Wired.com responds to criticism regarding Lamo-Manning chat logs

Kevin Poulsen [source]

After enduring months of constant criticism for their behavior in hiding the chat logs between ex-hacker Adrian Lamo and alleged WikiLeaks source US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, editor-in-chief Evan Hansen and senior editor Kevin Poulsen at Wired.com finally respond to “set the record straight”, particularly to Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald, easily their most prominent critic.

I don’t know enough about the whole story and the numerous details involved to make any sort of judgment just yet, and at any rate, the two-pronged rebuttal (from both Hansen and Poulsen) does present some interesting information, not to mention a fair bit of bitter criticism of Greenwald’s own charges. I now await Greenwald’s own response, which is sure to be as curt, timely and detailed as always.

At any rate, though, their argument for continuing to keep the fabled chat logs hidden – that it would compromise the privacy of the individuals involved – feels flaky at best. For crying out loud, Manning’s already rotting away in prison (and almost literally), and the feds have seized Lamo’s own computer and copy of the chat logs. All involved parties are already as compromised in their privacy as they’re ever gonna get (not to mention that I personally doubt that Lamo and Manning shared social security numbers or anything). Frankly, this argument for the involved parties’ privacy seems somewhat sophistic to me.

(via @todayspolitics)