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CIA Releases 321GB of Bin Laden's Digital Library (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Today, the Central Intelligence Agency posted a cache of files obtained from Osama Bin Laden's personal computer and other devices recovered from his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan by Navy SEALs during the raid in which he was killed on May 2, 2011. The 470,000 files, 321 gigabytes in all, include documents, images, videos, and audio recordings, including Al Qaeda propaganda and planning documents, home videos of Bin Laden's son Hazma, and "drafts" of propaganda videos. There is also a lot of digital junk among the files.
The CIA site presents a raft of warnings about the content of the downloads: "The material in this file collection may contain content that is offensive and/or emotionally disturbing. This material may not be suitable for all ages. Please view it with discretion. Prior to accessing this file collection, please understand that this material was seized from a terrorist organization. While the files underwent interagency review, there is no absolute guarantee that all malware has been removed."
The CIA site presents a raft of warnings about the content of the downloads: "The material in this file collection may contain content that is offensive and/or emotionally disturbing. This material may not be suitable for all ages. Please view it with discretion. Prior to accessing this file collection, please understand that this material was seized from a terrorist organization. While the files underwent interagency review, there is no absolute guarantee that all malware has been removed."
So their idea is to re-post propaganda videos? I thought their stated job was to help combat terrorism (when they aren't busy creating their own elsewhere).
So are those files just binaries or libraries?
PS:
Seems like the right amount for Android project.
...accumulate more data than me. Geez, he needed to get out of his mom's basement, what a loser.
... his porn stash?
I get "access denied."
In an effort to further enhance public understanding of al-Qa'ida, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on 1 November 2017 released additional materials recovered in the 2 May 2011 raid on Usama Bin Ladin's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
With the release of these materials, the information remaining in the collection that has not been released publicly includes materials that are protected by copyright; sensitive such that their release would directly damage efforts to keep the nation secure; pornography; malware; and blank, corrupted, and duplicate files. The entire collection has been available to the US Intelligence Community and Department of Defense organizations for years.
The Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) previously released documents from the collection on 20 May 2015, 1 March 2016, and 19 January 2017 after an interagency review spearheaded by the CIA. The releases align with ODNI initiatives for increased transparency - consistent with national security prerogatives - and the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act, which required the ODNI to conduct a review of the documents for release.
CIA's 1 November 2017 release includes additional al-Qa'ida letters, videos, audio files, and communications, as well as routine family correspondence. As a result, it builds on the ODNI releases that provided material relevant to understanding the plans and workings of terrorist organizations. The material is posted in the original Arabic and in as close to the original form as possible, modified only so the files cannot be edited.
. . .there is no absolute guarantee that all malware has been removed.
Sure. But I wouldn't be surprised if malware were added.
Is this common? I wasn't aware this kind of thing was done. I don't have any problem with it, but it just seems like a weird thing to do.
When CIA is dumping so many things it's usually because they're trying to distract the public from something.
"Allah my lord, what will my legacy be for the world?"
"Your harddisk has replaced kittens on encyclopedia dramatica."
Have they ever done this before? Why would they do this? Who needs to see this anyway? The only reason I can think of is they planted their own malware and will be tracking everyone and anyone who even so much as accesses that website.
Hopefully they don't censor anything as this material is already void of operational value anyway. Lets hope that the possibly coming government refinancing policies don't lead to selling of this archive to private collectors who live in California and store their collections in barracks.
Posting anonymous for obvious reasons. I have a friend who is an analyst who was one of the first ones to look through Bin Laden's computer files. He said the majority of it was porn. Just so much porn.
I mean, it is not obvious that hosting this on a CIA website is a means to track, collect, and monitor all IP addresses that potentially attempt to download this data? It must have been a hot topic of discussion at the CIA, to weigh the pro's and con's of releasing such a large amount of data to the public that might potentially be used by those that are actually terrorists in order to inspire or recruit into that ideology. If they went through the troubles of dumping his body into the sea, why would they want to archive and submit a neat little package to the world of who and what this leader was? I just don't know if that was the right decision by the CIA. Unless, of course, the hint at "malware" inside the package is something that is directly related to the CIA and will help them in the future..
Don't click the link.
So will the the old files on how he was trained by and working for the CIA be included?
What about those regarding how he was merely Hamid Gul's PR guy?
(Hamid Gul ex-head of the Pakistani military intelligence, who oversaw the construction of the Pakistani nukes, and was so crazy, that the Al Qaeda detained him, because he wanted to fly planed with nuclear warheads over to the US. And he’s the guy, who can be seen in many photos, cheerfully sitting next to CIA officers wearing a turban, drinking tea like they're best friends. Probably because the money that the US gave Pakistan to "fight the terrorists" went straight to him and his pals in the northern Pakistani terrorist training camps. And probably because, after the US found out about it, they did it a second time.)
Something going on the CIA world at the moment, using the release some information as a diversion so everyone is looking the other way while they get up to something, which will get a page 10 mention in the news. hugely successful tactic for them never fails.
Employees of the CIA get promotions if there is more terrorism?
before putting it out, and they're hoping it will ignite some sentiments that are beneficial to whatever ugly things America are up to next. Perhaps it will conveniently mention Russian and Chinese support for terrorism? In any case, the material has been prepared before release.
There is also a lot of digital junk among the files.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
what nasty thing they're doing that this is supposed to distract us from? I will never believe that our CIA does anything out of the goodness of their heart. If I saw one of them reach down to pet a puppy I'd have it checked by a bomb squad.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
... to get your beacon and match it up to their database.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
It's not piracy and pedophilia anymore: Now, porn damages national security too
Enough said.
Is this a standard practice (that's only getting noted because OBL)? Is it so widely distributed internally and to other agencies that they figure it will leak out regardless, so they might as well do it on their terms? Or do they think this has legitimate value for researchers and counter-terrorism researchers?
I stole this Sig
Just like how unredacted and complete records from the Kennedy assassination investigation can still be considered a threat to national security, I suspect that 'public understanding' may have an entirely different meaning.
No, it was Iraq that was working with Al Queda. Remember Operation Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom? "Mission accomplished" and all that. You must not read the newspapers.
Yeah, I wanna visit the super spy agency's site. Oh wait, they already know me. I am tquasar.
Kinda crazy to sign off on allowing Iran to get nukes and pay them a few hundred billion dollars when the Iranian regime is working closely with al Qaeda, isn't it?
Those lies never get old, do they? As part of the deal, Iran stopped working on their nuclear program, and allowed extensive verification of this. How can you possibly spin this into 'allowing Iran to get nukes'? The money was not a payment, it was Iranian money that was frozen as part of the sanctions against Iran. Big difference.
And to trot out an old quote: You don't make peace with your friends. You make peace with your enemies.
See, even bin laden knew that the best final fantasy is the VII.
At least he knew 1 thing properly lol.
Kinda crazy to sign off on allowing Iran to get nukes and pay them a few hundred billion dollars when the Iranian regime is working closely with al Qaeda, isn't it?
Except he didn't "sign off on allowing Iran to get nukes", nor did he pay them hundreds of billions of dollars. The Iran deal bars Iran from developing nuclear weapons. And the "payments" you refer to were millions, not billions, and were Iran's money to begin with, we had frozen those assets in 1979 and had never returned it, until ordered by international courts to do so, which coincidentally was about the same time as the nuclear deal.
"there is no absolute guarantee that all malware has been removed"
You might have slipped in a few pieces of spyware of your own, you mean.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
So the release happened... why?
So they could point it a bit later, and go "There, see! This is justification for doing even more evil shit!"? Or why?
That's a lot of material. Must be 4K video. Did Tolstoy even write that much?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
When the CIA releases Al Qaeda propaganda it's perfectly fine.
If I were to even say something nice about the bastards then I'd be labelled a terrorist and find myself in a 0-star suite in Cuba wearing an orange jumpsuit. I thought that the CIA was supposed to be fighting the CIA, not becoming their web provider.
If he was still alive don't you think him making a statement would be the ultimate insult?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Who here would want to have their computer analyzed at some later date for an unrelated charge and have what amounts to recruiting material for a terrorist organization found on their laptop? Even if you could explain it away, that might well be only after spending heaploads in lawyer fees.
Sounds like one should not touch any of this release. Bad ju-ju.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Still scratching my head over that one.
I think he was last seen coming out the Bush residents.
Cause we all know it's there somewhere.
I'm not a conspiracy nut job, but I have to wonder what the real motivation was to release this. I don't doubt the guy existed or that the trade center towers came down, but I do question whether or not the entire thing wasn't a fabricated incident to get the support the establishment needed from the US population and the world to justify a future war in the region with significant potential gain for a small elite.
We all know the government is able and willing to do horrible horrible shit for its own benefit and/or that of those in powerful positions within our government and out. It makes me sick to think about.
The reality is 9/11 wasn't worth going to war over. The number of people that died on 9/11 was minuscule in the scheme of things- but the number of innocent people the US government killed in response was not (notice I'm not using the words we here, cause I refuse to take part in that, I didn't vote for those in power and I don't voluntarily pay my taxes, but do so under threat of violence). The US government killed over a million civilians between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How many died on 9/11 because of the attacks? A mere 3,000ish people. How many people die every day? 151,600.
If you are against the use of violence to achieve social and political objectives outside of actual self defence you may want to jump on the migration ship and come up to New Hampshire. Between the Shire Society and the Free State Project a lot of good stuff is happening in New Hampshire to change things for the better. If you want freedom and liberty over slavery and violence this is the place to be.
This is just the kind of crap the CFAA was created for. The CIA has gone too far this time.
Is it ok to everyone that after you kill a criminal you can also do whatever you want with his body, property and personal stuff? If the bad guys do this, they are bad... how come the so called good guys do this and it's ok?
Am I the only one that believes the whole Bin Laden assassination was faked?
Yeah.
This is a honeypot. They even said as much in the warning.
I'll quote from my completely-made-up super-secret unredacted investigation document:
The Dallas witness said that an ambitious group of Soviet university students had discussed an assassination and met every Thursday in "Kampainstart Tavern", a bar in Moscow. Through CIA Agent Skip Towne, an operation was begun in Moscow (see referenced document #3.14) utilizing the American-sympathetic professor Dr. Doktor, resulting in the cooperation of Igor Tratorov, a student known to frequent the bar in question. The most potent truth serum available to Dr. Doktor (which was slightly less potent than the vodka available) was a standard dose of truthinol. Under the serum's (and vodka's) influence, Tratorov revealed that the discussion was actually a plan to assassinate the senior chief janitor at the Kremlin. Tratorov was presented the option to defect to the United States, but chose to remain in the USSR to complete his studies, while continuing to assist the CIA as an operative under Agent Towne.
This would add no useful information to the story of Kennedy's assassination, but it would endanger the lives of everyone named, as well as trigger a few dozen investigations into colleagues, friends, and family, some of which might still be assisting the United States through old connections. The named Agent Towne might no longer be playing the spy game, but if he started introducing another American in Moscow before leaving, that person would certainly fall under suspicion now. Poor Igor may have regretted his actions and gone on to support the Soviet (and later Russian) government faithfully, but now he'd face punishment for a decades-old capital crime.
Even if all of the people were safe, there is still intelligence value in knowing the methods used. In this example, "truthinol" is established to be similar in effect to alcohol. Combining that with another released or stolen document that says something along the lines of "factanol is shown to be ten times as effective as the old truthinol" means the strength of the modern truth serum can be estimated with reasonable accuracy.
That's how intelligence and counterintelligence works. It's a long game, played over generations and using corrupted people as pawns. Every agency knows what information it's looking for, and it constantly looks for any tangential information that might get it closer to its goal. With modern technology, public releases can be processed in a few minutes to find any useful pieces to an adversary's puzzle. Redaction of those releases is the best way to counter that capability.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
CIA Agent Skip Towne
I can hardly believe that's a real name!
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Dude had Antz, Batman Gotham Knight, Chicken Little, Final Fantasy VII, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Resident Evil, The Three Musketeers......bunch of kids movies. The "Resident Evil" movie is the one that doesn't quite fit. I bet that was his celebrity crush; Milla Jovovich is probably relieved he's dead.
I think you should read Seymour Hersh on this. He's the most reliable source I know on the subject (which doesn't guarantee him being right on everything) He says Bin Laden was a defenseless man in a wheelchair who was mostly shot to pieces.
And what did I learn about CIA recently?
“We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington. We could sink a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (real or simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized. Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots, the arrest of a Cuban agent and the release of prepared documents substantiating Cuban involvement also would be helpful in projecting the idea of an irresponsible government.”
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/10/27/jfk-files-cia-plotted-kill-castro-stage-bombings-miami/
"During Operation Mongoose in 1960, the CIA also considered staging terror events in Miami and blaming it on pro-Castro Cubans."
For all I care, CIA and the government of USA was and still is, a terrorist organization.
Am I the only one that believes the whole Bin Laden assassination was faked?
Not just the assassination.
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
Actually, the money - several hundred million dollars - was tied up in a dispute between Iran and the US. Iran claimed it should be returned because they cancelled the military equipment orders after overthrowing the previous government and attack the US Embassy.
The US claimed it was only a small part of the assets owed to the US by the previous government, plus additional fines and penalties for Iran's attack on the US Embassy, seizure of assets of US citizens, and crimes against US persons and corporations.
Obama decided to just transfer the money, even though the case was never settled. Even though he knew, and had for years, that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons, had worked with Al Qaeda in Iraq to perform terrorist attacks in Iraq, and was actually hosting Al Qaeda figures in Iran to protect them from the US and train them for further anti-US terrorist attacks.
Probably not. There are people who think Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison are still alive too. And Andy Kaufman! And I shit you not: many many years ago, I think I saw a tabloid headline claiming that even JFK was still alive (but brain-damaged, of course).
(Adolph Hitler was a good one too, but even if he had been alive after 1945, he'd have still died of old age by now.)
Why you do believe he's still alive? ("He" being bin Laden, but if you'd rather explain a Jim-Morrison-is-still-alive hypothesis that might be more fun, so go with whoever you prefer.)
No, those are reasons for being unsure about whether he's alive or dead. To form a believe in him being alive, there would have to be a reason; something that tips you from I-don't-know-if-I-can-believe-these-untrustworthy-people to I've-caught-them-in-a-lie. Was it evidence? Or did an angel tell you? Or what?
(BTW, I changed my mind about going with whoever you prefer. If you only have time to do one, please do Jim Morrison instead!)
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
I understand your point. But who arbitrates what falls under the national security rubric? How isn't it that these agencies police themselves in getting to decide how best to 'enhance' public understanding? The only information that gets released that casts them in a negative light is that which has been leaked.
So you download it and start sifting through it all to find that O.B.L. era terrorist malware, only to find advanced backdoor contagions that exploit specific vulnerabilities in only Windows 10. I see what you did there, CIA! The malware warning was a good way to give the hacker a nice laugh. One of those inside jokes.
You know some autismo out there is going to make poops out of this
...to all our UK users. Downloading this is actually a crime under the Terrorism Act 2006.
"Am I the only one that believes the whole Bin Laden assassination was faked?" Yes.