It seems the lower your formal education the higher their security clearances.
Something needs to change.

(08-22-2013 08:29 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Anyone stationed in a War Zone that blows a TS/SCI Security Clearance just because he wants a clit deserves whatever happens to him.

I bet he's dead within six months.

I think he wants tits too.

(08-22-2013 03:48 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  The Army has already said it's not going to pay for it.

It's so sad -- yet telling -- that the Army evidently felt the need to clarify that point.

(08-22-2013 04:15 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  I'm just glad the Army still recognizes transgender as a disorder.

1. Link? 2. (If true) For now it does. Check back in another decade or so.

(08-22-2013 04:56 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Years in solitary ... forced sleep deprivation ... torture ...

Yea I'd say they mentally broke him. Doesn't matter if he's set free tomorrow ... he's done mentally.

Any male who seeks to have his body changed into a female (or vice versa) is way beyond "mentally broken", but yes that is certainly an accurate description of Bradley Manning, so far as it goes. The question is, was the fracture inflicted on him by the Army or not?

(08-22-2013 08:29 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Anyone stationed in a War Zone that blows a TS/SCI Security Clearance just because he wants a clit deserves whatever happens to him.

Harsh but true.

Quote:I bet he's dead within six months.

From this distance, he does seem suicidal. I am guessing that the Army will not allow him to come into contact with people who would do violence to him. Not sure if he will have a chance to off himself or not.

(08-22-2013 08:49 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  But what the hell was he doing with a TS/SCI clearance anyway? Was nobody paying attention? I mean, this isn't something he just decided to do on a lark one day. There seem to have been a lot of obvious signs.

I'm sure there are a lot of different factors in the background. But I'm equally sure that one of them was a reluctance/fear by anyone in his chain of command to do/say anything that could possibly be construed as "homophobic". So long as the evidence is not literally staring you in the face (and sometimes, even then) it's much easier to look the other way and hope for the best. Not to worry, though. I'm sure this sort of thing won't happen very often.

(08-22-2013 09:07 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 08:49 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  But what the hell was he doing with a TS/SCI clearance anyway? Was nobody paying attention? I mean, this isn't something he just decided to do on a lark one day. There seem to have been a lot of obvious signs.

I'm sure there are a lot of different factors in the background. But I'm equally sure that one of them was a reluctance/fear by anyone in his chain of command to do/say anything that could possibly be construed as "homophobic". So long as the evidence is not literally staring you in the face (and sometimes, even then) it's much easier to look the other way and hope for the best. Not to worry, though. I'm sure this sort of thing won't happen very often.

I'm sure that was a factor.

I'm pretty pro-gay-rights, but I still think I would have seen lots of warning signs. This guy didn't need to be having that kind of access for a number of reasons, sexual preference not really being one of them.

I always thought DADT was the worst possible way to go, since it did create a significant blackmail potential a la Kim Philby.

During Nam we had a lot of anti-war types in the fleet, and a lot of them gravitated to ops/comm slots because of education. We were always pretty careful about watching who had access to what. For a guy who made some of the statements he allegedly made prior to this incident to still be in the spook shack seems very strange, PC or no PC.

(08-22-2013 08:49 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 08:29 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Anyone stationed in a War Zone that blows a TS/SCI Security Clearance just because he wants a clit deserves whatever happens to him.

I bet he's dead within six months.

But what the hell was he doing with a TS/SCI clearance anyway? Was nobody paying attention? I mean, this isn't something he just decided to do on a lark one day. There seem to have been a lot of obvious signs.

Is it possible the same people that did the SSBI work up on Snowden also did Manning?

I hope they didn't give him an Interim Clearance just to cover a workload backlog in Baghdad.

(08-22-2013 10:05 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Is it possible the same people that did the SSBI work up on Snowden also did Manning?
I hope they didn't give him an Interim Clearance just to cover a workload backlog in Baghdad.

Two scary thoughts.

I guess the other thing that I don't understand is how did he possibly have Need To Know for all of that stuff. Are we that sloppy with storage devices?

I have just one thing to say to Chelsea......

(08-22-2013 10:10 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 10:05 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Is it possible the same people that did the SSBI work up on Snowden also did Manning?
I hope they didn't give him an Interim Clearance just to cover a workload backlog in Baghdad.

Two scary thoughts.

I guess the other thing that I don't understand is how did he possibly have Need To Know for all of that stuff. Are we that sloppy with storage devices?

I've seen USB ports sealed with plastic plugs and superglue. You try to remove the plug you destroy the port.

I'm thinking that since it is multiple password access protected, that an Admin password was freely available to keep from having to call some IT Supervisor to come over and do a manual entry and authorize it.

Other people need to pay for allowing this incident to happen in the first place. Just like after Johnny Walker Red.

If you need to a Manager at Kroger to approve an overring override by some 11th grade High School Cashier it just makes sense....

(08-22-2013 10:35 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 10:10 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 10:05 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Is it possible the same people that did the SSBI work up on Snowden also did Manning?
I hope they didn't give him an Interim Clearance just to cover a workload backlog in Baghdad.

Two scary thoughts.

I guess the other thing that I don't understand is how did he possibly have Need To Know for all of that stuff. Are we that sloppy with storage devices?

I've seen USB ports sealed with plastic plugs and superglue. You try to remove the plug you destroy the port.

I'm thinking that since it is multiple password access protected, that an Admin password was freely available to keep from having to call some IT Supervisor to come over and do a manual entry and authorize it.

Other people need to pay for allowing this incident to happen in the first place. Just like after Johnny Walker Red.

If you need to a Manager at Kroger to approve an overring override by some 11th grade High School Cashier it just makes sense....

Some employers are really stupid. Mine decided that they didn't want anyone stealing their proprietary info so they locked out the use of USB and you could only use encoded sticks that they gave you. However, they left the digital camera card reader usable for anything. If you really wanted to take anything, you could just put it on the digital camera card, just like a USB stick. Seemed pretty elementary to me. Not sure how an advanced IT dept. couldn't figure that out.

(08-22-2013 08:29 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Anyone stationed in a War Zone that blows a TS/SCI Security Clearance just because he wants a clit deserves whatever happens to him.

I bet he's dead within six months.

He/she made it so far.

(08-22-2013 08:29 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Anyone stationed in a War Zone that blows a TS/SCI Security Clearance just because he wants a clit deserves whatever happens to him.

I bet he's dead within six months.

Wants a clit...disgusted by all the despicable things his government is doing and getting away with while his internal objections go completely unheeded. What's the difference?

Give him a knife.

(08-22-2013 09:15 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 09:07 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 08:49 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  what the hell was he doing with a TS/SCI clearance anyway? Was nobody paying attention?

a reluctance/fear by anyone in his chain of command to do/say anything that could possibly be construed as "homophobic".

I'm sure that was a factor.

Heh, that's putting it mildly. And you can be equally sure it will continue to be "a factor" in other cases involving personnel who can allege "homophobia!" if things don't go their way. The consequences will not usually be as severe as they are in the Manning case, but the basic dynamic will be identical. We have created a new, politically-privileged class and everyone in uniform (at least, everyone who cares about their career) has taken notice, and will govern themselves accordingly.

Quote:I'm pretty pro-gay-rights, but I still think I would have seen lots of warning signs. This guy didn't need to be having that kind of access for a number of reasons, sexual preference not really being one of them.

I am sure there were "a number of reasons" why Bradley Manning should have been kept away from any position that required discretion and judgment. His sexual preferences may or may not be among them, IMHO. But the point is, his sexual preferences were a reason for other people to keep their mouth shut rather than voice their suspicions about him (IF they had any, and I readily admit I don't know if they did or not). No matter how many "good" reasons there may have been to speak up, the counter-reason to not to speak up (i.e., fear of reprisal for seeming to be "homophobic") doesn't go away.

Quote:I always thought DADT was the worst possible way to go, since it did create a significant blackmail potential a la Kim Philby.

I've always heard that Kim Philby was a Soviet agent who was part of a larger ring of Soviet agents (the "Cambridge Five"), of which some were homosexual and some were not. I know he defected to the Soviet Union when his cover was blown, but I've never heard that he was blackmailed for homosexuality. I would be curious to see a link, if that was the case.

DADT essentially put an end to policies that were initiated during WWII and the decade following. Those policies were devised by a nation that had just endured about 430,000 combat-deaths (and this when the national population was about 40% of what it is today). To the people of that generation, questions of "security risk" really were a matter of life and death. Their collective judgment served the nation well for nearly 50 years and there was no good reason to reverse it, except that Clinton was politically beholden to people who wanted a symbolic act of "change". As for DADT itself, God knows it wasn't my idea, but it's just not true that it left service-members vulnerable to blackmail for "being" homosexual.

(02-25-2014 02:24 PM)Paul M Wrote:  Give him a knife.

Well, at least we can say that he gets the message...

I feel sorry for the guy; he has a lot of issues he has to deal with.

I have to say that his leak is a great thing though and I feel he did the right thing, albeit maybe for the wrong reasons.

(02-25-2014 05:22 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  I feel sorry for the guy; he has a lot of issues he has to deal with.

I have to say that his leak is a great thing though and I feel he did the right thing, albeit maybe for the wrong reasons.

Speaking of leaks, I wonder if he'll get periods now, even though he's a fake-o chick.

(02-25-2014 05:24 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  

(02-25-2014 05:22 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  I feel sorry for the guy; he has a lot of issues he has to deal with.

I have to say that his leak is a great thing though and I feel he did the right thing, albeit maybe for the wrong reasons.

Speaking of leaks, I wonder if he'll get periods now, even though he's a fake-o chick.

Who knows.

I saw a BBC documentary where a mountain of a lesbian beat his ass after be punched her in the face, she went on to say he was a terrible football player and that she made a great left guard.

How did this unstable little drama queen ever get into the army, much less manage to get through boot camp, much, MUCH less acquire the security clearances that he needed to steal and broadcast our national security secrets all over the Internet.

oh, wait. Don't answer that.

(08-22-2013 10:35 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 10:10 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(08-22-2013 10:05 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Is it possible the same people that did the SSBI work up on Snowden also did Manning?
I hope they didn't give him an Interim Clearance just to cover a workload backlog in Baghdad.

Two scary thoughts.

I guess the other thing that I don't understand is how did he possibly have Need To Know for all of that stuff. Are we that sloppy with storage devices?

I've seen USB ports sealed with plastic plugs and superglue. You try to remove the plug you destroy the port.

I'm thinking that since it is multiple password access protected, that an Admin password was freely available to keep from having to call some IT Supervisor to come over and do a manual entry and authorize it.

Other people need to pay for allowing this incident to happen in the first place. Just like after Johnny Walker Red.

If you need to a Manager at Kroger to approve an overring override by some 11th grade High School Cashier it just makes sense....

I would be willing to bet you are pretty close to the truth.

When they installed our latest computer reporting system everyone from the top to the bottom, career and volunteer county wide had to have their own password. Since we deal with sensitive information (HIPPA information from medical calls, case files from arson investigations, etc) they had to be something that was 10 characters, wasn't an actual word, and contained numbers, symbols, and both capitalized and lower case numbers. Oh yeah, you had to change them every three months. You got three tries to get it As you can imagine it was a cluster flop for the first year, and the IT folks got tired of getting called at night, on weekends, and on holidays from those of us in emergency services who work then and have to have access so they had the brilliant idea of giving department admins and shift supervisors the master password to use in those cases and not bother them unless it was something serious. As you can imagine it wasn't long before everybody in each department knew the master password. No big deal right? Well, up until you realized that since it was all on one big shared system the master password gave everybody access to everything. I didn't believe it until one of my people logged on and showed me that they could pull up not only our records, but the records for the sheriff's dept, the solicitor's office, and human resources. When I kicked it upstairs and my boss took it to the head of IT she blew a gasket and wanted to discipline our people for her people being lazy asses. We fought that one all the way to the county administrator before it was decided to change the security settings so that IT had a master password for each department. Needless to say we still aren't on the most favored nation list of our IT department.