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Barely an hour after a news organization published an article about a Top Secret National Security Agency document on Russian hacking, the Justice Department announced charges against a 25-year-old government contractor who a senior federal official says was the leaker of the document.
The May 5, 2017 intelligence document published by The Intercept, an online news organization, describes new details about Russian efforts to hack voting systems in the U.S a week prior to the 2016 presidential election. While the document doesn't say the hacking changed any votes, it "raises the possibility that Russian hacking may have breached at least some elements of the voting system, with disconcertingly uncertain results."
Even as the document was ricocheting around Washington, the Justice Department announced that a criminal complaint was filed in the Southern District of Georgia charging Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor, with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.
Source: NBC News
Once investigative efforts identified Winner as a suspect, the FBI obtained and executed a search warrant at her residence. According to the complaint, Winner agreed to talk with agents during the execution of the warrant. During that conversation, Winner admitted intentionally identifying and printing the classified intelligence reporting at issue despite not having a "need to know," and with knowledge that the intelligence reporting was classified. Winner further admitted removing the classified intelligence reporting from her office space, retaining it, and mailing it from Augusta, Georgia, to the news outlet, which she knew was not authorized to receive or possess the documents.
Source: Department of Justice
While the document provides a rare window into the NSA's understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying "raw" intelligence on which the analysis is based. A U.S. intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.
Source: The Intercept
How The Intercept Outed Reality Winner
Julian Assange: Alleged NSA leaker 'must be supported'
Bad tradecraft: How the Intercept may have outed its own leaker
WikiLeaks tweet #1: "Suspected Intercept reporter gave US government NSA whistleblower Reality Leigh Winner's post code, printout and her report number" and tweet #2: "WikiLeaks issues a US$10,000 reward for information leading to the public exposure & termination of this 'reporter'".
(Score: 3, Informative) by mendax on Wednesday June 07 2017, @06:20AM (2 children)
How can The Intercept have any credibility today because of its incredible blunder? If I were a leaker I would think twice before sending any information to them.
However, I suspect there may be more to this story than meets the eye. First, the leaker sent an e-mail to The Intercept. Bad move. If she had followed The Intercept's instructions she would have contacted them in a more stealthy way, e.g., via Tails. Is she really that stupid? Second, was The Intercept's reporter really that stupid as to give the NSA the ORIGINAL? There's something wrong here.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday June 07 2017, @06:31AM
I read that her employer read the printer queue too. So double "you been had".
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @03:12PM
What blunder? Confirming a document with the agency that produced it? That is journalist ethics 101 - its part of verifying the authenticity of the document.
It isn't like they wouldn't see the document once it was published and then go check the audit log on it.
The real idiot here is Assange. He wants to raise money to get someone fired? How does that even work?
If he actually gave a damn about anything beyond attention-whoring he'd be raising that money for Reality's legal defense. Because whistleblowers get persecuted all the time. Going after the reporter won't stop that. But showing potential whistleblowers that even if they do get caught that wikileaks will have their back would go a long way to reassuring them.
What did Assange ever do for Manning? Raised $850 [thepoliticalinsider.com] in a "me too" fundraiser after Obama commuted her sentence. What a joke.