According to the NSA report, Russian hackers sent emails to people who worked at a company that provides election software and hardware, trying to trick them into giving up their user credentials. The goal was to get custom software onto their computers so that Russian spies could find out more about the workings of the network. The Intercept reports, “At least one of the employee accounts was likely compromised, the agency concluded.”
The NSA report also says the Russian attackers wanted to know more about voter registration systems. But the American spy agency acknowledges it doesn’t know how successful the Russian efforts were in that effort or what information or access the GRU may have gleaned.
A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment
Reality Leigh Winner of Augusta was arrested on Saturday; the FBI said in court documents that she had been accused of printing out classified material and sending it by mail to a news outlet.
Two national security officials with knowledge of the matter confirmed to NPR on Monday that the cases are connected.
Let’s recap.
The NSA COMPLETELY MISSED THIS and refused to admit it.
The woman who decided to tell us is in jail.
Having to shoulder both Reality and Winner as names may have been too much for her.
A secondary buried lede is that the NSA was able arrest this woman because the journalists essentially gave up their source.
Ah the Intercept … by arrogance, stubbornness or incompetence, you gotta wonder whose side they’re really on.
Call ’em the Pick-6.
They gave up their source that arguably proves how wrong they were on Russia but still protect their sources who have questionable ties to Russia, questions abound indeed…
I don’t see that. Everything I’ver read suggests that Reality Leigh Winner (what a name…) didn’t bother to really cover her tracks all that well. She downloaded information she shouldn’t have had and printed it out to a printer monitored closely by the NSA… She, in fact, doesn’t appear to have tried all that hard to conceal her actions.
From what I can tell, the NSA figured out who did it and then went to the journalists, who had already published, with names and dates. Did they confirm the names and dates? Yes. Does this mean they ‘gave up their source’? I don’t think so.
I wouldn’t take what the NSA says at face value.
They aren’t going to announce what they know and don’t know. In fact, they may be trying to protect sources or methods by saying they don’t know the extent of things. I don’t pretend to know what the NSA is or isn’t trying to do, but as in politics, the intelligence community doesn’t always say what it knows.
I don’t know if CMD is referring to John Schindler’s piece in The Observer, but it’s worth reading on the subject. Schindler is a former counter intelligence guy for the NSA.
(Schindler was a professor at the War College, but resigned in a sexting scandal. I mention this because Vox had a pretty stupid article on Claude Taylor, Louise Mensch, and John Schindler. I don’t read Mensch anymore, but Schindler is informative. His predictions and opinions don’t always hold up, but his knowledge is almost always valuable).
One things for certain-you can’t have it both ways. The all leakers matter crowd can’t leap to her defense without conceding they were completely wrong on Russia. The threat is and impact they had on our elections is real and worthy of investigation.
We are at war. The cyber war is no different from the wars of the past. Just as it would be foolish to let the Germans know through leaked reports that we had Enigma and could intercept their U-Boats, it makes little sense to telegraph to the Russians what we know about their capabilities and how far reaching they were.
I also find it highly ironic that critics of the Russia investigation are leaping to the defense of this leaker. If anything her leak confirms how serious, how far reaching, and how deep the Russian conspiracy against our democratic institutions go. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say the IC can’t be trusted on Russia and then criticize it for allowing this gap to occur.
Say what?
Your logic eludes me there. I think that’s having it only two of the many ways the IC can be criticized,
Also, for the record, I never said the IC couldn’t be trusted :”on Russia.” The IC can’t be trusted under any circumstances. (Mark says the same thing, more politely, upthread.) That doesn’t mean they’re always wrong; it just means everything they say comes with their own (often self-serving) agenda.
The IC is out of control and a major, major problem. But yes, they are necessary, and I’m sure most of the people there are trying to do the right thing.
For the record: I meant that you can’t necessarily believe what they say in the papers. This is true for a variety of people and organizations, not just the IC. How many people quoted or cited in the paper lack a self-serving agenda and provide spinless, candid opinions?
For all I know, the IC could be out of control and be a major, major problem. The thing is, I don’t know that for a fact. I know a lot on the Left take this as a matter of fact, but that doesn’t make it so.
Reality Winner broke the law. I enjoy knowing the information, but I don’t know if her leak did any damage to IC methods or sources. She should be prosecuted. Snowden should be prosecuted. Assange should be prosecuted. I didn’t have a problem with Chelsea Manning’s early release, but if everyone leaked intel, we’d have no intel.
And I’m still curious why he iced his one source that shed critical light on Russia while protecting the two that are either living in Russia or actively using Russian intel to shed critical light on the US. Greenwald is coming close to fully being a ‘useful idiot’ for Moscow.
It is plain fact that they are out of control. They got caught spying on Congressional oversight committees.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/03/12/feinstein-doesnt-like-the-cia-spying-on-her-committee-but-shes-fine-with-nsa-bulk-data-collection/
As to the legal fates of the people you mentioned, war complicates things … what we really need is to end the wars, and then our political system can have a rational discussion about what the IC should do, and how big they should be. The CIA for example has become a paramilitary organization in the last 15 years. That is way beyond its charter.
I actually completely agree with that. I think our focus on counter terrorism
to the exclusion of other national security priorities has made the IC far weaker at classic counter intelligence. We are certainly behind on cyber intelligence, but we also have far fewer covert operatives and overt diplomats than we used to.
These devastating and unprecedented State Dept cuts aren’t getting much attention, but they also undermine our ability to gather information. Intelligence isn’t just James Bond sneaking into a facility anymore-a lot of it is overt diplomats having peer to peer conversations in the open in coffee shops and host government offices to find out what’s going on. China is making series investments in Australia, African states, and Central Asia while our Foreign Service is being treated like an unwanted child.
One can’t say Russia is overblown and doesn’t matter and simultaneously defend the information this leaker. The latter repudiates the former in a big league way.
Not arguing you are-but Greenwald (who sold out *this* source!) and many Russia skeptics are in that boat.
And for the record-burning an allied covert operative by blurting out sensitive information to the Russians is far worse than anything Snowden or Winter linked. Our own President would be prosecuted for that if he wasn’t protected by his office.
Just to revisit this for a moment — this information, if it is information, is the most serious breach that’s been uncovered. The hackers got into a company that handles voter registration for 14 states, including some of the largest states.
So I ask again: when, if ever, was the NSA planning to tell us this? It seems rather pertinent.