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posted by takyon on Monday November 05 2018, @04:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the only-the-shadow-knows...-and-has-head-up-its-ass dept.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used a quick and dirty web-based system to communicate with its agents around the world. Easy-to-use but not sophisticated. Iran and China used this system to find U.S. spies and convert or kill many agents, including entire national spy networks, starting around 2008.

Once you recognized the system, counter-spies could simply use Google to find the CIA's communication sites. They could then use standard traffic analysis to find out who visited the sites, identifying the spy networks.

Iran found spies using the system, converted some to double agents, while killing dozens of others. Iran may have passed the info to China, who wiped out the CIA network there, turning and killing 30+ agents. Iran then went spy hunting across the Middle East, too.

The absolute kicker: a CIA tech contractor identified the problem, that the network was compromised and spies were disappearing due to it, and reported it up the chain in 2008. He was ignored, punished and fired. Part of the reason we know this all happened is because he filed a federal whistleblower protection lawsuit.

So many/most of these U.S. agents would not be dead if CIA management AND the CIA inspector general had listened and acted on the report of a technical/security problem. Instead they denied they had a problem, burying their heads and their agents in the sand. Not only is the CIA riddled with terrible torture monkeys, but also deadly, incompetent, and inept management.

Article: The CIA's communications suffered a catastrophic compromise. It started in Iran.

Previously: CIA Informants Imprisoned and Killed in China From 2010 to 2012
Ex-CIA Officer Arrested, Suspected of Compromising Chinese Informants


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  • (Score: 1, Disagree) by linkdude64 on Monday November 05 2018, @06:03PM (5 children)

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Monday November 05 2018, @06:03PM (#758086)

    Whoever that network analyst was. What a travesty - all of our training and deployment strategies were lost with them. There's no hope of making a new generation behind them in time.

    Truly haunting - I can not imagine the fear of knowing you are a spy in enemy territory, but have been assured that everything is okay and that you're safe because the US is backing you - then, as you are captured and tortured, you realize you'll never see home again, and that nobody home even really knows where you've gone. Total isolation.

    Fuck those fucking fucks who ignored the technicians. These goddamned political hack appointees need to be strung up. America used to elect competent people - warriors, warlords, educated noblemen who existed in a time when anything went and only the strongest made it up to the top. I remember being flabbergasted at one of Obama's secretaries of defense - his knowledge of the world of defense was literally nothing but being a pencil pusher at a major defense contractor. At the very fucking least Trump hired appropriate people to appropriate positions - the leader of a spy agency should not be an MBA, he should have been a spy. What a fucking travesty.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @06:35PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @06:35PM (#758118)

    "At the very fucking least Trump hired appropriate people to appropriate positions" hahahah wtf???

    "America used to elect competent people - warriors, warlords, educated noblemen who existed in a time when anything went and only the strongest made it up to the top."

    Ummm, do you pay any attention to reality? The US has been fucked up for a very long time but aside from that the "strongest made it up to the top" is the most insane and harmful ideology around. That mindset goes against human nature and promotes socio/psycho-pathic behavior. There was pretty much never a time when "anything went", laws are not new things.

    This weird meritocratic attitude denies human nature and creates a competitive atmosphere in a cooperative environment. I dream of a day when humans stop competing stupidly and realize we need each other to survive.

    At the very end I'll admit there is some value to meritocracy / competition (obviously), but it shouldn't be the primary influence for structuring society.

    • (Score: 2, Disagree) by linkdude64 on Monday November 05 2018, @11:24PM (1 child)

      by linkdude64 (5482) on Monday November 05 2018, @11:24PM (#758260)

      "hahahah wtf???"

      I can see the Salon headline now: "This one incredible argument on Soylent DESTROYS Trump."

      "The US has been fucked up for a very long time but aside from that"

      ANOTHER EPIC argument.
      You must honestly believe that Edison was a poor competitor for completely fucking destroying his smarter-but-not-better genius "opponent" - or wait, by your following statement, humans do NOT naturally compete and they only seek to cooperate, right?

      "Weird meritocratic attitude denies human nature"

      You're so right, humans by nature NEVER fight each other or compete, look to the strongest to lead them, or try to advance their standings through skill. You are as dumb as a fucking brick. Right on for posting AC.

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @01:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @01:04PM (#758478)

        >> "At the very fucking least Trump hired appropriate people to appropriate positions"
        > "hahahah wtf???"

        Here are some choice picks.

        Rex Tillerson. A civil engineer and businessman. Elevated to one of the highest political offices in the country with ZERO experience of foreign policy, or of politics at all. Repeatedly contradicted, overruled, humiliated and twitrollered by Chump himself. I think Tillerson's the one who was going to turn the job down because he recognised that he was completely unqualified, until his wife convinced him he was on a mission from God. Or something.

        Mike Pompeo. Former military & CIA guy in the pocket of Big Oil. OK, closer to foreign affairs but torturing / blowing foreigners up isn't the same as international diplomacy. Or at least it's not supposed to be.

        Steve Mnuchin: Standard Yale > Skull&bones > Goldman Sachs > obnoxious weasel career path. No political experience. OK, he's shuffled large sums of money around in an investment bank, but that's not at all the same as managing the budget of a nation.

        Secretary of housing and urban development: Ben Carson. A surgeon. Presumably Trump selected him because Carson is a black dude and there's the word "urban" right there in the job title. That last bit is not a joke, BTW, I fully believe it to be true. Trump really is bigoted and thick enough to do just that.

        Betsy DeVos: Businesswoman and lifelong political donor / fundraiser with no experience in education or of actually holding a political post.

        "The mooch", Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, that woman from the reality TV show... need I say more?

        Basically, Trump's criteria for appointing someone seems to be:

        - Are they willing to quietly forget any previous criticism of Trump and kiss the Fat Orange Ring?
        - Are they rich and sleazy?
        - Are they a corrupt kleptocrat in favour of cutting taxes for the rich?
        Yay! You're in!

        Bonus points if they've been in the military at some point, there's a lot of ex-military guys in the full line up. I think Trump gets a hardon for uniforms. Perhaps he's tying to atone for the fact that Trump himself is a draft-dodger, or maybe because Trump's Daddy believed that any and all character flaws could be straightened out by a spell at military school. I mean it must be true, it worked so well on Donald, right?

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday November 05 2018, @11:07PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Monday November 05 2018, @11:07PM (#758257) Journal

    Aaaaaand, THEIR spy's are still active because their handlers and on up are more intelligent, I'm guessing.

    This. is. fucked. Spies need EXTRA coverage (and cover) not incompetent handlers.

    You're right: you'd be thinking your back was covered. Then you find the one person who HAD your back covered just got fired and now your cover is wide open?!?

    SHEEEIT!

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  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday November 06 2018, @12:31AM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 06 2018, @12:31AM (#758286)

    Yeah, Ajit Pai has been great for us...

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