Wikileaks' Anarchism Continues; Feds Ponder Next Step

Wikileaks, just days after releasing hundreds of thousands of classified State Department documents, is now claiming that they will release a similar number of documents about a major US bank.

Just what is Wikileaks intentions? It clearly seems that they are intent upon causing anarchy and upheaval in the US and world markets, on national security, foreign policy and business and economic grounds. Analysts are concerned that the document dump may lead to the loss of life and putting lives of Americans at greater risk. It further complicates foreign policy and diplomatic efforts on issues ranging from the Middle East to China and North Korea - flashpoints that could boil over into open hostilities in a heartbeat.

Army analyst Bradley Manning, who originally obtained the military and State Department documents had anarchy on his mind when he provided the documents to Wikileaks.

It's an organization that has placed itself just out of reach of US authorities unless the US gets assistance from foreign governments in tracking down and arresting those involved to be extradited to the US to face justice.

So, what is the US to do. They can issue stern warnings and attempt to placate and reassure allies, but the damage has been done. The military and State Department have to revise their methodologies to reduce the chances that a single person could do the kind of damage that Manning did.

Moreover, prosecutions of those who obtained classified documents and transmitted them to unauthorized persons for publication or retransmission must be swift and harsh. Prosecutors are looking at bringing charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and his cohorts.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department and Pentagon are conducting "an active, ongoing criminal investigation.'' Others familiar with the probe said the FBI is examining everyone who came into possession of the documents, including those who gave the materials to WikiLeaks and also the organization itself. No charges are imminent, the sources said, and it is unclear whether any will be brought.

Former prosecutors cautioned that prosecutions involving leaked classified information are difficult because the Espionage Act is a 1917 statute that preceded Supreme Court cases that expanded First Amendment protections. The government also would have to persuade another country to turn over Assange, who is outside the United States.

But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is rapidly unfolding, said charges could be filed under the act. The U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria - which in 2005 brought Espionage Act charges, now dropped, against two former pro-Israel lobbyists - is involved in the effort, the sources said.

The Pentagon is leading the investigation and it remains unclear whether any additional charges would be brought in the military or civilian justice systems. Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst suspected of being the source of the WikiLeaks documents, was arrested by the military this year.

Holder was asked Monday how the United States could prosecute Assange, who is an Australian citizen. "Let me be very clear," he replied. "It is not saber rattling.

"To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Holder continued, "we will move to close those gaps, which is not to say . . . that anybody at this point, because of their citizenship or their residence, is not a target or a subject of an investigation that's ongoing." He did not indicate that Assange is being investigated for possible violations of the Espionage Act.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others, called Assange and Wikileaks terrorists for exposing the hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and documents.

I'm not quite sure that Wikileaks fits that definition. They are anarchists because they are trying to overturn existing geopolitical structures and undermining the US by any means possible. Terrorism has a specific definition for US law: 18 USC 2331. Providing material assistance to terrorist organizations has a specific definition. I'm not so sure that prosecutors can prove that Wikileaks and Assange conforms to the meanings of the statutes. That doesn't mean that prosecutors can't find other relevant statutes to work with.

Julian Assange and the other people working for Wikileaks must be held to account for their supernational effort to undermine US national security. Their actions are fully within the scope of 18 USC 794 and 18 USC 798, which relates to the disclosure of classified information.

I'd also expect prosecutors to take a closer look at Wikileaks as a criminal enterprise/racket and treat it under racketeering statutes (RICO).

As the damage from the document dump fallout continues, US allies may be more than willing to arrest and extradite Assange and his cohorts to the US to stand trial for their activities. Australia is looking into whether Assange broke Australian law (Assange is an Australian citizen).

Treasonous Releases of Diplomatic Documents Threatens US Security Interests Worldwide

Wikileaks needs to not only be taken behind the woodshed and thrashed to the fullest extent of the law, but all those who work in connection with the organization and those who have leaked the 250,000 diplomatic caches to the entity need to be brought up on charges of treason and possession of diplomatic documents and other classified documents.

These document releases threaten the national security of the United States and our diplomatic efforts worldwide. This is on the heels of a previous release of military documents that threatened US interests in Afghanistan and Iraq - which contained unredacted information that put the lives of those who worked with the US in jeopardy of being targeted for reprisals.

Wikileaks claims that they are in the business of releasing classified government documents from around the world, but their overwhelming focus has been on the undermining of US national security and diplomatic efforts of and by the US.

The US State Department is in damage control mode as they're trying to scramble to figure out who the leaks are coming from, what those documents could say and who might be offended by the documents and analysis - both among our allies, potential allies, and our foes.

The scope of these most recent diplomatic documents is breathtaking in the damage that has been done and cover most of the last three years - pretty much running from the end of the Bush Administration to the present:

The cables, a huge sampling of the daily traffic between the State Department and some 270 embassies and consulates, amount to a secret chronicle of the United States’ relations with the world in an age of war and terrorism. Among their revelations, to be detailed in The Times in coming days:

— A dangerous standoff with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: Since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device. In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, “if the local media got word of the fuel removal, ‘they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons,’ he argued.”

— Gaming out an eventual collapse of North Korea: American and South Korean officials have discussed the prospects for a unified Korea, should the North’s economic troubles and political transition lead the state to implode. The South Koreans even considered commercial inducements to China, according to the American ambassador to Seoul. She told Washington in February that South Korean officials believe that the right business deals would “help salve” China’s “concerns about living with a reunified Korea” that is in a “benign alliance” with the United States.

— Bargaining to empty the Guantánamo Bay prison: When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in a group of detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

— Suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government: When Afghanistan’s vice president visited the United Arab Emirates last year, local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that he was carrying $52 million in cash. With wry understatement, a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul called the money “a significant amount” that the official, Ahmed Zia Massoud, “was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination.” (Mr. Massoud denies taking any money out of Afghanistan.)

— A global computer hacking effort: China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.

There are very good reasons why these kinds of documents remain classified - because they go to the heart of negotiating tough situations like with North Korea or the Middle East. They include unvarnished analysis and game situations such as the collapse of the North Korean regime and what various other countries might do.

At this point, even some who had previously worked with Wikileaks are now critical of the group and are demanding that criminal prosecutions take place because they're putting lives in danger. In fact, it's one of Julian Assange's cofounders of Wikileaks that holds the organization in contempt for its blatant disregard for the law.

Then again, some of those documents aren't exactly a surprise. One such document notes the ties between Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs. Other documents point to Jordan and Saudi Arabia calling on the US to take action against Iran - in light of Iran's nuclear ambitions. That latter release shows how these documents can affect the strategic balance in the Middle East and further complicate efforts to contain Iran and North Korea among others.

Julian Assange and the other people working for Wikileaks must be held to account for their supernational effort to undermine US national security. Their actions are fully within the scope of 18 USC 794 and 18 USC 798, which relates to the disclosure of classified information. Further, Congress should undertake a review of those relevant statutes to specifically include leaks of information that can benefit terror regimes and foreign governments when not specifically and directly transmitted - that Internet posting is sufficient such that any regime seeking to obtain an advantage of the classified documents can view these documents online.

US Updates Photos For Wanted Terrorists

The US State Department and the FBI have released new digitally enhanced photos of wanted terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, to reflect how they may have aged and/or altered their appearance since the last known photos were taken.

Using sophisticated digital enhancement techniques, forensic artists at the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, Virginia have “age progressed” old photos of 18 terrorist suspects listed on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) website (www.rewardsforjustice.net). Fourteen of these suspects also are being sought by the FBI.
The RFJ program is offering monetary rewards for information leading to the apprehension and/or conviction of these suspects. FBI forensic artists modified the suspects’ facial features to show what they might look like today. In other cases, their features have been modified to show how they might appear with different grooming and clothing choices. Federal investigators hope these updated images will enable the public to better identify these wanted suspects.
“It is our hope that these digitally enhanced images will help someone recognize these terrorist suspects and then contact the Rewards for Justice program with information that leads to their apprehension,” said Robert Eckert, assistant director for Diplomatic Security’s Threat Information and Analysis Directorate, which oversees the Rewards for Justice program.

 Updated photo information is also provided for Mullah Omar. It's hoped that the new images may provide new leads to the whereabouts of these most wanted terrorists.

State Department Rescuing Yemeni Jews From Anti-Semitism

There aren't that many Jews left in Yemen. They were largely driven out of the country following Israel's independence in 1948. Those that remained were a tiny percentage of the population.

Rising anti-Semitism has forced the US State Department to intervene and help resettle those that remain in the United States and Israel.

According to the report, nearly 350 Yeminite Jews lived in the country before the operation. Those who have already moved to the US are likely to be joined by 100 more, while the remaining number will most likely move to Israel.

"If we had not done anything, we feared there would be bloodshed," Gregg Rickman, former State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, told the paper.

In August, Israeli sources confirmed that the overwhelming majority of the final remnant of Yemen's ancient Jewish community was looking to leave the country.

"About 120 of the Yemeni Jews want to move to Israel, 100 want to move to the US," a source told the Jerusalem Post. "And between 20 and 30 want to stay."

Jewish ties to Yemen stretch back more than 2,000 years, and have a rich cultural heritage. Nearly the entire Jewish community in Yemen emigrated in 1948-1950 during Operation Magic Carpet because of pogroms and rioting that killed dozens of Jews in the wake of Israel's independence. Many settled in Israel, with some coming to the United States.

Now, the last remnants of the once flourishing population is coming to the US and Israel because the Islamists in Yemen simply refuse to accept the Jewish presence.

Passing On Passports at the State Department

I had warned folks about this very thing when reports surfaced about how contract workers at the State Department were illegally accessing the passport records of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama, among others. Well, it turns out there were other State Department workers who were doing just that - stealing passport information to gain new identities for illicit purposes:

Meanwhile, a State Department employee who was not identified in documents filed in U.S. District Court, was implicated in a credit-card fraud scheme after 24-year-old Lieutenant Quarles Harris Jr. told federal authorities he obtained "passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State."

The investigation began after Metropolitan Police on March 25 pulled over Mr. Harris in Southeast on suspicion that the windows of his vehicle were tinted too darkly.

After searching Mr. Harris and his vehicle, police found marijuana and 21 credit cards that were not issued in his name or the name of a female passenger with him. Police also found eight printouts of State Department passport applications, and four of the names on the applications matched four of the credit cards.

Upon questioning by agents from the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Service and State Department, Mr. Harris "admitted he obtained the passport information" from a State Department employee, court documents say.

Mr. Harris also said the fraud ring submitted credit-card applications using the names and "identifying information" of the persons listed on the passport applications, and that a postal service employee then would intercept the cards before they were delivered to the appropriate residences.

Passport application data includes details such as a person's date and place of birth, e-mail address, mailing address, Social Security number, former names and travel plans.

Mr. Harris, of Capitol Heights was initially arrested for possession with intent to distribute marijuana, and has since been charged by complaint in U.S. District Court in the District with credit-card fraud.

He was released on his own recognizance, under the condition that he not apply for or possess any passports.

Who is the individual at the State Department who handed off this information to Harris? That would seem to indicate a serious breach of confidentiality and security at State. Thus far, the head of passport services has stepped down, but I think that's insufficient.

Passport services has been a complete and utter mess. They failed miserably to handle the increased demand for passports after Congress mandated that all US citizens have passports to visit Mexico, Canada, or the Caribbean. They've also since outsourced printing of passports and questions arose over the billing of same. Now, we've got an ongoing scandal about lax internal security of the very kinds of documents needed to steal the identities of US citizens to create bogus passports.

Harris may have already used those bogus documents as he's facing charges of credit-card fraud in Maryland from a September incident at a mall there; court documents show that Harris purchased 10 Nordstrom gift cards worth $1,000 each on Sept. 25 with a credit card that did not belong to him.

State Department Reports Still More Passport File Breaches

After yesterday's report noting that two contract workers were fired and a third suspended for unauthorized access to Presidential candidate Democrat Barack Obama, we have learned today that other individuals engaged in the same conduct with regard to Democrat Hillary Clinton's records and Republican John McCain's records.

Rice expressed concern over the privacy violations as well as the fact that they weren't reported right away. Rice said the incident "should have been made known to senior management. It was not to my knowledge and we also want to take every step we can to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

Rice said the State Department will launch a "full investigation." Spokesman Sean McCormack said the probe wiould include checks to see whether the records of Clinton and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were also breached.

McCormack said the three employees involved in the unauthorized looks into Obama's personal records do not appear to be connected and were in three different passport offices in the Washington, D.C. area.

This morning McCormack said Acting Inspector General Bill Todd has been in touch with the Department of Justice "so they can proceed together" in case the IG's investigation determines any laws were broken.

In a hasty late-night conference call Thursday, embarrassed officials of the State Department acknowledged that two employees had been fired and a third disciplined for improperly accessing Obama's passport file.

Today McCormack said he wasn't trying to suggest anything other than the initial assessment that the employees were anything other than curious Obama fans but was not dimissive of other possibilities.

The State Department has a serious problem on its hands with unauthorized access to these records. Damage control efforts are underway, but if someone could access those records, they just as easily could be looking at other records of the average joe, and use them for more nefarious purposes.

UPDATE:
Sen. Obama now wants to get Congress involved and have them investigate the State Department. He says that it's to keep the investigation from being a purely internal matter. It should be an open investigation, but Congress will do what it always does - grandstand before the cameras.

UPDATE:
Also following the story: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, and Stop the ACLU.

UPDATE:
Meet the companies whose employees are responsible for the security breaches:

Two of the government contractors who accessed Sen. Barack Obama's passport records worked for a Virginia-based firm called Stanley, Inc., the company said in a statement. A third contractor who looked at passport information for Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain worked for a company called The Analysis Corporation, the State Department said.

"Two Stanley subcontractor employees were involved in the unauthorized access of Senator Barack Obama's passport files," a Stanley, Inc., spokeswoman said. "In each of these instances the employee was terminated the day the unauthorized search occurred."

"While this is a rare occurrence, we regret the unauthorized access of any individual's private information," Stanley spokeswoman Joelle Pozza added.

Stanley, Inc., is headquartered in Arlington, Va. The State Department awarded it a contract for $164 million in 2006, to print and mail millions of new U.S. passports. Stanley announced on Monday that it was awarded an additional $570 million contract to "continue support of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs/Passport Services Directorate."

One Stanley, Inc., contractor looked at Obama's passport records on January 9, and then a second Stanley employee accessed similar Obama records on February 21, U.S. officials familiar with the controversy told NBC News. The Stanley spokeswoman would not identify the workers or explain why they had accessed Obama's passport data. The State Department Inspector General is now investigating.

Another contractor, who worked for The Analysis Corporation of McLean, Va., gained unauthorized access on March 14 to the passport records for Obama and McCain, a State Department spokesman said. That employee's employment status is pending.

State Dept. Contract Workers Fired For Snooping In Obama's Records

The State Department fired two contract workers and suspended a third for illegally snooping in passport data relating to Barack Obama.

The officials, all contract workers, used their authorized computer network access to look up files within the department's consular affairs section, which processes and stores passport information, and read Mr. Obama's passport application and other records, in violation of department privacy rules, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was notified of the security breach today, and responded by saying security measures used to monitor records of high-profile Americans worked properly in detecting the breaches.

Mr. McCormack said the officials did not appear to be seeking information on behalf of any political candidate or party.

"As far as we can tell, in each of the three cases, it was imprudent curiosity," Mr. McCormack told The Washington Times.

Expect the usual suspects to claim that the Administration was engaging in illegal conduct and that Bush and/or Sec. State Rice should be brought up on charge. It's only a matter of time.

The fact is that contract workers at the Department were caught by the State Department's own security measures, but one has to wonder whether such efforts are extended to protect the data of all those who provide such data to the State Department for passport processing. Would the Department be able to tell if someone was improperly viewing data from my passport application or those of anyone else?

It's a question that isn't touched upon in this article.

Congress Shirks Its Responsibilities Again

Congress has originally sought to require US citizens to obtain passports to visit neighboring countries like Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. It had delayed imposition of the rule after finding that the State Department couldn't handle the influx of requests for passports.

Now, we're about to witness Congress holding off on imposing this security rule again.

The State Department is once again showing itself incapable of handling the paperwork.

WASHINGTON - Congress is seeking to delay a new security rule requiring passports at all U.S. border crossings next year in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last summer's vacation-killing backlog of passport applications.

The Bush administration said Monday it opposed the measure and still plans to go forward with implementing the planned passport rule next summer.

Lawmakers said Monday that under a major end-of-the-year spending bill to be voted on this week, the border passport rule would be moved back even further, to no earlier than June 1, 2009. ...

As a result of the new requirements, demand for passports soared and the State Department issued a record 18.4 million passports in fiscal year 2007, compared to 12.1 million in 2006.

The rules were originally passed as part of a 2004 intelligence reform package.

Congress and the State Department must both take the blame for failing to implement the program and funding sufficient additional personnel to review applications.

The passport rules are supposed to help border agents determine who is entering the US and delaying the rule would pose a security risk, but one that Congress apparently has no problem with.

Funny thing is that the same Congress that wanted to impose an amnesty program for illegal aliens along with the bureaucracy to process the tens of millions of people subject to that amnesty program and guest worker program are having second thoughts about a program that can barely handle an additional six million requests per year.

It shows the utter unseriousness of Congress and the Administration to secure our borders in a functional and serious manner.

Arresting Illegal Aliens in New Haven: Terrorism?

That's exactly what those pro-open borders/illegal aliens rights groups are claiming. The feds cracked down on New Haven area businesses, arresting 31 illegal aliens.

When will it sink in with most people that the people arrested were arrested because they are violating US law every day they're here in this country. They are not undocumented workers. They are illegal aliens. As such, they do not have the same rights as those who immigrated to the US legally - including those legal residents who obtained Green Cards.

If coming to the US is so important, do so legally. Expand the number of those who can come into the US legally, but to claim that crackdowns on illegal aliens amounts to terrorism is not only hyperbole, but shows the rank hysterics that the open borders crowd will use to push their extreme agenda.

Afterward, local officials’ cellphones lighted up with dozens of frantic phone calls from residents and community leaders saying that people were missing. There were rumors of a mass arrest at a supermarket. Fair Haven resembled a ghost town, with residents huddling inside their houses, afraid that they, too, could be arrested at any moment.

“At 10 in the morning, the streets were just empty,” said John Lugo, an organizer for Unidad Latina en Acción, an advocacy group. “People were really very afraid all of the sudden. They still are. They think it will happen again.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Lugo and others passed out hundreds of fliers outlining immigrants’ rights, instructing them not to give federal authorities any information without a lawyer present and advising them to not answer their doors.

Mayor John DeStefano and other city leaders angrily accused the federal government of “terrorizing” the immigrant community. Many of them speculated that the mass arrests — the first of their kind in recent memory here — were retaliation for the acceptance of municipal identification cards and other immigrant-friendly city policies.

UPDATE:
As if to underscore the complete incompetence of the federal government to deal with border control, the feds are waiving the new requirement for US citizens to obtain passports to travel to the Carribean, Canada, or Mexico. The excuse - the number of applications involved was too burdensome to provide timely turnaround on passports.

The Bush administration on Friday suspended some of its new, post-Sept. 11 requirements for flying abroad, hoping to placate Congress and irate summer travelers whose vacations have been thwarted by delays in processing their passports.

The proposal would temporarily lift a requirement that U.S. passports be used for citizens flying to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The rule, and its suspension, does not affect Americans driving across the Canadian or Mexican borders or taking sea cruises, although those travelers are expected to need passports beginning next year.

The suspension should allow the State Department to catch up with a massive surge in applications that has overwhelmed passport processing centers since the rule took effect this year. The resulting backlog has caused up to three-month delays for passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of thousands of Americans.

Until the end of September, travelers will be allowed to fly without a passport if they present a State Department receipt, showing they had applied for a passport, and government-issued identification, such as a driver's license. Those who have not applied for a passport will not be allowed to travel.

Those with receipts but no passports would receive additional security scrutiny, which could include extra questioning or bag checks.

"This is further evidence that the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department are simply not ready to make this program work as well as it must," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

If the number of passports issued was too burdensome, how can anyone in their right mind expect the same to be done with any program dealing with illegal aliens and/or guest worker programs where the number of applications will be significantly higher.

Of course, Schumer and other Democrats wont make that very logical conclusion. They're too fixated on finding a way to bash the Administration.