How 250,000 US embassy cables were leaked

The Guardian UK ^ | 11/28/2010 | David Leigh

[Rutles4Ever]

It was childishly easy, according to the published chatlog of a conversation Manning had with a fellow-hacker. "I would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like 'Lady Gaga' … erase the music … then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing ... [I] listened and lip-synched to Lady Gaga's Telephone while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history." He said that he "had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months".

[brytlea]

It really doesn’t make a lick of sense. Is there more to this story or have we just become so lax?

[April Lexington]

Meanwhile, as this little shit runs free... Jonathan Pollard rots in a jail cell...

[OldDeckHand]

"We're still allowed to do that?? "

I don't know. I'm not sure if anyone at DoD does. This is what happens when the federal judiciary inserts itself into areas that are plainly left to the Executive and Legislature.

BUT, this kid enlisted in 2006 or 2007. In fact, he was a specialist before he assaulted another soldier (for reasons unknown, lover's spat?), and was demoted to PFC by NJP. I believe when he actually "stole" these documents off a secure server, he was still a specialist, and had not yet been demoted to PFC (I believe).

[The Sons of Liberty]

I'm beginning to be suspicious that the 0bama regime orchestrated the release of these documents for an ulterior motive.

[Little Ray]

Computers, networking and such make it easy to get stuff.

What I want to know is, why hasn’t this guy been tried and shot for espionage and treason?

[dragnet2]

China shipped nukes to Iran!!

Whatever..... I'm off to Walmart to get some of those great deals!!

[tubebender]

Ping

[dragnet2]

Meanwhile, as this little shit runs free... Jonathan Pollard rots in a jail cell...

Manning has been in solitary confinement for 7 months...No?

[Eagle of Liberty]

The revelations shot Assange and WikiLeaks to global prominence but led to angry denunciations from the Pentagon and calls from extreme rightwingers in the US that Assange be arrested or even assassinated.

ugh....why does it ALWAYS have to be the evil EXTREME RIGHTWINGERS? You mean to tell me that Hillary isn't extremely angry by being made to look like a fool? And I would suspect that she is NOT an extreme rightwinger. But I know that it always fits the liberal template. "Journalists" can always be counted on to call out the EXTREME RIGHTWINGERS, but somehow they have a problem calling out the EXTREME MUSLIMS.

[vox_freedom]

He was allowed to come it with a RW CD? The computer he was using had a CD writer drive? He had unlimitied acces to thousands of diplomatic cables? Something about this is very fishy....we need to know who was in charge of security and what they were thinking. This happened on Hillary's watch, and I'm sure it's up to her to get to the bottom of this. Was there any security at all? An army private had unfettered access? Wow, what is going on?

Exactly!

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Yes, so many of the Decision Makers value expediency over security. It's amazing how so many smart people can make the same mistake over and over again.

They wouldn't spend the time and money to monitor this grunt dildo's usage of documents. It would have been so simple.

Obviously Risk Management is not State's forte.

[RC2]

Correct. When I was aboard ship, even I couldn’t get into the CIC area of the ship. At least not until I was cleared. Someone else is in on this.

An interesting point here.....It’s said that this info that was leaked, also includes data about money that was paid to other governments without our peoples knowledge. Our government has more to worry about than just the safety of our military.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I’ve known people who worked in secure facilities where the rules were NO outside media of any kind (no CD’s thumb drives, etc.). The computers were boxed in wire cages so you could not even insert any media. So how did this happen?

[Sherman Logan]

The problem is not that digital information is inherently unsafe, it’s that the people with access to that information are inherently unsafe.

This has, of course, always been true. But 25 (copiers) or 50 (camera) years ago the guy who passed the information to wikileaks would have been able to get only a few documents out at most, not hundreds of thousands of pages.

Digital format merely makes it multiple orders of magnitude easier to copy and send information. Some small percentage of those with access will choose to do so. I know of no way to 100% eliminate the chance of somebody with access making such a choice.

It’s the same as with guns. Guns don’t kil people, people do. But guns make doing so much easier.

[McGruff]

I'm beginning to be suspicious that the 0bama regime orchestrated the release of these documents for an ulterior motive.

Shirley you can't be series.

[Eagle of Liberty]

I'm beginning to be suspicious that the 0bama regime orchestrated the release of these documents for an ulterior motive.

Make Hillary out to be a fool in the eyes of the DUmmies?

[McGruff]

The leaked cables range up to the "SECRET NOFORN" level, which means they are meant never to be shown to non-US citizens.

No quite CLASSIFIED but still smells fishy.

[April Lexington]

Social Justice, anyone????

[Psycho_Bunny]

It wasn’t a leak. It was treason.

[kosciusko51]

This is like the Florida couple that heard and taped Newt's phone call with a "scanner".

I think this guy was fed the info...