WikiLeaks Posts Mysterious 'Insurance' File

I'm currently searching the wikileaks website for ANY mention of the file anywhere else apart from the actual download link, and i found this in their offical IRC chatroom, its their MOTD for their room:

[#wikileaks This chatroom is intended for contacting WikiLeaks and coordinating WikiLeaks work, not general chat. Please refrain from controversial topics unrelated to WikiLeaks documents. || Keep it secret, keep it safe: thepiratebay.org... OR http://(link tracking not allowed)/cxc7rK]

Notice the end bit saying "Keep it secret, keep it safe:" Well the links after it are for the insurance.aes256 file.

If i find anything else Ill let you know.

reply to post by hadriana


It sounds like something I read just recently: Jullian Assange: Essay on Conspiracies

Return to our board-and-nails analogy. Imagine a thick heavy cord between
some nails and fine light thread between others. Call the importance, thickness
or heaviness of a link its weight.

We can split the conspiracy, reduce or eliminating important communication between a few high weight links or many low weight links. Traditional attacks on conspiratorial power groupings, such as assassination, have cut high weight links by killing, kidnapping, blackmailing or otherwise marginalizing or isolating some of the conspirators they were connected to.

Originally posted by Ibex08


Notice the end bit saying "Keep it secret, keep it safe:" Well the links after it are for the insurance.aes256 file.

"Keep it secret. Keep it safe."

It's a quote from Lord of the Rings. Gandalf, talking to Frodo - referring to the One Ring, as he seals it up in an envelope.

Ok so what relevance does that have to this situation?

God my head is going nuts with ideas at the moment in time....

reply to post by quango


It is probably a red herring just to annoy the curious.

Amazing the amount of interest the insurance file is generating. Very cloak and Dagger, Assange on the run, Applebaum detained. I think the file is one of two things; what it claims to be - some earth shattering revelation that the government won't want exposed and therefore insurance against prosecution, or a sham for the purpose of scaring the government out of prosecution. In either case it is surely for the same purpose. I seriously doubt he could fool the US gov with such an obvious rouse, it has to be something he knows and can tell them, or they wouldn't fall for it.
It won't be long before Assange is caught, if they release him quickly we may never know what's in insurance, if they don't, it's going to be very interesting to find out what the heck it is.

Originally posted by nonamousely

I am up in the air over Wikileaks. I don't want to say they can't be dangerous. Assange I'm sure has a better handle on the situation then I do. What I am saying is that the NYT never questioned the validty of the documents. That is not good journalism.

Well I am surprised that YOU are surprised that the MSM is not practicing good journalism.

Besides, did it ever occur to you that they did not need to "question the validity of the documents?" Why would you not assume that the NYT was in contact with the government from the moment they were informed they would be receiving the data?

You didnt address the net benefit question. How do you see your scenario benefiting them? If this is the CIA funding Wikileaks, and setting us all up, how does making the CIA look bad, and the war in Afghanistan look irresponsible and ineffective, and more costly in human terms than we have been led to believe work in favor of the CIA?

How does gathering info in such a public manner that all your targets KNOW they are being exposed benefit an intelligence agency?

I suppose it could be argued that this could be the false flag that lets them shut down the internet, or lock it down tighter, but did they really need to make us all cognizant of the fact that they are scheming lying manipulating weasels to do so? It seems to me it would have been far more effective for them to uncover some "horrible plot" against innocents here at home, perpetrated by anyone other than themselves. Now if they shut down the net, a fair percentage of us are going to suspect that they did some really horrible things they dont want us to ever know about. No one is going to buy the terrorist line of crap at this point. Or very few will.

I guess I dont follow your logic in regard to why the PTB would send up a false flag that makes them look evil, manipulative, and arrogant as well as mildly incompetent all rolled into one. One or the other, ok, I could run with a story line, but both, its just hard to see how you feel that benefits them in any way. Either here or abroad.

* looks at watch*

Come on guys! I have been following this thread and others like it in other forums from the start, and noone is even remotely close yet to cracking it.

Im thinking that wikileaks may not know how to get into it, that could be the reason they have it up, let someone else figure it out.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


Another interesting question comes out of this. I think you and I agree on what mainstream media is like nowadays, a far cry for the good night and good luck times. A lot of these Wikileaks over the years should really have come from the established media houses and part of me wonders if the backlash is in part jealousy. Especially when you consider what The Times in the UK did with its play on headlines and article placement.

Originally posted by Lady_Tuatha
* looks at watch*

Come on guys! I have been following this thread and others like it in other forums from the start, and noone is even remotely close yet to cracking it.

Im thinking that wikileaks may not know how to get into it, that could be the reason they have it up, let someone else figure it out.

Honestly don't expect it to be opened unless wikileaks gives out the password.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


In an interview Julian Assange gave as a reason they had not released the newest video was that his volunteers were not done with it. He explained that they had to decrypt it. He said they normally do this trying weak passwords. The interviewer was asking about the video from Afghanistan Manning supposedly leaked.

It might be a raw intelligence file. If so, the DoD should know what it is, and if the password was weak they could assume WL has the password.

reply to post by LarryLove


I agree that the media backlash is partially jealousy. And partially just flat out anger. After all, they also are being accused of being crappy journalists in bed with the people whom Wikileaks is exposing too. I am sure the media has no love of Assange at this point.

He is manipulating them too. By releasing the data to more than one media outlet, he forces them into a prisoners dilemma. If they reveal to little, they make themselves look like suck ups and incompetent, so because they are in competition, and unsure what the others will do, they kind of have to report it, whether they want to or not. If they dont, they could lose market share, and they need money like everyone else to survive. The government cant fund them directly without attracting huge notice.

Its diabolical, really. And quite clever on Assanges part, to make his enemies do some of his dirty work by forcing them into that competitive position. But yeah, I imagine there are some very pissed off people in the media right now. For many reasons.

[edit on 2-8-2010 by Illusionsaregrander]

luckily I am not Assange, if I were, I would post all the materials they have on the US government or the most serious

just to create another buzz and change the subject on the media HAHAHHA

that would be great

yes, it may kill the Afghanistan war, but it may hurt more the US corruption

Theres a fair few idiots in this video

reply to post by muzzleflash


The type of encryption sounds like what the military would use for either classified information or maintaining accountability of munitions like bombs, missiles and small arms bullets.

It sounds familiar anyway.

I worked in the 2w0x1 career field in the U.S. Air Force for 6 years. I will not say that the encryption is the same.. What I will tell you is that it is extremely similar.

A couple of possibilities come to mind..

1)This could be a new file that wikileaks has for its own "insurance" purposes that will expose more government secrets and wikileaks is saving it for the right time.. In other words, the file has legitimate information that is encrypted. If this is the case then why wouldn't they put the file somewhere a little "safer".. This could be a blatant attempt at releasing said file so that someone might eventually decrypt it on their own (if that is even possible). At that point, the cat is out of the bag.

Maybe wikileaks can't decrypt it, themselves. Perhaps the simple purpose of making it available is so that, eventually, someone else might.

2) This could also be a measure taken by wikileaks to thumb their nose at the government and the U.S. intelligence community in general by creating a fake file with random data. In other words they're saying "Guess what, there's more where that came from" without even having to make a public announcement.

If the the file contains legitimate military and/or government secrets you have to wonder if releasing it is a good idea just depending on what it contains.

-ChriS

What if the file was put out there to give a challenge to many people to come up with a way to defeat aes256 easily? A quick, easy decrypt would pose a threat to lots of governments and corporations data. Something simple and elegant from a math/crypto student/professor.

The more I read about Assange the more I am amazed by his work...

There is a group of skilled hackers cracking this code as we speak, I'm sure it will be resolved within the next few weeks.

To fellow crackers:

Straw Glass And Bottle - makes me think of Coke / Coca Cola and those paintings by Norman Rockwell. Could be the name of a specific painting, or artist? Anyone know any art buffs that could identify paintings composed with a bottle, glass, and straw? Possibly buildings with a neon sign? (lol vegas?) Easiest would be to wait until the password gets cracked/published.

If you download, make sure the SHA1 checksum matches or you've just downloaded a 1.4gb of gibberish.

support.microsoft.com...

Hope this helps.

[edit on 3-8-2010 by NewWorldDisorder]

Just to make people aware. Julian Assange has very good knowledge about encryption and tech stuffs. Just checking his bio at wikipedia and you could spot him as a big nerd when the subject is computer.

en.wikipedia.org...

Starting around 1997, Assange co-invented "Rubberhose deniable encryption", a cryptographic concept made into a software package for Linux designed to provide plausible deniability against rubber-hose cryptanalysis,[16] which he originally intended "as a tool for human rights workers who needed to protect sensitive data in the field".

studied physics and mathematics at the University of Melbourne

[edit on 3/8/10 by blackcube]