Ha ha! I just realized how Julian Assange is pulling the biggest mindfuck EVER on the Pentagon.

[Poll_Blind]

I ate a big apple fritter and it made me sleepy so I took a nap. When I woke up, I had the realization of how Julian Assange of WikiLeaks has just pulled the most amazing "fuck you" ever on the Pentagon, the Total Information Awareness boys, and generally all those other evil assholes we've been complaining about since Bush.

First, a couple of things you have to know- if you don't already:
:bluebox: 1.2 Gigabytes is a LOT of information but especially if it's text. If it's compressed text, even MORESO.
:bluebox: Julian Assange is an obsessive hacker. He is also extremely talented in the fields of Physics, Mathematics and Cryptography
:bluebox: There are some ways to hide information which cannot be cracked. (I'll explain how this works a little later)
:bluebox: There are ways to conceal information in a file where the same file can be accessed, with different passwords where each password yields different information

:redbox: The U.S. military already knows that if Assange says WikiLeaks has X or Y, they do.
:redbox: The U.S. government/military has access to insane amount of computing power and resources to crack codes. Despite this, there are ways of hiding information which cannot simply be "cracked" (as I mentioned above). Outside the CIA in Langley is a sculpture which has remained undeciphered for 20 years.
:redbox: The U.S. government/military has control over how many resources they dedicate to cracking Assange's file, alone.

:graybox: Because of the fame/infamy which WikiLeaks has already accrued, world-wide, because of their previous releases and because this encrypted file is available for anyone to download, tens of thousands of individuals are likely to download the file in advance of its decryption ensuring wide distribution of the information, regardless of what it actually is.

Second, I'd like to take a moment to describe what a "self-working card trick" is. A self-working card trick is a specific type of card trick (or magic) which does not require any skill to pull off. These tricks do not require sleight of hand, deception or any of the other things we normally associate with magic. They don't even require a magician. Despite this, self-working card tricks can be some of the best because they are so baffling and can be pulled off with the audience watching as intently as they may- they will never see what's going on until the realize the trick is based around a formula...not deception.

Here is the formula for the trick Assange is pulling on the U.S. Government:

The U.S. Government will dedicate resources to decrypting the file Assange has uploaded which are proportional to the amount of damage they believe the information will do, once released. The best defense against damage from the information being decrypted is to determine what the information is so that denials, defenses, etc. can be preapred in advance of general release of the information. Without knowing exactly what information is encrypted in the file, the U.S. Government will presumably allocate resources proportional to the most damaging thing they believe the encrypted information is likely to conceal.

That's right, he's turning their own level of guilt against them! Imagine this: There are two people sitting at a table, one having led an absolutely saintly life and the other an absolutely criminal one. I explain to each that before them is a box and in the box is a 3x5 index card with a list of the worst things they've ever done. I'll let them be alone with their boxes for one hour and after that hour I'll open each of the boxes and broadcast on national TV what is on each. Who's going to sweat? ;)

Now, imagine those aren't people but governments.

;) * ;)

But it gets better/worse: It is very likely that Julian Assange did not release a single encrypted document or database but an encrypted volume, like an encrypted hard drive. A volume which shows it contains one set of files when accessed with one password, another set of files when accessed with another. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that the first or second set of files even exist within the volume as their placement in the volume is determined by the password itself and all "blank" space on the volume is filled with random bits.

This has been a favorite form of encryption of human rights groups doing reports on troubled areas of the world. They create one set of "books" to show the local warlord if he swings by with his AK-47-toting henchmen while the "real" reports are in the same file. Assange has already mentioned that he is fond of this type of encryption, which is not only secure but cannot by cracked even by quantum computers.

You can learn more about this method and even download software to create what I think is most-correctly identified as "steganographically hidden, nested subvolumes" here. It redefines the word "devious".

But even that isn't the coup-de-gras which is this:

He may have released every single document WikiLeaks currently has and the actual passwords for each of these nested subvolumes can be dispensed at the pleasure of WikiLeaks and the sources they protect. Which means this single file could be used to provide revelations for months or years to come merely by meting out the various passwords which apply to various file directories over time.

Which would make his "insurance" the single-most notorious file ever released.

Of course this is all speculation on my part. Mostly because Julian Assange is several factors more clever at this sort of thing than I am.

But that's just a taste.

PB

[EFerrari]

1. This isn't a very interesting response to your post but, GOOD.

LOL

I used to feel the same way when Bush left the White House to go pretend to cut brush. At least for that time, he couldn't screw up the county.

[bigmonkey]

2. Well, holy crap!!

That's cool.

[katandmoon]

3. K&R truly fascinating post. Wish apple fritters had that effect on me!

[NYMdaveNYI]

131. nom nom... apple fritter. K & R, nonetheless! |nt|

[Booster]

4. Well, then why don't we hire Assange to hack the Pentagon again

and see if he can find out what they did with all those billions they seem to have misplaced. Seriously, how hard could it be to do?

[MissMarple]

36. He may already have a pretty good idea about the money, and I don't think this guy is for hire.

But those are both good thoughts. And for your comment in your profile ( yes, I looked :)) yes, I think some of both, but events have overcome any planning and things are not entirely going as hoped. Arizona, totally orchestrated, the end of the tax cuts, they've been eagerly anticipating the mess they can make with it. And they have moles in the federal bureaucracy. I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it's all just so high school that I certainly don't put it past them. They are jumping through hoops to stay up with the tea partiers and the anti- brown people immigrationists.

Interesting times, and who knows, maybe they will pull it off. They are already trying to blame Obama for the wars and backing off from the "save America from the terrists" cry or was that tourists? Does this mean we must go after errant Texans and Arizonans? Oh, my stars.

[Q3JR4]

42. "I don't think this guy is for hire..."

Yet another reason why I have so much respect for this man and his organization.

Q3JR4.

[burnsei sensei]

125. I just heard Secretary Gates grousing

about how Wikileaks was "immoral."
Yeah right.
Look in the mirror, Fungus Gates.

[MedicalAdmin]

101. Do you think they wrote down which of their buddies they gave 9billion to?

Seriously? There is no paper trail and no files. The money was simply handed over to friends or sent directly to a Swiss bank.

Here 25 cents. Go buy a clue.

[bbgrunt]

5. We can only hope that SOMEONE is playing 3D chess in our interests.

[ooglymoogly]

117. Pollyanna, you definitely need a new pair of glasses

and forego the rose tint this time. It does not become you.

[formercia]

6. Truecrypt is neat.

Sure,Sir, I'll give you the password to keep from going to jail.

Hope you enjoy reading the Constitution, bill of Rights and USC 18.

[tavalon]

93. Make sure that little one gets passed on to them

I do believe there is a bit of a sense of humor mixed in with that absolute magnificence.

[Mira]

7. Very very smart, will apple fritters to this for me as well? Recommended as

food for thought.

[Whisp]

8. juicy post! K&R!

[RedCloud]

9. Cool! This like getting a message from Vega on how to build something.

[DRex]

39. props for random Sagan reference! nt

[CoffeeCat]

59. Wow!

That's an awesome, incredibly inspiring reference!!

I do believe that JA holds the keys to something big.

Is it possible that his knowledge and his actions---and what he is "building"--could take us to "another place"?

Frankly, human beings are stuck in mud--with criminals in government and corporations at the helm.

Perhaps, JA holds the keys to busting wide open this entire criminal enterprise.

Like Ellie Arroway--I'd like to experience something else; something better.

I don't know how to get there from here.

Maybe JA does.

[mdmc]

97. yes

[dotymed]

103. Me too..

but I don't think the Rethugs could or would believe any of it anyway. They have no capacity for original thought...IMO.

[AspenRose]

10. Wher'd you get that apple fritter?

:wow:

[Vickers]

11. *buys stock in apple fritter company*

Have you read Cryptonomicon?

[Scuba]

26. Yes, fun read.

[PCIntern]

12. What a great post...

one of the best I've ever read on DU

k & r

Thanks!!!

[mike_c]

13. excellent analysis-- might be correct, might not, but DAMN...

...don't we live in interesting times!

[stevedeshazer]

14. Anyone need anything from the store?

I'm heading out for some apple fritters.

:rofl:

[raouldukelives]

15. K&R

Very informative and eye opening for me.

[mzmolly]

16. Interesting timing, given Bush was in office for eight

years.

[Ruby the Liberal]

17. Fascinating post. Thanks for the lesson!

K&R

[malaise]

18. Nice post but the part I love best is

is watching and listening to the Pentagon hierarchy accusing him of being responsible for the deaths of people as if the Pentagon isn't already responsible for the deaths of a gazzilion civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan as well thousands of American military personnel.

The irony is both funny and sad.

[SpiralHawk]

19. Thanks, PB

the k and the r

[glitch]

20. Thank you poll_blind, that was one of the most informative posts ever.

You writing makes it understandable! :)

[underpants]

30. I learned a lot

very good post

[jwirr]

21. And that could make this file his insurance in order to keep himself

safe from those who would like to get rid of him. Interesting.

[MedicalAdmin]

102. Here's another bad thought .

JA knows he will die soon. So he posted this and got password to others to release to the public post mortem. He KNOWS he's dead.

The real powers that run the pentagon have plausible deniability. They have decided to cut their losses and get rid of him before he does more damage. Just like Martin and Bobby and John and Ghandi and ...

JA is too much of a threat. Our only hope is that he will inspire a movement. We need to support net neutrality for this very reason: for the JAs of the world.

[Mythbuster]

22. I have a fritter and I get gas... you have a fritter...

and it yields this excellent post! Outstanding food for thought. Scaring the fuck out of the guilty by forcing them to realize the extent of their guilt... brilliant! :smoke:

[ThoughtCriminal]

23. It could be 1.4 gigabytes of random numbers

That would drive them crazy for a few years.

[sabrina 1]

25. While keeping him alive. How funny if in the end, years from now

they find out the files were all recipes for Apple-frippers.

One question though, if he is an expert hacker, couldn't he be getting a lot of the information he has himself?

[tavalon]

95. They won't, though

They know damn well he put the top secret stuff - the true state secrets for the safety of the troops behind encrypted curtain number one. And possibly two and three.

[ooglymoogly]

118. This is the rapier wit that draws me to this site.

good one sabrina.

[Major Hogwash]

24. Shit! So, this guy is like Neo?

The most dangerous one to the Matrix?

Because if this is true, then the US federal government needs to bribe him to tell them what he has done and how he did it.
What the hell, we bribe everyone else.

[tavalon]

96. Whistleblowers are a different breed of human

I'm not saying they are immune to money and greed, but what motivates them is an inner sense of rightness and fairness and they will destroy everything else in their life if they feel something is important enough to fight for.

[canetoad]

27. Great post

Thank you. k n r

[femrap]

28. I think this Julian dude

is fabulously clever.

I hope he keeps the Pentagon and the Corporations on pins and needles forever.

And I want him to live a very long and happy life.

[LAGC]

29. Assange is a hero.

Standing up to Big Brother and putting governments in their place.

[radhika]

31. Drool: Big fat fritter is a-calling me.......n/t

[northernlights]

32. damn now I'm hungry for an apple fritter nt

[JDPriestly]

33. Assange may inadvertently solving our unemployment problem.

Sounds like the CIA and the Pentagon may be hiring zillions of people before long.

[avaistheone1]

122. Perhaps a vain attempt on the government's part

Assange appears to have the best and brightest on his team

Go Assange!

[cliffordu]

34. Excellent work. Bravo.

Eat more fritters

[bluesmail]

35. Fascinating read. So much information to think about in my brain

in my mind, going in different directions, thankfully not at once! This, dare I say makes the 'espionage' aspect all that more mysterious. Will any DUer crack the code? Will any one on the left figure it out definitively in what's left of my lifetime? Probably NOT! Thanks for a most interesting read.

[CLANG]

81. No one has ever cracked AES256 encryption to my knowledge.

The chances of a DUer doing so on their PC is extremely remote.

[Stinky The Clown]

37. That's delicious!

Hahahaha

[TroglodyteScholar]

38. So has anyone else here downloaded the insurance.aes256 file? n/t

[Vickers]

49. I tried, but I think a LOT of people are trying...it said it would take 17 hours

so I canceled it.

[populistdriven]

82. torrent is up and checked

just google for torrent insurance wikileaks
tpb has it

[Catherina]

40. Fascinating. Rec'd with thanks. n/t

[lib2DaBone]

41. The biggest mind fuck (not on the Pentagon) on the American People....

If you notice.. all the WIKILeaks focus on how bad the war in Afghanistan is going. (Yes.. we all knew that)

Now comes Mr. Assange.. re-inforcing that Meme. Mr. Assange also says that he believes the Osama Bin Laden Myth.. that is , that Mr. Bin Laden is alive and well somehwere in a cave... after 10 years. ASSANGE also says that he "Hates" any talk about 911 truth. Why?

Very strange talk for a patriot and a "truth" fighter Mr. Assange.

The Pentagon has the Technical and Computer power to wipe out the WikiLeaks website in 5 minutes... yet ...they don't... why?

Now the meme on the news is.. Afghanistans is a failure.. we must go where the real problem is.

i.e. we are being bait and switched, in order to move troops from Afghanistan to the new war in Pakistan and Iran...

Q: Why would we want a war in Iran? A: To save the U.S. Petro Dollar.

[loudsue]

44. My thoughts, too. I'm so accustomed to being manipulated by my country

that it's easy to imagine that wikileaks could be singing off the CIA's sheet music. As much as I'd love to believe there is a REAL hero in the world, I have that "wait & see" feeling.

[KoKo]

108. +1

[Skittles]

87. I hear you

I don't know if you're right but I know something is for damn sure wrong with the entire Wikileaks scenario

[bbgrunt]

120. there is a definite build up to Iran. Astute observation, lib2.

[bring_em_home_bush]

149. He's not a "patriot" -- he's Australian

and why shouldn't Bin Laden still be alive, unless his kidney problems have finally killed him? He has been taken care of very well by those who are profiting from the wars, and they may need to prop him up again to terrify the American people into unthinking obedience at some future point, perhaps even for that war with Iran.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIC111B.html

[snagglepuss]

43. Get thee to a publisher and start writing a book.I am barely computer

literate but found your analysis quite understandable.Thanks for posting.

:yourock:

[truedelphi]

45. Poll Blind, this is the URL for this here post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8855029#8855101

And I am putting it in this response, journal-ing it, and hoping to have it for a long time.

Great information, and a big K & R.

[PatrynXX]

46. that insurance file comes up about 295 mb

so it must be 1-2 gb when it's unzipped. Which is different than the other zip descriptions. They have them at the zip size like 75 mb. However when I looked to check the unzipped size it's more like 4gb. I left it at 75mb because I just don't have the room right now.

[truedelphi]

54. That is one huge problem - those of us with older

Cluttered up HD's just don't have that extra 1 gig.

[Swagman]

47. many thanks..can you explain this a bit more.."Outside the CIA in Langley is

...a sculpture which has remained undeciphered for 20 years."

[Vickers]

48. Kryptos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos

[Forkboy]

50. Great post, but no offense, if you can think of this someone in the Pentagon already has.

;)

[Pavulon]

53. Back when darpa invented the internet

cray made supercomputers and the people the pale man is messing with were playing cat and mouse with the USSR. This was old hat.

He is not a folk hero, he is chum in the shark tank.

[truedelphi]

55. Can't he be a hero and shark bait both?

Just asking. (or were you implying that the Pentagon has him as one of their agents?)

[Pavulon]

57. All very valid ideas..

who knows who he plays for. But it is a very interesting game.

[truedelphi]

58. I do like this paragraph from the British news:

Elsewhere on his blog, Mr Assange compared Jack Straw to ‘the Fuhrer’, talked about engaging in ‘Pentagon poker’ and said that leaks could change the world.

He wrote: ‘The more secretive or unjust an organisation is, the more that leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie.

‘Hence, in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems are . . . nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems. Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1299311/FBI-question-WikiLeaks-mother-Welsh-home-Agent-interrogate-distressed-woman-search-sons-bedroom.html#ixzz0vJu4YE4x

[Pavulon]

60. Would you support the leak of the W88

design and manufacturing process? Lets make that available on a GNU license..Guidance systems for MIRV systems? Even a simple feed water pump design for a nuclear reactor in a submarine can change things.

Studies on vulnerabilities of nuclear and chemical plants, so someone can create a bhopal event here. Soviet designs on weaponizing smallpox should be wide open. I mean in a just society I should know everything about anything..

He is a moron, and will have a body count soon. Way over his head, he is.

[tavalon]

98. He's not a moron but if he believes in absolute transparancy absolutely

then he is a naive fool. I have seen a bit of grandiosity but no foolishness and the Pentagon fully concurs with my assessment.

[upi402]

84. ahhh

light

I don't want harm to come to America. But something about, "...against all enemies, foreign and domestic" resonates with my patriotic urges.


The more I learn about Mr Assange, the more impressed I am. :applause:

[truedelphi]

85. That's my thinking too.

After all, if some group of terrorists wants to take out some people in San Jose Calif, they don't need the manual for a California Nuke plant - they just need to show up at rush hour at any of the super gasoline marts, with the 38 gas pump stations, and flick their Bic.

[Forkboy]

56. For once, we have some agreement.

My guess is that he's in way over his head. The two of us just hope for different outcomes....

[Chulanowa]

62. Possibly, possibly not

Intelligence agencies really don't know everything. A fair share of their success is their ability to convince others that they do know everything. An organization like MI5 or the CIA or Mossad are limited by several factors, primarily personnel; there can only be so many people in the organization as a whole, and only so many of them can work on a given project. Add on the funding restrictions, and the plain and simple fact that intelligence agencies are fairly closed-off from the greater part of society, and what you end up with a fairly small thing that casts a big shadow.

If I were to judge the encryption / decryption abilities of the CIA against those of the population of say, 4chan, then I would lean heavily towards 4chan. More time, less overhead, and they have the advantage of being the "aggressor," while the intelligence agencies are always going to be reactive.

And even if someone at the Pentagon or the CIA or wherever knows everything outlined by the OP, that doesn't invalidate anything that was said. They're still going to respond as outlined.

[Pavulon]

64. 4chan cant put you on a plane to egypt.

to have your face broken. 4chan can not put you in a 38 degree cooler soaking wet and give you drugs to keep you up for 6 days straight. 4chan does not hire math phd's and guys who designed things like IOS and junos. 4chan does not have calea and has not been doing its job since the 30's.

nsa spends much less time pulling pud to kid porn than 4chan too.

[TheManInTheMac]

133. No, but the CIA's universal passcode IS

"Tits or get the fuck out."

[On the Road]

91. I Believe That Was the Author's Point

Even if NSA succeeds in breaking the password and unlocking the document, there would be no way for them to make sure they have the full contents. There is always the potential for another shoe to drop.

[redqueen]

106. Precisely. (nt)

[WinkyDink]

109. Maybe they don't have any apple fritters.

[myrna minx]

51. Very interesting.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Pavulon]

52. Everything can be cracked. People and math problems

hacking is all fun and games but the people he is poking can turn the real world in on him. I bet he will not be informing on the KGB, see he is not fond of taking weeks to die from thorium. Pretty sure that man died in london, under police protection. People end up in airplanes headed to places where bad things happen, self preservation is strong with most people.

The NSA has many many smart people. They have a massive budget and technology I would assume exceeds off the shelf crypto. Lots of people call themselves hackers, the man is not writing algorithms he is shopping at ace hardware.

They can make people who corroborate valuable information go away, they can make his friends go away. Wikileaks is not protecting people, they are trading in stolen property.

Some property people may find valuable enough to seek its return.

Would you release a file if it meant you would end up in a puddle of your own goo looking at a shitter as you left the world? Not me..

The question is does one PFC have information valuable enough to warrant billions of dollars worth of resources and breaking people for?

[Chulanowa]

63. Once the file is released, though, it's never going to be contained again

if the man just sat on the file on his own hard drive, yeah, his life would probably end up pretty short. But by disseminating it throughout the internet, he's basically removed himself as a "threat" - thus the file name. Instead all the threat is placed on the information itself, rather than its supplier.

[Pavulon]

65. He has a mother and children

it would be unwise to assume that if the information is valuable enough they are not on the table. He is a new little boy in a very old game.

[Chulanowa]

78. You're missing the point

The information has already been released. There is nothing he can do to control it now. Thus threatening or intimidating him is nothing but a supreme waste of time. Killing him would be ultimately pointless and would only create a martyr, with absolutely no results whatsoever.

The very best that the intelligence services can hope to get out of the guy is the information needed to decode the information. And they need him alive and tractable to do that. Killing or hurting loved ones has a funny habit of hardening an interrogation subject. Further, it could be much easier to pay a third party dto do it for you.

Assange is in no peril.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

127. Does that mean what I think it means?

Of course, gosh, you would never approve of such a thing, right? Nudge nudge wink wink.

Ah, the time-old art of Saying Without Saying.

[Pavulon]

143. Nope, but people do CBA for rolling him up

and depending on what he has I would not be surprised if that were on the table. If all he has is more of what hit last week, no one gives a shit.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

146. CBA = ?

[Pavulon]

67. Oh yea, that assumes it is worth the trouble. barring

nuclear weapon design, control of space assets, who cares. So he dumps a tape of the cia killing a prisoner, 7 days and who cares. No one. You think that would change the war, an old tape. 2 agents would go to jail, rouge.

Again he is playing with people who are far far ahead of him.

[Vickers]

72. If that's the case...why do they seem to be scared shitless?

:shrug:

[NJCher]

74. there's a problem with your argument

"...he is playing with people who are far far ahead of him."

Maybe. Maybe not.

Let's assume they are far ahead of him. They are still a collective and they therefore have to act like an institution.

He's one and he can make decisions faster and move faster.

Furthermore, the CIA has a culture and a mindset. JA is unencumbered of such baggage and has a network of minds who are not subjected to a culture or a mindset.


Cher

[Pavulon]

144. NSA broke the file before he uploaded it.

The CIA would be the ones tasked on carrying out and activities that involved him or his family if there was something of monetary or security interest compelling them to.

[Chan790]

116. 20 years and 2 degrees of technical and tactical superiority over common perception.

Someone who would know, once told me that the US intelligence community maintains and would bribe/kill/kidnap/etc. to maintain that lead over public perception of fact. It's a key part of national security stratagem...people can't keep secrets from you if they don't know the extent of your capabilities.

If the common knowledge is that AES256 is uncrackable...they've already mastered the tools to near-instant cracking it and likely using at-least 1024-bit (two degrees: 256<512<1024) internally (and probably something much higher))...otherwise the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 25th person to even conceptualize a 256-bit encryption would have been silenced before anybody had heard of such a thing.

Somewhere, some NSA nerd is reading the contents of Assange's not-even-internet-connected hard-drive remotely...that's how good these assholes are. They finished reading "insurance" 20 minutes after he uploaded it.

The only reason he got the first leak over on them is because he wasn't even on their radar. The best hackers in the world with the best tools work in Ft. Meade and Langley (the Chinese may be comparable (I fear they've surpassed even)...there is no unaffiliated-actor in the private sector with those capacities, maybe the skill but definitely not the tools)....but that creates institutional myopia. The tools are only as good as the person making the decisions where to look with them...Assange put himself on the map, they no longer need to look for him or Wikileaks.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

DARPA (and more-covert skunk-works we don't even acknowledge the existence of) aren't scientists, they're magicians. You didn't really think they lost $9B or buy $250 hammers or $1M toilet seats, did you?

[drm604]

135. I don't think he cares if the NSA cracks it.

He'd probably like them to know what he has.

[cprise]

140. Uh oh

JA is sporting a much bigger 'penguin' than Pav; jealousy ensues?


This stuff about the Gubmit having superduper decrypting powers is baloney. You apparently do not know what a trapdoor function is and how trying to reverse it represents a fundamental entropy problem, like trying to make time run backwards to see an event you initially did not witness. You do not have the math to backup your claim. Nor does the supa-Gubmit wit da special esspensive hammers display any behavior that they can crack strong encryption (quite the opposite).

Yes the Gummit is very huge, but they do not have the ability to make even a single dropped cup of tea leap up off the floor cleanly back into its prior unbroken quaff-able state.

If they go after Assange, they'll have to show A) the file has life-threatening info and B) the process of cracking it and C) hostile parties have the key or similar SupaGummit cracking abilities since AES256 is considered a good way to secure info by their own standards (otherwise they are not going to claim that an encrypted file is a threat). Not going to happen.

The question is does one PFC have information valuable enough to warrant billions of dollars worth of resources and breaking people for?

That's a dumb question, since the military already has the information.

Wikileaks is not protecting people, they are trading in stolen property.

That's what the Pentagon desperately wants potential leakers to believe, that Wikileaks can't protect them. Even if that creative interpretation were true, it would be such a coincidence since the US military is trading in stolen countries.

[guitar man]

61. Damn

Now I'm hungry, I want some apple fritters :P

[alcibiades_mystery]

66. Pentagon has its two laziest guys on it

And they don't give a shit.

Nice story, though.

[Hekate]

68. Kick and Rec and have you ever thought about writing sci fi? Fascinating. nt

[defendandprotect]

69. Interesting . . . a perpetual time bomb waiting to go off in Pentagon's face . . .

though, of course, Assange would have to have also disseminated the passwords --

otherwise they could just disappear him --

And that will probably keep the Pentagon quite busy trying to figure out . . .

who, when, where, how --

[Pavulon]

70. What is the WORST thing he could release?

cia killing a prisoner, short of george bush grilling and eating a iraqi family there is nothing that would not cause a media bump and on with the show.

So he dumps designs for NSA eavesdropping systems, we have to spend billions of tax money to replace them.

That assumes they don't have the data they snatched before he encrypted it.

[WinkyDink]

110. Secret negotiations. Agreements. Orders. Visits. Payments. Double-agents. Remember William Casey.

[Pavulon]

142. Like the fact we bought japanese elections

and buy elections around the world? Thats the job of the CIA.

It would be PIMP to find out that Hugo Chavez was our man in VZ. Heads would pop.

[UpInArms]

71. This (OP) post should be in the DU Hall of Fame

(if there were such a place)

thank you!

:applause:

[rhett o rick]

73. You lost me right after,"I ate a big apple fritter....". jk Thanks for posting, k&r. nm

[laughingliberal]

75. +1000 nt

[earth mom]

76. K & R!

:kick:

[flamingdem]

77. Julian on Democracy Now nt

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/28/wikileaks_founder_julian_assange_transparent_government

[KakistocracyHater]

79. what does boiling frogs have to add to this? Does Sybil Edmonds have

anything more to add? I'd be interested if upcoming events cause a mass set of interlinked extra-legal activities to be sent to the ICC.

[upi402]

83. could Charlie and Maxine be some deck-clearing

for actual investigations that might end the delayed justice of Sybil Edmonds, Valerie Wilson, and so many others? Porter Goss has old company hand experiences that may have motivated him to this sort of action, in light of the BushCo insanity.

[tavalon]

99. I think it's time for an associate of Sybil Edmonds to release her information

to wikileaks.

[OJones]

80. :/lurk:

I believe J.A. played some role, if not the main role, in the initial development of what's ~humorously~ referred to as "rubberhose deniable" encryption-- which, of course, is what you discussed above. I think that's worth mentioning.

I also think that the technological aspects of numerous current events have been downplayed, and thank god someone brought this up here. The battles between Wikileaks / Consumer Watchdog vs. the Information Industrial Complex / Google, etc., represent the general conflict of a war over information that, unfortunately, involves most of us. Computing has made this level of tension over information greater than anything seen in history (I'm channeling a synthesis of Innis's "Empire and Communications," and Carr's "Inside Cyber Warfare," here); because many of us have established some symbiosis with computing and propaganda, we, the people and pawns at large, underestimate the importance of the info wars.

Again, thanks for the post.

:lurk:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

86. "...governments should be afraid of their people..."

and now they are.

Bloody brilliant. :headbang:

[upi402]

88. kick n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

89. Ever heard of the Gordian Knot in regard to Alexander the Great?

While your analysis is very good and entertaining, the fact is that the CIA or the Pentagon could probably very easily find out what is in Assange's files. If they truly thought that they had to know, they would snatch Assange and torture the shit out of him to get his information. There are also other avenues available to these folks if the reason were urgent enough. Maybe Assange would give up the info if it were his mother or father or someone else he loved being threatened with torture and death. Sometimes the simple, while potentially brutal, works just as good or better than the complex. Good post though!
Cheers!

[tavalon]

100. If he's smart, Assange doesn't have or know all of the codes

They could have been randomly created without eyes on and sent to supporters. See, no amount of torture can really get to it that way.

[aquart]

134. Because torture works so well at getting accurate information.

What it's best at is getting people to say what you want them to say. Which doesn't help here.

But nice that you've bought into the Cheney/24 torture-is-necessary mindset.

[Vinnie From Indy]

147. Well, I appreciate your viewpoint

Judging by the ignorance displayed in your post in regard to torture, I will explain further. The fact is is that torture does NOT work well with people that have nothing to confess. It does work, in some cases, with those that do have something they are hiding.

Lastly, I think your unprovoked attack on my mindset reveals a bit more about your character than my views on torture. Cheers!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

90. Poll Blind

You are a treasure. Another invaluable DU resource/asset.

[tavalon]

92. So he's going to end our wars through backdoor spending

I hope it doesn't end up with us destroying our safety net so we can crack his uncrackable code whilst still waging stupid ass wars in places where we can't win (or even in places where we can. We need to stop. Dying empires need to pull back from wars to make any kind of a soft landing).

I figured it was just a sophisticated way to save his ass. But now, I see that he, just like all whistleblowers, cares more about right than safety.

[tavalon]

94. I'm guessing this is just a bit past PGP encryption, then?

[ChiciB1]

104. I See That Even Here So Many Of You Have Various Opinions About

JA. What you post is extremely interesting to me, in layman's terms, but I must admit I'm LOST as I read through all the replies.

What I'm getting from these replies is "opinion" of people who are more "geeky" than me, but what is perplexing is that some of you think Assange may or may not be in danger and may or may not be holding all that much information. Am I wrong in assuming he's "small potatoes" and the GOVERNMENT thinks he just another "fly" on the wall?? Or is it the assumption of MOST that he really DOES have some by the gonads?

As one who has seen my cynicism grow beyond any bounds I ever envisioned, I wonder if our Government is really that OPEN to being hacked. I LOVE what Assange is doing, but wouldn't that also indicate that OTHER COUNTRIES with great minds can do the same thing he is? Or is it that they are simply part of a bigger game and "other countries" are also playing games with each other? In other words, countries saying they have information and using it as some sort of "leverage" against the US?

As I said I have only been cheering from the bleachers here because I have no clue about MOST of what many of you have delved into. I can't even access the link from my PC for some reason so I'm a pinhead among intellectuals! Given that, from my readings here, there are alternative views about exactly what he has and what he may or may not do! Is he really a threat or do MOST here think he's the "real deal" with the ability to actually put the SCARE in so many agencies of OUR GOVERNMENT!

My wish is that he has the ability to blow so much wide open, but as I said reading these replies, I'm left with many questions about what is REALLY going on. I want to CHEER for him and those involved, and have wondered WHY a PFC is the one targeted. THAT FACT ALONE has actually made me wonder all the more!

Well, let's just say it's made me think that by going after a PFC they are either trying to do what they always do... get the "little" guy and make him take the fall. But on the other hand because this is WHAT THEY always do, are they REALLY afraid of what Assange can do??

Thanks for putting his information is a form that I can sort of understand, but I'm also deflated that BIG BROTHER has "other" plans for Assange and those around him!! Sure Jeffrey Weigand was successful against TOBACCO COMPANIES, but that's a completely different kettle of fish!

So what is the the consensus here, does Assange pose a REAL threat or are we just being played as pawns by BIG BROTHER again as they go into DEFENSE MODE, only to come up with another "catch me if you can" story??

So you see, my cynicism has come full circle and is full blown now! I find myself continually wanting to REVOLT because of all the information that I have seen and read here since the Internet became my source of so much more than I had at my finger tips going way back to my days as a BOOMER activist who did nothing more than PROTEST! This kind of stuff is so cyber that one would think that it should ignite "masses" to protest even more!

Okay, just a few of my worries and questions, and I really am such a NOVICE!!

[BootinUp]

105. I suggest a review of Occam's Razor

to see if it may be applicable here.

Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is the principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem). The popular interpretation of this principle is that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. However, this is often confused, as the 'simple' "is really referring to the theory with the fewest new assumptions."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

[ooglymoogly]

119. Except in prosecuting them, Occam's Razor does

not compute in the criminally insane mind except as a tool for more and better criminality that is fed and nurtured by the chaos it creates.

An apt description of the corporate, totalitarian government rising before our eyes within that total chaos; where nothing makes any sense or is believable and vast sums disappear without a trace with no more than a yawn by pugtoadies called by the Orwellian "MSM".

Where Orwellian gubmunt Newspeak takes the place of logic and truth.

Occam's razor is anathema to the chaos and insanity now taking over our government. Shinning a light on the simplicity of truth is not what this administration or the last 50 years is or has been about.

It is about the most convoluted solutions to simple problems that make the greatest theft possible. It is about treason and outrageous and convoluted explanations to cover up the many treasons it takes to steal a whole government and the wealth of a nation in broad daylight; And not suffer the consequence of an uprising or revolution.

Occam's razor is in c-eye-a prisons around the world being tortured and perhaps in our lifetime, as far as government is concerned, will never again see the light of day.

[elehhhhna]

107. Who says Assnage isn't just the front man for this operation, anyway?

Maybe it's really this guy:

[WinkyDink]

111. No wonder "Three Days of the Condor" has been on my TV all week.

[MrMickeysMom]

112. Thankfully, there peopler smarter than I am out there...

... You're probably right on (it just makes sense).

Bonus to your post, I now know how to properly "bullet"
:bluebox:
:redbox:
:graybox:

[ooglymoogly]

113. This is absolutely delicious, no matter if the analogy is on or off, close or far...

I hope you are writing a book on this. That apple fritter you ate, must have been filled with an ambrosia of insight and powdered with an elixir of knowledge. Keep it up, you have avid followers here, sitting on pins and needles, waiting for more.

[ooglymoogly]

114. oops dup

[ooglymoogly]

115. KR nt

[drm604]

121. I think your last idea may hit the nail on the head.

It makes perfect sense as insurance. Release an encrypted file containing every submission to date, then, if Wikileaks gets shut down somehow, the key or keys are released by supporters all over the world. At that point there would be no way to censor whatever is in those files.

[Poll_Blind]

123. "At that point there would be no way to censor whatever is in those files."

Yep. A lot of the best things about this move don't even require consideration of what the files contain, if anything.

He has:
:bluebox: Sufficiently startled a major world government into realizing their crimes are only as secret and secure as the most moral member of their security infrastructure is willing to keep them.

If that government chooses to knowingly commit crimes it is at the mercy not of WikiLeaks (who obviously has no magic wand to produce these documents) but of its own citizens who are willing to, at their own peril, reveal them.

:bluebox: Become the "face" of the informants, even though he, himself, has absolutely no connection with them.

He is a relatively handsome, enigmatic, intelligent and arguably controversial figure. He has intentionally made himself a target. By doing this. he has drawn most of the attention away from the information leakers themselves. I think that is brilliant. If Assange were to turn up dead or missing tomorrow, or if WikiLeaks was shut down somehow, would it really change much?

I don't think it would. That's the most amazing part of this. The really courageous folks are the anonymous leakers out there, and he has emboldened them by "taking the heat". While intelligence gathering organizations have already sussed out that Mr. Assange, personally, is the least of their problems, the world news media is happy to focus attention on him rather than his sources.

:bluebox: Made everyone want that file. And allow anyone to grab it.

As you said in your message, there is no way to stop it now. I love that part. It is so delicious it should be fattening. :)

And that's all before one even considers the contents of the encrypted file. Woot!

PB

[drm604]

128. So what is the meaning of straw-glass-and-bottle?

The URL for the file is http://leakmirror.wikileaks.org/file/straw-glass-and-bottle/insurance.aes256.

I wonder what, if anything, is meant by "straw glass and bottle". Googling that quoted phrase only turns up references to wikileaks.

I wonder if it's a phrase similar in meaning to "the whole kit and kaboodle" or "everything but the kitchen sink".

[Poll_Blind]

129. Maybe it implies that you can keep sip sip sipping for a long time.

;)

Again, he's far cleverer at this sort of thing than I ever will be. We'll all just have to wait and see...

PB

[drm604]

130. Maybe it means that we have everything we need to partake of the beverage.

We have all of the pieces? Hmmm...

[me b zola]

124. Apple fritters for everyone!

:kick:

[Poll_Blind]

126. Been very busy this weekend since I posted this but I wanted to say THANK YOU

...to all who responded and considered the real impact this has had, and will have, on not just our government but governments and corporations everywhere.

Remember, Julian Assange's job is to be the target. The real motor of WikiLeaks is not Assange or anyone else at WikiLeaks: It's the leakers themselves who are upset with corrupt behavior or concealed crimes and want to expose the corruption for the ridicule it deserves.

What Assange has done is embolden those leakers. Even if he or WikiLeaks disappear what cannot be tracked down so easily are those who refuse to participate in immoral or criminal acts.

He has sufficiently startled a major world government into realizing their crimes are only as secret and secure as the most moral member of their security infrastructure is willing to keep them.

If that government chooses to knowingly commit crimes it is at the mercy not of WikiLeaks (who obviously has no magic wand to produce these documents) but of its own citizens who are willing to, at their own peril, reveal them.

PB

[NYMdaveNYI]

132. Well, actually.....

Outside the CIA in Langley is a sculpture which has remained undeciphered for 20 years.

Kryptos is a very interesting thing. 3/4 of the sculpture has been decoded, but it is a riddle within a riddle. The references made by the text on the sculpture allude to government conspiracies such as the Philadelphia Project...

search Kryptos in Wikipedia, and you’ll see what I mean.

[JohnnyK]

136. Why would the Gov't dedicate any resources to decrypting the file?

Unless they wanted to wait several million years.
:bluebox: It is estimated that even the fastest computer would take millions of years to decrypt the file.

http://www.neurope.eu/articles/WikiLeaks-founder-uploads-mystery-file/102093.php

"The file is 1.4 gigabytes, a thousand times larger than the recently leaked documents.

The file is encrypted under AES256, which is equal to the methods used by the US to encrypt Top Secret material. It is estimated that even the fastest computer would take millions of years to decrypt the file."

[upi402]

137. Interesting, looking forward to expert responses to this

From the link;
"Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Assange and WikiLeaks may 'already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.'

An angry Assange responded by asking 'Why is the Pentagon focusing on the hypothetical blood on our hands, which has never been proved, rather than the real blood of the 20,000 deaths revealed in the documents?' "

For such a technical expert Assange sure can make an argument!

[The Green Manalishi]

138. It is estimated that even the fastest computer would take millions of years to decrypt the file."

And at one time it was considered fact that traveling faster than 30 mph would kill a human. Or that there would be a need for no more than 6 or 7 computers in the whole world, or that the sun went around the earth. Tha NAZI's considered Enigma secure and we had it cracked rather quickly.
Never say never.

[Pavulon]

145. Like a big giant rock.

one approach is to dynamite it. Maybe you dont have enough. The other spot is to understand the material composition of the rock and to apply a 1 lb charge and shatter it..

Elegance in crypto is appreciated. That seems to be missed by the local experts.

[ooglymoogly]

148. I think maybe total nonsense might be the answer. nt

[Pavulon]

150. Why use brute force when you have a perfect understanding

of how cryptography works and, in fact, design the most advanced cryptography in the world? The know how to break it.

[Poll_Blind]

139. Fair question and one which I set up but didn't quite cover in my OP:

I mentioned in the 3rd red bullet point about how the U.S. (military) was in control over how many resources they dedicated to decrypting the file, not WikiLeaks. Obvious point, of course. But the conclusion that I came to when I thought about it was that the U.S. military could not ignore the file completely: It was almost certain to actually contain information they needed to know before everyone else.

So that's n in the formula. Added to that is p which is how much more they'll try to decrypt the information. N is unknown but definitely greater than or equal to 1 (they have to analyze it in some way, dedicate some kind of resources to it) but p is based on (quoting the OP) "U.S. Government will presumably allocate resources proportional to the most damaging thing they believe the encrypted information is likely to conceal."

So n * p = the total amount of resources they'll throw at it. And the result will always be greater than 1 because they know that the file is almost certain to contain something they need to see before anyone else.

But that's just my attempt to structure why his particular move is a master stroke: The amount of resources they're going to spend on decrypting that file is really contingent on their own paranoia and guild about what he might have encrypted there.

So, no matter what, he's getting the U.S. to dedicate resources to what is (I would argue) an impossible task. One which the U.S. government knows is likely an impossible task but one which must be performed using some amount of resources.

The U.S. military/intelligence services MUST take the hook. How deeply they swallow it is purely up to them, not WikiLeaks.

Now, about how long it takes to decrypt AES256. If it takes the world's fastest computer "a million years" to decrypt the file, how long would it take a million conventional computers working to crack the key? How about 10 million Pentium 4 computers all attacking a certain part of the (IIRC) "key space"? The point is you can reduce the time it takes to decrypt even strongly-encrypted material by multiplying the hypothetical machine doing the work. Distributed processing has been around for a while and it is very powerful. There are other more exotic forms of processing the DOD is rumored to have access to but my assertion is basically that there are resources the United States has access to, to throw encrypted material like this at.

But they'll still fail, at least if Assange was on his game.

An encrypted volume with steganographically-hidden subvolumes, as I mentioned, means that there may be 1.2 GB of information but that's not one file to be "cracked". In fact, the actual file could only be 1/10000th the size of that container file with a few bytes of the file secreted randomly among millions of "chaff" data. The password, in this case, does not just decrypt the information, (like a single, conventional, passworded file) it actually reassembles those much-scrambled bits into something to be decrypted in the first place.

They could "crack" the encryption a million times over but have a million useless strings of characters, one out of every 10,000 of which are actually part of the message.

Someone mentioned upthread that Assange had a hand in the development of this particular method of cryptography some years ago. If that's true, he's likely whipped together his own special something-something which is even more difficult to crack. It gives plausable deniability to a person who has encrypted the data and who's life is in danger. They could put a gun to Assange's head and he could give them a password but they would never know if it were the real password to the real damaging data or how many other nested subvolumes there were in the encrypted volume.

Again, that's the deviousness of it.

I really hope that helps clarify things at least a bit.

PB

[kgnu_fan]

141. Some people are reliant on brutal savage instinct , advocating violence while some cool dude

uses his intelligence elegantly. If the humanity (we)decide to invest in developing our higher intelligence, we will be abolishing wars sooner than later. Hope is still with us.