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Legal sources tell NBC News that the former second ranking officer in the U.S. military is now the target of a Justice Department investigation into a politically sensitive leak of classified information about a covert U.S. cyber attack on Irans nuclear program.
According to legal sources, Retired Marine Gen. James Hoss Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has received a target letter informing him that hes under investigation for allegedly leaking information about a massive attack using a computer virus named Stuxnet on Irans nuclear facilities. Gen. Cartwright, 63, becomes the latest individual targeted over alleged leaks by the Obama administration, which has already prosecuted or charged eight individuals under the Espionage Act.
Last year, the New York Times reported that Cartwright, a four-star general who was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 2007 to 2011, conceived and ran the cyber operation, called Olympic Games, under Presidents Bush and Obama. According to the front-page story by chief Washington correspondent David Sanger, President Obama ordered the cyber attacks sped up, and in 2010 an attack using the Stuxnet worm temporarily disabled 1,000 centrifuges that the Iranians were using to enrich uranium.
The Times story included details of the Olympic Games operation, including the cooperation of Israeli intelligence and the way the virus was introduced to an Iranian nuclear facility. It described meetings in the White House Situation Room and was based on interviews with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program.
As soon as the Times report appeared, Congressional leaders demanded a criminal probe, and president Obama said he had zero tolerance for these kinds of leaks. Republicans charged that senior administration officials had leaked the details to bolster the presidents national security credentials during the 2012 campaign.
But, said legal sources, while the probe that Attorney General Eric Holder ordered initially focused on whether the information came from inside the White House, by late last year FBI agents were zeroing in on Cartwright, who had served as one of the presidents inner circle of national security advisors. Two sources said prosecutors were able to identify Cartwright as a suspected leaker without resorting to a secret subpoena of the phone records of New York Times reporters.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/27/19174350-ex-pentagon-general-target-of-leak-investigation-sources-say?lite
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)if some unelected general has leaked how our elected civilian leadership kept the Iranians from getting The Bomb, you Snowden fans gonna defend THIS? How very military coupish.
GeorgeGist
(25,326 posts)to documentation that our elected officials have declared war on Iran.
Thanks in advance.
Vietnameravet
(1,085 posts)by your logic Roosevelt should have been removed for helping those who opposed Hitler..
MADem
(135,425 posts)RED[edit]
In 1923, a US Navy officer acquired a stolen copy of the Secret Operating Code codebook used by the Japanese Navy during World War I. Photographs of the codebook were given to the cryptanalysts at the Research Desk and the processed code was kept in red-colored folders (to indicate its Top Secret classification). This code was called "RED".
BLUE[edit]
In 1930, the Japanese government created a more complex code that was codenamed BLUE, although RED was still being used for low-level communications. It was quickly broken by the Research Desk by 1932. US Military Intelligence COMINT listening stations began monitoring command-to-fleet, ship-to-ship, and land-based communications.
PURPLE[edit]
After Japan's ally Germany declared war in the fall of 1939, the German government began sending technical assistance to upgrade their communications and cryptography capabilities. One part was to send them modified Enigma machines to secure Japan's high-level communications with Germany. The new code, codenamed PURPLE (from the color you get when you mix red and blue), was baffling.
PURPLE, like Enigma, began its communications with the same line of code but then became an unfathomable jumble. Codebreakers tried to break PURPLE communiques by hand but found they could not. Then the codebreakers realized that it was not a manual additive or substitution code like RED and BLUE, but a machine-generated code similar to Germany's Enigma cipher. Decoding was slow and much of the traffic was still hard to break. By the time the traffic was decoded and translated, the contents were often out of date.
A reverse-engineered machine created in 1939 by a team of technicians led by William Friedman and Frank Rowlett could figure out some of the PURPLE code by replicating some of the settings of the Japanese Enigma machines. This sped up decoding and the addition of more translators on staff in 1942 made it easier and quicker to decipher the traffic intercepted.
PURPLE traffic[edit]
The Japanese Foreign Office used a cipher machine to encrypt its diplomatic messages. The machine was called "PURPLE" by U.S. cryptographers. A message was typed into the machine, which enciphered and sent it to an identical machine. The receiving machine could decipher the message only if set to the correct settings, or keys. American cryptographers were able to build a machine that could decrypt these messages.
The PURPLE machine itself was first used by Japan in 1940. U.S. and British cryptographers had broken some PURPLE traffic well before the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the PURPLE machines were used only by the Foreign Office to carry diplomatic traffic to its embassies. The Japanese Navy used a completely different crypto-system, known as JN-25.
U.S. analysts discovered no hint in PURPLE of the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; nor could they, as the Japanese were very careful not to discuss their plan in Foreign Office communications. In fact, no detailed information about the planned attack was even available to the Japanese Foreign Office, as that agency was regarded by the military, particularly its more nationalist members, as insufficiently "reliable". U.S. access to private Japanese diplomatic communications (even the most secret ones) was less useful than it might otherwise have been because policy in prewar Japan was controlled largely by military groups (e.g., in Manchuria and elsewhere in China), not by the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office itself deliberately withheld from its embassies and consulates much of the information it did have, so the ability to read PURPLE messages was less than definitive regarding Japanese tactical or strategic military intentions.
U.S. cryptographers had decrypted and translated the 14-part Japanese diplomatic message breaking off ongoing negotiations with the U.S. at 1 p.m. Washington time on 7 December 1941, even before the Japanese Embassy in Washington could do so. As a result of the deciphering and typing difficulties at the embassy, the note was delivered late to American Secretary of State Cordell Hull. When the two Japanese diplomats finally delivered the note, Hull had to pretend to be reading it for the first time, even though he already knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor.[1]
Throughout the war, the Allies routinely read both German and Japanese cryptography. The Japanese Ambassador to Germany, General Hiroshi Ōshima, often sent priceless German military information to Tokyo. This information was routinely intercepted and read by Roosevelt, Churchill and Eisenhower.[2] According to Lowman, "The Japanese considered the PURPLE system absolutely unbreakable.... Most went to their graves refusing to believe the [cipher] had been broken by analytic means.... They believed someone had betrayed their system."[3]
This is what countries do. It's silly to act like it is 'news' or some sort of shocking behavior.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)I am referring to the OP that says some unelected general has tried to undercut his elected civilian commander in chief.
Civilian control of the military is a cornerstone of our democracy and you folks who want to kneejerk react to this and think it is great better give it some serious fucking thought.
You want to talk about altering the Republic for an Empire this is it, friends. This is real.
SwampG8r
(10,287 posts)agree with you almost totally
snowden and the nsa and the cia and the fbi all aside
having high level officers leaking info to force an agenda is the empire stretching its arms
it almost has a military coup feel
anyone defending an officer of the us military "leaking" is no friend of america
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)this is big time serious.
SwampG8r
(10,287 posts)and I read your posts and want to say usually we disagree in a major way
and im kind of a dick sometimes so you may even already know me
but if the military cannot trust its major command officers to follow their sworn oaths,we have turned the corner
eta: irony alert see next response to the OP lol
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)whatever other disagreements, this is one I can say for sure - if this happened under Bush, I would want the book thrown at the general.
Military men deciding they don't like the civilian leadership not bombing some place, then leaking the whole thing to undermine said civilian leadership is just absolutely contrary to anything we have been, said we are, thought we are, been or pretended to be since 1789.
SwampG8r
(10,287 posts)99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)that keeps growing day by day, on the world stage, where virtually every other
nation on earth is cheering on the leaker of the day. USA gov't's arrogant disregard
for basic constitutional rights is on full display.
Whatever happened to US being a beacon of liberty & democracy to the rest of the
world anyway?
Vietnameravet
(1,085 posts)Why did you vote for Obama if you cant trust him and believe what he says?
Bobby Kennedy also approved spying..
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)So we were told.
Try again.
Vietnameravet
(1,085 posts)You seriously think other nations do not spy on their citizens to see who is plotting terrorist attacks against them??
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)And no, open societies don't
Now closed societies, all the time.
Vietnameravet
(1,085 posts)All nations spy and all nation are looking for those that threaten their security...You seriously think the British dont spy on those the consider threats?
And the oath says "defend from all enemies foreign and domestic"
If I am searching for local connections to international terrorists then there is no way I can avoid spying on local citizens..
President Obama has said no ones phones were listened to and there are adequate safeguards...both in the congress and the courts..and I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt considering the dangers we face...
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)And no, open societies do not soy on their citizens...they use police techniques and warrants. I know this is pre 911 thinking...sorry, should I report now to the reeducation camp?
Amonester
(11,541 posts)Why do you thing the street cams businesses are booming like crazy?
If you don't believe it, can you show us the way to Utopia?
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)you are being played.
this smells of a fucking coup against the elected civilian leadership of our republic.
really, gonna support the generals?
bullshit
Whisp
(24,096 posts)no words.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)nt
OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)Priceless.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)especially when it became apparent that J. Edger was spying
on the Kennedy clan,and on Martin Luther King.
Vietnameravet
(1,085 posts)sometimes you have to do it.. There are real threats out there and we have to deal with them..
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)Well, perhaps what you say has some merit; but we don't spy
just "sometimes" in "special" cases anymore, we do it 24/7 on
the entire population. <-- THIS is what people are rightfully
concerned about.,
So your "sometimes" seems a bit disingenuous.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)nt
tblue37
(65,528 posts)wating time opening a post when in fact the entire text of the post is found in the subject line. By using "nt" in the subject line, you are thoughtfully saving readers wasted time.
But by putting the "nt" in the message box itself you are completely defeating the purpose of "nt" (which means there is "no text" in the message box). It serves no purpose if it is in the message box itself, because the reader must open the message box to read the "nt."
BTW, the same is true for "eom." It means that the subject line is the end of the message, so don't bother opening the message itself.
HardTimes99
(2,049 posts)compliments!
nt -
Cha
(298,021 posts)nuclear program."
So, you're rooting for the General who's accused of leaking classified information that let Iran know about a cover U.S. cyber attack on Iran's nuclear program?
The US is striving for Democracy in a country with a lot of idiots who are trying to bring it down.. while many of us are working to make it stronger.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)world anyway?
How can you not "get" this? All of our Karmic chickens are coming home to roost,
like they always do eventually. This does not make me happy at all, rather it makes
me very very sad. The American Empire was destined to end eventually, like all those
other Empires in the history books, now the US Empire appears to be grinding to a halt.
As a citizen I have observed way too much collusion between Big Corporations &
Government, to the extent that I have very little faith in my government anymore.
We all know we've lost our way, that we're going to have Hell to pay, we feel it in our
bones; which is why there are so many dystopian themed movies/
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)will have a hard time attacking this leaker but they will try for sure.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)do you not see the seriousness of this?
think
think hard
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)of this leaker's mindset. But you are allowed to come to your own conclusions.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)but people need to think very very seriously about this. this isn't bradley manning this is a very powerful, unelected man at the top of government, undermining the civilian, elected control of the (our) military.
this is dangerous ground. big time.
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)I would argue he may have averted a costly adventure into Iran.
OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)Your arguments could not possibly get more bizarre.
Could they?
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)mean it is bizarre. Honestly the leaks had an effect on world opinion. World opinion pretty much opposed U.S. invasion war drums that were beating at the time.
OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)Disable their nukes, reduce the threat, decrease the pressure for engagement. I simply cannot understand how it can be seen any other way.
pnwmom
(109,024 posts)OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)Rhetorical, BTW.
The general's scum.
That was fucking easy.
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)"scum". I just can't do it but I will say that they tend to feel regret joining the profitable war machine, hence their rebellion. I know differently, which is why I discourage those from joining the armed forces in the first place.
OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)He had plenty of time to bail, if he felt the slightest remorse. Of course, that he "conceived and ran the cyber operation" that has caused him such angst makes my heart bleed.
Plenty of military are scum. Read up on the white-supremacist ring operating at Fort Bragg, for a quick example.
dkf
(37,305 posts)Are they being punished?
Bah they leak all the time but then they choose who gets punished. It's a joke.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Props to Obama and Holder for proceeding with this Justice Department investigation.
Boom.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)DevonRex
(22,541 posts)Throw the book at him.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)It appears that the military has their own and separate dangerous game going on. I don't think for a minute Hoss was working on his own on this.
Obama was not popular with them right from the start, what with announcing withdrawals from their wars and more recent being hesitant on Syrian involvement. Libya, I am forgetting how that went but very likely the cry to get militarily involved by the brass is a likely.
On Snowden, if he was CIA first... there have been some turf wars between the CIA and NSA, that may have some connection there too. Snowden could be a soldier for the CIA and their dirty interests.
This is freaked out crazy dangerous. All the screamers are blaming the administration when looking at this, it's more like there is a struggle for power and it's the one's looking to take over that are creating a lot of the shit disturbing. But Blame it on Obama is a much easier outlet. Anything else would require some thinking.
patrice
(47,992 posts)administration.
the information could be useful for entirely different purposes.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)coup when the general is retired?
I don't think he should have leaked this information but I don't see it as a coup.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)That General was there in 2007, as did cheney... and bu$h...
Since perhaps President Obama turned his request(s?) down, now that he's retired, by leaking this, he may have just hoped that it would stir up enough (international) sh*t that somewhere, somehow, that sh*t stiring of his would kickstart a new war for oil. There.
I may be wrong (I HOPE I'm wrong), but these military types sometimes, and those with former neocon ties (or 'investments') always think they'll get what they 'want' one way or another.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)There seems to be a pack of them that don't like taking orders from the President but work in their own war world.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Cha
(298,021 posts)"a covert U.S. cyber attack on Irans nuclear program."
too bad your General didn't get to start a war with Iran.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"too bad your General didn't get to start a war with Iran."
...the motivation behind the recent leaks.
For all we know Fox was going to spin us into a war.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022871121
Cha
(298,021 posts)he's a Leaker like Snowden. he must be good. Talk about outing the stupid.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)and want the feel of what they are used to, warm and spilled blood instead, and so are retaliating.
Betrayus, McChrystal, now this guy.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)nt
B Calm
(28,762 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)what with some of the ridiculous things being said here lately.
I would say this guy is not to be trusted, he had powers that could have caused great harm.
I agree with the brig thing if you were serious.
allin99
(894 posts)i'm reading it wrong.
Last year, the New York Times reported that Cartwright, a four-star general who was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 2007 to 2011, conceived and ran the cyber operation, called Olympic Games, under Presidents Bush and Obama. According to the front-page story by chief Washington correspondent David Sanger, President Obama ordered the cyber attacks sped up, and in 2010 an attack using the Stuxnet worm temporarily disabled 1,000 centrifuges that the Iranians were using to enrich uranium.
?