Trump, June 2017: From [Covfefe] with Love

xposts i've been meaning to ask about that - what did the intercept do that revealed the source? as max mentioned, they didn't erase the crease, which would tip off investigators that it was printed somewhere and folded before it was provided to the intercept. ooook. was there anything else? i haven't seen anything else mentioned to demonstrate that the intercept fucked up. but then again i'm just fucking around drinking coffee here so maybe i missed something.

also can we just keep posting max tweets in here so we can pretend he still posts here regularly? miss having him here.

screenshots would have been traceable by document access records. apparently only 5 people accessed the docs.

thanks shakey re: CA healthcare. moving there this weekend, mah wife on the obamacare.

i don't know if "If you have a page that encourages people to break the law, you owe it to them to provide enough information to help them assess the risks" is damning enough for me.

screenshots would have been traceable by document access records. apparently only 5 people accessed the docs.

fair point; I was thinking that the accounting was for who printed the documents rather than accessed them (I've only skim-read the accounts of this so far)

i was reading the equivalent page at the NYT earlier. it's no better.

xpost caek beat me to it, but:

NYT tips on tips: https://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2016/news-tips/
Intercept tips on tips: https://theintercept.com/leak/

anyways i think it's fair to put some blame on the intercept but i think the kneejerk reaction last night assigning 100% blame to them was way off

it sucks to blame the victim but it seems like she proceeded in a pretty stupid way

KM: NSA’s Latest Leak Debacle Explained

According to the FBI affidavit, she emailed The Intercept from her NSA unclassified computer system—notwithstanding that such systems are clearly marked with a sticker cautioning users that they consent to employer monitoring by logging on.

On May 9, Winner searched NSA’s internal computer network, which contains highly classified intelligence, and found the just-issued report about GRU cyber shenanigans, printed it off, snuck it out of her office, and mailed it to The Intercept. She thereby left an easily found audit trail, since NSA tracks all printing off classified systems, plus Winner was one of only six people in the whole agency who printed that particular report.

Her downfall came on May 30, when representatives of The Intercept approached NSA, seeking comment on their hot scoop based on a stolen NSA report. The agency, true to form, declined to comment, but by showing NSA the purloined assessment, the inept muckrakers sealed Winner’s fate.

This is because the agency can easily determine exactly where and when a document was printed inside any NSA office worldwide. Quick analysis revealed a very short list of suspects, and Winner was high on it.

ah, only 6 printers. none of the tradecraft would have been necessary in that situation. i don't agree with max's point that that alluding to potential scary tradecraft that probably wasn't actually used (folds, pink dots, steganography) is chilling dirty tricks though. it's important for potential leakers to know about the ways they can be identified (and for intercept to better document them).

fwiw the pink dot laser print thing is apparently well known, although i'd never heard of it

the random whitespace may also be identifying steganography

There's also a few character-space breadcrumbs in the document. Wow. This leaker wasn't careful at all. pic.twitter.com/9usYecqEKk

— PSU (@DisarmPSU) June 6, 2017

xp caek: I'm sure a lot more than 5 accessed the file (if any 90 day contract linguist had access). But only six printed it out.

the reason there are so few whistleblowers is cuz it's personally perilous. esp if you don't know all that stuff, apparently.

i think the kneejerk reaction last night assigning 100% blame to them was way off

but fuckin' BERNIEBROS amirite

A hard read

https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertsamaha/kids-are-quoting-trump-to-bully-their-classmates

Basically, deal with a reputable news outlet with an experienced national security desk, don't send hard copy. Reading the contents to a NYT/WaPo/etc. transcriber via a out of state pay phone / cash purchased burner phone is the minimum I'd do.

Reality Winner and Intercept both bungled it, never meant to imply otherwise. "Amateur hour" is what I said, and I think that covers it.

xp

Sanpaku otm

When you're documenting a process that could land someone in jail for the rest of their life (or worse), your documentation should be *good*

— Matthew Garrett (@mjg59) June 6, 2017

this plus their experts seem to have done a terrible job of debriefing the leaker to figure out how to minimize risk to them.

not obvious the NYT would have done any better.

Ah, it was the print audit that was her downfall, not the access audit. I'm going back to my original question.

thanks sanpaku

i suppose it is clear that someone at the intercept should have asked reality a few more questions about how she went about obtaining the document, esp before approaching the nsa

xp what do you take the screenshot with? how do you get it out of the building? there are good answers but it's not obviously more secure then printing to a non infosec specialist.

anyway how about those russians

What's interesting here is that I've seen reports that they went to not the NSA, but another source within the NSA, which would mean the IC is putting out "sources" to journalists at even lesser known outlets to collect CI on internal leaks.

I'd assume the contractors are required to deposit their phones at entry. There are USB/keychain spy cameras with enough resolution that one could quickly take a couple shots of each screen, then transcribe on one's own computer during off-time, print, delete and zero out all unallocated disk space with wipe tools.

Sanpaku is at the point that the meandering post I just wrote eventually got to, so I'll delete mine and just say "^^^ yeah, that"

Its odd this is giving me a desire to own spy gadgets that would have zero utility in my life.

haha same

spymall has some good shit

It just so happens that in this case, an act of due diligence appears to have turned into a lead for a leak investigation. The Intercept also passed along a copy of the document to the government as part of its reporting process — and that apparently contained some clues as well. “The U.S. Government Agency examined the document shared by the News Outlet and determined the pages of the intelligence reporting appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secured space,” says one of the court documents.

Yet the mistakes of the leaker before the Intercept even received the document would likely have sealed her fate, regardless of any clumsiness by the reporter in verifying the scoop. It’s apparent that the document came straight out of the blue, with little or no instructions as to sensitivity and handling. The Intercept’s story itself indicates that the document was supplied “anonymously” to the Intercept. “The Intercept has no knowledge of the identity of the source,” says the website in a statement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/06/06/did-the-intercept-bungle-nsa-leak/

Waiting to see when Corker finally gives up.

Just informed Senate Foreign Relations Chair Corker of what Trump tweeted about Qatar and was met with about 8 seconds of stunned silence

— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) June 6, 2017

Corker said he hadn't seen the tweets and needs to go read them before saying more. Says managing diffs bt Arab allies is important policy https://t.co/TpSZxtjl48

— Todd Zwillich (@toddzwillich) June 6, 2017

He's really going to go the whole day without commemorating D-Day, isn't he...

Meanwhile...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) says it's possible the Senate will opt for a short-term plan to stabilize Obamacare markets.

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 6, 2017

Yeah, have fun with that.

Corker will never give up

xp

He's really going to go the whole day without commemorating D-Day, isn't he...

Given that his Vietnam was avoiding crabs, I hesitate to think what his D-Day is.

Corker will never give up

His hand could be forced. And Trump's happily doing the forcing.

The Intercept’s story itself indicates that the document was supplied “anonymously” to the Intercept. “The Intercept has no knowledge of the identity of the source,” says the website in a statement.

sorry to dive back into this, but..here we go.

i was going to bring this up earlier, when i realized that it was possible that the intercept might not have asked Reality some questions about how she obtained the document because they didn't know who she was. i don't know the answer to this, but should a publisher responsible for confirming the identity of the leaker before publishing leaked documents, even if they can confirm the authenticity of the documents?

hypothetically, what if they received a completely anonymous tip with the trump piss tape, and were able to confirm that yes, that is trump juggling his balls in the background while piss is flying left and right in the foreground? ethically, should the publisher hold off on publishing the leaked piss tape because they can't guarantee the safety of the leaker?

Leave it to Lindsey

Sen Graham: "I don't believe Trump colluded with the Russians because I don't think he colludes with his own staff."

— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) June 6, 2017

oh cool a backhanded insult that nevertheless reinforces Trump's preferred narrative, that's helpful

"Trump does it all on his own, plus Russia story is FAKE NEWS!"

My increasing vision of Trump in general

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgHXHtHSsNo

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/336541-dems-up-7-points-in-party-affiliation

but will it be enough to overcome democratic voter apathy plus dirty "conservative" tricks (voter roll purges, too few polling stations in democratic districts, russian interference, etc)? what a fucking country

but her emails!

xpost
if they keep this single payer thing up to any degree, i think it will

xp Ned: It certainly makes his Paris withdrawal more tolerable.

from another Hill story:

Republicans are already nervously looking at the House landscape, where Democrats believe a path to the majority can be forged through districts held by Republicans that were lost or just narrowly won by Trump.

A Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll showed that Trump’s approval rating among Republicans has dipped below 75 percent.

hmm that's a new low re: Reuters

likely to go lower after Thursday, I expect

the (eric) trump foundation is the gift that keeps on giving. these fucking dirtbag grifters...

Makes sense:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-comey-stop-short-trump-obstructed-justice-flynn/story?id=47865739

There will be much in former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming congressional testimony that will make the White House uncomfortable, but he will stop short of saying the president interfered with the agency's probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a source familiar with Comey's thinking told ABC News.

Although Comey has told associates he will not accuse the President of obstructing justice, he will dispute the president’s contention that Comey told him three times he is not under investigation.

The president allegedly said he hoped Comey would drop the Flynn investigation, a request that concerned Comey enough that he documented the conversation in a memo shortly after speaking with the president. In the memo, according to sources close to Comey who reviewed it, Trump said: "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," during a February meeting.

The request made Comey uncomfortable, but the source tells ABC News that Comey has told associates he will not accuse the President of obstructing justice.

“He is not going to Congress to make accusations about the President’s intent, instead he’s there to share his concerns,” the source said, and tell the committee “what made him uneasy” and why he felt a need to write the memo documenting the conversation.

Some legal experts told ABC News that Trump's requests as detailed in the memo, which ABC News has not seen, could meet the legal definition of obstruction.

Comey told associates he plans to testify that despite the unusual request from the president he believed strongly that if he did his job properly he could conduct the investigation in an honest way.

1-2-3

Corey/Bossie chatter about joining WH was theatrics and media misdirection, Trump-world source tells me: "Something we enjoy doing."

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 6, 2017

They enjoy making their existing staff think their jobs are about to be "re-engineered" with enemies from campaign infighting? https://t.co/vz1PUnJDE2

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) June 6, 2017

Actually, they probably do enjoy that.

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) June 6, 2017

yeah that's about what I expect

xp