Sorry to see you leave FDL, Marcy, but whatever you decide to do, I’m sure you’ll continue to set high standards for independent journalists and contribute greatly to our struggle! Thanks so much.

Good article, and thanks for bringing attention to this issue — but “third simultaneous conflict?” Come on, let’s not be stingy. The largest and most aggressive military force in the world is capable of so much more brutality. Its acts of terror continue in Pakistan and likely other countries, not to mention its indirect acts of violent repression through its strong influence and military aid:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/13/us-pakistan-violence-idUSTRE73C1OB20110413?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

A park ranger informed us that we were not permitted to collect signatures at the MLK center — outside of a small path encircling a Gandhi statue, far from most foot traffic. As we were leaving, two pedestrians (including one veteran) asked to sign the petition, and at that moment the ranger pulled up beside us (with a shotgun) and angrily delivered a “final warning” to leave the property, which is public property, as far as I know.

Ironically, I was just threatened with arrest at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Atlanta for distributing a petition to end the torture of Bradley Manning. Otherwise, the event was fairly effective: a decent number of activists collected signatures to submit to Rep. John Lewis, also a victim of state abuse.

Barack Obama to Shepard Fairey: “I would like to thank you for using your talent in support of my campaign. The political messages involved in your work have encouraged Americans to believe they can change the status-quo.”

As a fellow campaign volunteer I appreciated the grassroots enthusiasm that probably inspired Fairey’s campaign art — though the idolatry was a little creepy, sure. Now that we’ve elected yet another torturer, Fairey should use his talent against the Obama administration’s agenda, conveying political messages that encourage Americans to believe they can challenge the national security state.

I’ve read similar comments, but they’re based on a misunderstanding: public-key cryptography doesn’t work in this manner. Manning obtained Lamo’s public keys, which are used to encrypt messages sent to Lamo. Thanks to the mathematical magic of asymmetric cryptography, these encrypted messages can only be decrypted by the corresponding private key, which was in Lamo’s possession when he generated the key pair. Lamo claimed that he lost the private key. Once lost, the private key cannot be recovered (unless one builds a quantum computer, identifies a flaw in the algorithm, or finds another way to solve extremely difficult math problems).

Note in the list of keys (linked above) that Lamo has generated quite a few keys recently. I’m guessing that Manning either used “1024D/BBF93A57 2008-01-17″ or “1024D/6A55E50E 2009-01-04?”

I’m not necessarily endorsing the interpretation in the Nadim log, but could it still be technically true? Maybe the parents did panic and call 911, but the paramedics didn’t actually respond (or maybe there was some altercation, and they did). Or maybe he checked himself in?

As for the claims about her experience at the clinic, she could have asked about his behavior, and maybe someone gave an impression that she found offensive? And she said “people at the clinic” — not even necessarily medical professionals.

Here’s a photo of his hospital bracelet:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lamo/4619336658/

(Google says that Dr. Rajdeep Ranade of Woodland, CA is a psychiatrist.)

Here are Lamo’s PGP public keys.

He’s issued quite a few over the years. The most recent one was generated because the previous key was “physically compromised” — possibly because he lost his hardware? (the previous key “fell down an elevator shaft onto some bullets.” Reference to Mystery Men). But the dates are strange. One was published in early June, one in early July.

Check out the log in my post above. If Nadim (Lamo’s friend) and Lauren (Lamo’s ex) are trustworthy, then Lamo was totally incoherent the morning he left his parents’ house, and his parents called the paramedics and firefighters. I suppose it’s possible that Lamo independently called the police, but his word doesn’t seem particularly trustworthy.

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.

Has everyone read Kaepora’s / Nadim Kobeissi’s logs on Lamo’s drug problems?

http://kaepora.users.anapnea.net/nadimlogs.txt

According to Greenwald, Nadim’s a longtime friend (and he’s the one who provided the June 2010 Poulsen/Lamo photo from Lamo’s Facebook page). He also recently registered this domain name:

http://heykevinpoulsen.com

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?

Here’s Lamo Next HOPE Panel Part 4.

(1) Lamo claims Manning approached him as though Lamo were a friend (“a bad friend”), not a journalist, due mainly to the personal nature of the discussions.

(2) Lamo claims that he approached the media due to “the public’s right to know” about the ongoing investigation, but he falters when pressed on why he promptly contacted Wired.

(3) Lamo implies he initially provided limited background info to Poulsen: “I gave him background on the case. I didn’t tell him, ‘Go ahead and run with this.’ It was only after Manning –”. Unfortunately, Lamo is cut off here.

(4) Lamo believes that the leaked documents will not result in a positive change in US intervention abroad.

I was dozing after reading Poulsen’s response to Greenwald tonight, but nightmares of a bleak future filled with dissembling and authoritarian journalists woke me up. I’m thankful we still have FDL and GG around to hold them accountable, so HOPE part 4 should be transcribed soon!

Reading these again formspring.me answers again, I think almost all of the responses are so repetitive, glib, and sarcastic that they don’t say much (except that Lamo’s possibly a sociopath).

There are only about a dozen questions with interesting answers (though this is subjective), and most of them he’s answered elsewhere, in some cases inconsistently. Here are some questions that might be relevant.

This one’s just bizarre:

Q: did you ask the authorities for money in exchange for turning on manning?

A: I asked them for peace on earth and goodwill towards man.

This is highly ironic, as he is referencing an obscure line from the hacker movie “Sneakers,” in which [*** SPOILER ALERT ***] the hacker protagonists are rewarded for providing the NSA with a “black box” which allows the NSA to preserve its secrets while violating the public’s confidentiality. However, in the end, the protagonists deceive the NSA, hiding the device’s essential module and using its cryptanalysis to transfer the Republican Party’s funds to left-wing organizations. (As a side note, Lamo also registered the domain name “setecastronomy.org,” another reference to this film.)

Er, I mean to say that I’m sorry if it’s not perfect.

Here’s my attempt to transcribe part 2 of Greenwald’s interview with Lamo:

Glenn Greenwald interview Pt. II, 6/17/2010

It’s getting late, so I can’t guarantee that it’s absolutely perfect. :v