Remember when Donald Trump and the MAGA universe wanted to \u201clock her up!\u201d over Hillary Clinton\u2019s use of a personal email server for State Department business?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be clear, we found Clinton\u2019s use of a personal email server, which she claimed to have used \u201cfor convenience\u201d,\u00a0deeply problematic<\/a>\u00a0but pretty clearly not criminal. And, as we\u2019ve covered for years now, it\u2019s unfortunately (tragically) common for government officials to use personal emails from\u00a0Colin Powell<\/a>\u00a0to many Trump officials, including\u00a0Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump<\/a>. This is the same administration, mind you, that later mishandled classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and various other properties. During the first Trump admin,\u00a0the NSA kept trying to warn admin officials<\/a>\u00a0to stop using their personal email, which you\u2019d think they\u2019d know, given the whole \u201cbut her emails\u201d stuff.<\/p>\n So, really, if anyone were briefed on how emails can be insecure, you would hope it was the Trump administration.<\/p>\n About that\u2026 Yesterday, the NY Times revealed that the Trump administration demanded that the CIA hand over the names of everyone the CIA hired in the last two years which, for fairly obvious reasons, could contain some pretty sensitive information.<\/p>\n So, of course, the White House demanded this sensitive information\u00a0be sent via unclassified email<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The C.I.A. sent the White House<\/em>\u00a0an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries.<\/em><\/p>\n The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation \u2014 and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and<\/em>\u00a0whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Let that sink in: The same administration that wanted Clinton jailed over email security just demanded the CIA expose its newest China-focused recruits through unsecured channels.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, the Trump admin didn\u2019t deny any of this, but just said they were sure it was no big deal.<\/p>\n Current officials confirmed that the C.I.A. had sent the names of employees to the White House\u2019s Office of Management and Budget, complying with an executive order signed by President Trump. But the officials downplayed security concerns. By sending just the first names and initials of the probationary employees, one U.S. official said, they hoped the information would be protected.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That, of course, is fucking nonsense:<\/p>\n One former agency officer called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a \u201ccounterintelligence disaster.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n [\u2026..]<\/em><\/p>\n [F]ormer officials scoffed at the explanation, saying that the names and initials could be combined with other information \u2014 from driver\u2019s license and car registration systems, social media accounts and publicly available data from universities that the agency uses as recruiting grounds \u2014 to piece together a more complete list.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Any competent intelligence operation \u2013 like, say, China\u2019s \u2013 can easily cross-reference this information with publicly available data and standard OSINT techniques to identify these recruits. It\u2019s literally Intelligence 101. Hell, we even\u00a0published a card game<\/a>\u00a0years ago based on the CIA\u2019s internal training tool that tells analysts to do exactly that!<\/p>\n As for why it was sent as an unclassified mailing, the ranking House Intelligence Committee member, Rep. Jim Himes, says the White House\u00a0\u201cinsisted\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0on the CIA sending the list in an unclassified email<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth asking: If a hostile foreign power wanted to compromise US intelligence capabilities, would their wishlist look any different from what the Trump administration is actually doing?<\/p>\n Apparently, the reason that the admin wanted this list is because they\u2019re basically trying to get a huge portion of the CIA to quit (they just offered the highly questionable\u00a0mass resignation offer to the CIA<\/a>), and they\u2019re so completely\u00a0terrified<\/em>\u00a0of the word \u201cdiversity\u201d that they\u2019ve decided the most recent hires are \u201cDEI.\u201d<\/p>\n Why? Because the CIA realized recently that it needed\u00a0more diverse agents and analysts<\/em>\u00a0in order to better understand what was happening in places like China:<\/p>\n Under William J. Burns, the former C.I.A. director, the agency put<\/em>\u00a0a new emphasis on trying to recruit a diverse group of officers<\/em><\/strong>, arguing that overseas spying operations required people with an array of language skills and cultural knowledge. He focused particularly on expanding the agency\u2019s coverage of China, creating a China center at the headquarters that included analysts, operatives and others. When Mr. Burns arrived at the agency in 2021, about 9 percent of the agency\u2019s budget was devoted to China-related analysis and espionage; today it is closer to 20 percent.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Let\u2019s spell this out: The CIA recognized that to effectively spy on and analyze China, they needed people who actually understand Chinese language, culture, and society. You know, the kind of basic competence you\u2019d expect from an intelligence agency. The \u201cdiversity\u201d they sought wasn\u2019t about checking boxes \u2014 it was about having agents and analysts who could actually do the job.<\/p>\n But it sounds like the Trump admin saw the word \u201cdiverse,\u201d collapsed upon their fainting couch while clutching their pearls, and demanded all the names of these \u201cdiverse\u201d new recruits to prepare to shed all those pesky \u201cDEI\u201d hires. Because apparently, in their world, having Mandarin-speaking analysts focusing on China is just woke virtue signaling.<\/p>\n What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n As Daniel Drezner notes, this story\u00a0almost perfectly encapsulates<\/a>\u00a0the absolute idiocy that is the current Trump administration:<\/p>\n So, to sum up: in order to comply with the Trump White House\u2019s myriad edicts, the CIA has:<\/em><\/p>\n The irony is almost perfect: An administration that campaigned on email security is now deliberately exposing our intelligence apparatus through unsecured emails, all because they\u2019ve turned \u201cdiversity\u201d into such a boogeyman that they can\u2019t tell the difference between basic operational competence and their imagined DEI crisis.<\/p>\n Ah, but her emails!<\/p>\n But Her Emails Redux: Team Trump Makes CIA Send List Of All Recently Hired Employees Over Unclassified Email<\/a><\/p>\n More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:<\/strong><\/p>\n No More Pretense: Carr\u2019s FCC Threatens News Radio Station For Reporting The News Too Specifically<\/a><\/p>\n Spam Emails, Spam Lawsuit: The GOP Tries To Break Gmail By Court Order<\/a><\/p>\n South Dakota Lawmakers Latest Asshats Seeking To Force Schools To Post The Ten Commandments<\/a><\/p>\n The post But Her Emails Redux: Team Trump Makes CIA Send List Of All Recently Hired Employees Over Unclassified Email<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remember when Donald Trump and the MAGA universe wanted to \u201clock her up!\u201d over Hillary Clinton\u2019s use of a personal email server for State Department business?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be clear, we found Clinton\u2019s use of a personal email server, which she claimed to have used \u201cfor convenience\u201d,\u00a0deeply problematic<\/a>\u00a0but pretty clearly not criminal. And, as we\u2019ve covered for years now, it\u2019s unfortunately (tragically) common for government officials to use personal emails from\u00a0Colin Powell<\/a>\u00a0to many Trump officials, including\u00a0Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump<\/a>. This is the same administration, mind you, that later mishandled classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and various other properties. During the first Trump admin,\u00a0the NSA kept trying to warn admin officials<\/a>\u00a0to stop using their personal email, which you\u2019d think they\u2019d know, given the whole \u201cbut her emails\u201d stuff.<\/p>\n So, really, if anyone were briefed on how emails can be insecure, you would hope it was the Trump administration.<\/p>\n About that\u2026 Yesterday, the NY Times revealed that the Trump administration demanded that the CIA hand over the names of everyone the CIA hired in the last two years which, for fairly obvious reasons, could contain some pretty sensitive information.<\/p>\n So, of course, the White House demanded this sensitive information\u00a0be sent via unclassified email<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The C.I.A. sent the White House<\/em>\u00a0an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries.<\/em><\/p>\n The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation \u2014 and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and<\/em>\u00a0whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Let that sink in: The same administration that wanted Clinton jailed over email security just demanded the CIA expose its newest China-focused recruits through unsecured channels.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, the Trump admin didn\u2019t deny any of this, but just said they were sure it was no big deal.<\/p>\n Current officials confirmed that the C.I.A. had sent the names of employees to the White House\u2019s Office of Management and Budget, complying with an executive order signed by President Trump. But the officials downplayed security concerns. By sending just the first names and initials of the probationary employees, one U.S. official said, they hoped the information would be protected.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That, of course, is fucking nonsense:<\/p>\n One former agency officer called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a \u201ccounterintelligence disaster.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n [\u2026..]<\/em><\/p>\n [F]ormer officials scoffed at the explanation, saying that the names and initials could be combined with other information \u2014 from driver\u2019s license and car registration systems, social media accounts and publicly available data from universities that the agency uses as recruiting grounds \u2014 to piece together a more complete list.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Any competent intelligence operation \u2013 like, say, China\u2019s \u2013 can easily cross-reference this information with publicly available data and standard OSINT techniques to identify these recruits. It\u2019s literally Intelligence 101. Hell, we even\u00a0published a card game<\/a>\u00a0years ago based on the CIA\u2019s internal training tool that tells analysts to do exactly that!<\/p>\n As for why it was sent as an unclassified mailing, the ranking House Intelligence Committee member, Rep. Jim Himes, says the White House\u00a0\u201cinsisted\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0on the CIA sending the list in an unclassified email<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth asking: If a hostile foreign power wanted to compromise US intelligence capabilities, would their wishlist look any different from what the Trump administration is actually doing?<\/p>\n Apparently, the reason that the admin wanted this list is because they\u2019re basically trying to get a huge portion of the CIA to quit (they just offered the highly questionable\u00a0mass resignation offer to the CIA<\/a>), and they\u2019re so completely\u00a0terrified<\/em>\u00a0of the word \u201cdiversity\u201d that they\u2019ve decided the most recent hires are \u201cDEI.\u201d<\/p>\n Why? Because the CIA realized recently that it needed\u00a0more diverse agents and analysts<\/em>\u00a0in order to better understand what was happening in places like China:<\/p>\n Under William J. Burns, the former C.I.A. director, the agency put<\/em>\u00a0a new emphasis on trying to recruit a diverse group of officers<\/em><\/strong>, arguing that overseas spying operations required people with an array of language skills and cultural knowledge. He focused particularly on expanding the agency\u2019s coverage of China, creating a China center at the headquarters that included analysts, operatives and others. When Mr. Burns arrived at the agency in 2021, about 9 percent of the agency\u2019s budget was devoted to China-related analysis and espionage; today it is closer to 20 percent.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Let\u2019s spell this out: The CIA recognized that to effectively spy on and analyze China, they needed people who actually understand Chinese language, culture, and society. You know, the kind of basic competence you\u2019d expect from an intelligence agency. The \u201cdiversity\u201d they sought wasn\u2019t about checking boxes \u2014 it was about having agents and analysts who could actually do the job.<\/p>\n But it sounds like the Trump admin saw the word \u201cdiverse,\u201d collapsed upon their fainting couch while clutching their pearls, and demanded all the names of these \u201cdiverse\u201d new recruits to prepare to shed all those pesky \u201cDEI\u201d hires. Because apparently, in their world, having Mandarin-speaking analysts focusing on China is just woke virtue signaling.<\/p>\n What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n As Daniel Drezner notes, this story\u00a0almost perfectly encapsulates<\/a>\u00a0the absolute idiocy that is the current Trump administration:<\/p>\n So, to sum up: in order to comply with the Trump White House\u2019s myriad edicts, the CIA has:<\/em><\/p>\n The irony is almost perfect: An administration that campaigned on email security is now deliberately exposing our intelligence apparatus through unsecured emails, all because they\u2019ve turned \u201cdiversity\u201d into such a boogeyman that they can\u2019t tell the difference between basic operational competence and their imagined DEI crisis.<\/p>\n Ah, but her emails!<\/p>\n But Her Emails Redux: Team Trump Makes CIA Send List Of All Recently Hired Employees Over Unclassified Email<\/a><\/p>\n More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:<\/strong><\/p>\n No More Pretense: Carr\u2019s FCC Threatens News Radio Station For Reporting The News Too Specifically<\/a><\/p>\n Spam Emails, Spam Lawsuit: The GOP Tries To Break Gmail By Court Order<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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