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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

WikiLeaks: Vault 7 Tests the CIA


Image Source: The Intercept.

This morning at 9 a.m. Eastern, WikiLeaks released the biggest intelligence information dump in history (here). The dump of 8,761 documents, dating from 2013 to 2016, and entitled 'Vault 7' reveals how the US Central Intelligence Agency spies on citizens through almost all consumer technology. The CIA hacks, and can control, modern cars and trucks, iPhones, iPads, and Android phones.

Weeping angels, from Doctor Who, the source of the name of one of the CIA/MI5 invasive computer programs which spies on citizens. Image Source: Doctor Who TV.

A malware program called 'Weeping Angel,' named for a race of characters in the Doctor Who science fiction universe, was co-created with British intelligence. Weeping Angel can commandeer smart televisions, transforming them into covert microphone bugs when they appear to be turned off.

Another program, HIVE, hacks mainstream operating systems (HIVE manuals are here and here). The CIA can also bypass anti-virus software, computer recycle bins, and proxies and encryption (by gathering information prior to encryption). The WikiLeaks press release also states that the US consultate in Frankfurt, Germany is a computer hacking base, a vulnerable cyberwarfare launch pad. Even worse, CIA has mimicked foreign intelligence agencies, and hoarded and lost control of much of its malware.


WikiLeaks has been plugging this dump for over a month with mysterious graphic tweets about who, what, when, where, why, and how is Vault 7. This created viral buzz among the alt-right and alt-journalists on Youtube. It also created concern among Internet conspiracy theorists, because WikiLeaks has never before plugged a release with sensational, cryptic tweets in this fashion. Alt-researchers concluded, based on underground rumours and conjecture, that Vault 7 is a sealed, bomb-proof room with an isolated server where the FBI keeps its most sensitive evidence in criminal investigations, high and low. (Today, WikiLeaks claimed the documents came from an "isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.") There was also talk of the 7th Floor Group, a shadow group in the US State Department. According to rumours, then, the source of this leak about the CIA is - the FBI? Some on the fringe say that the New York Police Department (NYPD) were one of the FBI's original sources, and they leaked some information to the Internet prior to handing it over to the FBI, to protect themselves from the so-called 'deep state.'

The famous John F. Kennedy portrait by Aaron Shikler (1969-1970). Image Source: Periodic Table of Presidents.

Why would this happen? Underground rumours state that America's intelligence community is divided into internecine factions, with the CIA associated with the Bush family and the old establishment; but in recent times, the organization has also been pro-Clinton Democrat. For decades, conspiracy theorists have depicted the CIA as the true 'deep state,' the state-inside-the-state, which channels public money for black ops, drugs, human trafficking, and arms deals. One origin of this reputation is likely John F. Kennedy's 'secret societies' speech from 1961, below. Among conspiracy theorists, the ill-fated President's famous comments are known as the 'speech that killed JFK.' Those who research Kennedy's assassination, who do not believe its official story, assert that Kennedy was assassinated because he tried to dismantle the CIA. This is all unconfirmed chatter from the Internet; but in this view, Julian Assange is the journalist who has today taken up the challenge from Kennedy's secret societies speech.

John F. Kennedy, remarks to the American Newspaper Publishers Association (27 April 1961). Video Source: Youtube.

By contrast, the National Security Agency (NSA) - supposedly revealed in this leak to have weaker computing capability than the CIA - is rumoured to house a younger generation, mixed with ex-military personnel. These are rebellious computer hackers, with Batman and Star Trek dolls on their desks. For example, Edward Snowden is an ex-NSA contractor, and a member of Generation Y. Incidentally, Snowden, working through this dump this morning, claimed it "looks authentic."


The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are imagined as top tier Ivy League graduates with old school, middle American values, a national police force whose agents confront the darkest aspects of American domestic culture. Think of the FBI's weird 1990s' vogue: X-Files's Mulder and Scully, or David Lynch's Agent Dale Cooper. A similar understanding of the FBI appeared in the striving character, Clarice Starling, in the Hannibal Lechter films, based on novels by Thomas Harris.

At the same time, the truly paranoid on sites like Reddit and 4chan/pol believe that WikiLeaks is, or was, compromised by the CIA, so that in effect, WikiLeaks is a mouthpiece of the CIA.

As for the establishment view, today's leak bolsters Donald Trump's recent accusations about being wire-tapped by Obama. Trump's claims have been widely dismissed in the mainstream press. Trump's critics would say that this is a grand orchestration, a national-fascist-populist assault on legitimate government, akin to events which led up to Hitler's burning of the Reichstag on 27 February 1933. In this light, consider that Edward Snowden is sitting in Moscow, and Assange and Trump have also been accused of succumbing to Russian influence.



The first Vault 7 torrent (you can download it here) was released last night and the key to open the trove was released this morning: SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds. This was part 1, or 'Year Zero,' of this release. There are more Vault 7 documents to follow. Above all, this incredible information dump reveals an ongoing, naked power contest over who can and will claim legitimacy in future governments.

ADDENDUM (9 March 2017): On 9 March, Julian Assange held a press conference and Q & A on Vault 7, Year Zero and the CIA, which was broadcast to the Internet. Assange claimed this CIA Vault 7 leak (of which only the smallest first portion has been released) proved that cyberweapons are uncontrollable and echoed Microsoft's call for a digital Geneva Convention. Assange suggested that WikiLeaks can function as a new digital Switzerland. UK politician Nigel Farage visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on the same day.

Video Source: Youtube.

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ADDENDUM (31 March 2017; see my related post here):


ADDENDUM (7 April 2017; concerning CIA attacks on Microsoft Windows):


ADDENDUM (8 April 2017; Shadow Brokers are back):



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ADDENDUM (14 April 2017; HIVE release here and Shadow Brokers' dump implications (see my related post here)):


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