
The Mysterious Death of the Hacker Who Turned in Chelsea Manning - aquabeagle
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/760317486/the-mysterious-death-of-the-hacker-who-turned-in-chelsea-manning
======
quaquaqua1
I independently investigated Lamo's death. The most likely cause of death is
related to kidney failure as per the autopsy posted of the medical examiner's
website.

Whether the cause of the kidney failure was related to his diet or to some
external actor is unable to be determined due to the decomposition of the body
when they found it.

RIP

~~~
dopamean
> due to the decomposition of the body when they found it

This gives me the impression that he was dead for quite a while before he was
found. If that's true how do we have a precise date for when he died?

~~~
quaquaqua1
I'd have to go back and look at the report but I believe he was dead for
around a week before being autopsied. I believe that the examiner said it was
not possible to confirm or deny any marks on his skin that would have
signified external trauma, such as that from a syringe or something if Lamo
was "assassinated covertly".

In all honesty, Lamo did a lot of drugs in his earlier years and in his later
years he was overweight... I suffer from similar kidney problems at just age
27 so it is honestly possible that he simply died of natural kidney failure
from our supremely processed American diet.

~~~
gtirloni
How fast could kidney failure have reached a critical point? Couldn't he have
sought medical assistance?

~~~
quaquaqua1
I just read the article and the journalist did a really good job of getting
the medical examiner to cough up a few more details, as well as other people
in Lamo's life.

Based on this evidence, I am relatively confident that Lamo died from acute
toxicity that was accelerated by advanced stage kidney failure.

The cause of this kidney failure is almost without doubt due to the quantity,
type, and lack of purity of all the internet drugs he was taking. He was obese
at the time of his death, stealing pills, walking with a limp, and falling
asleep in his food according to the people he lived with before he was evicted
and transfered to a different apartment by himself.

He also hurt his leg on the night of his death and likely ingested a "normal"
dose that for most people would be fine, but for a kidney failure patient
would be deadly.

I am confident that he had kidney failure because his serum creatinine score
was 55x above normal. Mine is just 3x above normal and I already have to eat a
really restricted diet =0

~~~
C1sc0cat
That certainly looks like the cause then did they say what his Creatine level
was.

When I was in hospital for my kidney transplant one of the patients in my bay
was an older man who was self dosing with zinc and due to a reaction with his
prescription meds had a total shut down of kidney function.

~~~
quaquaqua1
The score as measured at autopsy is in the medical examiner's pdf which is on
his wiki page. I have really limited internet access right now otherwise I
would get you a link!

I dont want to get the units or numbers wrong, but I remember it being
something like 55 mmol when a normal score is 1mmol. It's been almost a year
since I read the report in full. The examiner said that his creatinine score
is higher than lethal injection recipients, hence the speculation about foul
play.

Very interesting story you relayed~~ the kidneys are an incredibly sensitive
organ compared to the stomach or lungs, it seems!

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cwkoss
"Assange's extradition hearing is scheduled for February 2020, and if Lamo had
still been alive, the prosecution would likely not have needed to compel
Manning's testimony;"

<tin foil hat> It seems Lamo being deceased in a necessary pretext for
detaining Manning, and so perhaps the IC community knocked him off to keep her
imprisoned.

~~~
VonGuard
Lamo was a twitchy little fuck with lots of enemies. He was a miserable
person, always unhappy, plagued with mental illness, and a past spotted with
fucked up relationships. The only people I have ever heard speak kindly of him
are the press.

I'd known the guy since 1999, and even back then, in the hacker circles, he
was making enemies and pissing people off just by being a bad person in
general... Seems like a text book suicide candidate, or at least, a self-abuse
through substances type. I mean, his parents threw him out in his teens...

Last time I posted this here I got downvoted to hell and back. Feel free to do
the same.

~~~
quotz
I watched an interview with him and what you say definitely feels true to me.
I mean that guy snitched on the good guys, and Chelsea Manning was a really
good friend of his. Who the fuck does that? You can really see that he was
plaqued by mental issues....

~~~
shadowgovt
Especially at the time, it was really unclear whether Manning was "The good
guys."

It's honestly still a controversial opinion. Lots of people died from an Arab
Spring that was kicked off by Libyans learning the State Dept's opinion of
their government. The resulting revolutions wave left a trail of bodies but
didn't make much change.

The State Department keeps its opinions secret for a reason.

~~~
cwkoss
> Lots of people died from an Arab Spring that was kicked off by Libyans
> learning the State Dept's opinion of their government.

This is a truly bizarre claim. You really think the popular uprising in Libya
was caused because a different country criticized their government?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Civil_War_(2011)#Backgr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Civil_War_\(2011\)#Background)

~~~
dilyevsky
Weird claim indeed. Arab spring was triggered by Mohamed Bouazizi setting
himself on fire in Tunisia. It’s interesting this is often forgotten now

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onemoresoop
Al Jazeera Interview with Lamo:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-omBeZMxc](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-omBeZMxc)

To me he looks very sedated or on something for sure

~~~
farah7
jesus christ.....how can anyone be surprised he is dead after watching this
video? that's the closest thing to a deadman giving an interview you'd ever
see.

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CPAhem
There are quite a few mysteries about Wikileaks Arjen Kamphuis'
"disappearance" too:

[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-14/missing-wikileaks-
ass...](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-14/missing-wikileaks-associate-
arjen-kamphuis-likely-died-kayaking/11513296)

------
pvaldes
I'm not a physician and could be wrong, but is not necessarily a voluntary
overdose/suicide IMO. Looks like an accumulative problem.

Valeriana root is a sedating but also has the effect to slow the ratio
degradation of substances on liver. The liver is coping with more
substances/drugs etc on a given time and the result is like a tetris effect.
Drugs do not have enough time to exit the body. I assume that this could lead
to overdose even with a schedule of taking supposedly safe doses. Drugs
accumulating in liver could eventually lead to hepatic failure and overdose.
Liver and Kidneys are related so if the liver is too busy could just send more
unprocessed substances to kidneys to be discarded in urine. High doses of
drugs arriving to kidneys could make them fail.

At the same time the victim would be sedated and probably not able to react,
wake up and go to an hospital

~~~
mkl
> I'm not a physicist

I'm guessing you mean something else there. "Physician"? "Pathologist"?

~~~
drcode
Maybe physiologist...

~~~
pvaldes
You are right, wrong choice of term. Fixed, thanks.

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xz0r
Lamo used to answer questions on Quora on a frequent basis[0]. By reading his
answers I got glimpses of bits of how he thinks .

In one of his answers[1] he posts a disclaimer saying he used to work with
federal agencies:

"The writer is a convicted felon, and has worked closely with federal agencies
on national security investigations. Yes, I think it’s weird too."

Wish he'd stayed around longer.

RIP

[0]
[https://www.quora.com/profile/Adri%C3%A1n-Lamo](https://www.quora.com/profile/Adri%C3%A1n-Lamo)

[1][https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-the-FBI-CIA-and-NSA-
co...](https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-the-FBI-CIA-and-NSA-continue-
surveillance-on-ex-felons/answer/Adrián-Lamo)

------
exabrial
> Federal prosecutors ended Lamo's crusade after he hacked The New York Times
> and the paper pressed charges

Just watched an ad on football tonight about how they're pursuing the truth.

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25b183
Very disturbing

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dschuetz
And Lamo was his name'o.

~~~
mkl
It's pronounced lah-mo, not lame-o.

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thrower123
There are an awful lot of people turning up dead with connections to pending
investigations and court cases lately...

~~~
eganist
This kind of conspiratorial speculation isn't really appropriate here.

~~~
Kiro
Whenever it's something regarding Assange you are all very keen on getting
conspiratorial.

