The lack of trust in your government – elected officials, bureaucrats, and government contractors – now makes the government as suspect for hacking as it does state-sponsored or domestic hackers. Especially after Edward Snowden revealed some of the NSA’s hacking capabilities and official court indications that official intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the United States have crossed the line.
A chilling story …
The personal e-mail account of a State Department whistleblower was hacked, and four years worth of messages — some detailing alleged wrongdoing at the agency — were deleted, The Post has learned.
The computer attack targeted the Gmail account of Diplomatic Security Service criminal investigator Richard Higbie, his lawyer, Cary Schulman, confirmed.
“They took all of his e-mails and then they deleted them all,” said Schulman. He said that hecould not prove who was responsible for the hack job, but said the attack was “sophisticated” and called the targeting of Higbie “alarming.”
“Obviously, somebody is not happy with something he’s doing and wanted to get that information and also cause him an inability in the future to have ready access to that,” Schulman said.
The e-mails included evidence about misconduct by top officials at the department, communications with other potential whistleblowers there, and correspondence with members of Congress who are investigating the allegations, Schulman said.
They also include correspondence between Higbie and Schulman about legal strategy, the lawyer said.
There are a few disturbing issues in this story that go beyond the hacking …
- Why was a government employee using a personal Gmail account for sensitive documents; especially one that appears to violate the security of the United States and the fact that all electronic government records need to be accessible to the government’s archivist ?
- Why would Google be unable to restore the deleted account from its backup files? And if not, doesn’t that pose a greater danger to the population who believe that Google has their back in the case of a data disaster?
- Is it possible that the loss of this data makes it unavailable to the government and therefore might thwart subpoena government requests?
- Why would anyone publicize the loss of critical legal data and who benefits from such a disclosure?
Imagine that, the scandal involves Hillary Clinton and the State Department, how random might that be?
Schulman said he could not provide details about the evidence deleted with the e-mails. Higbie has asked the FBI in Dallas, where he lives, to investigate the hacking, which occurred this month.
Higbie played a key role in helping fellow whistleblower Aurelia Fedenisn, a former investigator for the department’s inspector general, reveal in June a pattern of alleged coverups by top department officials.
The alleged coverups included keeping quiet separate IG investigations that found that members of then-Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s security detail had engaged hookers and that the Belgian ambassador had solicited underage prostitutes.
These were among a string of investigations by the service, responsible for protecting dignitaries and investigating crimes within the department, that were allegedly derailed by senior officials, including one instance of interference by Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills. Since the revelations in June, the department again mostly swept the cases under the rug.
Higbie, a senior criminal investigator and the second-highest-ranking agent with the service’s Dallas office, also has an employment lawsuit against the department, alleging it retaliated against him. The hacking of Higbie’s e-mail follows a mysterious break-in at Schulman’s Dallas law firm in July, shortly after the whistleblower allegations came to light. The burglar sawed a hole through the wall from an adjoining office and stole three computers, but left behind other valuables.
Although cops arrested a petty thief for the crime, Schulman said, “We feel like we’re in a movie. It’s nuts. It makes us wonder . . . . maybe we’ve got something we don’t even realize or maybe they’re worried about something.” Source: State Dept. whistleblower has email hacked, deleted | New York Post
Jumping to conclusions …
It is not hard to imagine that this might be another Clinton scandal in the making, where underlings and operatives will say or do anything to protect Hillary Clinton’s historic opportunity to protect her bid for the presidency in 2016. Somewhat like the Rose law firm billing records being mysteriously found in the White House – with Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints on the documents – years after they were subpoenaed by government investigators?
Bottom line …
I decry the erosion of trust in our government that would give rise to the suspicion that this black bag job was done for political reasons by political operatives – and that like Watergate, those operatives were operating at the highest levels of our government.
Additionally, it makes me wonder about the security – as well as the sanity – of anyone who trusts sensitive documents to Google’s Gmail. Not only because we know they are algorithmically searched, but that they are not beyond casual perusal by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Why Google could not restore the missing data is also quite troubling as millions of users believe – possibly falsely – that their data is safe in case of an accidental deletion or data disaster.
Another problem with the progressive socialist democrats. Remember this – as well as all of the lies, distortions, misdirection, and crimes committed during the first Clinton presidency. Ask yourself, are we willing to elect a known Marxist, a proven liar, and an overall contemptible person to the presidency because she is a woman? More progressive socialist democrat perfidy!
-- steve
