Bradley Manning given unfettered access to closed databases, court hears

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Bradley Manning, the source of the largest intelligence leak in US history, was allowed by his superiors to surf massive closed databases of secret information without any official restrictions, as well as download classified files to CDs and play music, movies and video games on his secure computer, his court martial has heard.

Day three of the trial, the highest-profile prosecution of an official leaker in at least a generation, focused on a tussle between the US government and Manning's defence lawyers over the environment in which the soldier worked as an intelligence analyst. The prosecution attempted to depict his unit within the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division as meticulously trained in the handling and safeguarding of classified information.

By contrast, the defence team led by civilian lawyer David Coombs extracted answers from prosecution witnesses under cross-examination that presented the unit as an ill-disciplined group that operated under lapse security guidelines, even though they were stationed on active duty at a US military base outside Baghdad. Two of Manning's supervisors at Forward Operating Base Hammer were called to the stand, Jihrleah Showman and chief warrant officer Kyle Balonek, and grilled in similar fashion.

Showman was Manning's team leader for a brief period towards the beginning of their deployment to Iraq in November 2009 when they both did night shifts. Manning was assigned to intelligence gathering and analysis specifically on Shia-related insurgent groups.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/05/bradley-manning-database-access-trial

[enough]

1. As a person with no knowledge of military security, etc.,

I find this entire article very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[LeftInTX]

9. I agree too

Article was very informative.

[annm4peace]

2. I was told 250,000 people had clearance for same info

I was told this by ret FBI agent.

Why isn't it brought up of how unsecure.. classified info is.

and yes, I support Bradley Manning, he is another hero.. just like ret. Col Ann Wright, like Ray McGovern, like Coleen Rowley..etc.

He was one of the few brave soldiers.

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. And yet none of them were stupid enough to leak large amounts of info

[Major Hogwash]

12. Correction: brave enough

You will find out later.

[annm4peace]

13. Thank you!

it was brave, and selfless. He did this for fellow americans and humanity

[Freddie Stubbs]

15. Brave enough to indiscriminately release voluminous amounts information without regard to how it

would impact national security and the safely of many people?

Why else would he have released information exposing Chinese dissidents?

[annm4peace]

3. just have to keep sharing this video

[Kolesar]

6. He released thousands of documents he *didn't even read* to get his jollies

Manning is stupid beyond belief.
Got an answer for that?

[Lenomsky]

7. Stupid yes ..

but he blew the whistle on War Crimes so I salute him and wish him the best.

Nobel Prize would be fitting.

[rhett o rick]

4. But the buck doesnt stop with anyone but him. This is soo fucked up. nm

[Archaic]

5. I work for a company with 1500 people.

And even our development systems have their data encrypted so only one of two DBAs can decrypt the contents wholesale.

I can see MY HR data, but I can't see anybody else's. If a DBA chose to decrypt the whole thing, our auditing/monitoring tools would note that and alert on it.

You can't use a USB key anywhere in the building. You can't email files over a certain size. You can't upload to dropbox, or proxy services, or youtube or anything of the sort. 1500 people. 20 IT people. We got this covered.

The more I read about this intelligence system, the more I can tell we got the low-bidder again for the implementation. $5 says some high level person felt it was too hard to remember the security steps to reach what they wanted, so they disabled all but physical security.

I feel bad for Mr. Manning. Apparently this data was so available we might as well as have had a dvd writer spitting out copies out front of the facility. But he'll be crucified because he's low man on the totem pole. After Abu Grhaib, the high level people in charge of these decisions all still had jobs. We'll see the same thing here.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. Think back to the billion dollar boondoggle that the FeeBlies had

they tried to computerize in one giant leap, and the whole system was unworkable. I believe they ended tossing the whole project.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Kind of like blaming a rape victim for getting drunk or wearing a short skirt

[annm4peace]

14. Our rally today in front of the Fed Courthouse in Minneapolis

We had over 50 people in front of the Federal Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. At least 1/3 of the people here were Veterans. Lots of signs, and several people had whistles. We took one by one photos of "I am Bradley Manning" and i hope the women who took them can make a video linking them together. There were some new people who were just walking by and once they were informed of Bradley manning they wanted their picture taken also.