Adrian Lamo’s decision to finger Bradley Manning as one of WikiLeaks’ most prolific sources of secrets may have led to the young Army private’s arrest three years ago. But on Tuesday, Lamo provided courtroom testimony that could draw an important legal distinction in Manning’s motives: that Manning leaked his troves of classified documents to WikiLeaks for what Lamo believed were “idealistic” intentions, rather than a desire to aid America’s foreign enemies.
Responding to a series of questions from Manning’s attorney David Coombs, Lamo confirmed that he believed Manning to be “ideologically motivated,” “idealistic,” and “well-intentioned,” responding in the affirmative to each of those descriptions as Coombs offered them. Over several minutes, Lamo offered terse answers such as “yes” and “correct” to dozens of questions describing Manning and Lamo’s instant message chats in 2010, in which Manning confessed to Lamo that he had leaked thousands of classified Pentagon and State Department to WikiLeaks. Lamo later turned those chat logs over to Army investigators.
“He thought that if the information got out, it might actually change something?” asked Coombs at one point, to which Lamo replied “Yes.”
He later asked if Manning described himself as “maybe too idealistic,” which Lamo said was “correct.”
“He told you that he was always a type of person that tried to investigate to find out the truth?,” asked Coombs.
“Something I could appreciate, yes,” Lamo replied.
Later, Coombs focused on a question Lamo had asked Manning about his “end game,” saying that Manning had responded that he wanted “worldwide, discussions, debates and reforms,” which Lamo confirmed.
In another part of his questioning, Coombs focused on Lamo’s own past as a hacker who was convicted in 2004 of gaining illegal access to the networks of Lexis-Nexis, the New York Times and Microsoft MSFT -0.63%, pointing out that Lamo had later donated money to WikiLeaks. Coombs suggested that Lamo’s hacker background, in combination with his advocacy of gay and lesbian rights, were reasons for Manning to seek out Lamo as a confidant, comments with which Lamo tentatively agreed.
Lamo’s appearance as a witness, which began with questions from the prosecution, was intended in part to confirm the authenticity of the logs covering his conversations with Manning, which are now being used as evidence of his criminal violation of his secret clearances.
But Lamo’s responses regarding the reasons for Manning’s behavior may play an equally important role in the young leaker’s fate. Though Manning has already pleaded guilty to giving 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, his court martial’s outcome will turn in part on his motives. Manning’s defense has described him as a principled whistleblower, while the prosecution has accused him of knowingly “aiding the enemy” by providing sensitive information to foreign agents like Al Qaeda via his leak to WikiLeaks, a contrast that was highlighted in the trial’s opening statements Monday.
“Aiding the enemy” remains the most serious of the prosecution’s charges, and could lead to life imprisonment if Manning is convicted of the offense. But Judge Denise Lind, who is presiding over Manning’s court martial, has ruled that to prove that charge, the prosecution must demonstrate that Manning showed “general evil intent in that he had to know he was dealing with an enemy of the United States.”
Coombs’ questions focused instead on Manning’s identity as a “humanist,” reminding Lamo that Manning had told him he wore custom dog tags with that word printed on them. “Do you know what it means to be a humanist?,” Coombs asked.
“From my understanding, the importance of human life and human beings and a structure of morality,” replied Lamo.
Later, Coombs asked directly if Manning had at anytime said that he had “no loyalty” to the United States.
“Not in those words, no,” Lamo replied.
“At anytime did he say he wanted to help the enemy?” Coombs asked.
“Not in those words, no.” Lamo repeated.
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