Internet conversations between Bradley Manning, the US soldier awaiting court martial on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source, and Adrian Lamo, who reported him to the authorities, have been published in their entirety for the first time.
The decision by Wired magazine to publish the full unedited version of what have become known as the Manning-Lamo chat logs brings to a close a bitter dispute between bloggers over the nature of the material. Wired always claimed that it had held back a large portion of the chats because they were irrelevant and in order to protect Manning's privacy on personal matters.
But critics, notably Glenn Greenwald of Salon, wondered whether any material pertinent to Manning's defence may have been held back for more sinister reasons.
In explaining its decision to now go ahead with the full logs, Wired pointed to new material that had come to light recently that revealed much of the information that the magazine had previously withheld. It pointed particularly to a separate set of web logs, obtained by New York magazine and published simultaneously by the Guardian.
The newly published Wired logs will be studied closely by followers of the Manning story – supporters and detractors – for extra evidence about his conduct while working as a US intelligence gatherer at a military base outside Baghdad.
The soldier has been charged with passing classified information to WikiLeaks as the source of the giant trove of state secrets, the largest of which were the embassy cables from US diplomatic outposts around the world.
An early view of the logs suggests that Wired's defence stands up – much of the new material relates to Manning's sexuality and other personal matters.
As a result of turning Manning into the military authorities, Lamo has become known as the "world's most hated hacker". New York magazine tracked him down to a Long Island motel, where he appeared to be living largely in isolation.