Adrian Lamo Clarifies Role In Bradley Manning Wikileaks Arrest

Online, June 11, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Responding to overwhelming reports regarding his role in PFC. Bradley Manning's arrest, Adrian Lamo clarified today that he was not acting in his capacity as a journalist when communicating with Manning, nor was Manning a source.

"A cop may be considered to be on-duty 24 hours a day, but a journalist can pick his stories," Lamo said today. "Manning approached me out of the blue, and I elected to act as a source for Wired News rather than proceed as a journalist myself, due to my involvement in the story," Lamo added.

Lamo turned in PFC. Manning, recently reduced in rank from Specialist, after he confessed to Lamo in Internet chats that he had leaked volumes of diplomatic cables, military videos and documents, as we as the well-known July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike video to Wikileaks.

Wikileaks.org is a well-known Internet site where anonymous sources can submit material which they believe belongs in the public eye, often confidential or classified in nature.

Lamo has in the past been identified as a donor to the site, along with evangelizing for donations.

Manning had enjoyed unprecedented access to Julian Assange, the controversial founder and operator of Wikileaks.

Manning remains in military custody in Kuwait. He is under suicide watch after a request fior same by Lamo.

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Adrian Lamo is a threat analyst and journalist, known as a former grey hat hacker, principally for breaking into a series of high-security computer networks, and his subsequent arrest.

Best known among these were his intrusions into The New York Times. Yahoo! News and Microsoft. He is also known for identifying security flaws in computer networks of Fortune 500 companies and then notifying them of any flaws he found.

He also informed the authorities of the identity of a US Army Intelligence Specialist who is alleged to be the source of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike video leak to Wikileaks, among many other classified documents.

Lamo founded Reality Planning LLC in 2007.