11 November 2010

Wikileaks Crack of Secret CIA/State Department Cables?

The CIA investigation of Wikileaks announced recently by Director Leon Panetta is likely based on cables of the CIA and State Department global communications systems which transmit cables like those allegedly lifted by Bradley Manning and perhaps given to Wikileaks, although Wikileaks has denied having them.

The Wikileaks "insurance.aes256" file might contain CIA files, or joint CIA-State, describing black ops and worse, far more lethal than any other leaks to US reputation. If that file has been cracked by the USG it would activate the CIA investigation.

CIA runs its own crypto rooms at embassies, consulates and stations with access forbidden to State employees -- back-channel directed operations bypass State, which is considered leaky by the CIA. CIA provides some crypto services to supplement State's crypto teams. There is probably concern that the allegedly leaked cables might have compromised the CIA system.

The State Department's warning to not use AES encryption for classified radio transmittals raises the question of what encryption is used for classified global communications and the alleged leaked cables. Wikileaks has claimed to have cracked the gun Iraq ship video encryption. Whether the cables, if encrypted -- and many cables are sent in the clear on classified systems -- can be cracked by whoever may have them is surely a prime goal of the CIA's investigation.

Communications stations are shared worldwide by the two agencies; in the US two main stations are located at Site D, Warrenton, VA, and SA-26, Beltsville, MD, where contractors perform much of the work -- a sample resume:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomcraw4d

Department Manager
General Dynamics/Creative Technology

(Information Technology and Services industry)

July 1998 — September 2004 (6 years 3 months)

Created and built 145 person business unit for multiple IT projects within the CIA Directorate of Operations (DO), including the Enterprise Messaging System (EMS) Desktop project, the DO Computer System Integration Support (COMPSIS) project, DO special telecommunications projects, the DO National Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Requirements Tasking Center (NHRTC), National HUMINT Collection Documents Management System (NHCDMS), the Directorate of Intelligence/Counter Intelligence Acquisition Board (DI/CIAB) Requisition Analysis Questionnaire (RAQ), and several other DO and Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T) special programs.

Below is a page from a 1993 cable concerning the Clipper Chip retrieved from State Department FOIA archives. "CIA/NHRTC" is the CIA's National HUMINT Requirements Tasking Center.