Discussion: Who Is Accused NSA Leaker Reality Winner?

[birdford]

When this broke I thought this was bigger news than it apparently is. I certainly at this point do not think it was worth what this person, who seems admirable and brave to me, especially for a 25 year old, is now going t go through. I only hope she did this with eyes open and a realistic appreciation of what might happen to her.

This certainly isn’t going to help the Intercept get any new sources in the future - seems like a bit of a clusterfuck on their part. I am disappointed because I like a lot of Scahill’s work, particularly on Blackwater.

As for Greenwald, he is definitely a bit of an egomaniac, but so are a lot of investigative reporters - look at Woodward and Bernstein. I would still prefer him to 99% of the bullshit that passes as reporting in this country these days.

[randyabraham]

It seems like she knew what she was getting into. She didn’t go through elaborate measures to conceal the leak. She didn’t try to run away or elude detection like Snowden did. She did not resist arrest when the FBI closed in on her.

It seems that in her mind she is truly a whistle blower.

[phillip]

Has The Intercept even issued some form of mea culpa? I mean, if I were of the mind and in the position to leak information to an outlet, this lapse of protection would make me think twice; and a lack of post-arrest support and/or post-mortem would make me even more leery of providing anything to them.

[clare]

Wonderfully karmic that donnie’s first leaker, doesn’t fit the “bad guy” narrative. Going after her just makes him look even more the hypocritical bully.

[josephebacon]

Did you actually expect Greenwald to do that after all the Trump asskissing he’s done?

[thaverly]

Naturally, it’s a little person-- a real American, at that-- who gets caught and charged with leaking classified info. A hero of the civil disobedience.

We’ll have to wait and see if justice is administered justly, with regard to other, more highly placed leakers. [Who am I kidding?]

[wolfpackdem]

of course it fits HIS bad guy narrative - a lefty that calls him names!!

[sf_brian]

#IStandWithReality

[turtles_run]

I am reserving judgment because this seems o be a really strange case. She seems really smart but somehow took no precautions to hide her actions. I gotta hear more.

[chuck_voellinger]

Jeez. That’s what the public library is for. I’m fearing that the US doesn’t employ the sharpest bulbs in the drawer…

[charliee]

I want to question why the info leaked was even classified.

If our so-called President had his way, everything would be classified.

[socalista]

If they wanted to get the whole story, the FBI would be investigating possible tampering of voter registration records.

Interesting, isn’t it, that there doesn’t seem to have been any such investigation.

[lot_49]

The government’s answer would probably be “to protect sources and methods,” a thing they’re willing to do even if means allowing an election to be subverted.

Another possible actual reason would be bureaucratic inertia. It’s easy to get things classified, hard to declassify.

[socalista]

how, at 25, would she know exactly what to go with leaking after less than three months on the job. She is still figuring out her passwords and where the bathrooms are.

No she’s not. She’s an experienced military intelligence veteran. Her civilian job was a continuation of the work she did in the air force.

She wanted to get caught. That seems obvious. For frick’s sake, she emailed it from her work computer. She went home and waited for the FBI, and when they showed up, she immediately admitted everything.

[becca656]

I completely agree with you on your second point about using her work email to send the document. She is either crazy or crazy like a fox. As others have said, we need more info to understand exactly the motive for doing what she did.

[socalista]

we need more info to understand exactly the motive

The administration – including the intelligence agency heads – have all worked overtime to cast doubt on the information carried in leaks. It’s fake news (and no one can prove otherwise). Pshaw…anonymous source? That could be anyone. Comey: “It’s laughable how much the media have gotten wrong”.

But not in this case. The government itself authenticated the information that Winner leaked by arresting her for leaking it and charging her with leaking Top Secret information. This one can’t be dismissed as fake news. My guess is that’s her motive. She wanted the American public to know about this and to know that their government was hiding it from them and make sure that didn’t get dismissed as fake news.

[dvdf1126]

Whatever the case, I guess she is now considered serving time…or is the term time served.

[gr]

Most likely because publication might expose the collection method(s).

This was evidently a top secret codeword document produced by sigint.

I recall a quote by Nixon telling someone that an item in the Pentagon Papers told the Russians that we had bugged Breznhev’s (spelll?) limo. Years later we learned that we had bugged his limo.

[captaincommonsense]

Nixon got Deep Throat.

Dumblefuck gets Reality Winner.

[anonymous1]

Unfortunately I think a lot of the coverage is making Reality Winner appear to be a hapless-snowflake-ditzy-yoga-girl instead of a principled and patriotic military veteran who apparently felt compelled to violate one law in while trying to protect the integrity of the republic (if she is in fact the leaker).

If she was a man and didn’t have such an unusual name, the background articles about her (not just this one on TPM but most other outlets) would lead in the first paragraph with the fact that she served in Air Force for 6 years, is a trained cryptologic language analyst fluent in the three major languages spoken in Afghanistan.

The article would then would go into depth about the different kinds of units that are based out of Ft. Mead where she was stationed, and about the size and scope of the NSA HQ there as well. It would give some details about the size of the private contractor she worked for and the type of services it provides to the NSA.

Only then would the subsequent paragraphs would fill in details about her life from her social media accounts like her more recent political statements and lobbying efforts as well the fact that a number of the images she posts are from a recent trip to a Central American (?) destination. Her postings about “delicious food” and her power-lifting workout regimen would be noted in passing in paragraph 11 of the articles. (Note - her instagram account’s motto is: “I lift, I eat, I have a cat.”) Her father’s quote about how she is a patriot would probably be featured earlier in the article than paragraph 16.

An in depth article might even include a few sentences questioning just how secret the information in the report really is - should it have been classified, does it really betray any information about methods and capabilities that isn’t already widely known?

The fact that she is sweaty and smiling in her social media photos and likes cute animal photos would probably not even get a mention if she was a man.

Finally, if she were a man the article would be illustrated with a photo either of her in Air force uniform or her in civilian clothes holding an AR-15 at a firing range (both photos show up with a basic google image search of her name).

Just saying…