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Copy-and-Paste Reveals Classified U.S. Documents
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Sun May 01, 2005 08:43 AM
from the hate-when-that-happens dept.
from the hate-when-that-happens dept.
cyclop writes "In March, U.S. troops in Iraq shot to death Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent that rescued the kidnapped journalist Giuliana Sgrena. U.S. commission on the incident produced a report which public version was censored for more than one third. Now Italian press is reporting that all confidential information in the report is available to the public, just by copying "hidden" text from the PDF and pasting it in a word processor (Italian). The uncensored report can now be directly downloaded (evil .DOC format, sorry)"
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Mirror, as HTML (Score:5, Informative)
Oh dear (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh dear (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Oh dear (Score:5, Funny)
Are you talking about PDFs or Vietnam?
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It's illegal to knowingly download classified docs (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's illegal to knowingly download classified d (Score:5, Funny)
I'd like to see them try to prosecute this.
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Re:It's illegal to knowingly download classified d (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re: Insightful? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, in fact it is rented from Cuba [findlaw.com] (even though they refuse the payment) and the U.S. government's position is that it is therefore foreign soil and not subject to U.S. laws or Constitution.
"They were captured in disguise and according to the laws of warfare could be summarily executed as spies."
While it's nice to refer to what the actual laws and interpretations allow, you miss the most important point: they have no due process rights. As you state, they have no Geneva Convention protection, even though they were captured as "the enemy" in a war. They are also not protected by the U.S. Constitution (see above link) because they are considered on foreign soil, even though they were captured by Americans, are being held by Americans, and are on an American base. In short, they have no protected rights for due process that civilized nations provide to everyone including war criminals, enemy soldiers, and civilian criminals.
Some people may not care. After all, these are terrorists, right? Well, how do we know? Is the military infallable? Is every accused person guilty? That's what due process is for. Is this not the "absolute power" behaviour that pissed off American's enough to create the U.S. in the first place, and provide such basic protections to all people?
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coincidence theory (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not very complicated. Every part is public knowledge all along. It is deluded people like you, who won't accept the truth, who enable the outrageous acts of these evil officials. Your kind of zombie is easy to identify: you can't dispute the facts, or the simple logic, so you attack the messenger with rhetoric and extreme exaggeration. I hope you're enjoying Bush's America, composed of lies, hatred, war, poverty, and rapid decline. Maybe you'll get a date with one of the Bush twins!
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Re:It's illegal to knowingly download classified d (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:It's illegal to knowingly download classified d (Score:5, Funny)
I feel a great disturbance in the Net, as if millions of geeks stampeded to yafro.com, and then were silent but for gentle fapping.
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Re:It's illegal to knowingly download classified d (Score:5, Funny)
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legality != morallity (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:legality != morallity (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:legality != morallity (Score:5, Interesting)
Can you site a single case where there has been a treason conviction for financial contributions? Treason is meant to be a serious crime. Aid and comfort is meant to be things like a non combatant military role (logistics officer, army engineer, navagational officer) in an army in active shooting war with the US. That's far short of a guy who throws a couple bucks at a cause you disagree with.
To even stand a chance of a treason conviction you would have to be a sworn member of Al Quida involved in an operation against the United States. Congress meanwhile has not declared war so even given this I'm not so sure you couldn't beat a treason conviction.
Funny how the right loves to talk about treason but they have yet to actually try one of their "XYZ committed treason" people (Jane Fonda and John Walker Lindh being classic examples) because they know damn well the courts would reaffirm a very high standard for treason.
Parent
Re:legality != morallity (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and for those not clued in, trying to "run" a checkpoint at 60MPH when it is manned by guys with guns gets you shot at, often a lot.
Well you've immediately assumed the US party line is the truth. The Italians are claiming a slow approach (30mph), that all necessary contacts with the US for safe passage were made, the driver stopped immediately when a light flashed 10m away but at the same time shots were fired into car for 10-15 seconds. Just wanted to clear that up for anyone who didn't RTFA, but did read your post.
A quick overview here [bbc.co.uk].
The Italians also consider the US to have a motive.
Parent
No smoking gun? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's unfortunate but if you choose to negotiate with kidnappers (and thereby encourage more kidnapping) and further don't tell someone who's subject to daily suicide car bombs that you're going to be speeding down a road that is infamous for daily suicide car bombs, is it any surprise this happened?
Should I expect less if I make jerky motions into my pockets when a police officer pulls me over for a routine traffic accident?
Re:No smoking gun? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's better that the submitter didn't stuff his/her own opinions into the story. I, for one, don't really care for their views in the summary itself, that's what the comments are for.
Neither do I care for any BS political conclusions derived by the submitter. None of that belongs in the story, all this can stick in the discussion section. This summary makes the most sense I've seen in a long time
Parent
Re:No smoking gun? (Score:5, Funny)
I think this falls under the same category as the famous Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy:
"I think a good gift for the President would be a chocolate revolver. And since he's so busy, you'd probably have to run up to him real quick and hand it to him."
Parent
"Not Speeding" (Score:5, Insightful)
The Italians involved said they weren't speeding. The Americans said the vehicle was travelling too quickly.
I think anyone, italian or american, can figure out the reason for this disagreement by watching a cowering family of american tourists trying to cross the street in Rome or any other large italian city. Some people obviously have different ideas about what 'fast' or 'dangerous' driving is.
I like Italy in many ways, but sometimes I really have to agree with Bill Bryson's "never should have let the Italians in on the invention of the automobile" sometimes!
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Re:No smoking gun? (Score:5, Informative)
I guess it depends where you live. In the UK, if I made jerky motions into my pocket when puled over for a routine traffic accident, I certainly wouldn't expect to get shot.
And if I was, there'd be a public outcry. Don't assume we're all trigger happy...
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Re:No smoking gun? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:No smoking gun? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Inane conspiracy theories (Score:5, Insightful)
"Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence".
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it makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
I'm going to question the judgement of this (Score:5, Insightful)
We'll find out (Score:5, Insightful)
The US government has for a long time, and this adiminstration in particular, classified things reflexively, whether secrecy was actually required or not.
In many ways it'll be scarier if the redactions show nothing of interest at all: not protecting anybody's privacy or any actual secrets. (A quick scan suggests exactly that.) It leaves open the question, "Why is the government keeping that information secret? Why is the government keeping so much information secret?"
There are many things that people would like to know to keep an eye on their government. Not all of that information should be released, for national security reasons, but it's always been the government who makes that decision. This lack of a check on the power of government makes people increasingly nervous as crimes (e.g. Abu Ghraib) are discovered anyway.
Most people in government over-classify things in order to protect their jobs. It's not a crime to overclassify; it's a big crime to release national security info, even accidentally. That's understandable, but a failure to release information that people are allowed to know makes it extremely difficult to check up on what the government does and whether it is still acting in our interest.
So yeah, maybe this is a bad thing. Maybe this is a release of national security information and lives may be lost. Or maybe it's laziness, somebody redacting because it's easier than checking on whether or not it was OK to release. Now we'll find out, and perhaps gain some broader insight.
Parent
Bingo!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course he hasn't gone as far as Reagan who wanted to prosecute them for their testimony before congress even though the info was not classified at the time of the testimony.
The bush administration has leaked classified info when it serves their purposes. Remember Valerie Plame? She was setting up a sting to bust nuclear weapon smugglers.
Sometimes it is in the national interest to leak. Remember when Reagan classified the reports of fraud and waste? Those leaks were in our national interest whereas keeping it classified was not. He made a public show of fighting waste and fraud, but behind the scenes he was not, but at least the issue was before the public eye.
Edmunds is now fighting to have her info heard before congress. Her info points to complacency before and after 9-11. they have classified her info so much she can't even tell congress.
I was an Army spook, I know the arguments. Not everything should be declassified, but waste, fraud, treason should be declassified. The Valerie Plame leak was treason in my opinion.
This is not the first time they have made this type of mistake. Embarrassing them in this way can only make them be more security conscious. Security is about the small things.
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Re:We'll find out (Score:5, Informative)
A vdiff between the censored and unmasked versions suggests that much of what was redacted is operational details, such as:
It names the soldiers involved and details the specific actions taken by those soldiers. It names the soldier who killed Calipari.
It briefly describes U.S. Embassy procedures for transporting VIPs along Route Irish and in general.
It details movement of U.S. and Italian Embassy personnel.
It describes possible future procedures and configurations for checkpoints.
In other words it has a lot of information of potential use to an insurgent mission planner and a lot that is nobody's business.
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Re:I'm going to question the judgement of this (Score:5, Interesting)
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Can they be this stupid? (Score:5, Insightful)
But non the less - I wonder if people can really be this stupid. Perhaps making people think they accessed confidential information is just a trick so the report seems more believeale.
Pdftotext does it (Score:5, Informative)
Download the pdf and run pdftotext on it, it works.
Marx was right: Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.
Let's play the blame game (Score:5, Insightful)
The Italians in the car weren't expecting a roadblock at that location, and the Americans didn't know about the rescue operation that was in progress...
Who really made the scoop (Score:5, Informative)
Insecurity Through Stupidity (Score:5, Interesting)
Secret data must be stored only on computers cleared for secret processing. Secret documents can only be downgraded to unclassified by deletion of the text followed by exporting it to plain ASCII text only.
Word documents, Powerpoint presentations, PDFs, etc cannot ever be transfered from a secret computer to an unclassified computer even if the original file is unclassified. The only allowable format is human readable text. Basically, if you can't read it in notepad, you cannot copy it from a classified computer to an unclassified computer.
These are the rules, unfortunately not everyone follows them (convenience) or is properly trained.
Parent is not correct - I am correct (Score:5, Interesting)
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How many times will US fall victim to this? (Score:5, Informative)
There were at least two publicized incidents Memory Hole Un-Redacts Redacted DOJ Memo [slashdot.org] and Iranian Coup Plotters Exposed By PDF File [slashdot.org] were the PDF was discovered to be layered with the graphic blacking out the text over the original.
You would think by now that the government would either distributed a tool for correctly redacting PDFs or prohibit them.
It case anyones wondering... (Score:5, Informative)
a) It shows Enemy Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP's)
b) It shows Coalition TTP's responsive combat dialogue with Enemy TTP's
c) It gives away the primary routes for incoming/outgoing US embassy personnel with technical, personnel and operational details.
Being a soldier who just got back from Iraq I'm actually pretty pissed at this because of the fucking dangers behind it. But I'll leave it at that.
Checkpoint ahead! Better "save game"... (Score:5, Interesting)
American checkpoints in Iraq are not well-lit traffic-coned "approach the gate and the waving officer slowly" affairs. They block the road at the best place to kill oncomers and hide behind their barriers. It's often the worst place for approaching vehicles to see the roadblock until you're on top of it. By then, they start firing "warning shots" in the general direction of (if not into) your vehicle. It doesn't always play out like that, but dozens of dead Iraqi families can't be wrong...
Everybody sees 1st level and goes crazy...tsk tsk. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's really sad to see this much "nerds" falling into the easiest route from point a to b without even considering any other possibilities.
How about this: They don't have a clue on how to get to the heads of the insurgency, thus they can't send them bad information, in which case they "do an error that looks legit" and broadcast it abroad knowing every news agency and curious person on the planet will pick it up.
Disinformation is a powerful thing. and even if the troops movements and all kind of information is included in the text, maybe there's one point there that they know that could be set up as a trap or whatever.
I mean, it's easy to jump to conclusions that humanity is stupid because someone revealed information, and the military knows nothing about the evil
So the point is, I could be wrong, the gun-jumpers could be wrong, but one thing is right; there are ALWAYS other possible alternatives to something obvious, especially when it's military or political. A forum like this is not to say "ahh bad bad bad" and see 500 messages of bitching on bad bad bad, but rather to promote a certain level of dicussion and intelligible arguments.
My $0.02CDN (which isn't worth much
A sad incident (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't care about any political bearings of any of the players. Only of those involved and their saftey.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye. That can be agreed on. It is also a shame and that can be agreed on too.
Honestly you do NOT mess around in a situation like this. As a soldier you can't just say "Oh look at that speeding car lets see what they want". You have to take action and it sounds to me like procedure was followed to the best of ability.
Communication could have been better.
The driver could have been smarter.
The vehicles shouldn't have been moved. Though I'm glad they were as more could have died.
That can be agreed on. Well no cause it doesn't matter because Americans are at fault automatically.
Just think about this. She was released. Why the need for any urgency?
The one thing I think everyone missed is this:
Sgrena claimed that her kidnappers, just before releasing her, had warned her that the American forces would be a danger to her.
Perhaps she had some form of Stockholm Syndrome and caused the driver to react differently when the warning shots happened?
Why on earth would the Americans want to intentionally harm her? Oh that's right the kidnappers said so so it must be true.
If that is true why then was medical treatment given to her and those involved as a priority over all else?
Anyway...
You know people are nitpicking when you read things like:
Giuliana Sgrena was hit, in the shoulder according to the U.S. version, but in an upper limb, according to Italian journalists.
So they already have an axe to grind. Eventually the truth will come out though no one will want to hear it. Both sides were at fault.
Not distributing, just informing (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Er.. (Score:5, Informative)
(U) simply means Unclassified.
(S//NF) means "Secret/No Foreign Nationals".
Any US citizen has not violated fundamental clearance issues by reading it (however, OpSec provides that this information should only be available on a need to know basis). Non-US Citizens outside the US aren't covered by US law in the same way.
The position of Non-US nationals in the US is probably different.
I am neither a Lawyer nor a US Citizen and I possess no US Security Clearance.
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Re:Correction (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Further correction (Score:5, Informative)
According to the Italian version of the event, they weren't speeding through the checkpoint, nor were they given any warning that there was a checkpoint up ahead (no lights, signs, or soldiers waving them down).
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Re:Irresponsible to post this. (Score:5, Interesting)
Since I submitted this story to /., I bite the flamebait.
Personally I have no clear opinions on the Calipari case, because in this cases all information that slips to civilians is of course filtered and in the best case only a pale approximation of the truth. There is too much truly classified information about this, like about anything relating to a war. Truth will perhaps eventually arise, but it's matter of years.
About illegality/irresponsability, well, you have to question not me nor CmdrTaco integrity, but the journalistic integrity of all major Italian media. All sites of prominent Italian newspapers and even Italian national television broadcast service are highlighting this scoop with great fanfare. The link to the unclassified document comes from and is hosted by the Corriere della Sera website, the major Italian newspaper.
So it's plain silly to think /. should have silenced this. If it wasn't me, it would have been someone else to post this.
Moreover someone already pointed out in comments that is better for people that may risk something by this disclosure to know they risk something. The vulnerability was there. It should have been an advantage for someone if it was secret. Being that much publicized, such info it is not an advantage for any enemy more.
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Re:If it was me (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Congratulations, you are a great example (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Congratulations, you are a great example (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not American, I'm Canadian, and I'm saying you are a great example of the total idiocy that *many* people in all countries of this world display. (Including a few co-workers of mine.)
You've been watching way too much TV - it's rare that there's "absolute proof". Are you asking for every single person in the world to carry around running video camera's 24 hours a day? That's the only way you can expect "absolute proof"?
When it comes right down to it, you end up with 10 witnesses for the defence - and 3 witnesses for the "procecution". What you see in the document is the testimony. Solider A says that person B did this, person C said that, etc etc.
As far as I am concerned, with 1 of the 3 Italian witnesses being a virulent anti-American/anti-war zealot, and the other 2 having TONS of reasons to cover up their own stupidity and non-performance of their job, I believe the other 10 witnesses.
But nooooo, you need "absolute proof". And the fact that something bad happened can't possibly be because one excited Italian secret agent hurrying to get his biggest triumph in years to the airport while talking on the phone while listening to a conversation in the back seat - made a mistake. Nooo, it's big ass conspiracy, the entire US Army was out to get them, all the soldiers at the checkpoint were out to committ cold blooded murder.
Get a fucking clue.
(Don't get me wrong. There are other situations where someone did something clearly wrong, and for some reason the US Military justice system totally failed to do the right thing. The shooting of the wounded prisoner in Fallujah is one example. And American's aren't alone in having bad apples in their ranks or young guys who make really bad/stupid mistakes. But that doesn't mean that there's *always* something rotten going on.)
Parent
Re:Funding Terrorism is NOT rescuing (Score:5, Insightful)
That said, there's nothing wrong with being a leftist, and it's irrelevant to this case (except that, of course, she's using her platform & beliefs to put a pretty massive spin on things.) Saying "the communist reporter" is similar to stating "the black assailant."
In this case it's just a horrible, possibly avoidable tragedy and I'm sure everyone involved really really sorry it happened, not that that helps.
As for the idiots saying things like "if soldiers don't want to get blown up, they should stay the f*** out of Iraq", that's about as base, nonsensical, ill-informed and sad an attitude as I can think of, and simply not deserving of a response.
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