US intelligence officials are scrambling to address the fallout of what some are describing as the biggest leak of government secrets in nearly four years. That may not sound like a very long time, but the US has lost a lot of very embarrassing data related to its assorted crimes in recent years.
The reaction hasn’t changed though, with CIA officials declaring that WikiLeaks is helping “America’s adversaries” by disclosing the massive CIA surveillance scheme, which they said not only endangers US personnel, but in revealing how many technological flaws the CIA discovered and never reported, also might give other nations access to those same exploits to target Americans with.
CIA officials don’t really know yet exactly how much was lost, as WikiLeaks has only released the first of several years of documents. Still, they are said to be in “damage control” mode, scrambling to try to figure out where the leaks came from, and trying to control the narrative, and convince Americans to be more mad at WikiLeaks for telling them things, than at the CIA for doing those things.
This of course neatly echoes the Chelsea Manning disclosures of Pentagon war-crimes, the revelation of which officials insisted put the troops in danger, and Edward Snowden’s revelation of wholesale illegal surveillance by the NSA in 2013, which officials complained warned everybody to communicate more securely, and in ways less readily surveilled.
In each case, the narrative was that letting the public know about the US government’s many, many misdeeds was itself the problem, and that the misdeeds themselves would’ve been fine if we’d never known about them. This of course has fueled the federal government’s recent obsession with secrecy, since the only alternative would be to always act within the law, which they naturally consider no alternative at all.
Wikileaks claimed an inside source, but also said that the code/techniques themselves had already been leaked to a broader community:
“The archive appears to have been circulated among former
U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner,
one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.” – https://www.wikileaks.com/ciav7p1/
Other commentators noted that the code/docs were intentionally not classified, speculating that this was to make it so that CIA people using them remotely would not technically count as any kind of leaker. So it may be that using the exploits inherently leaks them to other hackers. CIA develops malware at great expense and effort; CIA uses malware; CIA leaks malware; other hackers have it; Wikileaks lets the public know; CIA deflects blame for future hacking…
In other news, the CIA is claiming that it is ILLEGAL for them to run exploits against US Citizens, so they don’t do hack US citizens, like US Senate Committees. That didn’t happen.
The CIA won’t have have to control the narrative. The dominant narrative from the start is that Wikileaks is acting completely irresponsibly and in a damaging way by publishing all these CIA secrets .
Hurt America?
Or hurt a non elected cabal that fancies itself as the “deciders” of all things including who it allows to be president.
A cabal that operates in secret beyond the grasp of constitution law.
Who authorized the CIA to develop a capability equal to the NSA?
Wikileaks conclusion: the mainstream media “is” the CIA.
Because all information is considered as intelligence the incoming and outgoing must be strictly controlled.
Everything was just peaches until Trump showed up.
It’s the latter, Curtis. WikiLeaks disclosures harm only the non-elected cabal that fancies itself – as you said – the “deciders” of everything, including whom it allows to be POTUS .. a cabal that operates in secret beyond the grasp of Constitutional law.
I agree .. Who authorized the CIA to develop a capability equal to the NSA? According to law, the CIA’s limited to operations abroad, not on US soil .. So, the question remains. Who authorized the CIA to breach US law and take on NSA’s authorization to do so?
WikiLeaks’ conclusion: The “mainstream media” IS the CIA. Why? Because all information is considered as intelligence, the incoming and outgoing must be strictly controlled.
And as you also said, everything was just peaches until Trump showed up. I say, thank God he did .. otherwise, we’d have Hillary the Hildabeast in the White House and WWIII underway.
America is desperate that the world doesn’t work out how COMPLICIT the US is with al Nusra AKA Al Qaeda in Iraq and its child ISIS! Just think there would be NO European Refugee problem but for US involvement with Al Qaeda subsidiaries in Syria and Libya!
The CIA found countless security flaws in consumer electronics, didn’t report them, weaponized the vulnerabilities, and lost containment of those weapons. Any nation or organized criminals might have those tools now. What a hugely expensive exercise is making all of us less safe and secure.
But The Donald and his minions will protect us…and make America great again!!! He promised!!! Besides Spicer said so – so it must be a “fact.”
You think he has any real control over those loose cannons?
What they really do not want most folks to now but now you do!
Mar 6, 2017 Drug Boss Escobar Worked for the CIA
The notorious cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar worked closely with the CIA, according to his son. In this episode of The Geopolitical Report, we look at the long history of CIA involvement in the international narcotics trade, beginning with its collaboration with the French Mafia to using drug money to illegally fund the Contras and overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. We also look at how drug profits are used to float Wall Street and the role big banks play in laundering huge amounts of illicit drug profits.
https://youtu.be/3bUN9azbYX8
To the deep state, Americans are the enemy. The disclosures will have no effect on “America’s adversaries”, but will help Americans see what their government and the deep state are really up to. Thank god for the leaker, whoever he or she was.
You’re absolutely right, in that to the deep state, Americans are the enemy, and the disclosures won’t have any effect on “America’s adversaries”, but will help Americans see what their gov’t. and the deep state are truly up to. Yes, thank God for the leakers, whoever they were, they’re true heroes.
I bet any of you that work in the machine are getting company wide emails breathlessly claiming that it’s illegal to view the classified documents without appropriate clearance on any non cleared computer and to contact IT Security if you think your PC may have been “compromised”. The level of narcissism and hubris is unsurprising, given the source.
With friends like this, who needs adversaries ???? At least ‘adversaries’ are not expected to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States…….Assholes!!!
Our ‘foreign policy’ and 800 military bases throughout the world and our navies controlling every chokepoint, ……creates Adversaries, …rocket scientist. Bombing country after country, arming the whole world, NATO, Pax Americana (whatever that is?), the ‘Exceptional Nation’ nonsense.
Spending more on our military than the rest of the world combined only encourages ‘adversaries’ to beef up their military…….duh
God bless Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Think of how in the dark WE THE PEOPLE would be if wikiLeaks did not exist. And for all their revelations, you know what? The world did not come to an end. All that happened is the assholes that are supposed to protect us from our ‘adversaries’ have been again and again (Manning, Snowden, WikiLeaks) been profoundly humiliated that no matter how hard they try ….. it all eventually bubbles like a thick layer of scum to the surface.