How Lady Gaga Helped Leak 150,000 Classified State Department Cables

[kpete]

TPMMuckraker
How Lady Gaga Helped Leak 150,000 Classified State Department Cables
July 9, 2010, 2:22PM

Adrian Chen | Gawker

More details are emerging about the case of Wikileaker Pvt. Bradley Manning and they are... Gagalicious. Manning's plan to download and leak thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks hinged on lip-syncing to "Telephone".

Manning allegedly leaked the Iraq Apache helicopter video, and it's believed he also downloaded over 150,000 diplomatic cables from the military's SPIR-Net and shared them with Wikileaks. How did he do it without arousing suspicion? According to the New York Times:

He was able to avoid detection not because he kept a poker face, they said, but apparently because he hummed and lip-synched to Lady Gaga songs to make it appear that he was using the classified computer's CD player to listen to music.

Adrian Lamo, a well-known former hacker, had traded electronic messages in which Private Manning described his unhappiness with the Army - and, Mr. Lamo said, his activities downloading classified data.

Mr. Lamo said Private Manning described how he had used compact discs capable of storing data, but tucked inside recognizable music CD cases, "to bring the data out of the secure room."

"He indicated he disguised one as a Lady Gaga CD," Mr. Lamo said Thursday in a telephone interview. "He said he lip-synched to blend in."

(Ha, "poker face.")
more:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/how_lady_gaga_helped_leak_150000_classified_state.php#more

[unhappycamper]

1. IMO Manning's being set up as a fall guy. n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

2. So who higher than manning screwed up?

It is hard to say, but there are safeguards in place and, though manning clearly is in very serious legal jeopardy, somebody else was not doing the job of protecting date.

[unhappycamper]

6. The people that authorized the Apache strike.

Probably at least a Major or LTC. We've seen this a number of times before; Abu Gharib immediately comes to mind.

The difference between this and Abu Gharib? We imprisoned a few low level people, but the guys that did the deed walked away clean. Hint: Gen. Geoffrey Miller 'gitmoized' Abu Gharib. Gen. Rick Sanchez was the Commander on the ground in Iraq at the time.

[Ozymanithrax]

7. Certainly they should be investigated and, if there was wrong doing, charged...

But Manning knowingly violated the law.
He made a conscious decision to do so, having seen something he thought was wrong.
That doesn't mean he should necessarily be immune from his decision.
Though it should be considered in the sentencing.

[damntexdem]

4. What else should a true hero expect?

[Ozymanithrax]

8. I think Gandhi understood that choosing to violate a bad law does not free...

one from the consequences.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. I think Gandhi understood that choosing to violate a bad law does not free...

one from the consequences.

[damntexdem]

3. I saw that in the NY Times.

For once, hurrah for Lady Gaga.

;-)

[Earth_First]

5. So really, Lady Gaga had absolutely nothing to do with it...

outside of one of her albums were used.