Saddam's Inbox Hacked 764
MotorMachineMercenar writes "Wired News is reporting that Saddam Hussein's email account
(press@uruklink.net)
has been hacked into. The account had a five-letter login with the same password. Messages in his inbox sent from all over the world included everything from death threats to business propositions to offers to sell him WMDs. A choice quote from the article: 'One AOL user sent Saddam a one-word message: 'Imminent.' Attached to the Aug. 6 e-mail was a photograph of an atomic mushroom cloud.' I wonder what the login was."
You'd think it was "press," password "press," but if it were that obvious I think someone would have said so.
Password? in english? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hoax? (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, if it's true, whomever "hacked" the account and told the press probably only duplicated a hack already done by the NSA, and caused Saddam to close the hole. Good job, bonehead!
Re:Hoax? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hoax? (Score:5, Insightful)
Iraq's government is very, very different from ours in a lot of ways (duh) but it's still a government, and thus a bureaucracy, and all bureaucracies have certain aspects in common. The people who read the e-mail addressed to "press@uruklink.net" and those who read the e-mail addressed to "president@whitehouse.gov" would probably be able to fit quite nicely into each other's jobs.
Re:Scary (Score:5, Insightful)
The US hasn't in modern times seen widespread destruction on home turf, we still remember it vividly.
If the US could prove to European leaders (and European population) that Iraq is indeed the threat the US makes it out to be, then I'm sure European nations would also support military action and possibly be a part of it, as most have stated, they want a UN mandate first. But, the "He dun tried to kill mah paw" argument isn't that convincing on the European side of the pond.
Re:Have I been trolled? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not about judging Sadam but judging the kind of folks that think they're sending him email.
Doesn't matter if the address is real... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Scary (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey guys, just to make the argument clearer could you please make a distinction between Saddam and his cronies and the people/country of Iraq. I'm sure many Europeans (and hopefully Americans) would consider themselves pro-Iraq if we are talking about the country and people, but anti-Iraq if we are talking about Saddam and his cronies.
Re:Hoax? (Score:5, Insightful)
--
Saddam Hussein
President, god, and super nice guy (because I said so).
Iraq, country of milk and honey
(964)(1) 718-9267 (phone)
(964)(1) 885-2286 (fax)
"This issue is not inspectors, the issue is disarmament."
- GWB
Re:Password? in english? (Score:4, Insightful)
You make a valid point, but English does seem to be the lingua franca of the interweb, even (apparently) among contries at the "axes of evil". The site seems to largely be in English, so the people running it presumably are English speakers as well. I can say, just from some of the foreign-born students I've known, that people that learn a technical subject in a particular language will tend to think in that language when practicing the craft, even if otherwise they speak something else. (For example, a Russian friend who studied aeronautical engineering as his father did, but couldn't discuss the subject with his dad because he only knew the English terms for everything & didn't know how to express the same concepts in his native language.)
So, like I say, I think your point is insightful, but at the same time I don't think it's unreasonable that the un/pw would have been English terms if the rest of the site was also English (as, from the little I poked around, it seems to be).
Re:Hear that? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Scary (Score:5, Insightful)
I would have hoped you also saw the result of NOT using force when it should have been...like keeping Hitler from rearming after WWI.
I am not trying to be a troll or leave the wrong impression, but Saddam and his crew are not the types you want to have that kinda stuff. The U.N. knows it and made resolutions to prevent it...unfortunately, none of them are being enforced.
There were agreements made to stop the last war...like weapons inspectors that wouldn't be interferred with etc. Saddam isn't abiding by his side of the deal, so the other side isn't bound to the ceasefire either. This has very little to do with GWB wanting to kill him because of his father...and that is a really really lame accusation, IMHO.
So who exactly did the hacking? (Score:5, Insightful)
Assuming they did do the hacking, this is ethical... how? Does this mean they figure it's all right to hack into anyone's e-mail and publicize the results? What if it were your e-mail?
It may have been a nifty trick that someone happened to guess the right password, but as journalism, this is beyond the pale. I'd like to see someone from WIRED News comment a little more specifically on who the hacker was, why his or her name wasn't disclosed, and how WIRED justifies reporting on the hacked contents of an e-mail account, and where they draw the lines.
All involved US corporate leaders arrested! (Score:4, Insightful)
I hope that all U.S. corporate leaders involved are immediately arrested and charged with treason or some other appropriate offense. This is wrong on so many levels it churns my stomach. The arrogance of these people astound me to no end.
I sincerely hope this is a hoax but somehow I can see that it's possible.
If there is truth to U.S. business attempting to solicit business with Saddam Hussein, then I expect to see reports of arrests and investigations in the news. But I can already hear the paper shreading machines in operations and the degausing machines humming...
Re:All Saddam's email are belong to us! (Score:5, Insightful)
An objective analysis of both W's record and Saddam's record reaveals that Saddam has a much worse record on human rights. It's funny and popular to say otherwise on Campus, maybe, but last time I checked, the US government doesn't maintain a specially horrific prision for the children of dissidents, doesn't gas its own citizens, doesn't execute military officers by the hundreds, doesn't explicitly repress free speech, etc. Which the Iraqi government, controlled by Hussein, does.
Regardless of whether or not attacking Iraq is a good idea, saying what you said kind of makes you seem like a moron, because it's absolutely factually incorrect, and it lessens the impact of any argument you try to make.
The worst Republican, on his worst, conspiracy-laden, evil, money-grubbing day is better than Saddam Hussein on his best, most charitable, not-killing-people day.
Re:Pearl Harbor ring a bell? (Score:5, Insightful)
No - we have more than enough history... your history, as a matter of fact. We understand these things very well, thank you, which is why we go to great lengths to keep our homeland from experiencing the sort of things that have happened elsewhere in the world.
So - what next? Are you going to claim that only someone who dies from lung cancer is smart enough to know that smoking is dangerous?
Re:All involved US corporate leaders arrested! (Score:2, Insightful)
If anyone got arrested over this (Other than the hacker), I'd be extremely surprised and disappointed.
Although it would be very nice if they could use the evidence, they can't.
Re:So who exactly did the hacking? (Score:2, Insightful)
I doubt American law protects Hussein's email account or even the Americans who wrote to him; anyway the U.S. wouldn't prosecute, though it should follow up on the messages from its citizens offering material support. Constitutionally, the 4th Amendment does not apply to private actors. Now, Iraqi law must protect his account (after all, Saddam Hussein IS the law) but Wired may be beyond his grasp.
As for ethics, journalists are frequently presented with discovering or handling sensitive or confidential information. It's tough to decide and depends on the gravity of the problem. If they act prevent an imminent crime of significance by violating privacy, I think they should or are morally obligated to. They face the same sort of difficult decision any of us would in the same situation. A good example would be Ellsberg leaking the Pentagon Papers revealing gov't deception concerning the Vietnam War.
One code of journalist ethics [ijnet.org] proposes:
Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story.
Re:Hoax? (Score:4, Insightful)
Correction (Score:2, Insightful)
You probably mean "...countries that have not done anything, except aggressively invade their neighboring countries, refuse to disarm, and use poison gas on their own inhabitants that warrent[sic] an attack."
Re:All Saddam's email are belong to us! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just one question. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:All Saddam's email are belong to us! (Score:4, Insightful)
Point 2: Forgive me if I reserve a healthy skepticism of the naivete and innocence of those who perpetrated "accidental" civilian casualties and ailments during the course of experimentation. Vague enemies on the other side of the planet are eternally convenient, yet, inexcusable, reasons for such behavior.
Point 3: I never made the claim, and neither does the article, that the US was trying to infect any group with AIDS. The point is, the US has been in violation of the Genocide Convention (I was not aware of this particular convention), perpetrating involuntary sterilizations as recently as 1976! With similar callousness, according to this article, the US apparently used sub-par or experimental vaccines on Native Americans.
I didn't make this stuff up. Just because they don't teach it to you in namby pamby middle school US history doesn't mean it is not real. Search Google yourself. Better yet search your library. This stuff is historical fact, not speculation. We just refuse to acknowledge the dirty portions of our past...which I think does ourselves a disservice - especially when we expect to use our moral highground to sidestep international law and treaties to "do the right thing".
As far as our history with dealing with Native Americans, I suggest:
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years [amazon.com]
The sooner we dislodge the fantastic myth, and somberly acknowledge and admit to our real past, the sooner we become a better people.
Hello? Nuking cities? Full of civilians? (Score:2, Insightful)
To save the lives of soldiers?
Nuking hospitals & kindergartens?
If thats not a crime against humanity *nothing* is.
Its a paradigm example of a crime against humanity.
Honeypots (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think its a good idea for anybody to be jumping to conclusions about what his e-mail gets. That webmail account may have been created for the purpose of luring in crackers working for the US government. They may just forward all the junk and non-secret mail there.
Re:Hoax? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not an American but I'd like to point out that occasionally swapping between Democrats and Republicans is NOT a regime change.