You will no doubt hear about this through your media. What I found intriguing is this statement by a CIA spokesperson

BBC:
Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, a senior US intelligence official told the Tribune "I don't have a great explanation, quite frankly".

Asked about fears that the details might be accessed by terrorist groups, he replied: "I don't know whether al-Qaeda could do this, but the Chinese could."

Why, the Chinese?

You will no doubt hear about this through your media. What I found intriguing is this statement by a CIA spokesperson

BBC:
Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, a senior US intelligence official told the Tribune "I don't have a great explanation, quite frankly".

Asked about fears that the details might be accessed by terrorist groups, he replied: "I don't know whether al-Qaeda could do this, but the Chinese could."

Why, the Chinese?
Because of their expertise with computers. They've spent a tremendous amount of money on training, both in direct operations and espionage. On the other hand, al-Qaeda is just a rag-tag outfit by comparison - though they could have bought the information.

they realised that they couldnt keep up the 'war on terror' scam, as all it has done is increase support ofr al-qaeda, so they turned to capitalist enemy #2

it is pure and simple terrorism, they are trying to incite fear among their puppets in order to gain support, so that they can get a big pay rise for making their bosses another billion dollars at the cost of the other 99% of the populace.

they realised that they couldnt keep up the 'war on terror' scam, as all it has done is increase support ofr al-qaeda, so they turned to capitalist enemy #2

it is pure and simple terrorism, they are trying to incite fear among their puppets in order to gain support, so that they can get a big pay rise for making their bosses another billion dollars at the cost of the other 99% of the populace.
Rubbish! That has nothing at all to do with the topic or the question asked.

the question was 'why the chinese?' does my reply not state a reason why the chinese?

until they admit any reason for it, my speculation is just as valid as yours

If Al Quida were computer savvy enough to orchestrate 9/11 through the use of computers from a cave in Afghanistan, then why aren't they savvy enough to merely collect information that already happens to be in the public domain?

And, if Al quida is so notorious that it actually caused 9/11, then why are they now seemingly less of a threat than China, who have not committed any acts of terrorism against the West, as far as we know?

the question was 'why the chinese?' does my reply not state a reason why the chinese?

until they admit any reason for it, my speculation is just as valid as yours

Theres no point in explaining anything to Light , he is always in trance.

remember the spyplane that a chinese jet ran into then clinton had to pay x million to get the crew back? Or the disks stolen from los alamos? Its not like this is the first time the chinese have maneuvered in such a manner. I doubt there trying to make china the new iraq that’s just idiotic speculation. Chinese have been acting this way even before the bush administration. If i were them i would do heavy espionage on the US too.


The chinese are our equals when it comes to espionage tactics.


ALQ just like killing things of western origin.

Theres no point in explaining anything to Light , he is always in trance.

i thought light was a woman. and regardless, he/she makes a lot of sense most of the time wheraes vslayers post is nearly incomprehensible because it is just a retarded sounding rant against an unidentified subject.

remember the spyplane that a chinese jet ran into then clinton had to pay x million to get the crew back? Or the disks stolen from los alamos? Its not like this is the first time the chinese have maneuvered in such a manner. I doubt there trying to make china the new iraq that’s just idiotic speculation. Chinese have been acting this way even before the bush administration. If i were them i would do heavy espionage on the US too.


The chinese are our equals when it comes to espionage tactics.


ALQ just like killing things of western origin.


i liked our death metal conversation better than this.

I think Al-Quida is perfectly capable of doing this. Any internet savvy teenager could probably do this. Maybe he wasn't allowed to give the impression that Al-Quida has this sophistication, but the Chinese are fair game.

why not the white house?

there dumb enough to leave a server unprotected

why not the white house?

there dumb enough to leave a server unprotected
The question isn't who allowed holes in the security but rather who took advantage of any such holes.

I still think, that on a whole, a sophisticated nation like China now is (and others) would have a much greater chance of finding and exploiting security weaknesses compared to more ordinary terrorists who actually are more concerned with other things.

light its much more likly to be some 5 year old hacker on his parents computer but i still say that bush is just as likly to have posted the stupid thing on google for a laugh

Nice that they would push their children into the darkness.

I think Al-Quida is perfectly capable of doing this. Any internet savvy teenager could probably do this. Maybe he wasn't allowed to give the impression that Al-Quida has this sophistication, but the Chinese are fair game.

I can do all that , unless I get National protection from my country for doing it.

why not the white house?

there dumb enough to leave a server unprotected

They are not dumb, but the Chinese are really smart.

Heres example, I might hack someone involved in the whitehouse, Track him , get his security info, and use him to get in.

Hack the security cams and get the passwords, look at his keyboard.

Bribe him.

They are not dumb, but the Chinese are really smart.


Wen Ho Lee.

What was that about?

No. PLEASE. Someone tell me what the Wen Ho Lee affair was all about.

They are not dumb, but the Chinese are really smart.

Heres example...



Send your man inside to get a headstart.

No. PLEASE. Someone tell me what the Wen Ho Lee affair was all about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_ho_lee

Wikipedia is your friend.

He was accused of stealing nuclear secrets from Los Alamos Research Laboratory in New Mexico. The whole story's in there.

why not the white house?

there dumb enough to leave a server unprotected

Yeah, I just saw a thing on the news a couple days ago about security reviews. The Department of Defense and Homeland Security all scored F's in regards to their security, heh.

- N

BTW, here's a link to another Internet Blows CIA Cover story.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060311ciamain-story,1,123362.story

Internet blows CIA cover
It's easy to track America's covert operatives. All you need to know is how to navigate the Internet.

By John Crewdson
Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 12, 2006

WASHINGTON -- She is 52 years old, married, grew up in the Kansas City suburbs and now lives in Virginia, in a new three-bedroom house.

Anyone who can qualify for a subscription to one of the online services that compile public information also can learn that she is a CIA employee who, over the past decade, has been assigned to several American embassies in Europe.

The CIA asked the Tribune not to publish her name because she is a covert operative, and the newspaper agreed. But unbeknown to the CIA, her affiliation and those of hundreds of men and women like her have somehow become a matter of public record, thanks to the Internet.

When the Tribune searched a commercial online data service, the result was a virtual directory of more than 2,600 CIA employees, 50 internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret CIA facilities around the United States.

Only recently has the CIA recognized that in the Internet age its traditional system of providing cover for clandestine employees working overseas is fraught with holes, a discovery that is said to have "horrified" CIA Director Porter Goss.

"Cover is a complex issue that is more complex in the Internet age," said the CIA's chief spokeswoman, Jennifer Dyck. "There are things that worked previously that no longer work. Director Goss is committed to modernizing the way the agency does cover in order to protect our officers who are doing dangerous work."

Dyck declined to detail the remedies "since we don't want the bad guys to know what we're fixing."

Several "front companies" set up to provide cover for CIA operatives and the agency's small fleet of aircraft recently began disappearing from the Internet, following the Tribune's disclosures that some of the planes were used to transport suspected terrorists to countries where they claimed to have been tortured.

Although finding and repairing the vulnerabilities in the CIA's cover system was not a priority under Goss' predecessor, George Tenet, one senior U.S. official observed that "the Internet age didn't get here in 2004," the year Goss took over at the CIA.

CIA names not disclosed

The Tribune is not disclosing the identities of any of the CIA employees uncovered in its database searches, the searching techniques used or other details that might put agency employees or operatives at risk. The CIA apparently was unaware of the extent to which its employees were in the public domain until being provided with a partial list of names by the Tribune.

At a minimum, the CIA's seeming inability to keep its own secrets invites questions about whether the Bush administration is doing enough to shield its covert CIA operations from public scrutiny, even as the Justice Department focuses resources on a two-year investigation into whether someone in the administration broke the law by disclosing to reporters the identity of clandestine CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Not all of the 2,653 employees whose names were produced by the Tribune search are supposed to be working under cover. More than 160 are intelligence analysts, an occupation that is not considered a covert position, and senior CIA executives such as Tenet are included on the list.

Covert employees discovered

But an undisclosed number of those on the list--the CIA would not say how many--are covert employees, and some are known to hold jobs that could make them terrorist targets.

Other potential targets include at least some of the two dozen CIA facilities uncovered by the Tribune search. Most are in northern Virginia, within a few miles of the agency's headquarters. Several are in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington state. There is one in Chicago.

Some are heavily guarded. Others appear to be unguarded private residences that bear no outward indication of any affiliation with the CIA.

A senior U.S. official, reacting to the computer searches that produced the names and addresses, said, "I don't know whether Al Qaeda could do this, but the Chinese could."

Down on `The Farm'

For decades the CIA's training facility at Camp Peary, Va., near historic Williamsburg, remained the deepest of secrets. Even after former CIA personnel confirmed its existence in the 1980s the agency never acknowledged the facility publicly, and CIA personnel persisted in referring to it in conversation only as "The Farm."

But an online search for the term "Camp Peary" produced the names and other details of 26 individuals who according to the data are employed there. Searching aviation databases for flights landing or taking off from Camp Peary's small airstrip revealed 17 aircraft whose ownership and flight histories could also be traced.

Although the Tribune's initial search for "Central Intelligence Agency" employees turned up only work-related addresses and phone numbers, other Internet-based services provide, usually for a fee but sometimes for free, the home addresses and telephone numbers of U.S. residents, as well as satellite photographs of the locations where they live and work.

Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, the senior U.S. intelligence official replied that "I don't have a great explanation, quite frankly."

The official noted, however, that the CIA's credo has always been that "individuals are the first person responsible for their cover. If they can't keep their cover, then it's hard for anyone else to keep it. If someone filled out a credit report and put that down, that's just stupid."

One senior U.S. official used a barnyard epithet to describe the agency's traditional system of providing many of its foreign operatives with easily decipherable covers that include little more than a post office box for an address and a non-existent company as an employer.

Coverts especially important

And yet, experts say, covert operatives who pose as something other than diplomats are becoming increasingly important in the global war on terror.

"In certain areas you just can't collect the kind of information you need in the 21st Century by working out of the embassy. They're just not going to meet the kind of people they need to meet," said Melvin Goodman, who was a senior Soviet affairs analyst at the CIA for more than 20 years before he retired.

The problem, Goodman said, is that transforming a CIA officer who has worked under "diplomatic cover" into a "non-official cover" operator, or NOC--as was attempted with Valerie Plame--creates vulnerabilities that are not difficult to spot later on.

The CIA's challenge, in Goodman's view, is, "How do you establish a cover for them in a day and age when you can Google a name . . . and find out all sorts of holes?"

In Plame's case, online computer searches would have turned up her tenure as a junior diplomat in the U.S. Embassy in Athens even after she began passing herself off as a privately employed "energy consultant."

The solution, Goodman suggested, is to create NOCs at the very outset of their careers, "taking risks with younger people, worrying about the reputation of people before they have one. Or create one."

Shortage of `mentors'

But that approach also has a downside, in that "you're getting into the problem of very junior, inexperienced people, which a lot of veteran CIA people feel now is part of the problem. Porter Goss has to double the number of operational people in an environment where there are no mentors. Who's going to train these people?"

In addition to stepping up recruiting, Goss has ordered a "top-down" review of the agency's "tradecraft" following the disclosure that several supposedly covert operatives involved in the 2003 abduction of a radical Muslim preacher in Milan, Italy, had registered at hotels under their true names and committed other amateurish procedural violations that made it relatively easy for the Italian police to identify them and for Italian prosecutors to charge them with kidnapping.


So, I doubt it's the Chinese. It seems anyone can do this. Yes, I do sense a slight bit of "let's target the Chinese" progandadic innuendo.

This all seems like another one of those "pay $80 to get anyone's cell phone records" that some companies do. Are those Chinese-run as well? :rolleyes:

- N