WikiLeaks Publishes CIA Director John Brennan’s Emails
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The WikiLeaks organization posted material Wednesday from what appears to be CIA Director John Brennan’s personal email account, including a draft security clearance application containing personal information.
The material presumably was taken in a compromise of Brennan’s email account by a hacker who told The New York Post he is a high school student protesting American foreign policy. The hacker claimed he posed as a Verizon employee and tricked another employee into revealing Brennan’s personal information.
Brennan was seeking a security clearance while applying for a job as White House counterterrorism adviser. It was not immediately clear whether any national security information was compromised in the release of the clearance application, which includes his wife’s Social Security number and the names of people Brennan worked with over a long prior career at the CIA.
A CIA statement called the hack into Brennan’s personal email account a “crime.”
“The Brennan family is the victim,” the agency said in an unattributed statement, in keeping with agency policy. “This attack is something that could happen to anyone and should be condemned, not promoted. There is no indication that any the documents released thus far are classified. In fact, they appear to be documents that a private citizen with national security interests and expertise would be expected to possess.”
The documents all date from before 2009, when Brennan joined the White House staff; before that, he was working in the private sector. Aside from the partially completed clearance application, none of the documents appears to be sensitive.
In a section of his security clearance application covering foreign contacts, Brennan writes that in August 2007: “I have had lunch twice and dinner once with Alan Lovell, a U.K. colleague with whom I worked closely during the last three years of my government career. Alan is currently posted at the U.K. Embassy in Washington.”
Brennan’s “government career” to that point consisted of decades at the CIA. It’s not clear what Lovell’s role was at the British Embassy. The State Department in 2009 listed Lovell as a “counselor” in the British Embassy. His LinkedIn profile currently lists him as working at the British Ministry of Defense.
The documents include a partially written position paper on the future of intelligence, a memo on Iran, a paper from a Republican lawmaker on CIA interrogations and a summary of a contract dispute between the CIA and Brennan’s private company, the Analysis Corporation, which had filed a formal protest after losing a contract dealing with terrorist watch lists.
In a post-election memo, purportedly written to Obama, Brennan laid out a pragmatic roadmap on dealings with Iran. His suggestions are similar to the carrot-and-stick approach the administration would eventually use in nudging Tehran toward joining negotiations over slowing the momentum of its growing nuclear reactor program.
“The United States has no choice but to find ways to coexist — and to come to terms — with whatever government holds power in Tehran,” Brennan said in the three-page memo. He added that Iran would have to “come to terms” with the U.S. and that “Tehran’s ability to advance its political and economic interests rests on a non-hostile relationship with the United States and the West.”
In the memo, Brennan advised Obama to “tone down” rhetoric with Iran, and swiped at former President George W. Bush for his “gratuitous” labeling of Iran as part of a worldwide “axis of evil.” Brennan also said the U.S. should establish a direct dialogue with Tehran and “seek realistic, measurable steps.” Although he didn’t specifically call for the regime of financial sanctions that the Obama administration, along with Europe, Russia and China, pushed against Iran, Brennan told the president-elect to “hold out meaningful carrots as well as sticks.”
A 2008 letter from then-Sen. Kit Bond to colleagues describes Bond’s proposal to curb CIA interrogation techniques in a less restrictive way than requiring the agency to adhere to the Army field manual, which was what Obama ultimately did.
A related document appears to be legislation reflecting Bond’s proposal, which would have prohibited the agency from engaging in interrogation techniques prohibited by the Army field manual, rather than restricting it to only those techniques allowed by the manual.
But there is no way to know why Brennan had the letter or what his views on it were. He has defended brutal CIA interrogations as having produced good intelligence while supporting Obama’s decision to ban them.
13歲駭客幹的?維基解密公布CIA局長私郵
維基解密(Wikileaks)21日公布美國中央情報局(CIA)局長布瑞南的私人電郵資料,內容可能來自抗議美國外交政策的中學生駭客。
維基解密在推特貼文提供網頁連結,顯示6六份可供下載的文件,包括布瑞南2008年應徵白宮反恐顧問而接受背景調查的47頁文件,涵蓋個人經歷、親友詳細資料,連妻子的社會安全號碼也有。未來幾天會有更多電郵公布。
雖然已曝光內容沒有機密,布瑞南仍臉上無光;聯邦調查局和特勤局已展開調查。
一份標題「刑求」的文件顯示,參院情報委員會前副主席龐德2008年5月7日發給其他委員的信函提議,如何使未來的盤問方法合法。
信中表示每一種偵訊方法只要不違反美國陸軍戰地手冊,都可以視為合法,「這樣國會可以振振有詞的宣稱美國不容許某些嚴酷的偵訊技術,同時仍能發展陸軍戰地手冊沒有明白准許,但仍可能合法的做法」。
另一份標題「刑求方法」的文件,列有禁止使用某些偵訊技術的提案,包括強迫裸體、性行為、用頭罩或膠帶蒙上被告眼睛、毆打、電擊、燒灼、使用軍犬、水刑、造成失溫或熱力傷害、假裝處決,以及不給予食物、清水或醫藥。
維基解密宣稱侵入布瑞南電郵帳戶的駭客現年才13歲,這個駭客則向CNN宣稱他是不滿22歲的美國人,可是沒有透露本名或住所。
美國政府近年來接連發生重大機密外洩事件,包括維基解密公布大批美國機密外交電文,使政府高級官員遭到未能妥善保護敏感機密文件的批評。
中情局前長裴卓斯即因把他主持阿富汗戰爭期間的日記交給當記者的情婦,被迫對處理文件不當認罪。
正參選總統的希拉蕊因擔任國務卿期間使用缺乏安全防護的私人電郵伺服器,引發政治風暴。
原文參照:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/22/us/politics/ap-us-cia-brennan-emails.html
2015-10-22.聯合晚報.A6.國際焦點.國際新聞組