Monthly Archives: June 2017

Reality Winner, a government contractor accused of leaking top secret National Security Agency intelligence on Russias alleged interference in last years election, was arrested on Monday, according to court documents filed in the case.

Within hours of the arrest, the Department of Justice announced she had been charged with removing classified material from the government facility where she worked and mailing it to a news outlet. She could now face 10 years in prison.

A source with knowledge of the matter later confirmed to ABC News that the charges stemmed from a May 5, 2017, intelligence document published on Monday by The Intercept, an online news organization best known for its publication and coverage of leaked documents on government activities provided by Edward Snowden.

Winner's background

Winner of Augusta, Georgia, is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation, authorities said. She had been working at an unidentified government facility in Georgia "since on or about Feb. 13" and held a top secret security clearance, according to authorities.

She is a former Air Force linguist who speaks Pashto, Farsi and Dari, according to her attorney, and had recently worked as a yoga instructor at Oh Yeah Yoga in Augusta.

"She is still in federal custody and we have a detention hearing on Thursday to determine if shell be released before trial," her attorney, Titus Thomas Nichols, told ABC News in a statement Monday night. "Shes a good person with no criminal history who is caught in a political whirlwind."

Winners mother, Billie Winner-Davis, described her as a "very passionate" person who was outspoken about her beliefs.

"Very passionate about her views and things like that, but shes never to my knowledge been active in politics or any of that, Winner-Davis told The Daily Beast on Monday.

How the alleged leak started

On March 22, The Intercept hosted a podcast online looking at, among other things, the public outcry over Russia's alleged collusion with associates of President Donald Trump and the Kremlin's alleged interference in last year's presidential election.

Host Jeremy Scahill said "there is a tremendous amount of hysterics" and "a lot of premature conclusions being drawn around all of this Russia stuff," but "there's not a lot of hard evidence to back it up."

Appearing as a guest on the podcast, Intercept reporter Glenn Greenwald agreed, saying that while "it's very possible" Russia was behind election-related hacks last year, "we still haven't seen any evidence for it."

Little more than a week later, Winner allegedly used a Gmail account to contact The Intercept, and she "appeared to request transcripts of a podcast," court documents said.

More than a month later, the NSA secretly issued the classified document now at the center of the leak case. And within days, Winner allegedly found it, printed it out and mailed it to The Intercept.

How it all came to light

On May 30, three weeks after Winner allegedly printed the classified document, The Intercept contacted the U.S. government, likely through the NSA, to discuss an upcoming story based on the intelligence document it had obtained. The Intercept even shared a copy of the document with government officials, who confirmed that it was indeed classified at the top secret level, "indicating that its unauthorized disclosure could reasonably result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security," the affidavit said.

Two days later, the FBI was notified of the matter and initiated an investigation to determine the source of the leak.

Further analysis of the documents showed that they "appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secure space," according to the affidavit.

Winner was one of just six individuals who had printed the intelligence document, according to an internal audit of the agency that housed the report. The audit also revealed that Winner was the only individual of the group that had email contact with the news outlet.

FBI agent Justin Garrick said in the affidavit filed with the court that he interviewed Winner at her home on Saturday and that she "admitted intentionally identifying and printing the classified intelligence reporting at issue" and sent it to a news outlet.

The news outlet was not identified in the charging documents, but a source with knowledge of the matter confirmed that the charges were connected to The Intercepts Monday report titled: "Top-Secret NSA report details Russian hacking effort days before 2016 election."

The potential impact

As stated above, the leaked document has provided the public with the most detailed account yet of how Russian hackers targeted American election systems.

The Intercept posted a redacted classified NSA document, detailing how Russian hackers allegedly infiltrated outside vendors dealing with voter-related information ahead of last year's presidential election.

The document said Russian military intelligence "executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016 evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions, according to information that became available in April 2017."

ABC News' Mike Levine contributed to this report.

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What we know about the leaked NSA report on Russia

The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett explains how an arrest of a government contractor was made so quickly in the NSA document leak to The Intercept. (Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)

It took just days forauthorities to arrest and charge a federal contractorwithleaking classified intelligence to the media. Court documents explain in detail how the 25-year-old woman suspected in the leak,Reality Leigh Winner, allegedly printed off a copy of a National Security Agency report on Russian tampering in the U.S. elections and mailed it to a news outlet.

What helped federal authorities link Winner to the leak were unrelated personal emails she had sent to the Intercept news site weeks before, which surfaced when investigators searched her computer. But how were officials able to gain access to her personal accounts? The answer, according to some former NSA analysts, is that the agency routinely monitors many of its employees' computer activity.

The case offers a reminder that virtually every American worker in today's economy can be tracked and reported and you don't even have to be the NSA to pull it off.

[What we know about Reality Winner, the contractor accused of leaking an NSA document]

She emailed the Intercept using her work computer, said Michelle Richardson, a privacy expert at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington think tank. They can monitor the traffic on their systems, look at thesix people who printed the doc, and see that she was the one who had contact.

The NSA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Employee monitoring issoextensive in American society that it may be difficult for workers to know just how far they might have to go to avoid it.Itis a $200 million-a-year industry, according toa study last year by 451 Research, a technology research firm, and is estimated to be worth $500 million by 2020.

[How Congress dismantled federal Internet privacy rules]

Monitoringtechniques have become quite sophisticated, enabling employers to track notonly what websitestheir workers visit, but also when they plug in USB storage devices, move or copy files, and what programs theyrun, privacyexperts say. One companyevenallows bosses to play back videos of what took place on a user's screen and can collect communications activity both on traditional email programs as well as popular webmail services.

Employee monitoringrecently came tolight in ahigh-profile lawsuit involving Uber and Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Google's parent firm, Alphabet. In accusing former Waymo employee Anthony Levandowski of stealing trade secrets and taking them to Uber, Waymo said it was able to determine that Levandowski installed inappropriate software on his company-issued laptop, then downloaded thousands of confidential files before putting them on an external storage device he connected to the machine.

[Supreme Court to decide if a warrant is needed to track a suspect through cellphone records]

Despite Levandowski's attempt to then erase forensic fingerprints by reformatting the laptop's hard drive, Waymo said, the company was nonetheless able to gather the requisite evidence likely using monitoring technology, analysts said.

Even workers who don't report to an office every day are subject to monitoring. The proliferation of GPS devices in smartphones now means that even truck drivers can be tracked. Arecent report from the technology research firm Aberdeen Group found that nearly two-thirds of companies with employees who work in the field were tracking their employees with GPS.

The earliest forms of modern employee monitoring date to the early 1910s, when companies would use mechanical counters to track how quickly workers were typing on their typewriters, according to Jitendra Mishra and Suzanne M. Crampton, who co-wrote a study in 1998 on the topic.Theynotedthatwhat has changed in more recent years is the method of supervision and the extent of information gathering capabilities available. That includes phone and video surveillance, keystroke logging and other forms of monitoring.

[Booz Allen Hamilton employee left sensitive passwords unprotected online]

Since then, numerous court cases have givenemployers a remarkable amount of freedom towatch their workers. In 2010, the Supreme Court heard a case involving two police officers who had been punished at work after it was discovered that they had used their mobile devices to send personal text messages. The officers argued that the police department's search of their devices was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment, but the court unanimously ruled against them, saying it was a reasonable search and that the officers should have known that their work devices might be inspected.

Privacy advocates have been pushing for years to have Congress review various communications privacy laws in light of updates to technology. Many argue that the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act does not provide enough protections to consumers today because many emails, text messages and other content can be summoned by law enforcement with little more than a subpoena.

ECPA was first passed in 1986 before Congress could imagine the wealth of personal information that would be stored on third-party servers rather than private hard drives, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology advocacy group, has said.

Congresstook a step toward updating the country's digital privacy laws in February, when the Housevoted to approve the Email Privacy Act. While the bill has largely stalled, it proposes requiring a warrant for searching emails that have been sitting in an account for more than 180 days.

Still, given the other case law surrounding employee surveillance, it's important to note that changes to the ECPA mightnot putan end to routine employer monitoring. Soyou might still want to be careful with what you do on your devices at work.

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The latest NSA leak is a reminder that your bosses can see your every move - Washington Post

Sen. Angus KingAngus KingGOP chairman admonishes intel chiefs Senator blasts NSA chief: What you feel isnt relevant, admiral The Hill's 12:30 Report MORE (I-Maine) snapped at the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) in a contentious moment of a Senate hearing on Wednesday that delved into questions over Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

King, known as one of the Senates more genial members, reached a breaking point more than an hour into the hearing after Michael Rogers repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether President Trump tried to interfere in the FBIs investigation into Russias actions and possible collusion with his campaign.

Rogers declined to answer questions about reports of his interactions with Trump throughout the morning, telling a visibly frustrated King that he didnt feel it was appropriate.

What you feel isnt relevant, admiral, King said back at the NSA chief.

Later, when Rogers said he did not mean for his answer to King's question to sound confrontational, King said he did mean to sound confrontational.

Why are you not answering these questions? Is there an invocation of executive privilege? King demanded. Im not satisfied with, I do not believe its appropriate or I do not believe I should answer.

Im not sure I have a legal basis, Coats said at one point, adding that he would provide as much information as he was able behind closed doors.

Rogers indicated that while he and Coats have had conversations with the White House about a potential claim of executive privilege, he said that they had not gotten a definitive answer.

McCabe and Rosenstein both cited the ongoing federal investigation, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, arguing that it is longstanding Justice Department procedure not to discuss anything that might be under active investigation.

I dont understand why the special counsels lane takes precedence over the lane of the United States Congress, King said.

At issue was whether any of the officials had any evidence that Trump may have inappropriately attempted to curtail the FBI's investigation.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Trump had asked Coats to intervene with then-FBI Director James Comey to limit the probe.

Both Coats and Rogers deniedfeeling pressured by Trump to intervene in the handling of intelligence in any inappropriate way but refused to answer specific questions about their interactions with the president.

Im willing to come before the committee and tell you what I know and dont know, Coats said. What Im not willing to do is share information I think ought to be protected in an opening hearing.

In a clear sign of the level of frustration in the room, Democrats repeatedly interrupted and talked over officials claims that they couldnt respond to certain lines of questioning. The argumentative exchanges on more than one occasion prompted Sen. John McCainJohn McCainSenator blasts NSA chief: What you feel isnt relevant, admiral Senate trying to insert Russia sanctions into popular Iran bill OPINION: Why President Trump should fear John McCain MORE (R-Ariz.) to grab his microphone and request that witnesses be allowed to answer.

In a previous and equally tense moment, Sen. Martin HeinrichMartin HeinrichSenator blasts NSA chief: What you feel isnt relevant, admiral Unemployment rate hits 16-year low as just 138K jobs added Intel chief has not talked with Trump about reported disclosure of classified info MORE (D-N.M.) cut off Rosenstein by saying, At this point you filibuster better than most of my colleagues.

Chairman Richard BurrRichard BurrGOP senator threatens to subpoena Comey GOP chairman admonishes intel chiefs Senator blasts NSA chief: What you feel isnt relevant, admiral MORE (R-N.C.), clearly aggravated, eventually intervened. The committee is on notice, he snapped, pointing a finger and demanding that members provide the witnesses the courtesy to respond.

Comey is set to testify before the Senate Intelligence panel on Thursday in what may be the most highly anticipated congressional hearing since the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from Anita Hill, who had accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.

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Senator blasts NSA chief: 'What you feel isn't relevant, admiral' - The Hill

The 25-year-old contractor accused of leaking classified NSA documents may have used her linguistics skills to gain access to a government listening post that collects intelligence signals from the Middle East and Europe, according to a report Tuesday.

Reality Winner who allegedly leaked a classified intelligence report containing Top Secret Level defense info likely worked at the Sweet Tea outpost, a 604,000-square-foot NSA post in Fort Gordon, Ga., according to The Daily Beast.

The sprawling facility, which opened 2012, can house up to 4,000 specialists working to translate and analyze intercepted communications from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, according to The Daily Beast.

Winner speaks at least four languages and served as a linguistics specialist for in the Air Force. She speaks Farsi, Pashto, and Dari, her mother told The Guardian.

What she did is very common among former military personnel, especially people who, like her, were trained in the military with linguistic skill sets, Bradley Moss, an attorney specializing in national security told The Daily Beast. She was already vetted and cleared by the Air Force for at least top secret clearance, if not top secret clearance with sensitive compartmented information access eligibility. It transfers over to her contract wherever she goes, in this case apparently the NSA.

Winners rsum notes she worked at the Georgia Cryptologic Center as a contractor for Pluribus International Corporation, the news site reported. An Army spokesperson for Fort Gordon claimed Winner was contractor who was not in Fort Gordon.

An NSA spokesperson wouldnt confirm whether Winner had worked at Sweet Tea. Winners employer, Pluribus International, did not return a request for comment.

Inside, behind barbed-wire fences, heavily armed guards, and cipher-locked doors, earphone-clad men and women secretly listen in as al-Qaeda members chat on cell phones along the Afghan border, and to insurgents planning attacks in Iraq, journalist James Bamford wrote about the site in 2008.

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Accused NSA leaker may have worked at secretive listening post - New York Post

If the Reality Winner story sounds like a James Bond movie, Stephen Colbert says that makes Donald Trump "Smallfinger."(Photo: Richard Boeth/CBS)

TV's late night hosts spent the beginning of Tuesday night's show explaining the latest development in the Russian election-meddling scandal for viewers after a contractor from the NSAwas arrested for leaking a top-secret document.

"Daysbefore (the election)?" an incredulousColbert said of the hackers' timing. "Come on,Guccifer.That's just poor planning. You can't leave your hacking to the last minute! Put some thought into it. Nobody wants an election you picked up at Walgreens!"

That said, the CBS host is worried aboutthe Russian hackers' attempts to trick local government employees into opening documents that were infected with malware: "This is how democracy ends: With a fake email sent to the ancient cat lady manning the polling station at your high school gym."

He then got into the arrest of NSA contractor Reality Winner ("It's official: The Trump administration is at war with reality").

"So a young female spy named Reality Winner steals intelligence from the Pluribus Corporation?That sounds like a James Bond movie, which of course makes Trump "Smallfinger!" he sang in his best Shirley Bassey voice.

"This is a confusing story so let me try to break it down," Meyers saidas the show's technical director rapidly switched out photos of the players involved. "Reality Winner leaked information about a reality denier (Putin) who tried to influence the election to support a reality host (Trump) who is detached from reality. So now the (Reality) Winner is the loser and this loser (Putin) who helped this loser (Trump) win is the winner and that's our reality."

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NSA leak: Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers explain our new 'reality' - USA TODAY

Experts say the U.S. election system remains profoundly vulnerable to trickery or sabotage.

HOUSTON A leaked intelligence document outlining alleged attempts by Russian military intelligence to hack into U.S. election systems is the latest evidence suggesting a broad and sophisticated foreign attack on the integrity of the nation's elections.

And it underscores the contention of security experts and computer scientists that the highly decentralized, often ramshackle U.S. election system remains profoundly vulnerable to trickery or sabotage .

The document, purportedly produced by the U.S. National Security Agency, does not indicate whether actual vote-tampering occurred. But it adds significant new detail to previous U.S. intelligence assessments that alleged Russia-backed hackers had compromised elements of America's electoral machinery. It also suggests that attackers may also have been laying groundwork for future subversive activity.

The operation described in the document could have given attackers "a foothold into the IT systems of elections offices around the country that they could use to infect machines and launch a vote-stealing attack," said J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer scientist. "We don't have evidence that that happened," he said, "but that's a very real possibility."

Computer scientists have proven in the lab that once sophisticated attackers are inside an election network, they could manipulate pre-election programming of its systems and alter results without leaving a trace.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said Tuesday that hacking into state voting systems ahead of the Nov. 8 vote was more widespread than has been disclosed.

Attempts by Russia to "break into a number of our state voting processes" was "broad-based," he said, without offering details. In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman categorically denied Tuesday that Moscow had tried to hack the U.S. elections.

Warner did not directly address the classified intelligence report published Monday by The Intercept, an online news outlet. The Associated Press has not independently verified the authenticity of the report, although its apparent leaker, an NSA contract worker, was arrested last weekend in Georgia.

The NSA document says Russian military intelligence first targeted employees of a Florida voting systems supplier in August. Apparently exploiting technical data obtained in that operation, the cyber spies later sent phishing emails to more than 100 local U.S. election officials just days ahead of the Nov. 8 vote, intent on stealing their login credentials and breaking into the their systems, the document says.

The emails packed malware into Microsoft Word documents and were forged to give the appearance of being sent by the system vendor, VR Systems of Tallahassee, Florida.

The Department of Homeland Security knew in September that hackers believed to be Russian agents had targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states. To date, no evidence of tampering with vote tallies or registration rolls has emerged.

The U.S. elections system is a patchwork of more than 3,000 jurisdictions overseen by the states with almost no federal oversight or standards. The attack sketched out in the NSA document appears designed specifically to cope with that sprawl.

The NSA document did not name any of the states where local officials were targeted by the emails masquerading as being from VR Systems.

But in September, the FBI held a conference call with all 67 county elections supervisors in the battleground state of Florida to inform them of infiltration of VR Systems without naming the company. Ion Sancho, who retired as Leon County supervisor in December, said he later learned from industry contacts that it was VR Systems.

VR Systems officials did not respond directly to questions emailed by the AP. In a statement, the company said it only knows of a "handful" of customers who received the fraudulent email, adding that it had "no indication" that anyone had clicked on the malware. The NSA document says at least one account was likely compromised.

The company makes software for on-site voter registration at polling stations and backend systems for voting management, according to its website, which says it has customers in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

VR Systems' electronic poll books electronic systems used to verify registered voters at polling places experienced problems on Nov. 8 in Durham County, North Carolina. The issue forced officials to abandon the system, issue paper ballots and extend voting hours.

North Carolina's state elections director said Tuesday that officials would investigate to see if officials in Durham County were targeted and possibly compromised.

Iowa University's Douglas Jones is among computer scientists who say voter registration systems are particularly vulnerable to tampering, in part because they are on the internet.

Someone trying to cause chaos and discredit an election could delete names from registration rolls prior to voting or request absentee ballots en masse. In the latter case, a voter showing up at the polls on Election Day would be recorded as having already cast their ballot. That could force voters to file provisional ballots, and provoke long lines.

There is no evidence any of that happened last Election Day.

___

Satter reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Washington, D.C., and Emery D'Alesio in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

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Leaked NSA doc highlights deep flaws in US election system - Gainesville Sun

When shes not leaking government secrets shes crushing it at the gym and cursing out the Leader of the Free World.

Reality Leigh Winner, the 25-year-old contractor accused of leaking classified NSA documents, is a die-hard CrossFit competitor who once called President Trump a piece of st, according to reports Tuesday.

Winner who allegedly leaked a classified intelligence report containing Top Secret Level defense info worked out five times a week at a gym in Georgia, according to TMZ.

The Texas-born Air Force vet, who faces up to 10 years in prison, also competed in the 2016 CrossFit Games Southeast regionals and could deadlift heavy weights, the gossip site reported.

She often pumped iron at Epic Ultimate Results in Augusta, GA, where owner Glen Whelan said shes welcome back for now.

Until proven guilty, shes not a leper, he said.

Outside of the gym, Winner often posted passionate left-leaning rants on social media, according to Fox News.

In one Facebook tirade, she slammed Trump over Dakota Pipeline access.

There have been protests for months, at both the drilling site and outside the White House. Im losing my mind. If you voted for this piece of st, explain this, she blasted in February.

Hes lying. Hes blatantly lying and the second largest supply of freshwater in the country is now at risk. #NoDAPL #NeverMyPresident #Resist, she added.

Under the Twitter handle Sara Winners, she followed NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Wikileaks and the hacking group Anonymous.

Winner called Trump an orange fascist in response to a Trump tweet about allowing refugees into the U.S.

She also slammed the president for his immigration policies, tweeting, Have you ever met an Iranian?

She added, Why burn a flag? Donald Trump thinks crosses burn much better.

And on election night , when it became clear Trump would win, she tweeted, Well. People suck.

Raised in Kingsville, Texas, Winner served as an airman first class with the 94th Intelligence Squadron at Fort Meade, Maryland, according to the veteran news site Task & Purpose.

She served in the Air Force as a linguist from 2013 to 2016 and speaks Pashto, Farsi and Dari, according to her mother, Billie Winner-Davis.

Outside of work she works as a yoga instructor. Shes just a normal person, her lawyer, Titus Nichols, told CNN.

Winner was a federal contractor with top secret security clearance. She had been assigned to a US government agency facility in Georgia since February.

She is now being held at a facility in Lincolnton, Georgia, Nichols said.

It was unclear if Reality Winner is her birth name. Her surname apparently comes from her mother, Billie Winner-Davis.

Winner-Davis described her daughter as an athlete who loves animals and has a sister, Brittany, who is studying for a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology, according to the UK Guardian.

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Accused NSA leaker cursed out Trump in social media posts | New ... - New York Post

On June 8, 1967, an Israeli torpedo tore through the side of the unarmed American naval vessel USS Liberty, approximately a dozen miles off the Sinai coast. The ship, whose crew was under command of the National Security Agency, was intercepting communications at the height of the Six-Day War when it came under direct Israeli aerial and naval assault.

Reverberations from the torpedo blast sent crewman Ernie Gallo flying across the radio research room where he was stationed. Gallo, a communications technician aboard the Liberty, found himself and his fellow shipmates in the midst of an attack that would leave 34 Americans dead and 171 wounded.

This weekmarks the 50th anniversary of the assault on the USS Liberty, and though it was among the worst attacks in history against a noncombatant U.S. naval vessel, the tragedy remains shrouded in secrecy. The question of if and when Israeli forces became aware they were killing Americans has proved a point of particular contention in the on-again, off-again public debate that has simmered over the last half a century. The Navy Court of Inquirys investigation proceedings following the incident were held in closed sessions, and the survivors who had been on board received gag orders forbidding them to ever talk about what they endured that day.

Now, half a century later, The Intercept is publishing two classified documents provided in the cache of files leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden related to the attack and its aftermath. They reveal previously unknown involvement by Government Communications Headquarters, the U.K. signals intelligence agency; internal NSA communications that seem to bolster a signals intelligence analysts account of the incident, which framed it as an accident; as well as a Hebrew transliteration system unique to the NSA that was in use at least as recently as 2006.

The first document, a formerly unreleased NSA classification guide, details which elements of the incident the agency still regarded as secret as of 2006. The second lists a series of unauthorized signals intelligence disclosures that have had a detrimental effect on our ability to produce intelligence against terrorist targets and other targets of national concern. Remarkably, information relevant to the attack on the Liberty falls within this highly secret category.

Though neither document reveals conclusive information about the causes of the assault, both highlight that at the time of their publication approximately four decades after the incident the NSA was determined to keep even seemingly minor details about the attack classified. The agency declined to comment for this article.

The classification guide, dated November 8, 2006, indicates previously unknown GCHQ involvement in the ships intelligence gathering. The specifics of this involvement remain classified, and it is therefore unclear if involvement was of a material nature on board the ship or through other means. GCHQ declined to comment.

The guide also reveals NSAs own classified Hebrew transliteration system, the existence of which underlines that the agency has historically counted Israel as an intelligence target even as the nation acted as a key partner in signals collection. This inherent tension in the U.S.-Israeli relationship was also manifest on the Liberty, where the Hebrew translators brought aboard the ship were referred to as special Arabic linguists, according to journalist James Bamford, in order to conceal their surveillance of Israeli communications.

Israeli planes and torpedo boats attacked this U.S. Navy research ship, the USS Liberty, in the Mediterranean Sea near the Sinai Peninsula on June 8, 1967.

Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

The Six-Day War between Israel and its neighbors Jordan, Syria, and Egypt was a conflict that the United States chose to stay out of, despite Israels entreaties for military support. Egypt and Syria were Soviet allies at odds with American-aligned Israel. The local conflict could easily have turned into a direct conflict between the superpowers, which neither the United States nor the USSR wanted. The countries directly involved were left to fend for themselves in what proved to be an overwhelming military and territorial victory for Israel one that doubled the fledgling countrys size in less than a week.

Though the United States refused to intervene on behalf of its ally, it was nevertheless eavesdropping on Israeli military communications during war. There, according to Bamford, lies the rub: Over the course of Israels remarkable territorial acquisition and military victory, it allegedly committed a war crime by slaughteringEgyptian prisoners of war in the city of El Arish in the northern Sinai. Bamford argued in his 2001 book, Body of Secrets, that the USS Libertys proximity to the Sinai, and its ability to intercept Israels motives and activities during the Six-Day War, mighthave prompted Israels attack on the vessel. Other national security experts, including Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, disputed Bamfords analysis, however. According to Aftergood, who directs the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, the killing of Egyptian POWs never happened. [There] appears to be no verifiable evidence that such a massacre ever took place, and Bamfords description of events at El Arish doesnt hold up, Aftergood wrote in 2001 following the publication of Body of Secrets.

Ultimately, both the United States and Israels investigations deemed the attack on the Liberty an accident that resulted when Israel mistook the American spy ship for an Egyptian freighter. Bamford considers that conclusion a cover-up, however, citing the gag order issued to survivors, as well as the fact that NSAs deputy director at the time, Louis Tordella, referred to the Israeli Defense Forces preliminary inquiry into the attack a nice whitewash. Still, other sources assert that any notion of cover-up is mere paranoia. According to a spokesperson at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign affairs, the Liberty assault was a tragic accident that was settled between the parties involved years ago, and that, as is the case with many of these matters, there are always enough conspiracy theories to go around, but they never hold water.

The USS Libertys legacy indeed fed conspiracy theories, and Bamford is not alone in asserting a cover-up. The Liberty Veterans Association, an organization comprised of survivors of the 1967 attack, has called for a robust and transparent investigation into the incident for decades, to no avail.

In a statement to The Intercept, Ernie Gallo, who currently serves as the president of the Liberty Veterans Association, said, We now know that the Navy Court of Inquiry was merely for show, as the officers were told to come to the conclusion the Liberty did [its] job and the attack was accidental. Bamford also references the magnitude and length of the attack as proof of its deliberateness: The ship was hit repeatedly, first by planes dropping thousand-pound bombs and napalm, and then by torpedo boats. Israeli forces also jammed the Libertys antennas and communication channels, took out the four .50-caliber machine guns on board, and reportedly shot at life rafts and crew members as they attempted to evacuate the vessel. It was an attack in broad daylight, said Bamford. They were flying a large U.S. flag. [The ship] said USS Liberty on the back. I mean, what do you need?

The incident and its aftermath took a significant psychological toll on survivors, many of whom were reported to suffer from PTSD.One survivor and member of the Liberty Veterans Association, James Ennes, was shot in the femur during the attack, and was then instructed never to discuss it. Ernie Gallo had a fellow crewmate die in his arms. It was decades before survivors began sharing their experiences, and they were sometimes criticized for being anti-Semitic or slanderous of Israel for doing so.

Not all veterans involved believe in a cover-up, however. Former Navy Chief Petty Officer Marvin Nowicki, the chief Hebrew-language analyst aboard a U.S. Navy EC-121 spy plane that was intercepting Israeli aircraft communications as they were assaulting the Liberty, believed the attack was an accident. He stated in a letter to the Wall Street Journal in 2001 that though he heard and recorded Israeli pilots and captains references to the U.S. flag flying on the deck of the Liberty, these remarks were made only after the attack was underway, and not before. It was when aircraft and motor torpedo boat operators moved closer to the Liberty, recalled Nowicki, that they were able to recognize and therefore reference the American flag.

Unbeknownst to Nowicki at the time, his letter to the editor sparked concerns at NSA that he had revealed classified information on the Liberty. The second Snowden document, dated 2002, referenced several disclosures in his letter surrounding National Security Agency sources and methods or NSAs ability to successfully exploit a foreign target. Though the document does not specify which details in Nowickis article constituted such disclosures, it does reference materials related to the investigation. Nowicki, in a statement that would stir apparent concern at both the NSA and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, called the accident a gross error. How can I prove it? he wrote. I cant unless the transcripts/tapes are found and released to the public. I last saw them in a desk drawer at NSA in the late 1970s before I left the service. After several unsuccessful attempts to reach Nowicki byphone andemail, he ultimately responded to a mailed request for comment. He returned The Intercepts original posted letter, on which he had hastily scrawled: I cannot comply w[ith] your request. The last time I spoke publicly, I was visited by NCIS agents. (NCIS stated that it had no records related to Nowickis claim.)

Even 50 years after the attack, and in a radically different geopolitical climate than that of the Six-Day War, extremely limited information is available about the assault and its subsequent investigations. Inquiries by the media and by the survivors have yielded profoundly limited results, despite considerable attempts; ABCs Nightline interviewed survivors decades after the attack, the results of which never aired. And while James Bamford presumes this is because interested parties didnt want unsavory information about Israel broadcast on mainstream American television, Nightlines then-host Ted Koppel said otherwise: At the risk of contributing to the veneer of cover-up that surrounds any discussion of the USS Liberty story, my only recollection is that we did nothing because we found nothing new or substantive. Neither, it seems, has anyone else.

Top photo: A victim of the Israeli assaulton the American communications ship USS Liberty is carried from a helicopter aboard the aircraft carrier USS America somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean on June 9, 1967.

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USA TODAY Published 3:09 p.m. ET June 6, 2017 | Updated 3:20 p.m. ET June 6, 2017

Alleged National Security Agency leaker Reality Leigh Winner.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

A federal contractor was arrested in Georgia Monday in connection with a classified National Security Agency report on Russian election interference published by the online publication The Intercept. Comments are edited for clarity and grammar:

The Russia-Trump scandal just keeps expanding. Its just a matter of time until we find out if there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, or more likely an unwitting accomplice from his inner circle who was outsmarted by the Kremlin experts.

Keep in mind that there is way more to the story that cannot be released until the investigation is completed.

Tracy Woods

I think this is evidence ofRussian hacking. Trump supporters cant deny it anymore. This woman was wrong in revealing classified information, but it does support what all intelligence communities were already saying.

Jeff Hartung

There could be 20 sources, each with individual videos with perfect audio of President Trump accepting an open briefcase of cash from Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, and it wouldnt matter anyway. Trump supporters wouldnt care. Nice job, America.

Rance Mohammitz

Dont you just love the liberals who are still in meltdown mode after all of these months? What are they going to do after they strike out on Thursday during James Comeys testimony? It will be yet another disappointment, just like: Nov. 8, the recount that Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested, the attempt to sway Electoral College voters, etc. Liberals are running out of ideas.

This is no smoking gun.

Doug Steltenpohl

Not releasing that Russia tried to hack into our presidential election should be the crime, not the other way around! How backwards and Soviet-like have we become?

This not only undermines our faith in government, it also undermines our elections by not telling us about it.Thats the crime!

Edward J. Hale

Our followers shared their thoughts on the federal contractor who was arrested after a classified report from the National Security Agency on the Russian election hacking was published online. Tweets are edited for clarity and grammar:

Couldnt this woman be considered a whistle-blower?

@uhlmary1

This doesnt change the Trump-Russia investigation.

@GDT0429

Im sure President Trump would have preferred to bury this information deep. She sounds like a hero.

@nedrow_aj

So whats the maximum sentence if shes found guilty? I hope she gets the book thrown at her.

@lemonbar4948

If she hadnt leaked this information, it would likely have been covered up by the government. I wouldnt be surprised if the whole thing isnt deeper.

@RomeoandTHOT

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NSA leaker reveals more Russian hacking: #tellusatoday - USA TODAY