McClatchy Editor Defends Publishing Al Qaeda Detail CNN, NY Times Held Back

[geek tragedy]

Source: Huffington Post

The McClatchy report helped clarify why the U.S. government was taking such extreme caution overseas and included information about the much-discussed terror threat that at least two news organizations, CNN and the New York Times, held back at the government's request.

CNN's Barbara Starr acknowledged on air that the network withheld the names attached to the intercept, while the New York Times -- which noted holding back information in a Friday night report -- explained the decision in an article Monday

...
McClatchy Washington bureau chief James Asher explained in email to The Huffington Post why they went ahead with the story:

"Our story was based on reporting in Yemen and we did not contact the administration to ask permission to use the information. In fact, our reporter tells me that the intercept was pretty much common knowledge in Yemen."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-calderone/mcclatchy-editor-defends-al-qaeda-intercept_b_3713226.html

---

For those thinking this information was leaked by the White House, clarity.

[David Krout]

1. Who leaked the information in Yemen?

?

[geek tragedy]

2. Reading the tea leaves: someone in Yemen's government or military

Our story was based on reporting in Yemen and we did not contact the administration to ask permission to use the information. In fact, our reporter tells me that the intercept was pretty much common knowledge in Yemen.

An official who’d been briefed on the matter in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, told McClatchy that the embassy closings and travel advisory were the result of an intercepted communication between Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and al Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri in which Zawahiri gave “clear orders” to al-Wuhaysi, who was recently named al Qaida’s general manager, to carry out an attack.

The official, however, said he could not divulge details of the plot. AQAP’s last major attack in Sanaa took place in May 2012 when a suicide bomber killed more than 100 military cadets at a rehearsal for a military parade.

[David Krout]

3. Thanks. Let's hope the culprit is found and prosecuted

Releasing classified information is against the law. The records of the McClatchy journalist should be subpoenaed too. That would make it easier to find the leaker.

[geek tragedy]

5. Probably a Yemen governmental official not subject to the espionage act nt

[Lugal Zaggesi]

6. What ?

People from other countries aren't subject to American Law ?

We can't allow that - it's not good for National Security.

[geek tragedy]

7. I know, right? nt

[pnwmom]

13. The information came from a Yemeni official, according to other McClatchy reports,

not a US citizen entrusted with classified documents, like Manning or Snowden.

[pnwmom]

10. Some Yemen official, according to McClatchy.

[babylonsister]

4. So there's an actual reason the US

is taking such extreme caution overseas? And it includes actual terror threats, and isn't a conspiracy to silence debates?

Well I'll be.

[Lugal Zaggesi]

8. So which is it ?

There have been a flurry of reports in recent days featuring anonymous government officials talking up the latest terror threat. These stories, which emphasize the U.S.'s ability to track high-ranking members of Al Qaeda, seem to contradict the anonymous claims made by government officials in June that Edward Snowden's NSA disclosures hurt national security by tipping off terrorists about surveillance of communications.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-calderone/mcclatchy-editor-defends-al-qaeda-intercept_b_3713226.html

Are the NSA spying programs CRUCIAL because look, they just intercepted communications between Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri and Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the Yemen-based head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula... (and surprise, surprise, they still hate us)

or is Ed Snowden a traitor because now that the "enemy" knows what the NSA is up to, they will change how they communicate and evade the NSA surveillance?

[geek tragedy]

9. There's a big difference between generic references to capabilities and operational

details.

[pnwmom]

12. The foreign intelligence is crucial with regard to al Queda AND Ed Snowden harmed US interests

by releasing information about our spying on Russia and China while we were in the midst of negotiating with those countries.

[Lugal Zaggesi]

14. Do you think

Russia and China thought the US wasn't spying on them before that ?

Or were US "interests" harmed because the President was complaining, for domestic consumption, that the Chinese were spying on us and hacking our computers, when he knew, and China knew - but US citizens did not - that we were spying on their Government and companies and hacking their computers too ?

Is American indignation harmed now ?

[pnwmom]

15. He shared actual IP addresses, according to the Chinese newspaper.

China knew we were spying on them, but that doesn't mean they knew every detail of how we did it.

And the Chinese have been stealing billions in intellectual property through hacking. We were hacking to see how they were doing it.

Our companies haven't been stealing intellectual property from China. It's a simple enough matter to see where a product gets patented and developed first.

[Lugal Zaggesi]

18. Yes, it's a simple enough matter to see

that Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited is the #1 photovoltaics company in the world because of constant innovation and manufacturing advantages.

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

Chinese and Taiwanese production up, up, up - American and European production down, down, down:
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/10/yingli-green-now-biggest-solar-company-showing-chinese-solar-might/

Were the Americans hacking to see how they were doing it ?

[pnwmom]

19. The US government doesn't steal trade secrets and pass them on to

U. S. companies. But it's been trying to stop attacks of our own intellectual property.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/opinion/how-china-steals-our-secrets.html

FOR the last two months, senior government officials and private-sector experts have paraded before Congress and described in alarming terms a silent threat: cyberattacks carried out by foreign governments. Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., said cyberattacks would soon replace terrorism as the agency’s No. 1 concern as foreign hackers, particularly from China, penetrate American firms’ computers and steal huge amounts of valuable data and intellectual property.

It’s not hard to imagine what happens when an American company pays for research and a Chinese firm gets the results free; it destroys our competitive edge. Shawn Henry, who retired last Friday as the executive assistant director of the F.B.I. (and its lead agent on cybercrime), told Congress last week of an American company that had all of its data from a 10-year, $1 billion research program copied by hackers in one night. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, head of the military’s Cyber Command, called the continuing, rampant cybertheft “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”

SNIP

Richard A. Clarke, the special adviser to the president for cybersecurity from 2001 to 2003, is the author of “Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57586624/how-chinese-hackers-steal-u.s-secrets/


But China is "the most active and prolific" state player in the hacking game, according to Ling. "It is a national focus agenda item for the Chinese to be active in this way," he said. "It's not a small group of people who just decided they want to do this on their own accord." While the United States was reticent to specifically accuse China of hacking until relatively recently, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive said in 2011 that U.S. firms and cyber-security specialists had reported "an onslaught" of network intrusions from China, and in March President Obama's national security advisor, Tom Donilon, warned of "cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale."

According to Bejtlich - whose company, Mandiant, made international headlines when it released a detailed report on China's cyber-espionage efforts in February - Chinese hackers take a decentralized approach to stealing U.S. secrets. Mandiant tracks 20 different hacking groups, which range in size from dozens of hackers to thousands. The groups may have specialties or receive specific instructions on what to target from China's Ministry of State Secrecy, but they can be in competition with each other. "We have seen cases where they are six or seven independently operating groups inside a single target," said Bejtlich.

[Lugal Zaggesi]

20. Are you saying

the US government steals research secrets and then pretends agencies like DARPA developed them when they give them to military/industrial contractors ? That's a bit of semantics, wouldn't you say ?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/06/22/u-s-hacked-china-universities-mobile-phones-snowden-tells-china-press/

The United States government hacked into Chinese mobile phone companies to collect text messages and spied on the Tsinghua University, troubled National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden told South China Morning Post in a series of articles posted on line this Saturday.

Tsinghua in Beijing is one of China’s biggest research institutions. Snowden said it was the victim of numerous hacks, including a recent one in January 2013. He did not say what the spy agencies were looking for.

Gee, I wonder what they were looking for at the biggest research institutions of our biggest competitor in the world ?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324577904578562483284884530.html

The SCMP's report didn't give details on how attacks on China's mobile-phone companies may have been conducted but cited mainland cybersecurity experts' concerns that U.S.-made components might make telecommunications equipment vulnerable to so-called "backdoor" attacks.

On Sunday, Chinese official media slammed the U.S. following the latest allegations about U.S. cyber-snooping. "The United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age," a commentary by Xinhua said.

Meanwhile, according to Mr. Snowden, Beijing's Tsinghua University has been the subject of "extensive hacking" by the NSA this year, with at least 63 computers and servers attacked during a single day in January. The SCMP's report noted that the university is home to one of the country's largest major backbone networks, the China Education and Research Network—a hub through which the Internet data of millions of Chinese users could be mined, the report said.

Why do you think you know what the US Government is doing? Based on what you see on TV? I don't know if they've told you this yet, but they lie a lot.

[pnwmom]

21. No, you're saying that, and it's a lie. The University there has been a major source

of the hacking going on here, and we have been trying to block the attacks.

We fund DARPA to perform research, not to steal it from other countries. Please name an example of intellectual property we have stolen from China.

[Lugal Zaggesi]

22. Please name one example

of how those 63 computers and servers at Beijing's Tsinghua University attacked during a single day in January resulted in a "blocked attack" on the USA. Indeed, cite one article claiming that that was the mission of the US attacks.

Where do you read/hear these lies?

Realize that you wouldn't even know about these American computer attacks on Tsinghua University without Snowden's whistleblowing.

[Lugal Zaggesi]

23. That's what I figured - you've got nothing

Meanwhile, the NSA would love to get their hands on the research behind the DF-21D ballistic missile, the "US aircraft carrier killer".

https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/hticbm/20130424.aspx
China has been developing the DF-21D for about a decade. Most of the development effort was devoted to targeting systems that would enable them to seek out and find aircraft carriers. On the DF-21D warhead itself, sensors would use infrared (heat seeking) technology for their final approach. This sort of thing had been discussed for decades, but China appears to have put together tactics, sensors, and missile systems that can make this all happen.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-carrier-killer-missile-test-proves-df-21d-lives-up-to-name-2013-1

Any NSA agent that hacked into a Chinese University computer that had research on this would probably get a bonus, and the information would immediately be disseminated to American companies that develop aircraft carrier defensive systems. Nor would those companies necessarily be told why the specs were changing - "need to know".

Did the NY Times and CBS News forget to mention these things to you ?

[tblue]

11. McClatchy does not carry water

for this administration or anyone else. This story confirms it. I've found them to be pretty honest brokers.

[dothemath]

16. So there you have it ..........

We listen to them, they listen to us. Now they know they can disrupt just about every aspect ot our lives by "issuing an order" to 'strike' somewhere, sometime, somehow, blah, blah, blah.
Or, the NSA and every one in cahoots with them cooked up this whole 'shut down of vulnerable entities' in a large part of the world, thereby proving wholesale spying on Americans is justified.
See what they did there. As Goering said, if you scare them enough, you will own them.

Good night, NSA, I am going to bed now. If you send someone to 'visit' while I am asleep, please don't destroy my door. I will answer it. I don't have a lot of money and replacing doors is expensive. Thank you.

[Sunlei]

17. just me? imo, public- ALL the details takes ALL the wind out of terrorist 'plans'

in full public- publish the names of the group members, the country and the exact plans.