Instead of rebuilding their insecure SIPRENET infrastructure, their personnel security vetting procedures or their systems for handling Confidential Human Intelligence Sources, the US Army appears to be stupidly harassing WikiLeakS.org associates, or even people merely suspected of being associated with WikiLeakS.org i.e. "shoot the messenger"...
CNET report
July 31, 2010 4:16 PM PDT
Researcher detained at U.S. border, questioned about Wikileaks
by Elinor Mills
LAS VEGAS -- A security researcher involved with the Wikileaks Web site was detained by U.S. agents at the border for three hours and questioned about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered the country on Thursday to attend a hacker conference, sources said on Saturday.
He was also approached by two FBI agents at the Defcon conference after his presentation on Saturday afternoon about the Tor Project.
Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based programmer for the online privacy protection project called Tor, arrived at the Newark, New Jersey, airport from Holland flight Thursday morning when he was pulled aside by customs and border protection agents who told him he was randomly selected for a security search, according to the sources familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous.
Appelbaum, a U.S. citizen, was taken into a room, frisked and his bag was searched. Receipts from his bag were photocopied and his laptop was inspected but it's not clear in what manner, the sources said. Officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Army then told him he was not under arrest but was being detained, the sources said. They asked questions about Wikileaks, asked for his opinions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and asked where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is, but he declined to comment without a lawyer present, according to the sources. He was not permitted to make a phone call, they said.
After about three hours, Appelbaum was given his laptop back but the agents kept his three mobile phones, sources said.
[...]
There is obviously no evidence that Jacob Appelbaum has committed any crimes,
The fact that there were US Army investigators present makes a nonsense of any claim that this was a "random security search".
What happened to the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution ?
Nobody who lives in a free society should tolerate being interrogated about their political opinions by Government bureaucrats or military officials. They are meant to protect freedom of speech and freedom of association, not to collaborate with our enemies by infringing or destroying these rights and freedoms.
The New York Times reports:
Army Broadens Inquiry Into WikiLeaks Disclosure
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: July 30, 2010WASHINGTON -- Army investigators are broadening their inquiry into the recent disclosure of classified military information to include friends and associates who may have helped the person they suspect was the leaker, Pfc. Bradley Manning, people with knowledge of the investigation said Friday.
Two civilians interviewed in recent weeks by the Army's criminal division said that investigators were focusing in part on a group of Private Manning's friends and acquaintances in Cambridge, Mass. Investigators, the civilians said, apparently believed that the friends, who include students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University, might have connections to WikiLeaks, which made the documents public.
It is unclear whether the investigators have specific evidence or are simply trying to determine whether one person working alone could have downloaded and disseminated tens of thousands of documents.
[...]
One of the civilians interviewed by the Army's criminal division, who asked for anonymity so that his name would not be associated with the inquiry, said Friday that the investigators' questions led him to believe that the Army was concerned that there were classified documents in the Boston area.
"I was under the impression that they believed that perhaps Bradley had used friends in Cambridge as a mechanism for moving documents," he said.
The civilian also said that the Army had offered him "a considerable amount of money if I were to keep my ear to the ground and be an in with them with WikiLeaks." He said that he had turned the Army down and that he had no connection to WikiLeaks. The other civilian also said in an interview on Friday that he had no connection to WikiLeaks.
The first civilian said it appeared from the questioning that Army investigators "are trying to build a network among Bradley's friends to infiltrate WikiLeaks."
[...]
The reported attempt recruit a paid informant associated with Wikileaks, appears to be rather inept and counterproductive.
Is the US Army also keeping , say, New York Times journalists under surveillance ?
Which other tentacles of the vast, competing US military / security bureacratic empires (comparable to the Russian Siloviki) as outlined recently by the Washington Post Top Secret America articles, are also involved in operations against WikiLeakS.org and against their associates, readers and potential whistleblower sources around the world ?
Is everyone reading this independent WikiLeak.org blog (no "s") also unfairly regarded as a suspect ?
We can only hope that Free World agents are watching that idiot from OZ
Clumsy US Army harassment or recruitment attempts aimed at WikiLeakS.org suspects in the USA
This event surely couldn't be serious. I bet if it was investigated further it would reveal that the so called US Agents were B grade actors that were rehearsing for one of Turner's Classic Movies" re-runs. By the way, what right did the "US Agents" confiscate the mobile phones that may not be registered in the US? Isn't that invasion of privacy?
@ chris williams - privacy at the US border ? That seems to be a casualty of the "War on Tourism"
https://www.eff.org/cases/foia-litigation-border-searches
Jacob Appelbaum has probably forgotten more about computer security and encryption etc. than any of those interrogating him ever knew in the first place.
There are reports that they gave him his computer back simply because it is not a Windows one, so they could not forensically image it.
There is no excuse for keeping the mobile phones, which they should have had the equipment at an airport, to forensically image the SIM cards and memory cards within 3 hours.
Such incompetent or half hearted "interrogation" gives the impression of political harassment rather than a genuine criminal investigation.