Adrian Lamo. The Wiki-Snitch

Lamo at the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference

The wanted-dead-or-alive posters described him as a "rat bastard." Then there was the spitting and name-calling, things like Snitch! and A**hole! Not to mention the death threats -- none credible enough to warrant Kevlar, but still, Adrian Lamo had good reason to check up on the security arrangements before setting foot in the Hackers On Planet Earth conference in Manhattan last weekend.

The 29-year-old Lamo was once a star of the hacker community, having broken into computer systems at The New York Times, WorldCom and Microsoft (and earned two years' probation in the bargain). But that all changed in May, when he snitched on a fellow hacker, Pfc. Bradley Manning, who allegedly leaked classified material to the website WikiLeaks -- most notably a video showing a U.S. helicopter strike on civilians and reporters in Baghdad.

AOL News

He said he wished Manning had never contacted him, and that he believed that the classified information Manning wanted to leak would have led to a greater loss of life. But he still supported WikiLeaks, an assertion that prompted many a cry of "Bullsh*t!" in the audience.

And BS is what I believe Lamo is full of. First of all he is the main reason Wikileaks is in the position it is without any doubt. If Lamo were not involved then Wikileaks would not be such a hot button topic. But many of you may not know is that Lamo worked for a group called Project Vigilant who had contracts with the FBI, NSA and other agencys. A collection of wannabe spys and hackers doing what they termed as the greater good for the government. Manning according to Lamo contacted him via a well known IM service and we all know the rest of the story. But many are convinced it was the other way around, that Lamo contacted Manning to enlist his help after seeing his profile posted online and learning what MOS he worked in the Army. Many believe Lamon walked Manning through the hacker skill to get where he ended up then when Manning flubbed, Lamo panicked and turned him in to avoid going back to prison. (Lamo is convicted of hacking into the DoD, FBI and a slew of other gov & business systems)

Lamo had more to gain than lose by turning in manning and thereby cleansing himself of the situation. With Lamo's new "bad hacker turned good hacker" image he has earned himself a shot at esponging his record and perhaps working for the FedGov according to sources close to the case. Regardless of the outcome if Lamo had not turned Bradley Manning in and breaking the code of hackers in the process which is considered an extreme no-no then we may not have ever heard of Manning, Lamo. And the FedGov would not have their fall-guy either for the as of yet, unknown source leak of the State Department memos.

I posted a VERY hateful message on his facebook profile when he first released his and Mannings AIM conversations.

It still gets thumbs up to this day.

reply to post by Jeanius


The chat logs Lamo handed over to the FBI after contacting them about this whole mess, the FBI to this day has never contacted the IM parent company to obtain copys. Rather, they took Lamo's word that those logs were legit.

Its no damn wonder the 911 "investigation" ended up the way it is now with the FBI (foolish bumbling idiots) running the show.

reply to post by mikelee


Don't ya think he just looks like a snitch??
It's the eyes...

Part of the chat log Lamo supposedly handed over to the FBI. Thought some of the comments from Lamo seemed interesting.

(02:46:25 PM) Lamo: I’d be one paranoid boy in your shoes.
(02:47:07 PM) Manning: the CM video came from a server in our domain! and not a single person noticed
(02:47:21 PM) Lamo: CM?
(02:48:17 PM) Manning: Apache Weapons Team video of 12 JUL 07 airstrike on Reuters Journos… some sketchy but fairly normal street-folk… and civilians
(02:48:52 PM) Lamo: How long between the leak and the publication?
(02:49:18 PM) Manning: some time in february
(02:49:25 PM) Manning: it was uploaded
(02:50:04 PM) Lamo: uploaded where? how would i transmit something if i had similarly damning data
(02:51:49 PM) Manning: uhm… preferably openssl the file with aes-256… then use sftp at prearranged drop ip addresses
(02:52:08 PM) Manning: keeping the key separate… and uploading via a different means
(02:52:31 PM) Lamo: so i myself would be SOL w/o a way to prearrange

Kevin Poulsen

NOTE: Kevin Poulsen was the reporter Lamo called before contacting the FBI and now all of these logs were "put together" and handed over to the FBI.