As Julian Assange would say: "disturbing"

I stumbled across this reference in a digital-gangster.com forum thread about Adrian Lamo [1] (the thread itself is well worth the read if you have the time and inclination for some more background info)

"Before Kevin Poulsen had full coddling privileges over Lamo at Wired, the tech news service themselves ran an in-depth report outlining the unstable and unskilled kid ..." -- user "7752837529"

So I decided to dig out this old Adrian Lamo wired article from 2004 [2], and some of the information was, as Julian Assange would say, "disturbing" in the extreme:

His ex-girlfriend, who requested that her name be withheld, has also accused him of stalking her. "Every time I moved, he'd send an anonymous email," she remembers. "Sometimes he'd include my unlisted phone number, which nobody else had. He made a point of showing that he knew where I was." The court issued a restraining order against Lamo, following a complaint in which his then-girlfriend described an ongoing pattern of harassment and abuse. "He carried a stun gun, which he used on me," she recalls. "He was very controlling. He wanted to know where I was constantly. After we stopped talking, he would hack into the phone company's service center and change my phone services." * -- Jennifer Kahn, "The Homeless Hacker v. The New York Times", Wired 12/04

* emphasis mine

Jesus Christ.

[1] http://www.digitalgangster.com/4um/showthread.php?t=127709&page=2 (Webcitation: http://www.webcitation.org/5qs4SfAbR )

[2] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.04/hacker_pr.html

Adrian Lamo Outs Self as Wikileaks Source Fourteen Days Before DailyTech Article

In a article published on June 24th on the DailyTech site entitled "EXCLUSIVE: Wikileaks Betrays Ex-Hacker Lamo, Outs Him as Source" [1] Adrian Lamo claims that wikileaks outed him as an anonymous wikileaks source, breaking their own rules:

Lamo tells us he sent the logs to Wikileaks "To see if they'd be true to their ethos, and publish something, even if it incriminated a source, or if they'd cover it up. I wanted to pose a catch-22. They did neither. [T]hey passed them on to a disgruntled ex-fan who knows my ex-wife[.] ID'ing me as the source. They broke their own rules. Any source that pisses them off could face termination, prison, or worse."

Adrian Lamo also gave an interview with Australian compsec journalist Patrick Gray on the his risky.biz podcast site [2] which was published on June 10th, fourteen days earlier. Directly after the interview at around 35 minutes and 10 seconds into the podcast Patrick Gray can be heard to state:

"Adrian Lamo on the line there. Lamo also told me he submitted those chat logs between him and Manning to wikileaks and it's their decision whether or not they want to publish them ..."

As one astute reader on risky.biz points out [3], in a Wired article published on June 11th, one day later [4], Adrian Lamo claims he will not give the logs to wikileaks:

“No, I’m not going to give the logs to someone who suggests that I might have been drug-addled when I decided to turn in a spy,” says Lamo, who takes prescription medication for depression and Asperger’s Disorder. “Private Manning’s attorney can get them by discovery like everyone else.”

UPDATE 29/06/10: DailyTech has published a retraction... (of sorts) at [5]

[1] http://www.dailytech.com/EXCLUSIVE+The+Complete+Confession+of+Manning+Leaked+by+Wikileaks/article18841.htm
[2] http://risky.biz/lamo (Direct MP3 link: http://media.risky.biz/RB154.mp3)
[3] http://risky.biz/forum/risky-business-154-adrian-lamo-why-i-turned-informer#comment-431 [4] http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/wikileaks-to-lamo/
[5] http://www.dailytech.com/Adrian+Lamo+Outed+Self+As+Source+in+Bradley+Manning+Case/article18880.htm

Andy Stangby & Adrian Lamo

"Award-winning journalist Andy Stangby was tapped to fact-check Greenwald's work, and Lamo is engaged in penning his reply." From "Ex-Hacker Adrian Lamo to Accept Salon.com's Offer to Rebut Wikileaks / Bradley Manning Story" [1]

I had never heard of "Award-winning journalist Andy Stangby" and could find next to nothing on the web about him, so I decided to ask about him on Adrian Lamo's facebook [2] . Andy Stangby replied to my question:

Speaks for itself really.

* http://bit.ly/bL0FO5 == http://arc.losrios.edu/~sports/mgolf/pictures-past.htm

UPDATE: Andry Stangby's reply has since been deleted. Lucky I got a screenshot ;)

UPDATE #2: Adrian Lamo has deleted the original press release [1], fortunately I also made a screenshot of that too ;)

Another copy of the press release can be viewed at [3]

UPDATE #3: Adrian Lamo has now deleted his facebook post [2]

UPDATE #4: Lamo has now deleted the prlogs press release as well [3], webcitation http://www.webcitation.org/5qmxeKgC3 still works. He has published a new press release without the reference to Andy Stangby at [4]

[1] http://www.i-newswire.com/ex-hacker-adrian-lamo-to-accept/45318 (Deleted)
[2] http://www.facebook.com/felon?v=wall&story_fbid=127814910589754 (Deleted)
[3] http://www.prlog.org/10761349-ex-hacker-adrian-lamo-to-accept-saloncoms-offer-to-rebut-wikileaks-bradley-manning-story.html (Deleted) (Webcitation: http://www.webcitation.org/5qmxeKgC3)
[4] http://www.prlog.org/10761622-ex-hacker-adrian-lamo-to-accept-saloncoms-offer-to-rebut-wikileaks-bradley-manning-story.html

Adrian Lamo Logs

These logs originally appeared on pastebin.ca as "The Truth About Adrian Lamo" and have been confirmed by Nadim as genuine.

The salient facts contained in these logs is that a) Lamo got "Hackers Wanted" leaked despite denying that he had anything to do with it and b) he was taken into psychiatric care for a drug problem rather than for "Aspergers" as he claimed. If you read http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/lamo/ along with these logs the story makes a lot more sense.

Cops don't institutionalize people for acting weird, RE: the homeless.

You can just imagine it:

COP #1: "Worst case of Aspergers I've ever seen!"
COP #2: "Sweet jesus... I'm calling for an ambulance now."

Yeah, I don't think so. They *will* call an ambulance if you're so mashed they think you're at risk of dying from an overdose, however.

NOTE: Adrian Lamo appears to be systematically attempting to remove these logs from the net. Roll of honour: http://pastebin.com/7XsPFFyX, http://pastie.textmate.org/1015569, http://pastebin.com/PDTUGLNZ & http://pastebin.ca/1888965 (entire site nuked?!) all now sadly deceased. A copy is available at Nadim Kobeissi's shell server site here http://kaepora.users.anapnea.net/nadimlogs.txt

Just to make it clear the above is all my own commentary and was not part of the original file as found on pastebin.ca

------ ORIGINAL FILE FOLLOWS -----


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Logs between Nadmin and Lamo's wife Laura, and Nadim and Lamo, as sent to WikiLeaks by Nadim

Following Adrian Lamo's recent exposure of Bradley Manning, I reveal chat logs with Lauren Lamo (Adrian Lamo's wife), incriminating him in many ways.
These chat logs are dated. They are related to the recent Wired exclusive interview with Lamo, which, as you'll soon find out, was complete bullshit:

APRIL 23 2010

Nadim: I now have the capacity to leak Hackers Wanted
Nadim: Letting you down on that front in the past's left a mark in my memory
Nadim: I haven't forgotten =)
Adrian: Why do you put up with me>? I´m often a jerk, arrogant, totally sure of my theories, and willing to crash and burn to make a point.
Adrian: Make no mistake, you;re one of roughly fie people I trust.

APRIL 29 2010

Lauren: he is now at sacramento mental health
Lauren: Nadim. He doesn't want to be talked to.
Nadim: Why mental institutions?? Is it really that bad???
Nadim: I'm shocked and hurt
Lauren: Yes.
Lauren: You couldn't ever tell by the speech slurring, and the lack to follow through with things?
Lauren: So many medications.
Nadim: I haven't spoken vocally with him in a while
Nadim: But yes, I confronted him about his lack of following up only last week
Lauren: my love wasn't enough to get him to change, and i meant the world to him.
Nadim: I thought he wasn't changing at all!
Nadim: I thought he was simply distancing himself from me!
Lauren: i made him want to change his life, nadim. and I don't just say this to boast or make myself seem more important.
Nadim: And I said to myself I'd let him do it since he probably has more important things in his life
Nadim: He never ever mentioned drugs
Nadim: Ever
Nadim: I kept asking him for months wtf was happening
Nadim: Why he was getting so distant and hard to reach
Nadim: He was such a conversationalist when I first met him!
Lauren: he is very very VERY private about his personal lfie.
Lauren: life"
Nadim: I trust him to be
Lauren: he has a persona, "Adrian Lamo" he thinks he must keep up.
Nadim: I know about that.
Nadim: God damn it
Nadim: Such a spirit
Nadim: It's just ugly
Nadim: Such a spirit to have a flaw so tragic and at the same time so meaningless
Nadim: Why prescription drugs???
Nadim: I understand the exact name of the drugs ought to be private info, but could you at least tell me what the drugs did?
Nadim: I mean, were they painkillers? amphetamines? what?
Lauren: It's hard to explain, he is very sensitive and in touch with every part of his body, down to the pulses in his brain and the nerve endings... the meds he takes he regulates it all but its just too much.
Nadim: Ah
Nadim: There were 2600 articles published about "hacking your brain" with certain "boosting" medications
Nadim: Is this related?
Lauren: It has crippled him, into living like this, and without these meds, he can't function, or so he thinks.
Lauren: I suppose.
Lauren: The first and only time he ever stayed at my parents home in phoenix he stole a bunch of my mothers medication (one that he too happened to be taking normally) and gave us quite a scare in the morning.
Nadim: Adrian doesn't trust people, but makes his entire functioning dependent on drugs?
Nadim: I'm angry at him.
Nadim: He could have so easily avoided such a trap
Lauren: so lackadaisical he was spilling his coffee all over himself burning his legs and falling over speaking nonsense.
Nadim: What's his side of the story? He must have constructed many arguments in his defense.
Lauren: It's been a long time coming.
Nadim: :(!
Lauren: A movie recently made me realize what its like for adrian and for those on the outside. It was a terrible cheesy movie but it was about the start of Alc-anon.
Nadim: Does he think the people around him don't understand?
Nadim: That they're exagerating and picking up wrong signals?
Lauren: Yes, and he thinks we all just want him to be "normal" and not take any drugs.
Lauren: he doesnt realize he seems drunk and slurs and sways.
Lauren: Half the time he doesn't remember it.
Nadim: Fuck
Nadim: What treatment is he receiving?
Nadim: Are his parents alright?
Lauren: I once picked him up, drove him with me to the clinic I needed to go to on a saturday, prior to going to the clinic we went through the drive thru for mcdonalds bfast, i got him a coffee and two breakfast sandwiches and even returned from the hospital and after our nap we took when we arrived back, he woke up and said "oh my god, im so sorry we didnt go to the clinic"
Lauren: He will be receiving "time" really. Supervised, only prescribed medication at prescribed times. I've been through this process so it's a lot easier knowing what he is going through.
Lauren: He will have counselling classes with other abusers whether alcohol, hard drugs, just mentally ill or even folks like him, rx drug abusers.
Nadim: I really wish there was anything I could do. It's painful to sit there watching him suffer
Lauren: He isn't suffering.
Lauren: We are helping him stop the suffering.
Nadim: When you told him that you guys did indeed go to the clinic, how did he react??
Lauren: His family was so worried they called the paramedics/firefighters to where they knew he was hanging out, since he decided to choose the highway when they asked him, adrian please let us help you with your medications. or we will not give them to you to administer on your own.
Lauren: so he filled a final rx he had money for at the rite-aid pharmacy and was found just taking them like candy.
Lauren: he was just like... oh.
Lauren: i found him, when i picked him up that morning, lying on the floor, twisted up as if he had fallen and dropped dead, in his clothes on his wires and tech. just down. drooling. from being so gone.
Lauren: i shook him and shook him, he would wake up and go huh, and then drop his head hard back on the carpet.
Lauren: and fall asleep again.
Lauren: the people at the clinic were mocking him, acting drunk and play swaying, and humiliating me. (and him, but he would never know)
Lauren: I told him via text how it humiliated me and he got mad and said i say the harshest things.
[...]
Lauren: his hacking days, i believe were all because of his drug use. he was able to do it.
Lauren: also part of the reason his mouth is rotten.
Lauren: and he breaks teeth on random things.

MAY 5 2010

Lauren: he's going public with the whole experience next week through wired.
Lauren: but I doubt the part with his true struggle with drugs and his history with them will be disclosed
Lauren: mainly the article is going to be about hackers and such with aspergers
Lauren: he told me that today. but who knows if Kevin poulsen will go through with it.

JUNE 10 2010

Nadim
I am very, very angry.
Nadim
For what you did to Manning.
Adrian
*to* manning?
Encrypted OTR chat initiated. - 7:21
Adrian
He's a traitor at best.
Nadim
You liar.
Adrian
His own words damn him, not mine.
Nadim
His own words, that you gave to the FBI.
Nadim
That he confided in you
Adrian
Army CI, to be exact.
Nadim
Same as you confided in Wired about your "asperger's arrest"
Nadim
Oh, by the way
Nadim
I know the truth about that.
Nadim
And about many other things too
Nadim
And I'm going to make you pay.
Adrian
Do what you feel you need to do.
Nadim
You got it.

END OF CHAT LOGS

I really don't care about anonymity. I care about earning Manning some degree of justice, what with Lamo's blatant betrayal. Contact me if you wish.

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Transcript of the alleged log between Lamo and Manning
as sent to Wikileaks by Lamo. The transcript is clearly only a small
portion and had unmistakedly been edited, for instance, note the
duplication of some lines around (12:26:09). Also note the use of
the word "Confession".

(12:15:11 PM) bradass87: hypothetical question: if you had free reign over
classified networks for long periods of time... say, 8-9 months... and you
saw incredible things, awful things... things that belonged in the public
domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC...
what would you do?
(12:16:38 PM) bradass87: or Guantanamo, Bagram, Bucca, Taji, VBC for that
matter...
(12:17:47 PM) bradass87: things that would have an impact on 7 billion
people
(12:21:24 PM) bradass87: say... a database of half a million events during
the iraq war... from 2004 to .. with reports, date time groups,
lat-lon locations, casualty figures... ? or 260,000 state department
cables from embassies and consulates all over the world, explaining how
the first world exploits the third, in detail, from an internal
perspective?
(12:22:49 PM) bradass87: the air-gap has been penetrated... =L
(12:23:19 PM) Adrian: how so?
(12:26:09 PM) Adrian: yt?
(12:26:09 PM) bradass87: lets just say *someone* i know intimately well,
has been penetrating US classified networks, mining data like the ones
described... and been transferring that data from the classified networks
over the "air gap" onto a commercial network computer... sorting the data,
compressing it, encrypting it, and uploading it to a crazy white haired
aussie who can't seem to stay in one country very long =L
(12:27:13 PM) bradass87: im here
(12:27:24 PM) Adrian: Depends. What are the particulars?
(12:28:19 PM) bradass87: theres substantial lag i think
(12:29:52 PM) Adrian: I don't understand.
(12:30:13 PM) bradass87: what was the last message you recieved?
(12:30:47 PM) Adrian: (12:28:19 PM) bradass87: theres substantial lag i think
(12:30:56 PM) bradass87: before that
(12:31:09 PM) Adrian:
(12:26:09 PM) bradass87: lets just say *someone* i know intimately well,
has been penetrating US classified networks, mining data like the ones
described... and been transferring that data from the classified networks
over the "air gap" onto a commercial network computer... sorting the data,
compressing it, encrypting it, and uploading it to a crazy white haired
aussie who can't seem to stay in one country very long =L
(12:27:13 PM) bradass87: im here
(12:27:24 PM) Adrian: Depends. What are the particulars?
(12:31:43 PM) bradass87: crazy white haired dude = Julian Assange
(12:33:05 PM) bradass87: in other words... ive made a huge mess :'(
(12:35:17 PM) bradass87: im sorry... im just emotionally fractured
(12:39:12 PM) bradass87: im a total mess
(12:41:54 PM) bradass87: i think im in more potential heat than you ever were
(12:41:54 PM) Adrian : I have more messages than resources
allocatable to action them. Please be very patient.
(12:45:59 PM) Adrian: not mandatorily
(12:46:08 PM) Adrian: there are always outs
(12:46:17 PM) Adrian: how long have you helped WIkileaks?
(12:49:09 PM) bradass87: since they released the 9/11 "pager messages"
(12:49:38 PM) bradass87: i immediately recognized that they were from an
NSA database, and i felt comfortable enough to come forward
(12:50:20 PM) bradass87: so... right after thanksgiving timeframe of 2009
(12:52:33 PM) bradass87: Hilary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats
around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one
morning, and finds an entire repository of classified foreign policy is
available, in searchable format to the public... =L
(12:53:41 PM) bradass87: s/Hilary/Hillary
(12:54:47 PM) Adrian: What sort of content?
(12:56:36 PM) Adrian: brb cigarette
(12:56:43 PM) Adrian: keep typing <3>: I have more messages than resources
allocatable to action them. Please be very patient.
(1:11:54 PM) bradass87: and... its important that it gets out... i feel,
for some bizarre reason
(1:12:02 PM) bradass87: it might actually change something
(1:13:10 PM) bradass87: i just... dont wish to be a part of it... at least
not now... im not ready... i wouldn't mind going to prison for the rest of
my life, or being executed so much, if it wasn't for the possibility of
having pictures of me... plastered all over the world press... as boy...
(1:14:11 PM) bradass87: i've totally lost my mind... i make no sense...
the CPU is not made for this motherboard...
(1:14:42 PM) bradass87: s/as boy/as a boy
(1:30:32 PM) bradass87: >sigh< (1:31:40 PM) bradass87: i just wanted enough time to figure myself out... to be myself... and be running around all the time, trying to meet someone else's expectations (1:32:01 PM) bradass87: *and not be (1:33:03 PM) bradass87: im just kind of drifting now... (1:34:11 PM) bradass87: waiting to redeploy to the US, be discharged... and figure out how on earth im going to transition (1:34:45 PM) bradass87: all while witnessing the world freak out as its most intimate secrets are revealed (1:35:06 PM) bradass87: its such an awkward place to be in, emotionally and psychologically (1:35:06 PM) Adrian : I have more messages than resources
allocatable to action them. Please be very patient.
(1:39:03 PM) bradass87: i cant believe what im confessing to you :'(
(1:40:20 PM) bradass87: ive been so isolated so long... i just wanted to
be nice, and live a normal life... but events kept forcing me to figure
out ways to survive... smart enough to know whats going on, but helpless
to do anything... no-one took any notice of me
(1:40:43 PM) bradass87: :'(
(1:43:51 PM) Adrian: back
(1:43:59 PM) bradass87: im self medicating like crazy when im not toiling
in the supply office (my new location, since im being discharged, im not
offically intel anymore)
(1:44:11 PM) bradass87: you missed a lot...
(1:45:00 PM) Adrian: what kind of scandal?
(1:45:16 PM) bradass87: hundreds of them
(1:45:40 PM) Adrian: like what? I'm genuinely curious about details.
(1:46:01 PM) bradass87: i dont know... theres so many... i dont have the
original material anymore
(1:46:18 PM) bradass87: uhmm... the Holy See and its position on the
Vatican sex scandals
(1:46:26 PM) Adrian: play it by ear
(1:46:29 PM) bradass87: the broiling one in Germany
(1:47:36 PM) bradass87: im sorry, there's so many... its impossible for
any one human to read all quarter-million... and not feel overwhelmed...
and possibly desensitized
(1:48:20 PM) bradass87: the scope is so broad... and yet the depth so rich
(1:48:50 PM) Adrian: give me some bona fides ... yanno? any specifics.
(1:49:40 PM) bradass87: this one was a test: Classified cable from US
Embassy Reykjavik on Icesave dated 13 Jan 2010
(1:50:30 PM) bradass87: the result of that one was that the icelandic
ambassador to the US was recalled, and fired
(1:51:02 PM) bradass87: thats just one cable...
(1:51:14 PM) Adrian: Anything unreleased?
(1:51:25 PM) bradass87: i'd have to ask assange
(1:51:53 PM) bradass87: i zerofilled the original
(1:51:54 PM) Adrian: why do you answer to him?
(1:52:29 PM) bradass87: i dont... i just want the material out there... i
dont want to be a part of it
(1:52:54 PM) Adrian: i've been considering helping wikileaks with opsec
(1:53:13 PM) bradass87: they have decent opsec... im obviously violating it
(1:53:34 PM) bradass87: im a wreck
(1:53:47 PM) bradass87: im a total fucking wreck right now

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