CIA launches task force to assess impact of U.S. cables' exposure by WikiLeaks

Source: Washington Post

CIA launches task force to assess impact of U.S. cables' exposure by WikiLeaks

By Greg Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 21, 2010; 5:24 PM

Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. But at CIA headquarters, it's mainly known by its all-too-apt acronym: W.T.F.

The irreverence is perhaps understandable for an agency that has been relatively unscathed by WikiLeaks. Only a handful of CIA files have surfaced on the WikiLeaks Web site, and records from other agencies posted online reveal remarkably little about CIA employees or operations.

Even so, CIA officials said the agency is conducting an extensive inventory of the classified information, which is routinely distributed on a dozen or more networks that connect agency employees around the world.

And the task force is focused on the immediate impact of the most recently released files. One issue is whether the agency's ability to recruit informants could be damaged by declining confidence in the U.S. government's ability to keep secrets.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/21/AR2010122104599.html?hpid=topnews

I do agree that the slipshod use of classification and mis-management of confidential information that has been exposed by the cable theft/leak/whatever is likely to be the biggest longterm real problem for US diplomacy/national-security to come out of this. Would you want to trust the US government to keep secrets after this if your ass was on the line?

because of the huge over-classification of everything. Or, how the American people get so little information that when someone like Brad Manning reminds us of how little we know, even someone as brilliant as Rachel thinks having all that information might be a bad thing.

Oh, and it was funny that the CIA source for this article (who was not authorized to speak to this reporter) patted the agency on the back for having little info leaked in cablegate -- as if CIA and State aren't joined at the hip.

The only thing I found interesting is that Assange stuck it out with the BBC interviewer.

I'm going to add a couple other links I found below.

Julian Assange has fallen out with the two senior Guardian journalists who have been central figures in the global publishing of classified US military and diplomatic documents this year. Arguably, he's not a man who can afford to lose friends at the moment.

The Guardian's partnership with WikiLeaks was founded by Nick Davies, a special correspondent and veteran investigative reporter, otherwise best known for his recent work on voicemail hacking at the News of the World. In June he contacted Assange in Brussels and suggested that professional reporters should comb the gigabytes of data WikiLeaks had obtained for stories.

The site's previous practice had been to dump raw material on its own website and hope it would be picked up by journalists. It was only moderately successful.

Davies' approach, however, also led to WikiLeaks sharing the Afghanistan, Iraq and embassy files with the New York Times, Der Spiegel and other media organisations that have provided the resources to turn data into news. As a side-effect, they have also turned Julian Assange into a celebrity, with attending celebrity friends.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/21/assange_guardian/

Did Assange ever claim certain knowledge of a honeytrap? I don't recall reading that.

Things sure are heating up, all righty.

I think this is one of those "there is no bad publicity" situations though, the more attention the better, taking the long view. TPTB may or may not get Assange, but there will be no going back to the status quo ante, and the more noise the better from that angle.

:rofl:

:rofl:

:hi:

According to a classified and unusually salacious Swedish police report obtained by the Guardian newspaper, WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange went to dinner in August with a woman identified only as "Ms. A." When they returned to her Stockholm apartment, he began stroking her leg. Then, although she says she thought things were moving too quickly and uncomfortably, he was pulling off her clothes and snapping her jewelry. According to her complaint, he pinned her arms and legs to stop her from reaching for a condom. He finally agreed to wear one, but continued even after the condom broke, or after he had "done something" that broke it, as Ms. A put it.

That alleged encounter and an oddly similar one with a "Ms. W" (who alleges that he had unprotected sex with her while she was asleep and later "ordered her to get some water and orange juice" for him) led to a variety of charges of sexual misconduct against Assange, including rape.

These titillating and not-very-nice allegations involving the man who has distributed tens of thousands of secret State Department cables and documents to the news media are being discussed by people across the country and around the world, just as they once discussed the tiniest particulars of President Clinton's Oval Office trysts with Monica Lewinsky. And as they discuss the details, they're also raising serious questions about how sexual misconduct should be dealt with: Should a man be charged with rape for having sex without a condom? For having sex with a woman when she's asleep? In recent decades, Sweden's laws have grown increasingly protective of women's rights; are they too tough, or do they strike the right balance? Does it make sense that Sweden has three degrees of rape, including "less severe," which Assange is charged with and which is generally used when a person uses threats or mild force to have non-consensual sex?

These questions are intriguing but are ultimately beside the point when it comes to Assange's role in WikiLeaks . For Americans chiefly concerned with the publication of classified documents, his alleged sexual escapades in Stockholm are neither here nor there; the only germane question about the allegations is whether the legal process is taking its proper course, or whether there's been some nefarious American pressure brought to bear. Assange's supporters have insisted that that the rape charges, which at one point had been downgraded to "molestation," have been reinstated by the Swedish authorities as part of a U.S.-inspired campaign to punish Assange and WikiLeaks for releasing classified information, and perhaps to put him behind bars until American prosecutors can file charges against him.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-assange-20101222,0,150678.story

They think manning used a thumb drive? Hardly. He burned the files onto to a CD. (A CD labeled "Lady Gaga", which he was able to bring in so he could supposedly "listen to music" while he worked.)

As if the CIA is known for its honest and trustworthy information.

How many times have they been caught lying to Congress? Their role in the torture of POWs is still not fully explained. Might as well ask Glen Beck to investigate Obama's birth certificate.

Source: The Guardian (UK)

The CIA has launched a taskforce to assess the impact of 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables. Its name? WikiLeaks Task Force, or WTF for short.

The group will be charged with scouring the released documents to survey damage caused by the disclosures. One of the most embarrassing revelations was that the US state department had drawn up a list of information it would like on key UN figures – it later emerged the CIA had asked for the information.

"Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. But at CIA headquarters, it's mainly known by its all-too-apt acronym: WTF," the Washington Post reported.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/22/cia-wikileaks-taskforce-wtf

:rofl:

I wonder if they have any task forces named "OMG, like whatever!"

Because most State Dept cables are signed by their authors, this does give some clue as to the areas of interest of various Agency personnel assigned to various embassies. However, almost all of this is already known to anyone who gets a copy of the Diplomatic List. Unlikely that these cables are really going to tell foreign governments much that they didn't already know.

Again, the real thing is that these cables are an embarrassing contradiction of the public lies and half-truths that are normally issued to keep the American people confused and in the dark about what's happening around the world.

That story made my day... I guess "Lookouts on Leaks" was already taken... :rofl:

Whoops.

:rofl:

Source: The Guardian

Adam Gabbatt | Wednesday December 22 2010 10.27 GMT

The CIA has launched a taskforce to assess the impact of 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables. Its name? WikiLeaks Task Force, or WTF for short.

The group will be charged with scouring the released documents to survey damage caused by the disclosures. One of the most embarrassing revelations was that the US state department had drawn up a list of information it would like on key UN figures – it later emerged the CIA had asked for the information.

"Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. But at CIA headquarters, it's mainly known by its all-too-apt acronym: WTF," the Washington Post reported.

WTF is more commonly associated with the Facebook and Twitter profiles of teenagers than secret agency committees. Given that its expanded version is usually an expression of extreme disbelief, perhaps the term is apt for the CIA's investigation.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/22/cia-wikileaks-taskforce-wtf

Wowzy zowzy! BFD SNAFU.

:banghead:

/nt