Cables leak reveals flaws of information-sharing tool

[struggle4progress]

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 31, 2010

... It had a bureaucratic name, Net-Centric Diplomacy, and served an important mission: the rapid sharing of information that could help uncover threats against the United States. But like many bureaucratic inventions, it expanded beyond what its creators had imagined. It also contained risks that no one foresaw ...

Partly because of its design but also because of confusion among its users, the database became an inadvertent repository for a vast array of State Department cables, including records of the U.S. government's most sensitive discussions with foreign leaders and diplomats. Unfortunately for the department, the system lacked features to detect the unauthorized downloading by Pentagon employees and others of massive amounts of data, according to State Department officials and information-security experts. The result was a disastrous setback for U.S. diplomatic efforts around the globe.

"This was as bad as it gets," said Patrick F. Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management, referring to the diplomatic fallout. "We had, over the course of many years, built up a huge amount of faith and trust. That's ruptured now, all over the world." ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/30/AR2010123005005.html

[RandomThoughts]

1. And I don't have a beer, what is your point?

[DJ13]

2. Beer can be taken by unauthorized people

:shrug:

[RandomThoughts]

4. Beer can be taken by authorized people also.

It is not about taking beer. Thats easy.

[molly77]

9. Who is Patrick F Kenney?

This was as bad as it gets," said Patrick F. Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management, referring to the diplomatic fallout. "We had, over the course of many years, built up a huge amount of faith and trust. That's ruptured now, all over the world." ...


Delusional. He shouldn't have a job. Bullying and intimidation...if that doesn't work in US diplomacy..bomb the hell out of them. Assassinate or kill their leaders. Then they'll love US and want our particular brand of democracy.

[RKP5637]

3. Yep, it's called 'creeping functionality' and often makes a software development

task overly complex and often the final application too complex and it misses its original purpose.

[leveymg]

5. Trust based in deception always goes from bad to worse. With that kind of trust, who needs enemies?

The professional bureaucrats are so deluded. But, they're fooling no one except themselves.

[midnight]

6. Exactly.....

[bemildred]

7. "It also contained risks that no one foresaw ..."

The "risk" was perfectly obvious to anyone with a shred of a clue. One is reminded of Ms Rice and her "non-traditional hijacking". The problem is that decisions are made by ambitious career bureaucrats who know nothing but their own little spats and maneuvering and turf battles, and who think nothing else really matters.

[bemildred]

8. Note however, that it is here admitted that:

"This was as bad as it gets," said Patrick F. Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management, referring to the diplomatic fallout. "We had, over the course of many years, built up a huge amount of faith and trust. That's ruptured now, all over the world."

And this incompetence and dumbfuckery will go unpunished, as usual, the authors of this mess will be kicked upstairs or retired to a quieter part of the bureaucracy, while every effort is bent to hunting down and publically punishing a few scapegoats.

[jmowreader]

10. It's got a flaw, but not the one Mr. Kennedy thinks it has

The flaw is it exists at all.

There is absolutely no reason in hell why an Army analyst needs access to State Department cables.

The reason we got hit on 9/11 is George W. Bush equipped his administration to fight the Soviets like his hero Reagan did, using the same people. The problem is, of course, that by the time Bush became pResident we were out of Soviets.