Analysis - Latest leak highlights how many have access to US top secret material.

Here's an in-depth analysis of the recent shenanigans of the US Intel leaked documents.

Last I had read, the documents started out on Minecraft gamer's Discord channel. However, it looks like it goes back to a different origin and time. Moreover, the sheer number of people with access to classified material is quite alarming. I would hope that compartmentalization of the most secretive stuff should avoid leaking the complete picture. But, even small fragments can be dangerous for National Security.

How do you stop rogue staff or spies within?

Just some snippets from the longer article.

Source: www.theguardian.com...



The evidence so far:

The evidence emerging on the leak of classified US defence documents suggests that it was probably not some dastardly hacking or disinformation plot by Russia or the US, but rather another example of how carelessly Washington handles its secrets.

The least likely version of reality is the one being circulated among Kremlin supporters, that it was a clever piece of CIA distraction ultimately aimed at demoralising Russians by showing how many lives they had lost, and how badly their war was going in Ukraine.

Slightly more plausible, because of all the above, is the theory that it was a Russian hack designed to embarrass Washington, and that was what unnamed US officials told Reuters on Friday. But that version also does not fit very well with the known facts.

Trail:

The first appearance of the documents appears to have been on a server called Thug Shaker Central (among other names) as far back as October.

It was not until five months later that another user, an American teenager, made the documents more widely available on another Discord server for fans of another YouTuber, WowMao, a Filipino specialising in history memes.

From there, they spread to Minecraft gamers, with one user drawing on them to support his point in a row with another gamer. Then there was another delay of a few weeks, before the material made its way to the rightwing forum 4chan and a Russian Telegram channel, where one document was doctored.
Then there was another delay of a few weeks, before the material made its way to the rightwing forum 4chan and a Russian Telegram channel, where one document was doctored.

Possible origin:

According to the most recent figures published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, there were 1.25 million people with clearance and access to read top secret material in the US government in 2019. The figures have not been made public since then, but nothing suggests they have significantly diminished. The Pentagon has said it is reviewing its access policy.

Conclusion:

In this case, the evidence suggests the person responsible is most likely a gaming and weapons enthusiast with motives no more complicated than a desire to impress other members of his internet chat group.

Could the motives be so benign and callous? Or, is it all double-dealings, smoke and mirrors?

smoke and mirrors.

as an ex guardian reader i'd take nothing they write at any value they lost themselves to big donors in the mid noughties when they pivoted from fighting the use of biometrics to embracing its use..

Part of the problem is there are a lot of communists working in the federal government who do not have the best interests of the U.S. or its citizens in mind.

Their primary allegiance is to the communist ideology instead of the Constitution.

Not only do they have no qualms about exposing classified material that will hurt the United States, some of them take it as a duty to hurt the United States.

The sheer size of the government is another issue. The more federal employees there are with their hands in every little thing, the more people need access to information. Shrink the government.

a reply to: face23785

i'd suggest less communist but that there are far more disaffected groups than people realise as we are all being led by govs made up of fringe minority groups from left to right.. so in in shredding a countries id they sow the seeds of their own demise.

this has always been evident in Westminster the 2 great factions where the greater syria and greater israel factions neither compatible with the other.. many point to balfour and ignore the same promise made to the arabs which in turn ignores the higher promise made to the french and russians to stitch up both..

that is where the USA is now factions fighting each other and the outcomes of these factions working against each other is only going to pay dividends to the enemies of the usa as it did for the British empire.

a reply to: Encia22

Excellent thread topic...

First of all, everybody spies on everybody else, wasn't the Steele dossier from the British, this wasn't an isolated incident. It happens all the time probably, this was just at a time when it's more crucial

With 1.25 million with Top Secret clearance, all it takes is a disgruntled employee and the opportunity, and a motive. While it's not apparent if these secrets are actually worth anything monetarily, I could easily see them possibly being sold as such, to unsuspecting domestic or foreign agents. This possibly means the country has 2 problems a rat with TSC and somebody training the rat with peanut butter and cheese.

Hell, this is ATS, it could be completely domestic, and it could be Republicans or even Democrats frustrated with the Biden administration. UK and EU factions who are tired of the war, but don't want to rock the NATO cart. As well as the usual suspects.

Wasn't it recently were there were an estimated 100,000 Chinese nationals working for major US companies? and we have always had rumors of Russian intelligence sleeper cells only activated in the lead-up and continuing war.

or smoke and mirrors... Biden admin is struggling and needs the diversion and distraction

en.wikipedia.org...

Christopher David Steele (born 24 June 1964) is a British former intelligence officer with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1987 until his retirement in 2009. He ran the Russia desk at MI6 headquarters in London between 2006 and 2009. In 2009, he co-founded Orbis Business Intelligence, a London-based private intelligence firm.

Steele became the centre of controversy after he authored a 35-page series of memos for a controversial political opposition research report later known as the Steele dossier. It was prepared for Fusion GPS, a firm hired by an attorney associated with the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. The dossier claims, based on anonymous sources, that Russia collected a file of compromising information on Donald Trump and that his presidential campaign conspired to cooperate with the Russians in their interference in the 2016 presidential elections.[1][2][3]

Trump and his allies have falsely claimed[4][5][6] the U.S. intelligence community probe into that Russian interference was launched due to Steele's dossier.[7] Contrary to these false claims, the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee, among many other sources, concluded in an April 2018 report that the probe had been triggered by previous information from Trump adviser George Papadopoulos, and the February 2018 Nunes memo, written by staff members for that GOP committee, reached the same conclusion.[8][9]

a reply to: putnam6

to annoy the other brits here the steele dossier was similar to the wilson dossier from the cia (Golitsyn) in terms of portraying leader as a pawn of the russians which in turn was claimed to be a replica of the Zinoviev letter.. ##

so more than spying its actively engaging in destabilising an ally for what fantasies.. neither trump or wilson ended up as proven puppets of moscow. but its all the same game..

the timing is important, at a time when the west is weak and fearing the voters voting the wrong way so they fight their own populations with theses disinformation campaigns, even now wilson is still thought to have been a russian agent just as trump will always be seen that way..

for me the target has consistently been to distract and destabilise the us uk and other allies so that nothing changes..

originally posted by: Encia22


How do you stop rogue staff or spies within?

I got a great way to stop "rogue staff"...

Abandoned foreign policies that jeopardize the lives of every living thing on the planet, and STOP using human beings as cannon fodder. That should drastically reduce the people wanting to expose criminal activity in our government. By the government not conducting criminal activity. It's rather simple...

I suspect a psy-op of some sort. But it does confirm what many of us have been saying about Ukraine for some time now. Things are not as they claim in Ukraine and Russia. Much like every conflict over the last 60 years. Our consent must be manufactured for war, and this is how they do it.

For me, the problem is never with spying. Its with the practice of 'talking about' spying.

"Spying" is a tricky word. There are some things that we might not consider 'spying' yet they can be. There are other things we consider spying that are not really spying. The word itself is problematic.

For example, a businessman goes to an 'ideologically' antagonistic country. In his efforts to 'get the lay of the land' he polls people about their feelings about a certain service, product, or industry... trying to get find an opportunity he can leverage towards his business. THAT alone could be considered spying. His fate depends on the culture, the national posture, and the level of antagonism the target nations system of 'security.'

Another, someone comes to the US, he starts a casual association of former citizens of his nation, to gather his compatriots and provide an atmosphere of congeniality and sharing difficulties they might face in a new country. He innocently begins importing items and fostering connections to his former homeland... largely for the sake of nostalgia and comfort. Again, depending on the nature of US posture towards the 'system' of the other country... THAT could be considered an espionage activity.

Now we have this idea being promulgated by the media (largely) that people who have TOP SECRET clearances are just random folks... given access to material because it was administratively convenient, but that is not how I knew it to be. Clearances were not "given" ... they were 'determined.' And the strength of the security depended upon the diligence of those issuing them... they had guidelines that DIDN'T include... "He works for such and such political leader" or "She is a minority which must be in the position to fulfill our 'quota' of hiring." And they certainly didn't include "He is a member/adjunct of the CFR or some committee, or some prominent news organization."

Things sure are different now. Now we have "contractors" to determine clearance authorizations. We have businesses that are effectively deciding "who gets what" and "who never has to 'renew' their clearance." And we have a proliferation of folks whose clearances are "prestige/virtue signals" for their peer groups. Personally, I have always felt that if you need a clearance, and you are not in the military - YOU pay for it. It costs many thousands of dollars... and often isn't very pleasant an experience depending on the severity of the investigation that needs to be launched over the presumed responsibility you will endure as a result.

The subject of the "leak" is one that only someone with a "Hollywood/Madison Ave" indoctrination to 'secrets' will accept at face value. "Leaks" are very (very) often deliberate misinformation or psychological operation elements, designed to obfuscate reality, or lay the groundwork for plans that need bolstering. "Facts" are secondary to the subject, and what matters is the "reaction" to the leak.. not the leak itself.

If you stop and think about it... there is a terrible mystery about how, last October (2022), some teenager got their hands on the "official" "Top Secret" plans regarding military plans and posture of an ongoing multinational conflict which involves the funneling of billion of dollars in resources, the diplomatic posture of nations, and the military industrial complex's logistics and strategy. It seems implausible to me.

Of course, I am no expert on the intelligence community of today... I just urge caution about taking any of this at face value... if there is one thing that is inherently true about lying to a nation ... once begun, you can never stop without painful consequences to someone.

I nearly fell off my chair with laughing, Russia did it to embarrass Washington???????? OH purleese, even if Russia was allowed to do anything it would pale into insignificance to how Washington is and has been embarrassing itself. It doesn't need any help from outside influences.

a reply to: Encia22

How do you stop rogue staff or spies within?

by giving each individual a different juicy bit
and see which one leaks

originally posted by: cappie
a reply to: Encia22

How do you stop rogue staff or spies within?

by giving each individual a different juicy bit
and see which one leaks

I like it, but with "1.25 million people with clearance and access to read top secret material in the US government in 2019.", that's a lot of juicy bits to hand out.

a reply to: Encia22

A quick update:

Again from The Guardian

Man known online as ‘OG’ is said to have access to large amounts of classified material and to regard intelligence services as repressive

The man responsible for the leak of hundreds of classified Pentagon documents is reported to be a young, racist gun enthusiast who worked on a military base, and who was seeking to impress two dozen fellow members of an internet chat group.

The Washington Post interviewed a teenage member of the group, who described the man, referred to by the initials “OG”, from their online correspondence, and shared photographs and videos. The Post also viewed a video of a man identified as OG at a shooting range with a large rifle.

According to the teenage member of the group interviewed by the Post, OG “had a dark view of the government”, portraying the government, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence agencies, as a repressive force. He ranted about “government overreach”.

OG’s current whereabouts are unknown. The teenage group member told the Post he “seemed very confused and lost as to what to do”.
“He’s fully aware of what’s happening and what the consequences may be,” he said. “He’s just not sure on how to go about solving this situation … He seems pretty distraught about it.”

Is he a lone ranger or a patsy?

They need to bring it back...