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Source: Wired

It is odd how you at one point think you can truly trust a person. Looking at what he has done in the past and even been accused of, you would think that is a person who would never rat you out. Of course, people might change and they might even live by a different code than you; which is why you should never trust anyone at all.

This is something Bradley Manning, an US intelligence analyst, has learned the hard way. He thought he was talking to someone he could trust, but apparently Adrian Lamo, an ex-hacker, obviously felt it was more important to be a patriot than to expose the atrocities the US army is committing abroad on foreign soil.

Watching ‘Collateral Murder‘ sheds some light on maybe why it is so difficult to stop the fighting and why they hate Americans so much in the countries they are occupying. I have never been in the countries USA has occupied with their imperial troops, neither do I know people who live there; but I am confident that if they see a lot of incidents like this I can fully understand why they want the Americans to go back home.

I am only speculating here, but looking at Adrian Lamo’s past, maybe he did this to save himself?
Let us assume he is still under some kind of surveilance by the FBI. If he did not report this I think they would enjoy accusing him of assisting Bradley Manning in leaking more information by giving him advice. So to prevent that he reported Bradley Manning to the FBI.
As I said, I am just speculating, but if this would be the case, I would not be surprised.

It is also very convenient that he knows Kevin Poulsen, so he can get some nice exposure of his heroic and patriotic act. Looking at some of the messages he get on Twitter and Formspring he is not that popular anymore. Even some of the messages are threats of violence; some even go so far that they threaten to kill Adrian Lamo.
I doubt anyone want that kind of attention.

I have been following Adrian Lamo on Twitter for a while now and I have the impression that he is a pretty nice guy. After he became reported Manning to the FBI I am torn. I respect him for believing that what he did was the right thing to do, but I am not sure I can trust him anymore; and to me that is very important. If you can not trust a person, what do you have left?

Bradley Manning did what most people want to do in general, but never dare to do it; to blow the whistle on who they work for to expose their wrong doings.
Sadly there are people out there who have this delusion that you should never do this. Almost like an unwritten rule that even if you see your boss raping his secretary and murder her; you shall not speak of it, as you must stay loyal to your employer at any cost. Cowardly sheep!

I personally try not to discriminate like that. If you do something wrong I will expose you no matter what. If you try to expose something that is not right, your secret is safe with me.
If I got my hands on information that Norway, my home country, was committing war crimes I would have no problems releasing that information to the public.

You reap what you sow.
Something I think both Manning and Lamo will learn after this very odd brouhaha.