Wikileaks releases unredacted USA State Dept files....
 

Better hope your names not on them

"WHISTLEBLOWING WEB SITE Wikileaks has suffered a major setback with a leak of fully unredacted US State Department cables including sources' details surfacing online, thanks to a blunder by its founder, Julian Assange. The leak occurred sometime after Assange shared the password of an encrypted 'insurance' file stored online with a contact believed to have been trustworthy. This individual then used the password to decrypt the collection of 250,000 US diplomatic cables, which include details that could identify US State Department sources, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel."

Wikileaks suffers a major leak- The Inquirer

what a ****ing idiot

Generally Assange has tried to avoid releasing information that would seriously endanger national-security; releasing information that would expose misconduct and so forth without doing so.

Regardless, it's surprising how much flak he's gotten hit with. Obviously it's not about him releasing dangerous information, it's about him releasing information that makes the US and other countries look bad. Government's don't like it when their misconduct is being exposed. They already tried to frame him for sexual misconduct, recently he's suffered a major hacking-attack, evidently from the US (his website is now operating out of a Swiss server), and there has been threats made against his life.

My guess is that there are two possibilities

• With all the flak Mr. Assange has been taking just for releasing non-damaging information he's figured "**** Mr. Nice-Guy -- I'm just going to release everything -- let them deal with what may come of it." Assuming this scenario is correct, I hope none of the information released isn't too damaging (and for all we know, considering the "danger" from the earlier WikiLeaks releases were hyped as to make them appear far worse than they actually were, this may actually be the case).
• The US government hacked into the insurance file, then released it to justify bringing the hammer down on Mr. Assange. After all, if you can't justify cracking down on somebody for a criminal offense; frame them for something which you can. Yes, I know this makes me sound cynical beyond recovery, but it wouldn't be the first time a government's framed somebody it didn't like, and considering the desire of various governments to stamp WikiLeaks out, it wouldn't be terribly surprising to me.

Regardless, I could imagine this will probably justify the destruction of WikiLeaks, possibly the assassination of Julian Assange, maybe even various forms of internet censorship. Needless to say, this easily could be used to justify a host of "cyber security" proposals which are 90-95% dedicated to massive autonomous surveillance and datamining and 5-10% dedicated to actually protecting national infrastructure.


Robyn C.
"Never let a crisis go to waste, and should one fail to present itself: Create one"

Jane Doh
"They already tried to frame him for sexual misconduct, recently he's suffered a major hacking-attack, evidently from the US (his website is now operating out of a Swiss server), and there has been threats made against his life."

Did you Italicize the words "(his website is now operating out of a Swiss server)" ?

Does it matter where his server is ? If it's connected to the Internet, it's available for hacking, regardless of location.
And if he happened to vacate the planet for whatever reason, I don't think it would be a great loss.
.

500N,

I was simply italicizing text in parantheses. All I was saying was that they knocked his server off line, and he relocated to a Swiss site.

I can't help thinking that this issue is one where those who have served and those who haven't make their respective backgrounds obvious.

I cannot conceive of a soldier/sailor/airman who would deliberately disclose classified information. It is drummed in from day 1 week 1, that such action is such a massive no-no that you may as well consider your life to be over. In the UK, it is certainly an offence against the Official Secrets Act, if not Treason. Both carry stiff penalties, especially for serving staff.

It really doesn't matter what the content is, embarrassing, private, not that big a deal, presidency-threatening, whatever. It's not something that your average Joe judges. If the bit of paper has "SECRET" stamped top & bottom, back and front, it is just that. Utterly irrelevant what's on the piece of paper.

I don't know what other Governments do, but the UK govt will go to EXTRAORDINARY lengths to recover certain classified information should it be found to be somewhere other than where it should be.

Assange needs to be give 30 years to think about this.

Jane-DoH
Doesn't matter where he is located, if they REALLY wanted to knock it off line again they can and would.

Even though it is supposed to be separate from the US Gov't, the US does control the IP addresses for a start and that's before doing anything more underhand.

.

Seriously.......were do you think most of the files came from??????
IIRC it was a US Int Corp guy who handed over most stuff.

Train.....Cab.......Bar......Politicians hands.....

500N:

Sorry but that's not entirely true. There's many who can put up servers that the US can't bring down. They could try blocking them but imagine the furore when, (not if), they get caught censoring the internet... :ouch:

Said PFC is in a world of hurt. He's looking at a looong stretch in Leavenworth.

And as for your other point, read what I said again. I said "certain" information. I'm not going to go into what that might be, but it certainly doesn't get into politicians' hands, nor does it go anywhere near pubs, bars trains, taxis or anything else other than where it's supposed to be.

R280

Sorry there was an element of sarcasm with the second comment, so have no reason to read it again.

Quite familiar with looking after classified info thanks

I recall a Foreign senior officer opposite me leaving a British Secret file on the train table whilst he went to the buffet car. He had no idea I was a Serviceman.
I reported it, naturally, but don't let's kid ourselves that this kind of thing doesn't happen, and quite often. I used to know a WO snowdrop whose team was kept quite busy. Actually, being paid to hang around in bars and strip clubs wasn't that bad a lifestyle - beats traffic duty!

p.s. the aforementioned docs can be found in about 30 seconds. Pandora's box is open.

AA

Splitting hairs but the result is the same, whether you call it blocking or whatever.

Denial of service has already been done, however Wikileaks seems to have got a bit smarter now.

500N:

As has atdhe... :ok:

Correct me if I am wrong Jane but I thought Assange had yet to face court on any sexual charges and was appealing against extradition to Sweden, where he would be further questioned, with just the possibility of charges being laid?

When all the sexual charges have been dealt with Assange still has to face up to the reality that he has been handling stolen property.

:( This is all my fault you know, I jinxed things. Just the other day I was thinking how good it was to not have heard about the creep for a while.

rh200:

Please... Have a strong word with yourself... That was uncalled for!!!! ;)

What is all the fuss about? It is an old researchers' adage that that there are no secrets only lazy researchers.
The problem here is that the original source is an allegation in a press article and all that implies. It is not fact only a journalists view which may reflect his source and their agenda.
Some time ago I placed on this site a thread that gave the sequence, including code words, for the manning of Corsham in the 'Bolt from the blue scenario' which was deleted. This removal was on the grounds that the code words may be of use to someone. All of the information came from TNA files and was 50 years old.
So perhaps this is the wrong forum to expect balanced and informed judgement.

Can someone please explain to me how Post 18 by Donalduck can be deemed to be a reasonable reply to post 15 by rh200?

Best I take one of my pills.

Donald is clearly quackers...:}

I'll do better and give myself a good spanking, or if I can find someone else they can do it for me:E

Post 18 Donald?:confused: did I miss a feisty repy, dam I need to check more often:sad: