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I doubt the source existed, the lawyer sounds like a fantasist and both the reporter and FBI fell for his stories. It pretty much says right there in the story
by nullc 4y ago
I doubt the source existed, the lawyer sounds like a fantasist and both the reporter and FBI fell for his stories. It pretty much says right there in the story that the lawyer was usually full of shit-- "I have concluded that the American lawyer loved to play games with everyone ... The lawyer told Ridd that he frequently lied to me and my colleagues at the Times ... 'I lie my ass off every day'".
From personal experience being targeted with harassment and vexatious litigation by a fantasist conman, many of his victims and enablers will sometimes admit he often lies or 'exaggerates', but the reality is that he virtually always lies, that his documents are either completely uninteresting but misrepresented or interesting but obvious forgeries. When confronted with irrefutable proof of his deception his victims and enablers make excuses or treat it as a one or few time issue, failing to accept that it's just another example out of thousands. Risen's description-- including features like the corrupted USB stick-- resonate for me.
- lapcat 4y ago> I doubt the source existed, the lawyer sounds like a fantasist and both the reporter and FBI fell for his stories. Except that Risen said he already met the source. The ambush was for their follow-up meeting.
- nullc 4y agoI saw that he said "met" but was the "met" online? I had been leaning towards assuming it was. If they'd met in person why were they traveling to a far off country?
- rendaw 4y agoThe question isn't whether the human exists, but whether the human had any information. Even if the source wasn't in on it, he could have been lead on by the lawyer.
- guerrilla 4y ago> When confronted with irrefutable proof of his deception his victims and enablers make excuses or treat it as a one or few time issue, failing to accept that it's just another example out of thousands. People seem to do this with a lot of things. Their favorite pop stars, companies, countries, ideologies, etc.
- oh_sigh 4y agoI'm also confused how the lawyer was the person who introduced the source to the journo, but the FBI can't press the lawyer directly to find out who the source was? Is the idea that the lawyer just connected a completely random anonymous person with his journo friend?
- boomboomsubban 4y agoTalking to a reporter isn't a crime, and having talked to a reporter isn't enough to get a search warrant. The FBI could have known who the source was, confirmed that he would have access to the kind of data being discussed, but couldn't show he had taken classified information so needed to catch him in possession of illegal documents to arrest him.