5 ms·

Er, Assange himself was the press, here. Chelsea Manning was the anonymous whistleblower who tried to keep her identity safe until Adrian Lamo (may God have mer

by geofft 7y ago

Er, Assange himself was the press, here. Chelsea Manning was the anonymous whistleblower who tried to keep her identity safe until Adrian Lamo (may God have mercy on his soul, because I sure won't) reported her to US authorities.

raxxorrax 7y ago
I don't want to defend Lamo, but he surely got pressure from the government and some kind of deal.
- ohithereyou 7y ago
  That makes it worse, not better. Take the punishment for the shit you did and say nothing about what someone else did if what they did saved lives and served the public good.
  - raxxorrax 7y ago
    True. As I said, it is no excuse. Just that I believe that the government can be quite convincing and has methods to let people do something they wouldn't be proud of.
ohithereyou 7y ago
>Adrian Lamo The same Adrian Lamo who told Chelsea Manning that he'd treat what she told him as a confession (he was an ordained minister and the implication was that he'd never tell anybody) to gain her trust[1]. Let's not forget Kevin Poulsen's complicity in this. The hacker community is not your friend, and you need to assume that members will sell you out for glory or to save their own asses. I've never celebrated the death of anybody, but I did feel the world was a better place after Adrian Lamo died. [1] https://boingboing.net/2010/06/19/wikileaks-a-somewhat.html https://boingboing.net/2010/06/19/wikileaks-a-somewhat.html
birdyrooster 7y ago
Adrian was a cyber criminal who thought Chelsea was doing the wrong thing by leaking documents to the press. He had no idea of what is a moral action. What a scum bag. Then it appears he killed himself with a kratom + prescription drug interaction in 2018, so he will now have no chance to attone.
BookmarkSaver 7y ago
>Chelsea Manning was the anonymous whistleblower Manning was a spiteful security leak, not a whistleblower.
- corporate_shi11 7y ago
  Don't forget that we hate the US government here, anyone that does anything to damage it is a hero and anyone that respects it is a menace.
  - InterimNew 7y ago
    I think most users would agree that HN hosts a variety of perspectives and is not a monoculture on most issues, including this one.
  - nickik 7y ago
    Because exposing killings of innocent civilians is something people would not approve of unless it was the US government doing the killing? I'm sure if she had leaked a google drone killing people in Zimbabwe everybody hate her. Google marketing guys would be like 'spiteful security leak, not a whistleblower.'. Sometimes I just can't with shit like this. I have to go offline for a while.
- nickik 7y ago
  What huge damage was done to the US government by showing its citizens how its military murders civilians with their tax payer money in war that was against international law and only benefit the political class and security contractors. It gets so much harder to pretend that they are bringing freedom to the Iraqis. I'm sure the poor government had to double its spending on pro-military propaganda because of this evil spiteful security leak.
- paulddraper 7y ago
  What is the difference between those two? Whistleblowers are happy?
  - 7y ago

by geofft 7y ago

raxxorrax 7y ago

I don't want to defend Lamo, but he surely got pressure from the government and some kind of deal.

ohithereyou 7y ago
That makes it worse, not better. Take the punishment for the shit you did and say nothing about what someone else did if what they did saved lives and served the public good.
- raxxorrax 7y ago
  True. As I said, it is no excuse. Just that I believe that the government can be quite convincing and has methods to let people do something they wouldn't be proud of.

ohithereyou 7y ago

>Adrian Lamo The same Adrian Lamo who told Chelsea Manning that he'd treat what she told him as a confession (he was an ordained minister and the implication was that he'd never tell anybody) to gain her trust[1]. Let's not forget Kevin Poulsen's complicity in this. The hacker community is not your friend, and you need to assume that members will sell you out for glory or to save their own asses. I've never celebrated the death of anybody, but I did feel the world was a better place after Adrian Lamo died. [1] https://boingboing.net/2010/06/19/wikileaks-a-somewhat.html https://boingboing.net/2010/06/19/wikileaks-a-somewhat.html

birdyrooster 7y ago

Adrian was a cyber criminal who thought Chelsea was doing the wrong thing by leaking documents to the press. He had no idea of what is a moral action. What a scum bag. Then it appears he killed himself with a kratom + prescription drug interaction in 2018, so he will now have no chance to attone.

BookmarkSaver 7y ago

>Chelsea Manning was the anonymous whistleblower Manning was a spiteful security leak, not a whistleblower.

corporate_shi11 7y ago
Don't forget that we hate the US government here, anyone that does anything to damage it is a hero and anyone that respects it is a menace.
- InterimNew 7y ago
  I think most users would agree that HN hosts a variety of perspectives and is not a monoculture on most issues, including this one.
- nickik 7y ago
  Because exposing killings of innocent civilians is something people would not approve of unless it was the US government doing the killing? I'm sure if she had leaked a google drone killing people in Zimbabwe everybody hate her. Google marketing guys would be like 'spiteful security leak, not a whistleblower.'. Sometimes I just can't with shit like this. I have to go offline for a while.
nickik 7y ago
What huge damage was done to the US government by showing its citizens how its military murders civilians with their tax payer money in war that was against international law and only benefit the political class and security contractors. It gets so much harder to pretend that they are bringing freedom to the Iraqis. I'm sure the poor government had to double its spending on pro-military propaganda because of this evil spiteful security leak.
paulddraper 7y ago
What is the difference between those two? Whistleblowers are happy?
- 7y ago