Lamo on Lamo

January 4, 2013 5:12 AM

Adrian Lamo talks to a Guardian journalist about Adrian Lamo's feelings about himself, Bradley Manning, and the collapse of linear time.

Adrian Lamo talks to you, the reader, about Adrian Lamo.

Bradley Manning on Wikipedia.

Previously 1, 2, 3, 4, and more.

posted by artof.mulata (23 comments total)

From the interview, "There's a science fiction story from 1954 or so by Tom Godwin, called The Cold Equations. It's about, in summary, a space shuttle, a stowaway, a pilot, and a far-off research station. Specifically, about a young girl who's stowed away not realizing that her slight excess weight would doom the flight of badly-needed medical supplies unless she was ejected. At its heart, it's a story about how much we might feel for someone and how little human feeling means against the weight of numbers. There were hundreds of thousands of documents – let's drop the number to 250,000 to be conservative – and doing nothing meant gambling that each and every one would do no harm if no warning was given. In the story, the stowaway is ejected from an airlock not because no one felt for her, but because everyone felt for her, wanted to help her, but all those feelings didn't matter a damn against the reality of the situation."
posted by artof.mulata at 5:13 AM on January 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's been a while since that asshole has made another attempt to make the media. Not exactly surprising Lamo is even prepared to milk that betrayal and follow-up lies for all they are worth even during the trial; he always was an amoral drama queen.
posted by jaduncan at 5:35 AM on January 4, 2013 [12 favorites]

EP: We heard harrowing testimony from Manning. Locked in his 8x6ft cell for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day, stripped naked at night, made to stand to attention at morning call in the nude. And on and on … I appreciate that you might not want your life to be stuck on Manning, but hearing such details must have an impact on you. Did you expect him to face such harsh treatment when, as you put it, you chose to interdict his freedom by passing his details to the FBI?

AL: To speak to your question, I don't have first-hand knowledge of his conditions while detained. But a lot of choices by a lot of people went into taking this case where it is today. It's clear the circumstances would be very different if it weren't for my involvement, but you can only label something a proximate cause within so many degrees of separation of what it's putatively causal of.

Good lord. I suppose it's not surprising Lamo can't bring himself to talk directly about Manning's prison conditions and torture, but...good lord. That's a really clumsy dance right there. I mean, I get that Lamo has come to what he thinks are solid rationalizations for what he did, even if I don't agree with them. But not being able to say "If the reports are accurate, the way they've treated him has been beyond the pale"? Yech.
posted by mediareport at 5:35 AM on January 4, 2013 [7 favorites]

Lamo bashing is so 2009.
posted by humanfont at 6:09 AM on January 4, 2013

What do you mean, humanfont?
posted by mediareport at 6:14 AM on January 4, 2013

It's easy to hate Lamo. He was the snitch. But the people we should actually direct our anger to are a little harder to pinpoint, and numerous. The people who have ordered his incarceration, the people who assist in his daily hell, the people in high leadership and visible positions of authority who have done nothing to get Bradley a fair shake, and most of all... Us. The ones that keep letting our leaders apply small doses of tyrrany to our citizens with the belief that there's nothing we can doOH LOOK,ANEWSEASONOFDOWNTOWNABBEY!
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 6:30 AM on January 4, 2013 [10 favorites]

I wonder how long until there country-music ballads about Adrian Lamo. The elements are all there: a rebel on the wrong side of the law hears the call of his country and does his patriotic duty, redeeming himself as a good ol' boy.
posted by acb at 6:43 AM on January 4, 2013

IIRC, Lamo was on supervised release from another hacking charge around that time. If his name came up when the Manning investigation inevitably began, Lamo's back in prison in an instant.

No great choice: drop a dime to save yourself or cover for him until the law catches up.

I remember his numerous appearances on Off the Hook when Lamo was being touted as the homeless hacker wunderkind. Now his name is mud.
posted by dr_dank at 6:57 AM on January 4, 2013

But not being able to say "If the reports are accurate, the way they've treated him has been beyond the pale"? Yech.

That wouldn't have been semantically equal to but much prettier than 'nothing to do with me/no comment'. Let's not forget that he is still the prime prosecution witness in the same ongoing case.
posted by jaduncan at 6:57 AM on January 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

There's a science fiction story from 1954 or so by Tom Godwin, called The Cold Equations....

Oh jesus fucking christ, give me a fucking break you self-mythologizing jackass.
posted by enn at 7:15 AM on January 4, 2013 [10 favorites]

That interview offended me on so many levels. Consider this quote: "My only exposure to the proceedings right now is the things that people ask me whether I've heard. That sometimes disturbs folks' sense of perspective, as though it's wrong of me to have more to my life than Bradley Manning."

He lays the choices out as either ignore the issue completely or "not have more to my life than Bradley Manning." FALSE DICHOTOMY, DUDE.

BUT, and this is a big but, this is someone who's self-admittedly mentally ill. That isn't an excuse, but it's still an explanation.

Still and all, I felt diminished by both articles.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 7:27 AM on January 4, 2013

Without saying whether Lamo was right to do what he did, I observe that his answers in that interview are so carefully polished that I wonder if he isn't in his own little cell, carefully practicing rationalizations. That's some serious kung-fu shit he's doing there.
posted by fatbird at 8:13 AM on January 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yeah it's interesting that Lamo has dropped the discussion of the "great deal of internal conflict" and "lasting regret" he felt back in 2011 about what he did.

Let's not forget that he is still the prime prosecution witness in the same ongoing case.

I had forgotten that tidbit, thanks. One of the comments at the first link notes Lamo would have to be a witness authenticating the chat logs. So what the heck is he doing giving interviews about the case now?
posted by mediareport at 9:03 AM on January 4, 2013

I've seen interviews with Lamo and have always been really creeped out by his responses to questions. It's like he's not really human and is just pretending.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:54 AM on January 4, 2013

But the people we should actually direct our anger to are a little harder to pinpoint, and numerous.

I believe the phrase was "surely this will bring an end to the Bush administration".
posted by rough ashlar at 11:22 AM on January 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Tom Godwin story fell apart for me from the go: what sort of assholes don't plan on contingency fuel?
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:04 PM on January 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

To expand on my earlier comment. Adrian Lamo has always been an ass with limited social skills and a overwhelming desire for publicity of any kind. This interview doesn't really add any new information on this front.
posted by humanfont at 4:26 PM on January 4, 2013

Serious question - After Lamo snitched on Manning, he must have a reinforced concrete bunker and an army of bodyguards, right? The USG would be really crappy masters to let their lackey sit out in the open.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:57 PM on January 4, 2013

Is he actually wearing a cap with the word "SNITCH" printed on it in the picture at the top of the gardian article ?
He might be self-aware, but he should know that irony won't save him from sleepless nights.
posted by SageLeVoid at 4:25 AM on January 5, 2013

Is he actually wearing a cap with the word "SNITCH" printed on it in the picture at the top of the gardian article ?
He might be self-aware, but he should know that irony won't save him from sleepless nights.

Should have had it embroidered; snitch in stitch would at least have been witty.
posted by jaduncan at 5:12 AM on January 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

I can't help feeling he's a louse, but, pragmatically, if Lamo hadn't turned Manning over they'd probably be occupying adjoining cells. Well, if Manning was in the civilian system. You know what I mean.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:09 AM on January 5, 2013

I looked at Lamo's twitter feed and it seems he has noticed this thread on MeFi.
posted by humanfont at 8:25 AM on January 5, 2013

A whistleblower salutes Bradley Manning
posted by homunculus at 10:04 AM on January 16, 2013