Check out article and comments.
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Posted on 06/07/2017 9:26:36 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
An NSA document purporting to show Russian military hacker attempts to access a Florida company which makes voter registration software is sent anonymously to The Intercept. A low-level NSA contractor, Reality Winner, above, is arrested almost immediately. What’s wrong with this picture? A lot.
Who Benefits?
Start with the question of who benefits — cui bono— same as detectives do when assessing a crime.
— Trump looks bad as another trickle of information comes out connecting something Russian to something 2016 election. Intelligence community (IC) looks like they are onto something, a day or so before ousted FBI Director James Comey testifies before Congress on related matters.
— The Intercept looks like it contributed to burning a source. Which potential leaker is going to them in the future? If potential leakers are made to think twice, another win for the IC.
— The FBI made an arrest right away, nearly simultaneous to the publication, with the formal charges coming barely an hour after The Intercept published. The bust is sure thing according to the very publicly released information. No Ed Snowden hiding out in Russia this time. IC looks good here.
— More evidence is now in the public domain that the Russians are after our election process. Seems as if the IC has been right all along.
What Happened is... Curious and Curiouser...
Now let’s look at what we know so far about how this happened.
A 25-year-old improbably-named Reality Winner leaves behind a trail long and wide on social media of anti-Trump stuff, including proclaiming herself a member of The Resistance. Never mind, she takes her Top Secret clearance with her out of the Air Force (she had been stationed with the military’s 94th Intelligence Squadron out of Fort Meade, Maryland, co-located with the NSA’s headquarters)[continued]
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
She’s obviously a patsy.
The other thing no one wants to talk about is the obvious result finding the leaker so soon after Trump and other aides clamored about the leaks over the past 2 months or so.
This document was released in early May.....about that same time.
Anyone want to guess if this was a nice trap set up to catch the leaks?
“The Intercept meanwhile drops by their friendly neighborhood NSA contact and shows them the document. NSA very publicly confirms the veracity of the document (unusual in itself, officially the Snowden and Manning documents remain unconfirmed) and then makes sure the open-court document filed is not sealed and includes the information on how the spooks know the leaked doc was printed inside the NSA facility. Winner went on to make a full confession to the FBI. The upshot? This document is not a plant. The NSA wants you to very much know it is real. The Russians certainly are messing with our election.”
Hmmmm. Interesting point I hadn’t considered. If she already had her clearance and it was current, they wouldn’t do a full background check unless it was close to her 5 year update. She only got the job in February if I remember correctly. Looks like her social media and perhaps other stuff we aren’t aware of put her on someone’s radar. They could have baited her with a false story and watch it be published or they were watchint her the whole time she was employed..a whistle-blower tip, perhaps.
But funny thing.
While the leaked NSA document seems to be a big deal, at least to the general public, it sort of isn't. It shows one piece of analysis suggesting but not confirming the GRU, Russian military intelligence, tried to steal some credentials and gain access to a private company. No U.S. sources and methods, or raw technical intel, are revealed, the crown jewel stuff. There is no evidence the hack accomplished anything at all, never mind anything nefarious. The hack took place months ago and ran its course, meaning the Russian operation was already dead. The Russians were running a run-of-the-mill spearfishing attack, potentially effective, but nothing especially sophisticated. You get similar stuff all the time trying to harvest your credit card information. The leaked document looks like a big deal but isn't.
Another issue. The Intercept has a lot of very smart people working for it, people with real-world intelligence and tradecraft experience. People who know about microdot encoding on printed documents, one of the tells here, and people who know they don't show their whole hand when asking the NSA for a comment. The Intercept journalist volunteered to an NSA contracting company that the envelope received was postmarked to Augusta, where Winner lived and worked. Like Reality Winner and her own security training, it is very, very unclear why the Intercept took the actions it did under those circumstances.
II> So For Now...
At this very early stage I'm going to say there are too many coincidences and too many mistakes to simple shrug it all off. Too many of the benefits in this have accrued on the side of the IC than is typical when a real whistleblower shares classified documents with a journalist.
If it frightens you that I invoke the question of the Deep State using journalists to smear the President, just forget I said anything. Otherwise, if anyone hears Winner's lawyer use the word "patsy," let me know, OK?
These three are the trifecta of the origins of fake news. They put the national enquirer to shame.
This little POS left the military with a Top Secret Clearance. I had to sign off any clearance that I had and was warned the consequences are substantial for breaking the agreement. Something stinks in our government and I give POTUS Trump a "D" for cleaning the house and draining the swamp. This government is sputtering along with so much treason,deceit and corruption it makes me sick. This woman's head belongs on a spike with Clinton and everyone in between.
From what I understand, Sessions is accomplishing a great deal on the drug-gang an illegal alien side of things. Just because nothing overt appears to be happening at the moment with Russia, doesn’t mean he is incompetent.
“IC” = Intelligence Community
“And I don’t trust “news” sites that don’t allow comments”
Agreed. CNN rarely (if ever?) allows comments in their articles.
Check this out.
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2311.htm
Qatar is Deep State state.
Article says Reality just went there. Works for company the Ruskies claim is involved in plot to assassinate DJT.
Of course, Russian source is HIGHLY SUSPECT.
But, there seems to be something here that doesn’t meet the eye.
Did the President just PULL THE PLUG ON THE SWAMP?
Check out article and comments.
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She printed classified material on a laser printer. The laser printer "watermarks" a document with fine, yellow dots that record metadata including the make, model and serial number of the printer. It's recoverable and traceable to the printing device.
Too pat.
It’s a set up ... but not for the leaker woman ... for the rest of us.
Meanwhile Hillary Clinton continues to walk to and fro free as a bird.
Precisely
Where did they get Qatar? No sourcing. Other say “Belize.”
Don’t suppose it ever dawned on you that those drug law revisions were specifically targeted at the “Dreamers” you guys whine about all the time. It makes it possible to get rid of them without a fuss.
What is your purpose?
Sessions hasn’t been AG for “months”. Do you not realize that investigations take time?
I can’t believe your attitude.
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