Cablegate

I am reading various diplomatic cables released recently. Naturally, I tried to read about what I know at least something, so I picked cables from the Moscow embassy.

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Several random thoughts come to mind.

  1. I am surprised that these cables were classified norofn and confidential, instead of secret.

  1. Most cables are lively, well thought out, some are outright funny (like the Caucasus wedding cable).

  2. In my own eyes, they do not damage the reputation of the United States and do not create an impression of the US being an evil back room manipulator. The most damaging impression for me is lack of any deep and original insights, I was hoping to see something truly new.

  1. A clear impression is that the US is specifically not able to pull the strings in Russia (which is an allegation of Russian conspiracy theorists).

  2. The allegedly sensational accusations, like that Putin stole billions of dollars through Gunvor and other companies, are likely true, but not groundbreaking.

Like the authors of the cables, I also think of the Russian government on all levels as a mafia of somewhat patriotically minded thieves. I am personally VERY happy at being able to live in the United States and make a decent living by relatively honest means.

Perhaps the Russian government officials are simply annoyed at the known accusations being given credence by the US embassy. The accusations are well known.

  1. I see the theft of hundreds of thousands of confidential cables, as an IT and computer security disaster of shocking magnitude. Even if I buy an argument that the documents were means for interdepartmental sharing, and such, it is unbelievable to not have an alarm about someone downloading everything. Many IT and administrative heads specifically need to roll for this disaster.
i
Reply to
Ignoramus24652
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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I always appreciate your insight on these things...

Reply to
Jim Stewart

good analysis, thanks

Reply to
another anonymous poster

Ann Coulter has a pretty good commentary today on the guy that did the leak.

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Reply to
RBnDFW

Brad Manning was the guy who released Iraq documents. He stole and leaked the documents because he wanted to be famous, not so much because he was gay. Many people of all orientations want to be famous.

I am not, yet, aware of who released the diplomatic cables.

Remember a story about "ten Russian spies" from this summer? They were betrayed by a Moscow based Russian intelligence director Scherbakov This guy defected to the US with personal files (of the paper variety), of his spies, whom he betrayed.

So, the FBI interrogated those spies and asked, please confess to your spying, and they would, naturally, refuse. Then the FBI would get their defected boss right into the interrogation room, and he would bring their personal file to really prove that they were completely screwed.

This incident seriously pissed off at least one of the spies, "Juan Lazaro" (Mikhail Vasenkov), he said that he does not want to live in Russia after this.

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i
Reply to
Ignoramus13150

Watch "Glee" sometime to see their bitter, vengeful and destructive self-portrayal.

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actress is married to Dr.Laura.

The music can be good, but keep the remote handy to mute the loud sucking sound the plots make.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Yeah, this stuff is all supposed to be on a "need to know" system. Any decent IT department ought to be able to figure out how to track access, and if any one person or site is downloading too many files, they should ask what is going on. It might be legit, somebody who HAS need to know doing some research, but it is a SURE red flag that needs to be checked. This guy apparently downloaded WAY more than anyone could possibly read. And, apparently, the guy did NOT have the required clearances.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Exactly.

I hope that many IT heads will roll in this.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus13150

Where I work we have quarterly access reviews where the managers responsible for a given area have to review the list of users with access to those systems and confirm if that access is correct and still required. This is in addition to similar required audits for various applications.

It's not a perfect process and has some issue now and then with independent auditors just requesting reports of the needed data be generated by us, where we are highly privileged users and this really violates the separation of control concept, vs. the auditors extracting those reports themselves after we've given them sufficiently privileged accounts to do so.

Beyond all of that there are audit logs and session logs that can be used to identify who accessed what and when, since you can still have instances of people who do have a legitimate access requirement doing illegitimate things.

I would certainly agree that these leaks show a shocking level of security issues in an environment which should have even tighter controls than the one I deal with.

Reply to
Pete C.

I can kind of, sort of, understand that most government IT guys were not exactly top dogs in computer security, deterrence, audits etc. Just being there 9-5 to collect a modest salary and good benefits.

What kind of upsets me is that apparently, no one there, of all the employees, could not consider this and suggest improvements to their superiors.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus13150

Consider yes, suggest no.

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Good analysis Ig.

Try reading this one...

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I wouldn't be surprised if the Israelis are involved in this. Eric Cantor has already pledged his allegiance to Israel, promising to protect and defend Israeli interests against the government of the US.

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Reply to
ATP

Perhaps you are correct, but if you look into past spying incidents you see as much incompetence and carelessness as conspiracy:

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Asked later how he had managed to access so much classified information, Walker said, "KMart has better security than the Navy"

I can neither confirm nor deny any of this.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Although I find it ironic that a woman with an Adam's apple is commenting on anyone's sexuality, I kinda have to agree with Ann on this one. A guy with a drag queen for a boyfriend doesn't sound like a good candidate for a security clearance.

Reply to
ATP

An excellent example is the Eur-moil in the Balkans before Clinton intervened. In that instance the whiners blamed us for neglect when they couldn't accuse us of meddling. Rwanda was another, where was the UN???

The first major signs of the transfer of global influence were the

1956 Suez cisis where Egypt outmuscled Britain and France, and the extremely swift US response in Lebanon in 1958.
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wasn't a major event, but it showed world leaders how capable we had become relative to their declining, underfunded militaries. We reacted in hours, Russia needed weeks to bolster Syria. It also proved the worth of self-supporting carrier groups that could remain on station for many months, which not even the Royal Navy had ever had.

Imagine the righteous indignation if someone leaked the internal files of Wikileaks or the outlets that published the leaked documents.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Gunner, may I ask what makes you so absolutely gung-ho about all things Israeli all the time?

I admire the Israelis in many ways, but feel that our gov't has gone, and continues to go, waaay overboard supporting them. The feeling of extreme nepotism pervades it. Are we getting that much intel from the Mossad (funding them instead of the CIA), or what?

-- "Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the latent spark. If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?" --John Adams

Reply to
Larry Jaques

There is one thing that I expect from US public servants, which is "allegiance" to the US. Which, in my own mind, means considering all foreign issues from the standpoint of what is best for the US, and now what is best for Russia, Israel, Germany of any other foreign country.

I kind of, sort of understand that some public servants feel partial to special domestic interests, like oil industry or gun owners etc.

But I draw the line at politicians pledging unyielding and unconditional support for any foreign country.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus4371

I can't argue with you in the slightest here.

-- "Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the latent spark. If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?" --John Adams

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I am far from an extremist left-wing kook. I prefer the Constitutional center.

You, unfortunately, cannot seem to comprehend that your government has been high-jacked by international banking entities of a supra national nature that are pursuing the extinction of the concept of the sovereign nation-state....a New World Order.

These international banking entities are presently looting the US with the goal to destroy it as a viable force for the proactive protections of individual freedom in this world. The release of these diplomatic cables also furthers this goal by humiliating the US and setting it up as a blame agent for a wide variety of troubles (mostly economic) caused by the globalists. This cable release is, no doubt about it, completely an inside job done by an infiltration agent in the State Department.....a mole.

Until you can comprehend the structure, methods, and the goals of these internationalists, you will unfortunately remain one of the masses caught up in the left-right paradigm. You will continually point at the boogie-men of the opposing viewpoint as the source of any troubles. This is the goal of the internationalist puppet masters. It's called: "divide and conquer", a war strategy as old as war itself. You MUST gain a historical perspective to have the required comprehension of their methods and goals. This is difficult because they attempt to keep their histories locked away in secret, accessible only to the adepts of their secret societies and educational institutions.

Stuck in the left-right paradigm, you will become ever more radicalized as the Kool-Aid drinking masses are presented with the choice between National Socialism on the right and Maoist Communism on the left.

Both choices are, in fact, the same thing: police states controlled by a governing elite wherein the individual has no right except to worship the state. This is a form of institutionalized blasphemy called idolatry. The state will become God and its governing elites Gods. Refer to history if you doubt this is possible.

Of course, when they start rounding up the Buddhists for internment or execution because they refuse to worship at the feet of the state, don't say you weren't warned. The state may wish to put you on psychotropic medicines (chemical lobotomy) to cure your "anti-social hooliganistic tendencies" or just execute you for your refusal to comport with the decorums of the New Order.

As far as Bush and Cheney. These are mere tools. Puppets of the puppet masters. That you consider them to be anything but puppets, is symptomatic of your inability to comprehend the real ruling structure.

Bush and Cheney have, however, committed serious crimes in my name. I am not appreciative of that fact. There are two types of karma: individual karma and collective karma. Their criminal effects on the collective karma of the US have benefited no one. We have yet to see the full effects of what they have wrought on behalf of their puppet masters. Dave

Reply to
dav1936531

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