Today, Wired writer Kevin Poulsen brought to light a collection of documents that the Army posted to its FOIA reading room just before Thanksgiving last week, which included 13 pages of unclassified chat logs from 2010 between former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Bradley Manning) and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. After handing over a massive trove of diplomatic cables and other videos to Wikileaks, Manning was convicted in July 2013 of espionage, theft, and computer fraud, although she was acquitted of the most serious charge of “aiding the enemy.”

The chat log was recovered from Manning’s computer by an Army forensics expert after her arrest, and some of the log's contents were used by the government in its prosecution of Manning.

The conversation ranges widely from pleasantries to highly sensitive leak information, discussions of the political climate, and the occasional conspiracy theory. (In one chat, Manning, who went by “dawgnetwork,” told “pressassociation,” which the Army says was Julian Assange, “i told you before, government/organizations cant control information... the harder they try, the more violently the information wants to get out.") In all, it's an interesting look into the relationship between the source and the leaker in the days before they released the infamous “Collateral Murder” video, which showed a 2007 military attack that killed civilians in Baghdad, Iraq.

In one excerpt, Manning discusses her future after the leaks:

(2010-03-08 06:31:42) dawgnetwork: after this upload, thats all i really have got left

(2010-03-08 06:32:15) pressassociation: curious eyes never run dry in my experience

(2010-03-08 06:32:18) dawgnetwork: i sat on it for a bit, and figured, eh, why not

(2010-03-08 06:32:52) dawgnetwork: ive already exposed quite a bit, just no-one knows yet

(2010-03-08 06:33:34) dawgnetwork: ill slip down into darkness for a few years, let the heat die down

(2010-03-08 06:34:05) pressassociation: won't take a few years at the present rate of change

(2010-03-08 06:34:08) dawgnetwork: true

In another,"pressassociation" engages in some pretty wild speculation about the future of massively multiplayer online role-playing games:

(2010-03-10 06:06:06) pressassociation: lt's as old as lipstick and the guitar of course, but mmorpg are evil in a whole new way

(2010-03-10 06:06:39) dawgnetwork: voluntary matrix-style society?

(2010-03-10 06:06:46) pressassociation: yes

(2010-03-10 06:07:08) dawgnetwork: hmm

(2010-03-10 06:07:25) pressassociation: might be ok in the end

(2010-03-10 06:07:53) pressassociation: mmorpg's that have long term users are incentivised to keep them profitable

(2010 03 10 06:08:59) pressassociation: but l imagine they'll merge into hybrid revenue modes, where congnitive tasks and freelabor are done using sense deception incentives

(2010-03-10 06:09:48) dawgnetwork: like the “video games:” from toys?

(2010-03-10 06:10:12) pressassociation: haven't seen that

(2010-03-10 06:10:34) pressassociation: but it sure isn't a decade to be a gullible idiot :)

Later that night, Manning shuts down some of Assange's stranger theories:

(2010-03-10 21:04:57) pressassociation: The teaparty thing? lt's weird, but it should be taken seriously

(2010-03-10 21:05:21) dawgnetwork: yeah, its one of those... grey areas between reality and entertainment and ick

(2010-03-10 21:05:33) pressassociation: lt's the right wing overclass (fox) organization of the rightwing underclass. Think of them as brown shirts.

(2010-03-10 21:05:39) dawgnetwork: *stays in reality*

(2010-03-10 21:06:23) pressassociation: well, i dont know what posting a list from glenn beck's email will do... but hey, its transparency

You can read the whole transcript, thanks to Poulsen, here.