WikiLeaks about to hit the fan

Defense lawyers painted Manning as a troubled young man who shouldn't have had access to classified material, let alone served in Iraq. Their witnesses corroborated that he was prone to emotional outbursts and that military computer security was lax at Manning's Baghdad office.

Hearing in Soldier’s WikiLeaks Case Ends
(GINGER THOMPSON, The New York Times, December 22, 2011)

FORT MEADE, Md. — The military hearing against Pfc. Bradley Manning closed on Thursday, with lawyers and onlookers alternately portraying him as a premeditated traitor or an accidental hero with emotional troubles.

In their summary arguments, military lawyers accused the slight, bespectacled private of deliberately using his training as an Army intelligence analyst and his security clearances to leak tens of thousands of classified diplomatic cables, intelligence reports and a video of a military helicopter attack that left 11 people dead.

The prosecutors showed what they described as a Qaeda propaganda video in which terrorist operatives talked about the ways they had been able to exploit the leaks, with one of them saying that Private Manning “aided in the publication of those files, knowing that our enemies would use those files.”

Private Manning’s lawyers did not argue that their client was innocent of the leaks. However, they compared the military’s case to the story of Chicken Little, saying that the files leaked to the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks had not damaged national security and that the government was “over-charging” their client, who faces life in prison.

WikiLeaks shared the files with several news organizations, including The New York Times. News accounts of the findings ignited international outrage.

The defense lawyers portrayed Private Manning, 24, as a man struggling with myriad emotional problems, stemming primarily from years of having to hide that he is gay. His lawyers said he reached out to his commanding officers for help and emotional support, but they ignored his problems. And, the lawyers said, Private Manning saw himself as a whistle-blower, not a traitor.

“My client was young,” said one of the defense lawyers, David Coombs. “He thought he could make a difference.”

The investigating officer overseeing the proceedings is expected to deliver his recommendations on whether to court-martial Private Manning on Jan. 16. Legal experts said it was almost certain that Private Manning would be tried on at least some of the 22 charges against him, which include aiding the enemy and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer.

If he is court-martialed on the more serious charges, Mr. Manning could face the death penalty. But prosecutors have said they would seek life in prison instead.

The case has ignited debates beyond the drab little courtroom here about whether the government keeps too many secrets, and whether the military systematically fails to provide the necessary support to minority and gay soldiers, and to protect them from abuses.

Manning hearing provides clues to direction of possible court martial
(By Larry Shaughnessy, CNN Pentagon Producer, December 23, 2011)

Fort Meade, Maryland -- Pfc. Bradley Manning won't know for weeks if he will face a court martial for his alleged role in the largest intelligence leak in American history. But if he does go to trial, and experts think it's likely he will, his just-completed Article 32 hearing provides a lot of clues about what to expect.

An Article 32 is the military justice system's rough equivalent of a grand jury hearing, only it's conducted in the open and the defense is allowed to cross-examine witnesses and even present their own witnesses and evidence.

Manning, who served as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, faces 22 charges in connection to the leak of nearly 750,000 U.S. military and State Department documents. Most of them ended up on the WikiLeaks website and much of the week-long hearing focused on those documents and Manning's connection to WikiLeaks.

"This appears to have been the first time any evidence has been publicly presented that directly links Pfc. Manning to Wikileak's founder Julian Assange," said Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in national security matters. "Is this proceeding a prelude to a future prosecution of Mr. Assange?"

Perhaps the most revealing evidence presented by the government is a series of internet chats that the prosecution said were between Manning and Assange.

For example Thursday, Capt. Ashden Fein, the lead prosecutor cited chat logs of an alleged online discussion between Manning and Assange regarding the upload 700 Guantanamo Bay detainee interrogation reports.

Manning, Fein said, wrote that the upload had been going for about six hours and was about 36% complete. Assange asked how long until the upload would be complete; Manning estimated about 11-12 more hours.

Assange later confirmed the upload was complete.

WikiLeaks published 700 Guantanamo reports earlier this year.

Manning's attorneys did not present much evidence to suggest that Manning had not leaked the documents. But legal observers said they didn't have to; in fact it may have been to their advantage not to.

David Coombs, Manning's lead defense counsel, seemed for focus on two major issues -- the Army's lack of response to Manning's emotional and behavior problems as well lack of security in the SCIF where Manning worked in Iraq.

SCIF, pronounced skiff, stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. It is an office where people with security clearance, can access secure military computers. As an intelligence analyst with a Top Secret clearance, Manning's job was to use the SCIF to gather information about the threat from Shia militias in Iraq for commanders in the field.

Among the charges Manning faces include putting software on the secure computers that would allow him to download classified information and burn it to a compact disk.

Manning allegedly pretended to listen to music by Lady Gaga while burning the CD.

During testimony, witnesses told defense attorneys that listening to music in that SCIF was common among all the soldiers who worked there.

Capt. Barclay Keay, one of only two defense witnesses called by Coombs testified by phone about his time with Manning's unit.

Keay said he often saw soldiers listening to music in the SCIF. At first he thought it was not proper, but he was told it was "an accepted practice" that was "tolerated because it helped soldiers be more productive."

Another witness said rewritable CDs were lying all around the SCIF.

Because of that, Coombs argued that the charges related to Manning violating computer security policies for the SCIF should be dropped. Coombs said "it was a lawless unit" when it came to computer security.

Long before Manning's hearing, there were numerous media reports that he was gay and was estranged from his father.

But during the hearing it was revealed that Manning believed he was suffered from Gender Identity Disorder. Witnesses testified that he had created an alter ego online named Breanna Manning. In closing arguments, Coombs read a letter Manning wrote to one of his supervisors, Master Sgt. Paul Adkins, prior to his arrest where he talked about "my problem."

"Everyone is concerned about me," Manning wrote. "Everyone is afraid of me and I'm sorry."

"I joined the military hoping the problem would go away and it did for awhile."

Eventually, Coombs alleged, the gender identity problem lead to violent outbursts.

But in spite of the outbursts, Adkins and others in Manning's unit didn't remove him from duty in the SCIF or cut off his access to classified materials.

That didn't happen until he punched a fellow soldier in the face. Jihrleah Showman, a former Army specialist and at one point Manning's team leader, testified that after he hit her, she pinned him to the floor and said "I'm tired of this, I'm tired of this."

Showman was one of the few in the Army who thought Manning shouldn't have security clearance and shouldn't be deployed to Iraq. But Showman didn't have the authority to do anything other than warn her supervisors, who did not follow her recommendations.

Manning's attorney maintains that is one reason why the Army holds much of the responsibility for the leaks.

But Zaid has doubts about that legal tactic. Zaid told CNN via an email that "much irrelevant, peripheral information was publicly pandered, particularly by Pfc. Manning's defense team, to paint a portrait of Pfc. Manning that has little to nothing to do with any potential criminal liability he might face."

Whether Manning's legal team continues to follow this defense track or present a different defense won't be known until a court martial trial, if there is one.

The first hint we might get about that should come on January 16, when the Investigating Officer in the case is due to submit his recommendation to the Special Court Martial Convening Authority.

Assange to be investigated over theft of US military secret
(Lucy Carne, The Advertiser, December 26, 2011)

New claims have emerged that Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange played a role in stealing US military secrets which he published online.

The 40-year-old former hacker was accused by lawyers in the US of coaching Private Bradley Manning, 24, on how to crack passwords and hack into military computer networks.

During Manning's pre-trial hearing in Fort Meade, northwest of Washington, last week lawyers produced logs of online chats that show Assange played a role in Manning uploading 700,000 stolen military documents which were passed on to WikiLeaks.

US government digital forensic experts who examined Manning's computer found communications between him and an online chat user identified as Julian Assange, who guided Manning to break "hash codes".

Assange is under house arrest in Kent, east of London, as he fights extradition to Sweden for the alleged rape and sexual assault of two women. He faces Britain's Supreme Court in February to appeal his extradition.

During his lengthy legal fight, Assange said he feared the US would swiftly move to extradite him from Sweden to face espionage charges due to WikiLeaks' release of sensitive diplomatic cables.

British barrister and extradition expert Julian Knowles, QC, said this new evidence could mean that Assange's legal battle may have got much worse.

"This is the first overt sign that the US is looking to extradite Assange, so from that point of view, if I were him I would be concerned," Mr Knowles told The Times.

"There has been a lot of press speculation that the US may want him. There is no doubt that the penalties he would face in the US are very much more serious than in Sweden."

Mr Knowles also said if Assange wins his UK appeal, he could be extradited to the US sooner.

"If he loses, which I think he probably will, he will be going to Sweden, which would mean the US will probably wait," he said.

"If he wins at the Supreme Court, then the US will probably jump in. So the victory he's hoping for would not really be a victory at all."

US government digital forensic experts who examined Manning's computer found communications between him and an online chat user identified as Julian Assange, who guided Manning to break "hash codes".

Even there if I had been far easier for Assange to had the file uploaded then try to talk Manning to do so himself.

A government digital forensic expert examining the computer of accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning retrieved communications between Manning and an online chat user identified on Manning’s computer as “Julian Assange,” the name of the founder of the secret-spilling site that published hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables.

Investigators also found an Icelandic phone number for Assange, and a chat with a hacker located in the U.S., in which Manning says he’s responsible for the leaking of the “Collateral Murder” Apache helicopter video released by WikiLeaks in spring 2010.

Until Monday’s revelation, there have been no reports that the government had evidence linking Manning and Assange, other than chat logs provided to the FBI by hacker Adrian Lamo last year. Assange is being investigated by a federal grand jury, but has not been charged with any crime, since publishing classified information is not generally considered a crime in the U.S. But if prosecutors could show that Assange directed Manning in leaking government documents that he then published, this could complicate Assange’s defense that WikiLeaks is simply a journalistic endeavor.

The news of the chat logs between Manning and Assange came on the fourth day of Manning’s pre-trial hearing being held to determine whether he’ll face court martial on 22 charges of violating military law for allegedly abusing his position as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in order to feed a treasure trove of classified and sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.

Mark Johnson, a digital forensics contractor for ManTech International who works for the Army’s Computer Crime Investigative Unit, examined an image of Manning’s personal MacBook Pro and said he found 14 to 15 pages of chats in unallocated space on the hard drive that were discussions of unspecified government info between Manning and a person believed to be Assange, which specifically made a reference to re-sending info.

While the chat logs were encrypted, Johnson said that he was able to retrieve the MacBook’s login password from the hard drive and found that the same password “TWink1492!!” was also used as the encryption key.

Assange’s name was attached to a chat handle “[email protected]” listed in Manning’s buddy list in the Adium chat program on his computer. That Jabber address uses the same domain name allegedly mentioned by Manning in the chat logs that ex-hacker Adrian Lamo gave to the FBI and to Wired.com last year. In that earlier chat log, Manning was making reference to a domain that Assange was known to use.

In Manning’s buddy list there was also a second handle, “[email protected],” which had two aliases associated with it: Julian Assange and Nathaniel Frank. CCC.de in the domain refers to the Chaos Computer Club, a hacker club in Germany that operates the Jabber server.

When asked about the two aliases, Johnson said it was odd for a user to assign two names to one account, implying that some subterfuge might have been at play.

The chat logs mention a request to re-send some unspecified data, showing that the parties had talked before, Johnson said, as well as discussion about using SFTP for uploading data securely to an FTP server.

Johnson testified that he also found SSH logs on Manning’s computer that showed an SFTP connection from a Verizon IP address, that resolved to Manning’s aunt’s house in the U.S., to an IP address associated with a Swedish ISP called PRQ that is known to have links to WikiLeaks.

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Johnson says he also examined an external hard drive found in Manning’s bunk room in Iraq that contained a text file called wl-press.txt that was created on Nov. 30, 2009, right around the time that Manning told Lamo that he first made contact with WikiLeaks.

The file included the line: “You can currently contact our investigations editor directly in Iceland at 354.862.3481 : 24 hour service : ask for Julian Assange.”

During re-direct with Johnson, government attorney Joe Morrow referred Johnson to one of the charges against Manning that relates to the “United States Forces -Iraq Microsoft Outlook / SharePoint Exchange Server global address list belonging to the United States government,” which Manning allegedly stole between May 11-27, 2010.

Morrow asked Johnson if he’d found any evidence related to the global address list (GAL) and he replied that investigators found a text file in unallocated space that contained a task instruction to obtain the global address list for U.S. forces in Iraq. He also found thousands of Exchange-formatted email addresses on the computer. Asked if there was any evidence that the GAL had been released, Johnson replied, “I did not discover that, no.”

Johnson didn’t mention any date in relation to the GAL evidence he found on Manning’s computer, but on May 7, 2010, WikiLeaks had tweeted a request for people to send it .mil email addresses.

“We would like a list of as many .mil email addresses as possible. Please contact editorwikileaks.org or submit,” the Tweet read.

Also testifying today, was Special Agent David Shaver, who revealed that he examined an SD card found at Manning’s aunt’s house, where Manning had lived for a while, and found an encrypted zip file on it that contained three files he was able to open, and references to two files that had been deleted and were no longer accessible. The two deleted files were named “Nathan2_events.tar.br2″ and “Nathan2_event.”

Of the three files he was able to open, one file “Irq_events.csv” was created on Jan. 5, 2010 and contained more than 400,000 action reports from Iraq, pulled from the Combined Information Data Network Exchange, or CIDNE. The other file, “Afg_events.csv,” was created on Jan. 8, 2010 and contained about 91,000 action reports from Afghanistan. The third file, a readme.txt file, appeared to be a message to someone, likely WikiLeaks.

Posted By Kim Zetter, December 19, 2011

LOL

...war criminals no less and smoke and mirrors concerning bringing a young man to justice for breaking his oath and the law.

U.S. Fifth Fleet says won't allow Hormuz disruption

TEHRAN/DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it would not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the world's most important oil route.
"Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated," the Bahrain-based fleet said in an e-mail.

http://news.yahoo.com/iran-navy-chief-says-shutting-off-gulf-very-092339883.html

Unbelievable, ain't it, WandelJW. The unmitigated gall of a bunch of war criminals making this huge pretense with their kangaroo court.

Smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors!