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DOJ Charges Federal Contractor With Leaking Classified Info To Media (thehill.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from The Hill: The Department of Justice charged 25-year-old government contractor Reality Leigh Winner with sharing top secret material with a media outlet, prosecutors announced in a press release Monday. Court documents filed by the government don't specify which media outlet received the materials allegedly leaked by Winner, but NBC News reported that the material went to the Intercept online news outlet. The Intercept published a top secret NSA report Monday that alleged Russian military intelligence launched a 2016 cyberattack on a voting software company. Details on the report published by The Intercept suggest that it was created on May 5, 2017 -- the same day prosecutors say the materials Winner is charged with sharing were created. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on whether Winner is accused of sharing the report published by the Intercept. Last month, Winner allegedly "printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information" before mailing the materials to an unnamed online news outlet a few days later, according to prosecutors.
When Reality finally struck, no-one went home a Winner :(
Truly the "social sharing" generation!
Who the fuck names their kid "Reality"
It looks like Reality Winner is really Reality Loooouu-zah.
I personally think too much stuff is marked as classified which really shouldn't be. Because it is mostly common knowledge, we just don't have the details. However if you are going to leak classified info. Please leak in quality not quantity. I much rather see a report about a leak every few years about something really actionable. About some injustice that is only classified because it makes the ruling people look bad, and is something truly affecting ones conscious.
These little leaks in a state where we are ruled by a 12 year old in a 70 year old body. We are much better putting him in a state of false security where his overconfidence will lead to real mistakes and the leak can hit like a dagger. Vs a constant irritant .
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Small government applies to the breadth of what the government does. Small government does not mean inept, in times of war (say WWII) it does not mean keeping taxes low or not paying soldiers. It means that government is limited - that does not have a role in say wage and price freezes (rent control); that it's function is not to redistribute wealth; etc...
You may agree or disagree with the positions - but you are simply making a straw man and digging yourself into an intellectual hole when you convince yourself of this bullsh!t.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Most agencies have offices all over the country, but which one is based in Georgia, other than the CDC? If this contractor was working for the CDC why would he have access to cyberhacking information? Cover?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
You got leaks about the DNC rigging a primary. About them giving debate questions to a candidate before the debate, along with coordination with news outlets to smear Sanders the proper amount before primaries.
What more could you want than outright organized election rigging?
"Reality Winner" perhaps she considered this was her ace up her sleeve.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
When the leak came out the usual suspects trotted out the usual nonsense:
1. The NSA were clearly lying and these were bogus because Russia is our friend
2. This is obviously "the deep state" (ie management of the NSA, CIA, etc) trying to undermine Cheeto Mussolini with fake news. Sad!
What did the campaign against Winners prove? The docs are the real deal. The NSA does, actually, genuinely believe that the Russian state was actively trying to interfere with the election. They're not making that up. They have evidence - they're not sharing it with you but they have it. They're not trying to undermine anyone, no matter how awful they are. Hell, they're still trying to keep this stuff secret. They're actually trying to protect Trump from negative publicity.
As for Winners, the jokes - based upon her name - write themselves. But yes, she's the real deal. Sessions is confirming she leaked real NSA documents. The rightosphere is confirming she's not some high level intelligence official trying to orchestrate a coup. The NSA documents are legit: Russia interfered with the election.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
God, I have to scroll to the bottom to get to the one comment actually analyzing the situation.
Reality is a slackware box running on a 386 tucked away in god's sock drawer.
Color printers use a pattern of tiny yellow dots to embed an almost invisible code with the printer serial number and the date and time in every printed document. The Intercept handed over a scan of the document to the NSA for redaction with the code still intact. It is also in the published document. The EFF has the technical details.
While the means might be old news to some, it appears that neither Reality Winner nor The Intercept was sufficiently aware of hardcoded printer tracking techology, or just didn't think to check for it and take preventative steps. I can kind of understand that from Winner who might have just acted on the spur of an opportunistic moment, but The Intercept really ought to have known better and cleaned up the PDFs before publishing, and that may well deter people from leaking to The Intercept in future if they're not confident in their own ability to properly sanitise the data.
Going to be interesting to see how The Intercept tries to make up for their part in her now almost certainly ruined life...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
So wait, if Russia is NOT our friends AND they tried to interfere in our election, why would we, or more correctly the NSA, not want to undermine them? So we have a leaker that got caught the very day the article is published, her name is Reality Winners or all names, and even though she has had ALL KINDS of pro Sanders/Anti-Trump tweets and social media posts that were easily found she was still allowed to hold top secret security clearance. Who would ever doubt this unbelievable string of events??
I guess we can thank her for confirming the NSA discovered Russian interference but most reasonable people would have known that already even if they weren't privy to the details. She'll probably end up in prison for 5-10 years over this.
There have been a large number of politically motivated leaks lately. At one point things got so bad the Brits publicly declared they wouldn't share intel anymore.
So far this is the first of these leaks to actually result in an arrest. Several well known leaks came when only a small handful of high level people could have gotten the data to begin with. The FBI needs to arrest all of the people doing the leaking, not just low level contractors. Perhaps this arrest is just the first in series, can it really be that hard to track down these leaks?
Add to that the report being full of "could have" "might have" and "possibility".
It's funny. It was proven that the CIA has a 60 million dollar deal with the Washington Post to allow it to feed stories yet every time a report or leak comes out people that 10 years ago would never trust this crap claim it's "all legit" in an almost "move along, nothing to see here" kind of manner.
The only facts are
- for some stupid reason, we have electronic voting machines
- they may be vulnerable to hacking
- some hackers tried to hack them, including Russians
So what? If your government uses electronic voting machines, expect stories about them getting hacked from time to time.
Because the NSA is trying to protect the source(s) of their information? That's the only thing that makes sense to me. Trump's spent a bit of time already shitting on our intelligence community, so I really doubt they're holding back this information in loyalty to him.
But protecting one or more sources who got us that information? I can see that. Plus, we already have the knowledge that Trump can't really be trusted with this sort of information, because it's possible he could blab it to whoever.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
the government will put into adding credibility into a story is amazing.
Like I said in a different thread:
After what happened with Snowden, what do you think the odds are that a contractor can both obtain and distribute a NSA document at all without anyone from the NSA noticing ?
I have serious doubts about it and my initial thoughts are this is just the Government pushing the Evil Russians narrative vs the home grown ( DNC ) efforts to skew the election.
Because the former is expected and the latter undermines the trust in the overall US election process. Can't have that now can we ? Bad things happen in armed countries when the populace loses faith in the election systems.
Russia just happens to be a convenient scapegoat for anything that's wrong these days.
Even IF the NSA verifies the document and shows you the evidence they have, after the bullshit they have pulled recently with their surveillance programs, would you trust any of it ?
Dear NSA: That's the problem when you erode / destroy the public trust. When you have a real situation where you need folks to believe you, very few will.
If any at all.
They can create any "documents" they need to advance their" Russian election hacking narrative", including framing a poor shlub.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-05/nsa-leaker-called-trump-piece-shit-fan-bernie-sanders
The notion of republicans standing for small government and democrats standing for big government is laughable. Here's why.
Over the past century, American politics has been fully dominated by the republicans and democrats. But neither has dominated over the other; instead, they have shared in the domination of American politics roughly equally.
Now, if one party stood for small government and the other big government, with both parties having roughly equal influence over American politics over the past century, then naturally, one could expect the end result to be somewhere in the middle. But it's clearly not. In fact, over the past century, the American government has grown exponentially by nearly all measures: depth, breadth, scope, revenue, and power over the people. We are talking about what is now the largest, most expensive, most powerful government AND world empire in human history, with military presence in over 150 countries.
How in the world could that happen, if one of the two dominant parties was actively working against the push for bigger government?
Answer: they never were, and the whole story is a lie.
I wish I had a crystal ball. :-(
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
She was enlisted in the AF. Possibly in intelligence? In any case, a high school diploma and little or no criminal history will get you into the military. She got her TS clearance from the military. She was probably honorably discharged. Then, she became marketable to a number of contractors who have DoD contracts and she fit several criteria: 1) TS clearance, 2) experience, 3) female. She is young and impressionable and thus became a leftist. The dark side is quicker and more seductive. Contractors have too much access to information. The leftists have an active campaign to recruit low information people to work as their hired useful idiots.
As head of the executive, he (theoretically) has access to all classified material. He also can, again theoretically, declassify anything he wants. I say theoretical because of logistics and political feasibility.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The Russians, or more likely, someone from Russia, tried to hack a company in the US. Wow, like we didn't already know that hackers from every country on earth are trying to hack computers owned by companies in every country on earth. I was born at night, but not last night.
Looks like she was just another one of the Obama logic-bomb employees.
No, she was another of the many incompetents in this administration. She was hired on February 13th. Guess who was in the White House on that day?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Not being a politician. (They are immune to persecution.)
It means that government is limited - that does not have a role in say wage and price freezes (rent control); that it's function is not to redistribute wealth; etc...
I think the problem is we all agree on "small government" and then assume everyone else is with us on the specifics. For me, "small government" means "Not restricting freedoms and rights." Like no laws against abortion.
I'd also argue that having your rights abridged by the government and having your rights abridged by a corporation are different only in that you got to vote for the government. To me, a government that is too small to regulate, say, comcast or health insurance agencies, that's really pretty similar to "big government."
Finally, with wealth inequality reaching the robber barron age, I can't fathom how people would still be saying "government shouldn't redistribute wealth." FFS the fastest way to a situation we'd all consider to be "big government" is through an oligarchy.
If they do this for somebody so low on the ladder, can you imagine the witch hunt they would do if it where somebody much higher up who spilled secret information to foreign states that are not really allies? What? They don't? How do you spell hypocrite again??
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
From personal experience, I know that link is incomplete. Even mere Secret level clearance takes weeks, Top Secret takes much longer. So her security clearance evaluations started sometime in 2016, guess who was in the White House that year.
Governments role is to protect individual rights. (See US Constitution and Bill of Rights)
Abortion is tricky (I'm pro-choice in case it matters) as there isn't a clear cut definition of where life begins. (We know the arguments back-and-forth)
Corporations live only by customers using them. We could kill Amazon or Walmart in a heart-beat by not buying things from them.
Wealth inequity is a tricky issue.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
And so in early September when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that did not happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, there were going to be some serious consequences if he did not.
And in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. But the leaks through Wikileaks had already occurred.
So when I look back in terms of how we handled it, I think we handled it the way it should have been handled. We allowed law enforcement and the intelligence community to do its job without political influence.
So, at the time that Obama made these comments, the NSA had evidence that Russia was continuing with hacking efforts. Tough guy!
At least, the GP is offering a coherent accusation .
Which means, he is one step ahead of the folks demanding "Trump investigation" and "Russian connection". Those not only have no proof, but can't even state the charge...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
The Reality is, if you cite infowars.com, you're a Loser.
Damn, there was no reason to go anonymous for that bon mot.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
The report does not claim that voting machines were hacked, a once-popular post-election theory from Democrats, nor does it state whether the information pertaining to the voting systems could be used to hack those systems.
As opined by Matt Vespa> , "still, 55 percent of Democrats think that Russia messed with the vote totals to get Trump elected. The Left has gone insane. Like the rest of the Russian collusion drama, there is no evidence that vote tallies were tampered with by a foreign intelligence service."
She most likely got her clearance when she was in the military.
It looks like the NSA's fall-guy random name generator had a bit of a misfire.
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
The debate must then be how to punish those who have wronged us and how to better protect ourselves and our elections. But this isn't a conversation the Right seems intent on having. They'd rather vilify the leaker and move on. People are trying to undermine our elections. Why don't they think this is serious? I'll tell you why. It's only when they start losing elections that it's a problem. This is the party that mastered the gerrymander, of politicians choosing voters and not the other way around. This is the party that has naked intent on destroying the cogs of government, to the detriment of all Americans. This is the party where party first is an insult that stings because it's fucking true.
What does having "ALL KINDS of pro Sanders/Anti-Trump tweets and social media posts" have to do with being able to have a TS clearance?
I sure hope we NEVER start basing security clearances on an individuals legitimate political beliefs because that would be what "McCarthyism" was all about.
We could kill Amazon or Walmart in a heart-beat by not buying things from them.
The oceans could all be drained in a heartbeat if all the water molecules decided to evaporate simultaneously. They won't of course, they have an extremely long history of not simply deciding to do that except when there's a lot of heat. Likewise, most people won't vote with their wallet against corporations, they have a long history of not voting against anything but the worst corporations when a lot of other stuff is going on.
Infowars, really? You do realize that Alex Jones has admitted in court proceedings that he's just playing a character and doesn't actually believe the stuff he says, don't you?
The actual tweet is a reply to Kanye West: "@kanyewest you should make a shirt that says, "being white is terrorism"". Kanye West - the "George Bush doesn't care about black people" guy. The Obama hasn't accomplished as much as Bush because "...he ain't got those connections. Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people...We ain't Jewish. We don't got family that got money like that." guy. The reason-he-lost-an-awards-show being "maybe my skin's not right" guy. A guy who's a living parody of himself.
And a guy who runs a fashion line. Hence the joke about the T-shirt.
Of course, to you people the problem isn't the fact that Russia not only launched an aggressive campaign against the public to shift the election, but also tried to compromise voting software and spearfish local election officials. No no, that's not the problem at all. The problem is that someone dared leak the fact that they did this. And that it's someone who doesn't like Trump - like most Americans. And oh my god, she also supports BLM, like the majority of people her age group - including white people in her age group. Clearly the problem isn't a major effort by a hostile power to compromise an election - it's that a person who agrees with the stances of the majority dared tell people about it! Damn her!
We gotta go to a crappy town where I'm a hero.
Not a whistleblower. A whistleblower is clearly defined and must involve illegal activity, corruption, waste,fraud, or abuse. This classified document does not indicate anything other than some hackers, who are suspected to be Russian, made an attempt to compromise the electronic voting machines. You get no whistleblower protection's releasing this classified document. Also it is been well-established that contractors are not entitled to whistleblower protection. When Snowden blew the whistle on illegal NSA activity, he was whistleblowing but still not protected since he was a private contractor. Releasing a classified document like this is subject to espionage charges
The vigilantes at InfoWars have dug up the following tweets from the accused:
the most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fascist we let into the white house Because Trump is worse than Putin... I can't imagine having kids, i worry enough about the impact of #climatechange on my cats There are many Americans protesting US govt aggression towards Iran. If our Tangerine in Chief declares war, we stand with you! Because GOP are worse than nuclear-armed mullahs.How could she — after openly siding with the enemy and professing utter disrespect to the Commander in Chief — have received a Top Secret clearance?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
The leaked document could have been manufactured to out the leaker. It does not contain any evidence and the government is not confirming anything. There is not enough information to jump to any conclusions. The story is that they nabbed the perp. Anything beyond that is speculation.
I dunno...apparently if you get a sex change in prison, they let you out in about 7 years or so....
Maybe this is "Reality's" scheme....to get a free sex change operation on the tax payers dollar...?
It has worked before....
[rolls eyes]
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
But...it can keep you out of Harvard....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Stop for a second and think of how you would react if the situation were reversed, if someone came here and posted something from Natural News or Democratic Underground.
The content of the post you linked from crazyconspiracycentral.com was addressed. But I guess you stopped reading after seeing your choice in "news" sources criticized.
We gotta go to a crappy town where I'm a hero.
I support 75th trimester abortion rights...
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
You're never going to persuade anyone on that. The choir will nod, and your opponents will glare at you.
Pro-choice people see one person's rights at stake (the woman's) in an abortion decision. Since there is only one person, there is no possible conflict, and the common-sense policy is for government to stay the fuck out of it.
Pro-life people see two people's rights at stake (the woman's rights and the fetus' rights) in direct conflict for the same resources. Any decision will result in some person's rights being infringed (and to a lethal degree, if the fetus loses). Even without government interference, someone is going to have a really bad day. Regardless of whether you want small government or big government, if you think a fetus is a person, you are probably going to want government involved, unless your "small government" is small to the point of total anarchy.
It's not a disagreement about "small government." It's not even really a conservative/liberal issue (though perversely, many people do seem to appear to align a certain way, without explanation). It's simply a disagreement about whether or not the fetus is a person, and therefore has rights which can possibly be infringed. If it's a person, then government has to protect its rights. If it's not a person, then the government should be protecting other peoples' rights from being unnecessarily infringed in a misguided effort to protect something relatively important.
Leave abortion out of the small government issue. It's a religious issue, unless we all somehow magically get to a consensus agreement on "what is a person?" so that we can objectively test/measure personhood instead of everyone just listening to their feelings (i.e. half-assed rarely-considered opinions). And, hint: we do not have that consensus yet. Not even close.
Wanna fight for pro-choice? Help create that consensus. Get people to think about "what is a person?" and have fun with it, too. It's not just a question for abortion, but also for upcoming or theoretical things like AI, genetic engineering, aliens, etc. The more people work through the essense of personhood and think about why we protect peoples' rights, the more likely they'll develop more compassion while also finding little specs of goo to be unqualified.
What is a person?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
If you're looking to roll back government, you should seriously consider the Free State Project. By concentrating likeminded people in one state, and getting literally dozens of them elected, we are making real changes, NOW
Part of the Second American Revolution!
Uhm, no. Why lie?
That was part of a quote that you didn't understand.
She didn't even state it, it was part of a question she was asking Kayne West on twitter. LOL
In Theory, no one would steal documents from the NSA.
In Reality...
(rimshot)
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Disagree with you completely. It's done often. Look at Chic-Fil-A. That was a perfect example of boycott / counter boycott. Here's another: look at all the people who went after firearm companies after the school massacres? What happened. Customers (like me) bought more to say FU to the gun grabbers. Boycotts and counter boycotts happen all the time.
I NEVER go to Citgo. I would rather pay more at another station than go there.
The energy you spend getting government involved is far better spent in going after the companies who do wrong. Just make certain you're not just preaching to the converted because the counter boycott may more than offset your boycott.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
I know the project and was in NH for a time. Part of the NY Libertarian Party.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Supporting one politician and opposing another is not the same thing as supporting rape and opposing racial equality. The former will NOT keep you out of Harvard. Only the latter.
I agree with you there. "When does life begin" Something like three billion years ago. Definitely there should be 9-billionth trimester abortions.
Come back :)
There are now two NH State Reps who are registered Libertarian (no other state has any, AFAIK), and of course dozens of State Reps who are hardcore libertarians but registered in the (R) and (D) parties. Why bang your head against the Empire State's brick wall?
Part of the Second American Revolution!
It should fall to the guidance counselors. Either parent makes the call and the brat just doesn't come home.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
thx. :)
My job is in NY. I have property in NH and good friends in the Littleton / Whitefield area.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
I would be intrigued to see what you think about Gun Control.
I used to call myself Libertarian. But lately the Libertarian party seems so obsessed with drug legalization I can't, in clear conscience, even consider myself an L anymore.
And, if we'd actually invaded the Japanese Home Islands, far more people would have died. Using the bombs was just terrible - but so was the war. And if it was up to neighbors in the region, like Korea and China, I daresay Japan would have been melted to slag, based on previous actions.
Acutally that isn't true. Historically the weather on the exact days planned for the invasion of Japan would have sunk the US troop carriers and quite a few destroyers. That would have been a new kamikaze in the traditional sense of the typhoon that saved Japan from the Mongols. The other pathway if they had not surrendered would have been problematic as while the US had a third nuclear weapon almost ready, the remaining dozen planned were delayed for a year or so by production problems.
I don't think guns are an inalienable god-given right, as the right to medical autonomy is. It sounds like I'd favor slightly more restrictions than you would, I assume you're okay with the government banning private sales of grenade launchers, RPGs, etc...
You don't know what ad hominem means and you should stop using it as a blankie.
Even if it were ad hominem occasionally the character of the speaker is relevant to the speech.
If a pedophile makes a political argument, touching kids isn't relevant.
However, if a pedophile wants to tell you how to dress your kids, it's pretty relevant.
Some do. We all used paper ballots last time. I think a lot of places went back to paper.
Used to be we even got a receipt. The top of the form would split off and it had a number. In theory I could go back and find that exact ballot to make sure it really was counted. I haven't seen that since the 1990s.
So...telling racially or sexually insensitive jokes, or making comments on such (no action on either)...should keep you out of any institution?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
My opinion of that is irrelevant to my point, which is that political affiliation doesn't matter when it comes to matriculating at Harvard. But if you must know, I would certainly count such things as a big mark against someone if I were deciding whether or not to bring them into an institution. In this case, Harvard has far more qualified applicants than they have opening. It shouldn't be a surprise that conduct counter to the values they stand for would be a deciding factor - there are plenty of people who are as qualified to attend but who aren't jerks.
Nope, this one's already a woman. She doesn't need to take drastic measures in order to get leniency. She will already get it.
"The person I voted for didn't win, so let me make 101 excuses, with 100 being it is Russia" FTFY
You can easily change days of invasion. I'm discussing the ground battle which would have ensued, and a nation who was brainwashed into believing dying for emporer was the best thing possible.