Over the years LibertyUnderFire has provided multiple columns on the National Security Agency's massive intelligence gathering and storage of all electronic information from all electric devices and how such activity violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is to protect all U.S. citizens from such government overreach. Such is now well known and, after the Edward Snowden document dump four years ago, no longer disputed.
Now new document dumps by Wikileaks, one more than 9,000 documents, from March 23 through April 22, reveal a second U.S. intelligence gathering organization potentially far worse than the NSA. The CIA, supposedly restricted to foreign intelligence gathering, has developed technology capable of turning electronic devices, televisions, computers, iPhones and even automotive technology against the user anywhere in the world, even in the case of U.S. citizens. That is why the unidentified whistle blower leaked the information to Wikileaks.
We do not disapprove of spying in other lands; it is always wise to know your opponents and, in many cases, they are doing the same to us. The concern is this: are the practices moral and constitutional? Government spying on U.S. citizens violates the full protections promised and guaranteed to U.S. citizen in the Bill of Rights. The concern is the same as in NSA spying on Americans. Also of concern is whether the CIA has exceeded its constitutional authority when it "commits actions to overthrow governments and influence elections," as the documents purportedly show the CIA has done on a regular and ongoing basis.
The document trove named "Vault 7" identifies cyber weapons -- "malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized 'zero day' exploits, malware remote-control systems and associated documentation." The Wikileaks dump revealed a "globe-spanning force -- its own substantial fleet of hackers" of "over 5,000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses and other 'weaponized' malware" to be used at their discretion. And the document dumps keep coming, code-named: "Dark Matter" on March 23, "Marble Framework" March 31, "Grasshopper" April 7, "Hive" April 14 and "Weeping Angel" April 21.
Perhaps the most interesting, code-named "Dark Matter," describes tools enabling it to remotely access someone's personal computer without his knowledge or consent and add, alter or delete files. Such is unethical and unconstitutional!
Most unethical of all is the CIA ability, without the victim's knowledge, to plant false evidence. such as child pornography or classified documents "that could be discovered at a later date by investigators serving a warrant." The planted evidence, imbedded and stored deep in the hardware would be difficult to notice by the computer owner and has enormous blackmail potential. Tools under this generic name include "DarkSeaSkies," "SeaPea," "NightSkies" and "DarkMallet." And this, according to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, referring to the dumps to follow, is just "a small example of material to come."
Such a malicious plan was already carried out against Sharyl Attkisson, a CBS News correspondent working in 2012 on an expose' on the Benghazi Scandal. Her fan on both her laptop and office computers seemed to run excessively so she had both looked at by a computer savvy government friend who found spyware on both and three classified government documents -- presumably to frame her later -- complete with a government ISP address. Planted evidence that she had violated the Espionage Act (Mitchell Shaw, New American, April 17, 2017, pp. 21-22).
"Hive" is likely the second most interesting of the "Vault 7" dumps. According to WikiLeaks it "is a back-end infrastructure malware" used to "transfer exfiltrated information from target machines to the CIA and to receive commands from its operators to execute specific tasks on the targets." Targeting firmware enabled CIA hackers to "remain in control of an infected device even if the target wipes the data and re-installs the operating system."
"Night Skies," another part of "Vault 7," deals with implanting iPhones, a practice nearly 10 years old. Wiping the data and re-installs do not affect their lodegment. Other CIA weapon programs have different names and purposes, such as "UMBRAGE," "Fine Dining" and "Improvise." Weeping Angel enables the CIA to turn on video or audio functions of one's television set, whether on or off, allowing filming or audio recordation of the activities in the room.
Assange claims not to have published "all details of the hacking techniques revealed in the leaks as they would result in both the "good guys" and the "bad guys" getting them at the same time. This could hurt the former.
Even more disturbing in the WikiLeaks dump was documentation of the existence of a CIA Embedded Development Branch interested in future "mission areas" as, for example, the ability to control the operating system of an automobile to "engage in nearly undetectable assassination." CIA involvement in assassinations goes back to the ruling Diem brothers in South Vietnam in 1963, described in virtually every U.S. History textbook and continued into the CIA drone strikes under Obama.
Such may have happened to journalist Michael Hastings in Los Angeles in 2013, who told friends, "I'm onto a big story." The story was on CIA and NSA abuses. A guy who reportedly "drove like a grandma" went through a red light at more than 100 miles an hour crashing into a tree (Michael Newman, New American, April 17, 2017, pp. 30-31). An eyewitness to the crash indicated that the automobile was on fire before it hit the tree and exploded. The "big story" was never published. Failing braking and acceleration technology, controlled externally through computer malware, could remove a lot of resistance.
Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for more than 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Editorial on 05/17/2017