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Wikileaks Source Outed To Stroke Hacker's Own Ego
Binary Boy writes "Bradley Manning, the US Army private arrested recently by the Pentagon for providing classified documents — including the widely seen Apache helicopter video — may have been duped by wannabe hacker Adrian Lamo, according to Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. Lamo told Manning he could provide protection under both journalist shield laws, and the clergy-lay confidentiality tradition, and instead immediately turned him in to authorities in an act of apparent shameless self-promotion."
The article also goes into Wired's role in the whole situation, the strange, sometimes sensationalist media coverage, and the odd similarity between this case and proposed scenarios in a US Intelligence report from earlier this year aimed at undermining Wikileaks.
Er, no he didn't.
You could try reading the fucking summary at least:
"Lamo told Manning he could provide protection" ... "instead immediately turned him in to authorities in an act of apparent shameless self-promotion."
Fucking douchebag (both you and Lamo).
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
It's classified; that's the whole point.
Maybe it shouldn't have been. Maybe it was all just a massive cover-up. Maybe it still is. But if I were a military commander or another authority in charge of these decisions, I would not be inclined to let them be dictated to me by some private breaking the law and releasing them anyway. That's not how things work, nor should it be.
The fact that he did that does not declassify what was released, and it certainly doesn't declassify what was not released.
Lamo has always been a little bitch and only claims to be a hacker to try and get some street cred. He doesn't really know the first thing about hacking or how to write a really good article. I'm sad that Manning left himself open to be such a target to such a Lamo.
I watched the video twice and it doesn't really need any explanation. When watching the video it is important to to not analyze it with hindsight. We know NOW that there were kids in the van, and this is pointed out on the video. However watching the video without that knowledge and it is extremely unlikely that it would be known that children were in the van, given the context of the situation. We also know (now) that one of the guys had a camera with a big lens on it. It's also clear from the video that other guys had weapons (AK-47, and what looked like RPGs, or a really big tripod) Context is very important, such as what's going on on the surrounding areas (not on the video), what had been taking place in that area in the preceding days (not on the video). The guy in the video was a bit callous but his point stands - who takes kids to a place where a massive firefight just took place (as in still dust in the ait and the helicopters still circling the area)?
When I watched the video what I saw was a bunch of guys in an area where a big firefight had taken place a day or two before, and there was a column of US vehicles (Bradleys, I think) moving into the area. If I'm a helicopter pilot whose job it is to protect that column, and I see dudes in the path of that column with assault rifles and RPGs, I'm going to take them out. Period end of story.
If you're brave enough (or stupid enough) to be a reporter and hanging around with guys with guns and RPGs who are in all likelihood getting ready to ambush a column or US armor, well, I'm sorry but it sucks to be you. Then before the dust has settled a van pulls up and starts pulling the wounded and their weapons into the van (a common tactic of the insurgents), and they brought children, well, again that is really sad, but I'd have to ask the parents WTF?
I think part of the problem here is that most people don't really understand these situations, or what they know if them was learned from TV and movies. The reality is that in a war zone, you eliminate the threat. That's how it works. If you understand how this is in reality, and you understand the context of the situation, this is really a non-story.
Short version: Guys with rifles and RPGs in an area known for insurgent activity hanging around with a column of military vehicles approaching and the guys in the helicopters took out the insurgents, then parents bring kids to a gun fight and the kids are severely injured. Lessons learned: don't hang around with insurgents and don't take your kids to a fire fight.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
You dont need to worry about u.s. appreciation in the world, its long gone..even in my country (we are nato allies) its political suicide to appear supportive of anything u.s.
Friend of mine works in a kitchen often serving tourists, he and the waiter have a deal where the waiter will note "american style" if its for u.s. tourists. That is basically boogers and spit, bon apetite!
which agency are you with?
You REALLY do not want to hear the TRUE military opinion about this.
But I will tell you anyway:
War is hell.
You put the lowest class of people you can have with all their prejudices and tiny small minded worries, give them very powerful weapons and tell them to create "peace".
That ain't going to work, it has never worked and it will never work. Very specialist units of the military could possible do that, like the old SAS where you didn't count if you weren't at least 30+. A man, not a punk teenager with a gun and an attitude.
Vietnam. What do you think of it? Poor honest soldiers attempt at a hearts and minds campaign ruined by secret CIA operations? WRONG, it is EXACTLY the opposite. The CIA was doing a good job, copying similar operations by the british to win over the population by building the country up. It was working and then some dickshit politician decided it wasn't going fast enough and send in the regular mass murdering army.
No, this is not what the hollywood movies tell you what happened. You need to read some books to find this out.
Iraq is a war fought by the military and the military kills people. Armed or unarmed doesn't matter. Everyone is a target especially if they got a different skin color. That is war. You can't put a teenager in a tank and expect him to go from fighting to peace-keeping an instant. Highly trained and underpaid cops of 20 years EXPERIENCE have a hard time doing that. Soldiers? Forget it. That is not what they are trained for. they are trained to be killing machines operating killing machines and that is what you saw.
Nasty? You bet, just as nasty as 8 MILLION civilian casualties caused by US soldiers in Vietnam. COUNT THEM and realize that this killing figure was achieved WITHOUT the gas chambers that allows the germans to reach 12 million. Yes, 2/3 of the holocaust by the americans in Vietnam. THAT IS WAR. Not the nice and polite actions of Israel/Egypt were fewer people are killed then on a busy weekend on the roads. But all out brutal war aimed at destroying a peoples freedom and make them subjugated.
Everyone with a brain knew that Iraq would end up like this because America hasn't learned anything from Vietnam. About the only way for America to learn at this point is to round up every single Vietnam veteran and put them on trial for war crimes. Because that is what that war came down to. But America can't do that. It would not tear the nation apart, it would destroy it utterly. Because the US IS war crimes. Compare the holocaust with the trek west and try to spot the difference. The difference? The direction. The germans went east for lebensraum. The americans went west and both slaughtered the people that they viewed as lesser and unworthy of living.
THAT is the US. How can you expect an army from such a country to behave nice in dirty war?
No doubt some American will mod this down, because it comes far to close to the truth. The US is build on war crimes. Its founders of freedom kept slaves. That is the history of the US. Watch the video. There are no missing bits, this is the full story of what happens when you put a scared 20 year old guy in a killing machine amongst people he thinks of as less then himself and who are the enemy of everything he believes in.
No, it ain't nice. But really, you don't want to hear this. Same as you don't want to hear the truth about any of America's past. Note the COMPLETE lack of any mention of how blacks were treated during WW2 in Band of Brothers or The Pacific. Realistic portrayal of WW2 my ass.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
How about the one showing someone carrying something that was definitely not a camera? It looks exactly like an RPG, a weapon which put the gunner's life in immediate danger.
The question I have is, why hasn't everyone seen the blow-up clip with the RPG in it?
TCP: Why the Internet is full of SYN.
There was an RPG being carried by this group. Thanks to martyros for the link. http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/201889.php
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.