“Democracy Now!” Hysteria evades Who, What, When, Where, Why.
The
bare facts of a case involving a Top-Secret-Clearance employee’s thievery and
transport of NSA documents were drowned out by gushing sentimentality and talk
about comparative sentencing.
The woman involved in the case seems to have mental problems and/or was
carrying out a personal vendetta against seated executive government. What I
found out—and what was easily available to “Democracy Now!”— is this.
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high school athlete and 2010 high
school graduate named “Reality Winner” was admitted into the U.S. Air Force and
in the first two years was trained in cryptography. She then worked for four
years, with the Air Force, as a “cryptologic linguist.”
Not to be confused with linguist or linguistics:
The former (1) a person accomplished in languages esp one who speaks several languages; (2) a person who specializes in linguistics (Merriam-Webster)
The former involving analysis of “human language” by observing an interplay between sound and meaning”; the latter “the scientific study of language,” involving analysis of human “language form, language meaning, and language in context.” (Wikipedia)
I mention this because “Democracy Now!” profiled this woman as a
“linguist” without further clarification.
Cryptography or cryptology seems to involve codes, nonhuman blips and
is based largely on mathematical theory and computer science practice.
An area of study or work that is “at the intersection of … mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, communication science, and physics.”
Cryptography or cryptology (Greek “hidden,” “secret”) is “the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries.” Before modern times, cryptology was “synonymous with encryption.”
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cryptologic technician (CT),
which is what the position is called in the U.S. Navy (presumably synonymous
with the Air Force usage of “cryptologic linguist”) is an enlisted job
specialty whose workers perform “a wide range of tasks in support of the
national intelligence-gathering effort, with an emphasis on cryptology and
signal intelligence related products.”
In her final four of six years with the U.S. Air Force, Reality Winner was assigned
to and rewarded by the U.S. drone division for effectively sitting at her
computer terminal killing people. The Air Force reportedly handed Reality
Winner an “Air Force Commendation Medal” for [what would seem to young civilian gamers a deadly video game] “‘aiding
in 650 enemy captures, 600 enemies killed in action and identifying 900 high
value targets.’”
Most people working in the cryptography or cryptology field “are
required to obtain and maintain security clearances” because of the highly
classified material and secure work environment requiring very restricted
access. Reality Winner was no exception.
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eality Winner had obtained and maintained “Top Secret Security Clearance”
which she carried into her instructor's position in a yoga class [not many openings for killer-drone operators in civilian society], and soon after into
a company contractor of the National Security Agency—but not before (i.e., on February
11, 2017, two days before beginning employment as an NSA contractor) committing to
her Twitter account highly inappropriate opinions, asserting that
“‘the most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fascist we let into the White House’”; and to her Facebook page a description of the U.S. head of state as “‘a soulless ginger orangutan.’” [Other of her infamous quotes apparently came out at trial.]
Chronology of Reality Winner and the DOJ
February 13, 2017: Reality Winner joins the staff of military contractor
Pluribus International Corporation.
June 3, 2017: Reality Winner is “arrested on suspicion of leaking an
intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States
elections to the news website ‘The Intercept.’” [To this date, the accuracy of the
“Russian interference” claim is unsubstantiated. That’s another issue.]
June 5, 2018: The U.S. Department of Justice announces Reality Winner’s
arrest on charges of “‘removing classified material from a government facility
and mailing it to a news outlet.’”
Not Guilty Plea
June 8, 2017: Reality Winner pleads “not guilty to a charge of ‘willful
retention and transmission of national defense information.’” [Bail denied on
prosecutors’ arguments of her possible involvement in leaks of other classified
documents, and possible flight risk.]
Guilty Plea
June 21, 2018: Reality Winner “asks the court to allow her to change
her plea to guilty.”
June 26, 2018: Reality Winner pleads guilty to “one count of felony
transmission of national defense information.” [The plea agreement reportedly mandates
five years and three months’ imprisonment, followed by three years’ supervised
release.]
Deal
August 23, 2018: Reality Winner is “sentenced to five years
and three months in prison as part of a plea deal.”
Prior issues and Conditions
Among all of the many preexisting problems, implications and causation
in this case must be included:
- The complicity of entrenched U.S. officials who have deliberately conspired to maintain a broken system
- The disestablishment or dissolution of a strong, well-maintained and trained, supervised and improved Civil Service Workforce
- The Contracting out of vital sectors and services—from education to intelligence—that properly should be staffed by the internal Civil Service Workforce (inside officials); Government contracting out has the aim of deniability, not unlike “limited partnerships,” but worse; it shifts to shifting pebbles, like dummy corporations, what should be official Government accountability and responsibility for quality of work and services.
Packing her Top Secret Security Clearance document, Reality Winner had been employed by one of
those pebbles, the Pluribus International Corporation, a within-the-Washington-Beltway
company providing services under contract to the United States National
Security Agency.
Pluribus International
Corporation profiles itself as a company specializing “in providing high
quality analytical, operational, engineering, and program management support
services to Federal Government customers in the Defense, Security, and
Intelligence Community sectors that directly support the fulfillment of U.S.
National Security objectives.”
It boasts headquarters “in Alexandria, Virginia,
minutes away from the locations of (its) primary clients in Washington, DC, and
Northern Virginia; along with “a satellite office in Stafford, Virginia, just
outside of Quantico Marine Corps Base.” [Quantico is home to the FBI Academy occupying 547 acres within Marine Corps Base
Quantico, the law enforcement training and research center of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation near the town of Quantico in Prince William
County, Virginia.● Marine Corps Base Quantico (abbr. MCB Quantico) is used primarily
for training purposes; the installation is situated near Triangle, Virginia,
covering nearly 55,148 acres (86.169 sq mi) of southern Prince William County,
Virginia, northern Stafford County, and southeastern Fauquier County.] Pluribus International Corporation also
says it supports “clients at locations across the U.S.A. and in Europe and
Asia.”
- Corruption Legislated and Unlimited: Longevity breeds corruption as U.S. officials take possession of elective office and/or revolve in and out of elective and appointive positions, cashing in for themselves and blocking out all thought of founding principles that would protect and service the people of the United States of America— establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense (not enact and conduct domestic and foreign wars!), and promoting the general welfare. [Minor edit from Preamble to the Constitution of the United States]
No doubt the young woman called Reality Winner did something wrong, more than
one thing wrong. But the pattern had been set long before she
was born.
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hy should the young, who are by definition reckless; and why should
private contractors, who are by definition driven by profit-taking? Why should anyone care?
Why should anyone bother to honor the public trust when paraded before them and before the world every day, twenty-four hours a day—are U.S. Government
officials’ flagrant display of carelessness, insatiable greed, and unconscionable
corruption?
The pattern of rottenness—indeed “righteous” rottenness, legislated rottenness— up and
down the spectrum needs to be dug up and tossed out.
Sources
News Feature
Democracy Now! “Mother of NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner:
My Daughter Was ‘Nailed to the Door’ by the Trump Admin.” Lead: “NSA whistleblower Reality Winner has
been sentenced to five years and three months in prison—the longest sentence
ever imposed in federal court for leaking government information to the media.
Twenty-six-year-old Reality Winner is the first person to be sentenced under
the Espionage Act since President Trump took office. Her sentencing Thursday
came after she pleaded guilty in June to transmitting a top-secret document to
a news organization. She had faced up to 10 years in prison. We speak with her
mother, Billie Winner-Davis.” August 24, 2018 https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/24/mother_of_nsa_whistleblower_reality_winner
Britannica
Linguist [n. lingua language, tongue] (1591)]: (1) a person
accomplished in languages esp one who speaks several languages; (2) a person
who specializes in linguistics
Linguistics [n plural singular in construction (1837)]: the study of
human speech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of
language.
Wikipedia
Cryptologic technician (CT) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptologic_technician
Cryptography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography
Linguistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics
Linguistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics
Pluribus International
Corporation Overview https://www.pluribusintl.com/corporate-overview.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Academy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Base_Quantico
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