NamEndedAllen
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Posts posted by NamEndedAllen
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1 hour ago, dan/california said:
Russia has been turning down easy outs since the middle March 2022, it is time to believe them.
Yeah But #23:
“Yeah, but if we do what hasn’t worked 27 times before, maybe doing it again will work!”
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Beautiful work, Carl! And thanks for sharing it.
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6 minutes ago, chrisl said:
It will be interesting to find out what actually happened some time in the distant future when we get something approximating a complete story.
Sequel to “The Falcon and the Snowbird”! But presumably not as damaging.
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40 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
From the analysis I've seen none of it was very sensitive in the sense of telling our enemies something they couldn't have either guessed or known for themselves.
Weren’t there widely reported concerns that the penetration of Russian intelligence had them scrambling? That their search for our sources and methods is aided by the specificity of the published leaks? Hoping that isn’t actually the case.
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7 hours ago, The_Capt said:
Ok, well you are not wrong, but you really are. Lemme try and illuminate without straying too far into it.
Older people have baggage. It is called life. And as such they have a lot more possible security clearance issues than someone who has only been alive for 19 years. So, yes, the your friends should be “sweating” because they have the things that trip up a clearance…like debt. A 19 year old kid, not so much. They are clean slates in many ways. Beyond the whole constitutional and legal implications of age discrimination, if we filtered them out based on age and experience we are seriously cutting into recruiting…we need them, you might even have noticed a tv ad or two to that effect?
As to brain development. Again, totally accurate assessment…and also why we recruit them. That partially developed mind can be constructed and shaped for warfare…tale as old as time. We can wring hands about security clearances but in reality we recruit them to kill. We put a lot of firepower in their hands and expect them to be ready to employ deep judgement under fire on the use of lethal force. “But what about the chain o command”?! Well trust me when I say that adult supervision is probably the second casualty of war. These kids survive a few months and they are the adult supervision. These are the kids who fight and die in your nations wars…exactly how did you think the entire thing was getting done?
So when we are talking technology, here is a crazy truth you missed on brain development - old people brains are as slow and dumb as rocks. So we purposefully recruit sharp (money on the bar this kid had a high IQ) kids who grew up with this stuff to run networks and all that “computer stuff”. Cyber operators, the guys who are actually conducting ops in the main are in the same age category. This is good because they can relate to the rifleman who they graduated schools with. Anyway, these kids can collapse a national economy so they too are cleared just as high, and likely much easier than their 40 year old boss who is on his third marriage and has a bunch of traffic tickets.
Finally as to religion, c’mon seriously? Tell me how you think a devout Muslim would have faired in comparison? The kid likely came up entirely clean with no extremist linkages - “oh look he is a middle class white kid who used racial slurs online”. If that was a showstopper we may as well close shop right now. Here is a shocker…he probably told a few dirty jokes too, heavens no! From what we have seen on the news the kid is a poster child for a quick and easy clearance. And how do we screen for “young, lonely and insecure” particularly after a pandemic? I mean basically stop at “young”, and as I explained that would be a major problem.
You are terrific in so much that you offer. But here…just general speculation and broad opinion. Steve already laid out the case well - chrisl and others have added much to the question. It’s about mitigating specific risks in a specific context, not your broad picture. It isn’t positing a 100% guarantee. Nothing is. Age related job requirements are throughout society, and this episode suggests the military examine it in the intelligence security context. Your defense boils down to, “We’ve always done it this way.” Which is why so much keeps going amuck. Ironically, reminiscent of your critiques about war fighting doctrine.
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1 hour ago, chrisl said:
The down side of that is that it shuts people who are fresh out of college out of clearance jobs, giving them more time to get settled at a high paying FAANG job where none of the clearance hassle is required.
It wouldn’t have to. And your idea could become a graduated ladder of clearance eligibilities.
The clearances come a number of flavors, for a variety of categories.The majority of military personnel are given Confidential clearance, Level 2 access. That includes the National Security Non-Critical Sensitive category. Level 2 also includes the Secret clearance.It’s complicated. All told there are at least six levels, mixed and matched for six categories, and associated clearance types. They require one or more of at least five different kinds of initial investigations, depending on the clearance. In general there are three kinds of clearances, Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. Level 3 gets the Top Secret requirement, and differs from Level 2 by including the National Security Critical Sensitive Category.
But it looks as if good ol’ Airman Teixera got his reclassification in 2021, making him 19. His reclass was to Level 4, Top Secret:TS/SCI Eligible. Or at DOE it’s called ‘Q’. National Security Special Sensitive. Yep. Above Top Secret. And it looks like he started right away broadcasting secrets to impress other kids. THAT’S the controversy. The military need not request freaking TS/SCI for a 19 year old for a galaxy of reasons, including your excellent point about the look-back length.
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1 hour ago, The_Capt said:
Not sure what the age issue is, he can vote and kill people for his country, he can hold a clearance. In fact on the surface he looks like a poster child for clearances. Likely zero foreign contacts. No wife, no kids, no bills or leverage. Good Christian boy so likely no illicit or online sexual weirdness. Likely no addictions record and probably had a spotless criminal record. The kid was likely clean as a whistle.
Really? *A* clearance? I have family members much older than him, who sweated through the full SSBI or Full and TS/SCI process. It’s an 8-15 month trip. This wildly bigoted and troubled not-an-exemplary kid’s religion has nothing to do with the process. Regardless, we all know (or with any science background, darn well should know ) 19–ish year old teenage brains have not matured. The last part of the brain to mature is the frontal cortex. Where good judgement, self-control, social skills, and decision-making skill come from. So yeah. Not arguing about the drinking or voting age, or recruitment age. I do think it’s playing with fire to put “scores” of 19-21 year olds fresh out of high school into positions with full access to SCIFs material and entry into the JWICS. With no ability or program to monitor the changes these 19 year olds go through on their way to actual biological maturity. What could go wrong? BTW, anyone think he never spouted off about his government conspiracy racist fantasies to anyone anywhere else?
Lastly, the US.military is sufficiently large to revise and assign this critical responsibility to an age appropriate rank and paygrade. The number of slots is “scores”, not “hundreds”. Do we really need to gamble like this? No. While of course it’s no silver bullet, it’s a LOT easier than trying to institute some sort of Total Big Brother real time microscope on every minute of people’s lives.
‘The part of the brain behind the forehead, called the prefrontal cortex, is one of the last parts to mature. This area is responsible for skills like planning, prioritizing, and making good decisions”... and… “The brain finishes developing and maturing in the mid-to-late 20s.” https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-teen-brain-7-things-to-know
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Catching up with Young Mr. Teixeira, the clearance situation is as bad as I suspected a few pages ago. In case it’s pay-walled, here is a few summary points:
“Jack Teixeira had a top secret security clearance at 21. Here's what to know about why that is, and what else goes into the security clearance process”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/16/classified-documents-leaked-security-clearance/* Got the TS/SCI clearance in 2021 when 19 years old. Had on the job access to that material at the facility through his duties. (whether that should be the case or not)
*Also had access to the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, allowing him to read and print the wide range of classified high level of material that leaked.
* Quoting: “Pentagon spokesman Patrick S. Ryder, a brigadier general, said Thursday that the military regularly entrusts young people with classified information, that Teixeira’s having that level of clearance was normal and that scores of other young workers have that type of access”. (my emphasis)
None of this explains how he was able to print the mass of documents over time, and then remove them. That’s assuming he could only access and print within the secure location, and nowhere else. The folded up docs shown in the leaks suggest that was the case, but doesn’t prove it. Let’s hope the security is and has been far better at the other locations where “scores of other young workers” have this wide access to sensitive, highly classified material.
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14 minutes ago, billbindc said:
What jumps out is his ability to copy/record in a facility where that should be difficult if not impossible.
Yes! Exactly. Once the access high clearance is established (apparently) for this guy, and whatever computer skills he has acquired can be used and *perhaps* with his IT cover and *possible* sloppiness at the facility, he is in pretty good position to dig in deep. Concern is that this is still possible at what should have been covered by double and triple checking access records and whatever CI procedures would seem to be warranted. But maybe this is all way off. Some kind of simple but effective shortcut no one thought of, or was available periodically for some routine procedures.
Time should tell.
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https://www.ft.com/content/841a603a-791d-400e-a517-8b4c7626129a
Navalny seriously ill in prison. Most likely poisoned.
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3 hours ago, billbindc said:
It’s a NORAD station.
Thanks Bill. And he is reported serving in the 102nd Intelligence Wing, at Otis AFB on Cape Cod. If this went on within a NORAD station, it feels even worse. Materials from DIA, NRO, CIA, NSA, etc. I’d think the TS/SCI high level required areas would have had extremely high security protocols in place. And yet…
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I’m puzzling over the vetting process and clearances this Teixeira jerk would have been through. Some of you guys have various clearances. Please correct me where I’m wrong. He was recruited for the ANG out of high school in 2019. In the military, would he have immediately been vetted for TS, Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance, at its higher Levels? Basically, when he is an entry level kid? If not, wouldn’t he have gone through at least one more heavy duty investigation more recently? And if he did, and passed it after all the Snowden and other thefts and leaks, does this mean the clearance process for access to even these highly sensitive (Level 4?) materials and SCIFs is really really badly flawed?
Also, how many other IT types with his same/similar duties would normally be working at the 102nd Wing? They would know each other well enough, right? I imagine investigators would have a lot of questions for him.
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44 minutes ago, kevinkin said:
This guy was an airmen direct out of high school (I guess). I know a young person that followed that path and was in air force intel working with raw data. I can't imagine her being able to, or being in position to obtain high level interpretive documents. Either they fell into his lap - others involved - or he actively found hole in the system to exploit. I would go with the former rather than the later. He can't be the sharpest arrow in the USAF quiver.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/ukraine-leak-teixeira-massachusetts-air-national-guard/673720/ I Oversaw the Massachusetts Air National Guard. I Cannot Fathom How This Happened.
“From 2006 to 2009, as part of my duties as the homeland-security adviser to then–Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, I oversaw the state’s Air National Guard. I have no idea why one of its members would even have access to the kind of high-level secrets that recently showed up on a Discord server.
Based on my experience, I am at a loss to explain why a 21-year-old member of the state intelligence wing, who does not appear to have been working in any federal capacity, would need access to the kind of materials whose release has so unnerved the Pentagon and supporters of the Ukrainian war effort.
Despite Teixeira’s junior position, The Washington Post reported, he had access to the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, a computer network for top-secret Defense Department information. Investigations after the 9/11 attacks revealed a siloing of information within separate agencies and led to efforts to promote more sharing, but the Pentagon might have overcorrected.
State Air National Guard units have their own intelligence capabilities; an enemy could come by air, and sometimes errant flying balloons appear over U.S. soil. But it stretches any notion of homeland defense to think a low-level state Air Guard member should have access to materials about a war that the United States is not actively fighting and that poses no domestic risk.
I speak with profound admiration for the National Guard’s work. But if news reports are correct, the breadth of materials that Teixeira could view is unreasonable and unnecessary. If he took advantage of that access, that is his fault. But we are a nation that grants almost indiscriminate access to high-level intelligence, and that is our fault.”
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23 minutes ago, JonS said:
"This squadron" is the 102nd Intelligence Wing. Their role is "to provide worldwide precision intelligence ... for expeditionary combat support and homeland security." So, yes; "this squadron' absolutely should have access to that info.
OK, thanks! That explains one aspect of this goat rope. But it does double down on the oversight question. He was bright enough to be well hidden, in plain sight? That’s why no one noticed he had no business being in the ANG, let alone the 102nd? Or, like Hansen, no one seemed to notice clues about unhidden behaviors, etc? Or as feared, supervision of the highest level materials in such areas is so poor that today, after all the past failures, the lowest guy on the totem pole can just walk out with all the jewels.
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6 minutes ago, JonS said:
I think it's pretty clearly the last one, no? In retrospect, kiddo shouldn't have had any clearance greater than CV.
It might *also* be the first one (slack discipline at whatever unit he was at), but I'm dubious about the second - he might be cunning, but kiddo isn't smart.
Or he wasn’t the leak’s first link in the chain.
Useful idiot? -
Double post
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14 minutes ago, JonS said:
No, but someone has to sift the data and compile the reports. Do you think Gen Jack Ripper is going to be doing that himself?
This MA ANG squadron really needed *all* of THIS Intel? And that is happening with ALL of this trove of highest level stuff, and all available at every ANG in the USA, and therefore all the other bases everywhere? Every installation of every branch accesses essentially all facets and levels of military and related diplomatic classifications? With this same unsupervised point of failure - a guy like this? If so, as I said before, forget the illusion that *any* military secrets are…secret. They already flew the coop. Just weren’t all openly published by a nutjob.
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1 minute ago, Battlefront.com said:
Perhaps, but the question remains... why would anybody in the Air National Guard need access to this information at all? This stuff was designed for the highest levels of active leadership and related advisors.
Maybe another question to ask is, “What materials did he NOT have access to?”
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“For years, U.S. counterintelligence officials have eyed gaming platforms as a magnet for spies.” -Wash Post
I’ve wondered about this with regard to the wisdom of putting up really detailed well thought out proposals for the Ukrainian offensive, well-conceived by people who know what they are talking about. Probably nothing the Russians haven’t already thought of? But then, we don’t have a high degree of respect for their own abilities to wage war…
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20 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
Ah, so it wasn't the rifle scope that got him, it was the kitchen countertop? I think it is safe to say nobody saw that coming!
Steve
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he is an Airman in a Air National Guard squadron, with the breadth and seemingly depth of high level documents accessed and leaked. Yes, he is in the Intelligence wing.
1.But does that mean that every similar very young person, not senior status in every Air National Guard squadron Intel have access to the amazingly wide scope of intelligence from so many sources (and methods?), and of seemingly all or a great many levels of classification? (if so, abandon all hope of keeping any important military secrets - they are already leaked, just not all posted in gaming chat rooms)
2. Or did he hack into or otherwise obtain illegal access to much of the material?
Did he and all the others like him, at his level, need to know the details of the Ukrainian we plans? Of who is allegedly secretly supplying weapons to Russia? Of every nation we are spying on?
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1 hour ago, Offshoot said:
He's certainly going to be getting the attention he craved, though this time he will not be in control.
I'm mystified why this kid has gone to the press (I assume he approached them rather than the WP found him). Given the choice of lying low and pleading ignorance or going to the authorities, he instead goes to the press, says he was the only one who believed the documents were real, and mounts a strange defense of his friend - he is a God-fearing man and isn't like Snowden. Further, he states he is going to assist an assumed criminal by not identifying him before he is found.
A couple of WP journalists might be preparing themselves for a few weeks in jail too.
A real piece of work.
“In a video seen by The Post, the man who the member said is OG stands at a shooting range, wearing safety glasses and ear coverings and holding a large rifle. He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target.
OG had a dark view of the government. The young member said he spoke of the United States, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force that sought suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark. He ranted about “government overreach.”…“I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest,” he said, resisting comparisons to Edward Snowden, who shared classified documents about government surveillance with journalists”.— By Shane Harris and Samuel Oakford, April 12, 2023 at 9:36 p.m. EDT, Washington Post
ALSO
“The man behind a massive leak of U.S. secrets was an employee on an unidentified military base who regularly ranted about “government overreach,” members of an online Discord server he controlled told The Washington Post. The man, identified only as “OG” by his fellow Discord users, was the unchallenged leader of the server…one member said. OG reportedly also seemed to harbor dark beliefs about deep-rooted government corruption, once sharing on the server a baseless conspiracy theory that the government had had advance notice of a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, but chose not to act. He also began dumping hand-typed transcripts of classified intelligence documents on the server—several a week beginning late last year, according to the Post—and “got upset” when other users didn’t interact with them to his liking. https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-leaker-og-ranted-about-government-overreach-on-discord-report-says”
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Warzone reports movement on the F-16 front. Maybe. Some time. If USA ever gives approval:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ukraine-situation-report-denmark-to-decide-by-summer-on-f-16s-for-kyiv“Denmark has said that, together with its allies, it will decide “before the summer” as to whether they will provide Ukraine with the fighter jets the country has long been campaigning for. During a visit today to Ukraine, Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s acting defense minister, confirmed that the matter was under discussion but that the process was taking a long time due to the requirement for different countries to cooperate on any such transfer of aircraft.”
“it would appear beyond doubt that an increasing number of European NATO nations are now seriously considering how they could work together to expedite the delivery of (most likely F-16) fighter jets to Ukraine. Other fighter jets have been suggested as possible candidates too, including French Mirage 2000s and Finnish F/A-18 Hornets.”“At the same time, any such collaborative program involving American-made jets would still require final approval from the U.S. government, which has so far proven resistant to such a scheme, including due to the potentially escalatory nature of such a move.
“Denmark will not do it alone,” Poulsen said”
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11 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
A few hundred might be the size of the suspect pool, or perhaps very low thousands. It's small enough that the documents released will narrow the pool down to a fairly small number. And within that, someone is likely to have a suspicion about someone they've interacted with.
In some quarters, in some cases, each copy of some classified documents is uniquely identifiable. If two or three such unique copies are among those released, access will be immediately narrowed even further. The overlap/ Venn Diagram could be quite revealing.
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However many entities these documents passed through from the original to those that crudely altered some of the entries, the materials are much broader than it originally seemed.
The materials also reference highly classified sources and methods that the United States uses to collect such information, alarming U.S. national security officials who have seen them. —
include highly sensitive U.S. analyses about China and other nations. —
It was unclear who may have posted the materials online, this person said, adding that hundreds — if not thousands — of people had access to them. The source of the leak, the official said, “could be anyone.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/07/pentagon-leak-ukraine-documents/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert.
(my bolded)
How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted
Makes sense, but some possibilities, because we know it went on and on:
1. It’s being done, and his behavior was NOT unusual!
2. it is, but too intermittent because monitoring is too big a firehouse for the deployed. And he knew how to beat it. Someone claimed he started as a magical 19 year cyber whiz kid as they all are
3. it is, but the parameters are flawed because of too wide variances or some other failure.
4. It is and they let him do it in a great CI scheme, although it embarrassed lots of allies
5. it isn’t.