Wikileaks Again

[Lucky]

Wikileaks has released thousands of diplomatic cables that may severely embarrass those who wrote them. The damage to international relations is as yet unknown, but what I want to know is why a mere private had access to all of this secret government stuff. The damage caused by this one man may be immense.

[MsGuy]

what I want to know is why a mere private had access to all of this secret government stuff.

Asked why such sensitive material was posted on a network accessible to thousands of government employees, the state department spokesman told the Guardian: "The 9/11 attacks and their aftermath revealed gaps in intra-governmental information sharing. Since the attacks of 9/11, the US government has taken significant steps to facilitate information sharing. These efforts were focused on giving diplomatic, military, law enforcement and intelligence specialists quicker and easier access to more data to more effectively do their jobs."

The Guardian, one of many news outlets given a dump of the diplomatic cable traffic, gives a sampling of the type of material found in the records. Everything from Prince Andy behaving badly abroad to the Saudi's pleading for air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities to the Afgan Vice President being caught in a Gulf States airport with a suitcase stuffed with $52 million in cash.

Basically the leak amounts to snapshot of the US caught in the act of either 1) covertly managing the American Empire or 2) coping as best it can with a complex, difficult international enviroment , take your choice.

By the way, the Wikileaks site is currently under a DDOS attack rendering it inaccessible to the public. Assuming it eventually goes back on line, I've read that the cables will be in the form of a searchable data base, so anyone can go looking for whatever he might find of interest (including whatever Prince Andrew was up to).

[TampaYankee]

Wikileaks has released thousands of diplomatic cables that may severely embarrass those who wrote them. The damage to international relations is as yet unknown, but what I want to know is why a mere private had access to all of this secret government stuff. The damage caused by this one man may be immense.

This really cannot be a serious question, can it? Security clearances are not granted on the basis of rank but on the basis of job, need to know, and detailed background investigation.

There is never any gurantee that someone may not make a bad judgment or sell out for money or ideology even though there is nothing in their background to point to it. As a democracy we take a measured risk every time one is granted. Else we could let one know that their actions hold their families at risk.

[MsGuy]

According to this article, Wikileaks has agreed to at least a modicum of self-censorship on the diplomatic cables.

[Lucky]

...and I read that none of the stuff is classified Top Secret.

This isn't that article, but is worth reading:

From the Guardian

[Lucky]

This really cannot be a serious question, can it? Security clearances are not granted on the basis of rank but on the basis of job, need to know, and detailed background investigation.

There is never any gurantee that someone may not make a bad judgment or sell out for money or ideology even though there is nothing in their background to point to it. As a democracy we take a measured risk every time one is granted. Else we could let one know that their actions hold their families at risk.

Well of course it is a serious question or I wouldn't have asked it. I looked into it and here is what I found at wired.com:

Manning was a 35F intelligence analyst with a Top Secret/SCI security clearance.

According to the Army’s web site, analysts in this position “use information derived from all intelligence disciplines to determine changes in enemy capabilities, vulnerabilities and probable courses of action.”

Duties include receiving and processing incoming intelligence reports and messages and maintaining intelligence records and files.

In chats with Lamo that Wired.com has examined, Manning said he had access to two classified networks from two separate secured laptops: SIPRnet, the Secret-level network used by the Department of Defense and the State Department, and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System which serves both agencies at the Top Secret/SCI level.

The networks, he said, were both “air-gapped” from unclassified networks, but the environment at the base made it easy to smuggle data out.

“I would come in with music on a CD-RW labeled with something like ‘Lady Gaga,’ erase the music then write a compressed split file,” he wrote. “No one suspected a thing and, odds are, they never will.”

“ listened and lip-synced to Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history,” he added later. ”Weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counterintelligence, inattentive signal analysis … a perfect storm.”

Regarding the State Department cables specifically, Manning told Lamo, “State dept fucked itself. Placed volumes and volumes of information in a single spot, with no security.”

[TampaYankee]

According to the Army’s web site, analysts in this position “use information derived from all intelligence disciplines to determine changes in enemy capabilities, vulnerabilities and probable courses of action.”

Duties include receiving and processing incoming intelligence reports and messages and maintaining intelligence records and files.

Translation of the statement in bold font: Definition of a data clerk.

Yes, classified installations need clerks to handle classified data. They do not put many Captains or Generals in charge of that task. There is a big need to keep inventories of docs, routing records, process incoming and log obsolete inventory to be destroyed, etc. For some that is all they do.

Intelligence analysis is unlikely to be done by the average Private. That is not to say they may not play a role in processing information via sorting, classification with respect to type etc. There may be more critical instances where an individual such as former combat troop may have special knowledge of an intelligence issues associated with given area, or critical language skills.

Most of your article points out problems with the overall security set up. Privates don't set that up. This was a big screw up at much higher levels. The problem was not assigning a lowly private to a classified data clerk station but in the whole set up that he was allowed to work in or possibly in his background check.

No doubt there are many competent Privates serving in critically sensitive jobs in the military. That is not to say that they are chosen for such jobs by picking names out of a hat.

[BiBottomBoy]

The basic total of this is that the Arab leaders would have no problem with us bombing the shit out of Iran, which is hardly surprising since Arabs have always hated Persians.

http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/28/wikileaks_and_the_arab_public_sphere

[RA1]

But, they hate the Israelis more? Life could be so much simpler without ALL the politics involved, couldn't it?

I have wondered for a very long time why the various Semitic folks did not recognize how much alike they are and de-emphasize how different some of them are. The Bible says these folks will never get along, how can the rest of us think otherwise?

Best regards,

RA1

[MsGuy]

"We have one related to a bank coming up, that's a megaleak. It's not as big a scale as the Iraq material, but it's either tens or hundreds of thousands of documents depending on how you define it"

Wikileaks announces plans for a massive release of executive level memos and documents from a major US bank.

I have no idea how Julian Assange, the Wikileaks guy, has managed to avoid being shot but he is certainly providing us with a lot of fascinating information. Can you imagine how many top banking guys are puking blood into their executive toilets after reading that article in Forbes?

[BiBottomBoy]

As to how he hasn't gotten shot?

My guess is that the guy is CIA. There's been tons of rumbling that the CIA is seriously tired of the way Bush and then Obama handled these two wars and they probably want to push us out of it and embarrass both dudes.

The CIA also gets into feuds with large banks on a regular basis.

It would explain why this dude is alive and exactly where he's getting his information from.

[MsGuy]

But wait, there's more...

"There may be more damage to come: In a followup to his original piece, Forbes’s Andy Greenberg writes that WikiLeaks has unpublished documents from multiple financial firms.

"Ever modest, when asked about the impact the impending “megaleak” may pose, Mr. Assange told Forbes, ” It could take down a bank or two.”

----

That seems a little paranoid, BBB. The CIA is angling to take down the State Dept,the Oval Office and the US finantial system? The only way we will know for sure is if Mr. Assange gets his hands on the Agency's archives and goes rogue. And somehow manages to avoid falling out a 6th story window.

[Lucky]

"That seems a little paranoid, BBB. The CIA is angling to take down the State Dept,the Oval Office and the US finantial system? The only way we will know for sure is if Mr. Assange gets his hands on the Agency's archives and goes rogue. And somehow manages to avoid falling out a 6th story window. "

Finantial...I've been trying to figure out that typo. The t button is in the top row, the c button in the bottom row. Oh well, it's not as if I don't make mistakes in typing also. Unless, yes unless, it's a conspiracy by the CIA to rewrite the English language. Don't laugh. It could be true. I'm not saying it is, but you just never know these days.

Of course, MsGuy could be using the Dvorak keyboard...I just don't know.

But I heard you could only get those from...you guessed it- the CIA!

[BiBottomBoy]

You really think this one individual douchebag has access to sources that are willing to risk their careers and jail time in the Pentagon, the Diplomatic Corps and at a major US bank?

I really doubt it.

But, I do know what organization could get intel from all those places...

[MsGuy]

Of course, MsGuy could be using the Dvorak keyboard...

LOL, I had to look it up, but that actually works as an explanation!

OK, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[BiBottomBoy]

That's one fucked up keyboard.