is now going to pay a very heavy price.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just goes to show

    If you want to leak stuff to wikileaks,

    1) don't brag wide and far about your ``anonymous'' leaks

    2) don't talk to lamo, he just might rat you out

    The first should be obvious. The second, well, now it should be too.

    1. Gordon is not a Moron

      I'd have done the same thing as Lamo

      Not reporting serious criminal actions can land you in a whole world of hurt. As Manning was in the process if outing himself as the leaker it would of lead to the inevitable FBI etc investigations and the e-mail trail to your front door, at which point you are looking at being charged as being an accomplace to offences that carry some serious jail time. If Manning was being incredibly stupid by exposing himself as the leaker, then it's his ship if he wants to go down with it fine, but I'm not going with him.

  12. Cunningly Linguistic
    WTF?

    WTF does...

    ...Asperger's have to do with anything?

    Meanwhile in another part of town the helicopter killers go free but the person who brought it to our attention gets waterboarded. Damn this world is fucked up!

  13. Ned Ludd
    Grenade

    @ Being Held?

    "It's almost as if the whole world was being run by warmongering lunatics who hate having their murderous actions known to the public..."

    Seems a fair assessment.

  14. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

    One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

    And likewise whether Manning and Lamo are seen as patriots or traitors, heroes or villains, right or wrong, and it's not necessarily one of each.

    Possibly the only way to measure each individual's merit is whether they acted for the greater good, the rights of their actions outweighing the wrongs of their actions. With Manning having the US military as prosecutor, judge and jury I think his fate is very probably sealed no matter how it may be seen in civvie street.

    I wouldn't have liked to be in either of their shoes. There, but for the grace of god, go all of us.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

      Yes, and the definition flips depending on political expediency. For example if Britain had done the deal with Hitler he originally wanted and the rest of Europe was (still) part of the Third Reich today, most of our politicians and newspapers would be calling the Resistance 'terrorists'. For one thing a highly selective memory that usually makes conquest 'legitimate' after a generation or two, kind of like squatters rights, makes it so convenient for airbrushing one's own imperialism and genocides out of officially-recognised history and everyone keeps their spoils unless there are fortunes to be made selling arms or rebuilding infrastructure. I have long thought that most of the people in positions of power in 21st century UK would have been collaborators.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Who is more stupid ?

    ..the whistleblower confessing to a stranger ?

    ...US Intel not tracking what their own people do effectively ?

  16. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    not enough information...

    Regarding tas's post, if that is a fair assessment, that he rather indiscrimnately leaked classified info to wikileaks and such, then I'm with Lamo on turning him in. It's just not a good thing to be leaking classified info.

    However, if he was a true whisteblower (and in the case of the Iraq video, he was, this is a certain case of whistleblowing) then Lamos reaction was lamentable, and the US gov'ts response was also lamentable although unsurprising.

    I just don't have that information on what type of information he leaked (other than the Iraq video itself) so I'll reserve judgement on this one.

  17. Pete Wood

    Heard Lamo on Radio 4 last night

    Heard Lamo being interviewed on PM last night, on BBC Radio 4, so interested parties can probably find it on the BBC's Listen Again service.

    His basic line (as far as I can remember, I was trying to drive through traffic at the time) was that if all Manning had done was to leak the video, he'd never have shopped him, he regarded the guy as a hero for that. However, Lamo felt that the threat of releasing a quarter of a million diplomatic texts about the war in Iraq would almost certainly result in many more deaths, and he said he didn't thik he'd be able to sleep with that on his conscience, so he felt he had to act.

  18. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Andus McCoatover
      FAIL

      No, Anonymous Coward.

      They always cry out "I'm the President of the USA, oh, and the rest of the world". I can do what the fuc*k I want. Shoot innocents? We just have to clean up afterwards. (Afghan wedding party, anyone?*)

      Wonder if Bush had Aspergers, too. Now, downvote me from the commentards in Washington. GWB Idiot could'nt remember the name of the Pakistani President. The only reason we can remember his (Dubya's) surname is because it's a four-letter-word (so was Ford, but he was a bit better...)

      Mckinnon would be pleased.

      In your case, EPIC FAIL.

      http://cursor.org/stories/kakarak.htm. Further research might just help.

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