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New Snowden Revelation: Terrorists Attempting To Infiltrate CIA

cold fjord writes "The Washington Post reports, 'The CIA found that among a subset of job seekers whose backgrounds raised questions, roughly one out of every five had "significant terrorist and/or hostile intelligence connections," according to the document, which was provided to The Washington Post by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The groups cited most often were Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda and its affiliates, but the nature of the connections was not described in the document. So sharp is the fear of threats from within that last year the NSA planned to launch at least 4,000 probes of potentially suspicious or abnormal staff activity .... The anomalous behavior that sent up red flags could include staffers downloading multiple documents or accessing classified databases they do not normally use for their work, said two people familiar with the software used to monitor employee activity.'"

25 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Snowden beware by jodido · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they can make Snowden out to be a terrorist, or a supporter of terrorism, or someone who knew a terrorist, or knew someone who knew a terrorist, they will try to justify assassinating him.

    1. Re:Snowden beware by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Given that he has clearly and proudly violated the National Security Act, he is already liable for the death sentence.

      No, he is not. There are various offenses under the National Security Act, and the ones of which Snowden is being accused are not eligible for the death penalty.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    2. Re: Snowden beware by myowntrueself · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's actually why he identified himself -- to help avoid assassination.

      And he has some security in the form of encrypted documents scattered around the world with instructions to release the key should anything 'happen' to him. And these documents contain stuff that would be VERY damaging to the US government.

      So, naturally, the US doesn't want to assassinate him. But the US has many enemies who would like to see these documents released. Do the math.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    3. Re:Snowden beware by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Uhhhh...forget about the USA getting the UK to blow millions going after Assange and keeping him locked in that embassy like a caged animal? You seem to be under the mistaken belief the US gov gives a flying fuck WHAT you think, when IRL nothing could be further from the truth. In reality the US gov is trying to rip off the mob with the whole "lets make an example out of him" bit and they don't give a fuck what you think as they have the MSM being their very own Baghdad Bob to hand wave it all away.

      For those that believe the US gov is still the "good guys", or ever were for that matter, I present exhibit A and exhibit B. First exhibit A, a speech by Naomi Wolf outlining how many plays from the "dictator's handbook" that goes back to Lenin to El Duce to the Crazy Austrian are being used here and now and this was made in 2007, things are MUCH worse than when this was made. oh as an aside she is now on the watchlist, her crime? talking about what rights you have under the constitution....Hear that sound? That is the sound of the founding fathers spinning like tops in their graves.

      Exhibit B was made nearly a century ago, but read this speech and see how much it sounds like exactly what we are seeing now....

      "I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."

      Sound familiar? The only thing that has changed is which country is getting fucked and which corp gets rich off the blood of the soldiers. hell you have a government that ADMITS that Gulf Of Tonkin was a "non event" (read total false flag) yet not a single person gets arrested? hell the current AG with Fast & Furious tried to pull a false flag on the American people and got Americans and Mexicans alike killed and has been caught in repeated lies under oath...yet nobody even entertains the thought of hauling his ass to jail?

      If it looks like it, acts like it, and smells like it maybe we should call it what it is...fascism. The only difference between the fascism of today and the fascism preached by the crazy Austrian is that the Austrian forced the corps to bend to his will, in this new version the corps and the government are one. Please watch the Wolf video and see how many plays from the dictator playbook is being run here now, a place outside the rule of law where torture takes place, public humiliation of citizens for the purpose of instilling fear and obedience, a government that spies upon its own people as much if not more than it spies on others, I could go on but Ms Wolf says it much better than I do.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Paranoia... by Meditato · · Score: 5, Interesting

    or actual infiltration?

    The original Bin Laden al-Qaeda is practically non-existent, its Islamist affiliates are too busy trying to win over regimes in the mideast, Hamas is trying not to piss off the US considering that Obama has been much more pro-Palestinian. Hezbollah....maybe. We're talking about a few tens of thousands of eligible individuals here, most of them with Hezbollah and Hamas.

    I have serious doubts that this is anything other than the Three Letter agencies trying to project a Cold War interpretation ("big centralized nation-state entity out to get us") onto a set of data that only shows small, disparate groups who are all actually too busy trying to avoid being smashed by the US, Israel, or the Arab League.

    1. Re:Paranoia... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Interesting

      From TFA:

      roughly one out of every five had âoesignificant terrorist and/or hostile intelligence connections,â

      I would guess that the definition of "signficant...connections" is in this case.

      Maybe it means you work for Hamas. Or maybe it means one of your cousins knew a guy in college whose little brother is now a member of hamas....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re:Paranoia... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Informative

      Paranoia... or actual infiltration?

      Or maybe just a bunch of hype.

      First thing that jumps out is the 4,000 re-investigations. According wikipedia it is estimated that the NSA has over 30,000 employees. I am going to pull some numbers out of my ass here: Let's say 25% have secret clearances and another 50% have top-secret(TS) clearances and the remaining 25% are support staff that don't need clearances. Secret clearances get re-investigated every 10 years, TS gets re-investigated every 5 years. It does not matter what TLA you work for that is standard. So (30K * 0.25 / 10) + (30K * 0.50 / 5) = 4500 re-investigations per year.

      That makes 4,000 re-investigations per year on the low side of completely unremarkable.

      Second thing is the wording quoted from the unnamed official:

      "Over the last several years, a small subset of CIA's total job applicants were flagged due to various problems or issues," one official said in response to questions. "During this period, one in five of that small subset were found to have significant connections to hostile intelligence services and or terrorist groups."

      Get that? 1 out of 5 of some unknown small subset. So we have absolutely no idea of the scale at all. It could be just 1 guy. Plus he lumped in "terrorist groups" with "hostile intelligence services" (which is basically all of them). So for all we know there were ZERO terrorists trying to infiltrate the NSA.

      Given the 'facts' in the article there is no story here.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    3. Re:Paranoia... by Cassini2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's not how the middle-east guys work. The CIA needs Arab spies to spy on the middle east baddies (and their is a very long list including Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, etc.) After a while, the baddies work out who is working for the CIA, and then determine who the spies family is. Then the spy either becomes a double, or the family killed. This is a huge problem for the CIA.

      This problem is also why America has made such poor progress in Afghanistan. The Taliban will wipe out your family. On the other hand, American soldiers don't go after peoples families, and mostly follow a reasonable moral code. Thus, middle-eastern students in North America look over their shoulders, because they don't know who will go after their family back home. Can you imagine convincing people to fight when they don't know who will threaten their families?

  3. You know spies.... by Roskolnikov · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bunch of bitchy little girls. Good news for you, I'm a drunk and a washout already, so I can talk to whoever I want, burned or no.

    - Sam Axe

    --
    Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
  4. You can't win in this job market by M.+Baranczak · · Score: 4, Funny

    They won't hire you if you don't have job experience, and they won't hire you if you do.

  5. Re:No need for that anymore... by Frobnicator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, they still need it. Just look at the nature of the story: "The official, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified material."

    Yet these people aren't being hunted across the globe for their classified leaks.

    --
    //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
  6. The terrorists are already here. by bmo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look at who signed this.

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/experts-obama-here-what-do-syria_751267.html

    The same old bunch of neocon bastards that lied us into Iraq as far back as the "Open Letter to Bill Clinton back in 1998.

    http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm
    http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

    And really, read the rest of the PNAC site.

    PNAC morphed into the Foreign Policy Initiative

    http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/about/staff
    http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/about

    Even during Mitt Romney's candidacy Mittens had a fucking wb page *titled* "new american century* with much of the above philosophy basically cut-and-pasted. Which shouldn't be surprising since his foreign policy "brain trust" consisted of FPI bastards. Up to and including Dan Senor (FPI and PNAC alum) on Meet The Press saying that we should bomb Iran back then.

    Read. It's not conspiracy theory when it's from their own mouths.

    I wouldn't put it past these bastards to hire someone to detonate a sarin bomb in Damascus to gin up an excuse for an invasion. And now they're wondering what the fuck to do now that the President just said "Well, we should have Congress' input on this."

    Fuck these guys for wanting to get us involved in another war where there is no winning, just more death.

    --
    BMO

    1. Re:The terrorists are already here. by caballew · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wouldn't put it past these bastards to hire someone to detonate a sarin bomb in Damascus to gin up an excuse for an invasion. And now they're wondering what the fuck to do now that the President just said "Well, we should have Congress' input on this."

      Looking at his actual record, Obama is more George Bush that George Bush was . He's owned and controlled by the same people who own and control Congress. I'll give you a hint; it's not the American people. I wouldn't be surprised if the sarin wasn't released to benefit and promote our political agenda at home (NSA, etc.) as well as our foreign policy. He just wants it all wrapped up nicely with Congressional approval to deflect responsibility.

  7. Except ... by six025 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The anomalous behavior that sent up red flags could include staffers downloading multiple documents or accessing classified databases they do not normally use for their work, said two people familiar with the software used to monitor employee activity.

    Except, apparently, one Edward Snowden. Which means for all of the paranoia, someone still got through.

    What about the other Snowdens that aren't whistleblowers but real, actual spies?

    This is another reason the NSA et al are foolish to dismiss Snowden as a threat, another reason why he should be embraced as a hero for shining light on a serious problem!

    Peace,
    Andy.

    1. Re:Except ... by ebno-10db · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So you are in favor of courtesy notes from burglars then?

      Flawed analogy. Burglars steal your property. Snowden "stole" things that belonged to the people of the United States, and then gave them the access that they'd been denied to their own property! Oh, that's right, it was being kept secret for "our protection" (and the bureaucracy protecting itself - the main reason for government secrets).

    2. Re:Except ... by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Exactly this. Protection through secrecy, like security through obscurity just does not work over the long haul.

      An an anecdotal example, when my great-grandmother died, I was five. My parents inherited a small ladies handgun (22 short semi) from her. I did not know, it was kept secret. It was not locked, just stored on the back of a closet shelf under some shoe boxes. One day at 11 or 12, I noticed two identical shoe boxes in my parents closet were sitting at different heights. Being the curious soul I was, I investigated, and found the handgun in a box with a small amount of ammunition. Playing with it later nearly blew my hand off.

      Secrecy gives a false sense of security, and also promotes lies and egos. It does not further security.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
  8. Re:Better use for NSA capabilities: Watch Congress by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they do, do you think it would be used for the people? No, it would be used as leverage to further their own agenda by pulling the congress critter's strings.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  9. Re:One in five? Really by vux984 · · Score: 4, Informative

    No. You misread it.

    Its saying that of the subset of those with suspicious backgrounds one in five is "linked" to terrorism.

    We don't know how big that 'subset' is. It could be (and probably is) quite small. Of 5000 applicants, there might be 20 with "suspicious backgrounds", and of that 20 there might be 4 who they linked to terrorism. The "1 in 5 with links" are of the 20 that were already flagged as suspicious, not the entire pool of applicants.

  10. In the end by lesincompetent · · Score: 4, Funny

    CIA, NSA, FBI etc will gradually lose interest in the general populace and, in the name of self-defense, gradually shift their investigative efforts onto themselves until they'll implode in a singularity of paranoia.

  11. Prospects tripped up in interview questions by JoeyRox · · Score: 4, Funny

    Q: What do you like doing during your off time? A: l enjoy long-distance bike rides and wishing death to Israel. I mean collecting stamps.

  12. Re:TERRORISTS ALREADY HAVE INVADED NSA/CIA/MILITAR by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Terrorist" is the new "Red/Commie". Every generation needs a convenient vague Boogyman Bucket to shove people into they don't like.

  13. Terrorists by cphilo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think the problem is EVERYTHING is labeled Top Secret and everything is a terrorist group. Is this going to embarrass Senator X? Label it top secret. Twenty years in the future, this fact MIGHT be pertinent. Label it Super Top Secret. Annoyed with someone? Label him a terrorist. Annoyed with a situation. Must be terrorists. In the rush to cover their governmental asses, everything must be labeled top secret and everyone must be spied on, because, ya know, they might become a terrorist someday. Land of the Free, as long as you do not upset anyone in power: corporate, military or government.

  14. Re:And in other news by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd be surprised if terrorists were not trying to infiltrate the CIA.

    Frankly.... i'd be surprised if they have not already succeeded.

    THAT is what makes me as nervous as hell about the NSA spying on Americans through service providers.

    Leaks like Snowden are proof that whatever they gather might eventually get in the wrong hands one way or another.

    One person's interest in monitoring the public looking for possible terrorists links, Is another person's blackmail material, once the bad guy infiltrators get ahold of Americans' private data

  15. Re:No need for that anymore... by t4ng* · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All depends on your perspective. To people outside the US, the CIA is the most well funded and brutal terrorist organization in the world!

  16. BULSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't ANY of us know how to read a news story and think for ourselves, anymore?

    There's a methodology used to substantiate this kind of BULLSHIT claim. It can be described as shooting an arrow towards a wall, then drawing a bulls-eye around it, after the fact.

    For another metaphor? Here's the word you get to drive your Mack truck through:

    "Affiliated"

    When you have the NYPD secretly assign all Mosques the "Terrorist Organization" label, and you have the CIA recruiting for record numbers of native Arabic speakers, for translation?

    Call it "Psyop Ju-Jitsu". This is an all-star set up, to make a positive scare-tactic out of the negative public relations resulting from Snowden's revelations.

    By-the-fucking-way, what else do you expect, when you let this kind of shit go down? Objective and agenda-less reporting of fact?

    USA. It's like a police-state with Tesla Model S and overnight shipping, instead of Bread and Circuses.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."