Friday, June 7, 2013

"Curiouser and curiouser" cried Alice.

The Guardian now reports on more high level intel. One is interesting but a flow of such releases by the same person at the same time the current president meets with the head of China is, as Alice said, "Curiouser and curiouser".

The Guardian states:

It says the government will "identify potential targets of national importance where OCEO can offer a favorable balance of effectiveness and risk as compared with other instruments of national power".

It appears that these were planted and timed for maximum benefit. This is not subtle intel practices that I saw in the 60s and 70s, this is hatchet like. It appears that perhaps internal security has been breached, and badly so. Then one must wonder who is the adversary. This is a game, the Guardian seems to just be an intermediary, facilitating one side against the other.

From whence did these docs originate, if the classification was correct then they should be traceable, the holders of them limited. Yet of they were obtained via electronic means we have a fundamental problem. Namely such documents and facts should never leave the world of paper, never appear on a computer. Bring back typewriters, and place them in a safe. When you place them even on a word processor you invite a compromise.

One should recall the classic release of highly classified data during the Falcon and the Snowman tale, when a tech in the vault of TRW in San Jose released highly classified data to the Soviets via a childhood friend who interfaced via the Mexico City Embassy of the USSR. The people were able to copy the documents, take them from TRW and then deliver them to the Soviets.

Then there was the Hansen episode, in the park behind the house I lived in in Virginia. The neighborhood was filled with intel types but the park apparently become a meeting location for all sorts. All of this a few blocks from Langley.

One just need understand that even with classic controls, things leak, in most cases because of sloppy oversight.