After WikiLeaks lost control of the full, unredacted State Department Cables, John Young posted a statement in the comments of an article on the website of The Economist newspaper. It was a carefully written passage, and it echoed the short speech he gave to the students occupying the Columbia architecture building forty-three years before, the pep talk that energized the protesters in their moment of crisis. It read as follows:
WikiLeaks has undergone several transformations during its short history. Some quite wrenching and near fatal. It has surpassed them with renewed energy, as it will this latest challenge. What is admirable is how it manages to become more resilient and creative when the pressure is greatest. It will likely continue to face ever greater tests of its capabilities, which, for me, is a good prospect, for without the need to grow stronger it will succumb to laziness and braggardy about the glory days. That may be inevitable as Assange and his invention age into the senescence awaiting us all. Some of [us have] reached that point earlier than he, but also paid our dues as he is having to do.
Why not join him in paying your dues, take risks greater than you can handle, ride not his bandwagon but build and drive your own, welcoming the ridicule, praise and condemnation. If as persistent, courageous and lucky as he you just might become rich and famous as a reward for being admirable.
Or you might be an utter failure, but better that than middling.
The Architect, when I met him at the Chaos Communication Camp, gave me no form of contact information. When I asked how I would find him again, he merely laughed and said that I should reach out to him through Domscheit-Berg. “Daniel is my proxy,” he quipped. A bit of cypherpunk humor. The follow-up questions I e-mailed to the secretive engineer via his German associate were never answered.
For now, the Architect’s pure pseudonymity remains intact. Somewhere, he’s building, testing, and tweaking a new, sleeker, more powerful version of the machine that kills secrets. If Assange ends up in a Swedish or American prison, if Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s tarnished reputation takes him out of the leaking game, if BalkanLeaks gives up on influencing a hopelessly corrupt government, or GlobaLeaks and the other idealistic heirs of the leaking movement fail, or even if the next Bradley Manning is caught by law enforcement and faces a similarly chilling punishment, the Architect will move on. Perhaps he’ll take a different pseudonym, different partners, a different strategy.
Or even if this Architect retires, somewhere, another nameless, faceless architect is coding another antisecrecy weapon. Perhaps another one is reading the archives of the Cypherpunk Mailing List. Or studying GlobaLeaks’ source code. Or watching the archived video of Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s talk at the Chaos Communication Camp and learning from his mistakes, as John Gilmore suggested future leaking advocates ought to.
We don’t yet know the names of the architects who will build the next upgrade to the secret-killing machine. But we’ll know them by their work.
SOURCES
This is a book, in a sense, about primary source documents. E-mails, chat logs, memos, and manuals are the currency of the leaking movement, and like the book’s subjects, I’ve sought to use them whenever possible to underpin this story.
In this age of overflowing, recorded digital communications, my task in writing several chapters was to carve a narrative out of hundreds or thousands of pages of text—often leaked themselves—whether it be Adrian Lamo’s and Bradley Manning’s instant message logs, the decade-plus archive of the Cypherpunk Mailing List, or the hacked e-mails of HBGary Federal. If I had adhered to Julian Assange’s doctrine of scientific journalism, which demands that the reporter publish the entire source document of a story along with his or her interpretation, this book would have been many thousands of pages long.
But for many sections of the book I also resorted to the usual method of a reporter: hundreds of hours of interviews, conducted face-to-face whenever possible, and when necessary by phone, e-mail, instant message, and letters. I interviewed every person included in the character list at the front of this book, with the exception of Bradley Manning, who for the duration of my reporting has been in a military jail or a courtroom. I’m especially grateful to many sources who spent hours with me, speaking under the condition of anonymity with no direct personal benefit.
The very few bits of dialogue in the book that I didn’t personally hear were recounted to me by witnesses who were present, and thus may not be recorded exactly verbatim. I’ve edited some quoted texts’ punctuation and capitalization for readability. With the exception of any stray facts that may have been missed in my efforts to note all sources, everything I’ve written that’s not cited below can be attributed to my own reporting.
Primary sources and interviews aside, I’m particularly indebted to a few prior books and articles as instructive signposts for my reporting and primary sources in their own right. They include Daniel Ellsberg’s memoir Secrets, Suelette Dreyfus and Julian Assange’s Underground, Steven Levy’s Crypto, Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s memoir Inside WikiLeaks, Robert Manne’s “The Cypherpunk Revolutionary: Julian Assange” in Australia’s The Monthly, Nathaniel Rich’s “The Most Dangerous Man In Cyberspace” in Rolling Stone, and Raffi Khatchadourian’s spectacular New Yorker article “No Secrets.”
PROLOGUE: THE MEGALEAK
trick companies’ employees into revealing their passwords over the phone Suelette Dreyfus and Julian Assange. Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier. First published by Mandarin, a part of Reed Books, Australia, 1997, available at http://suelette.home.xs4all.nl/underground/Underground.pdf
speculation that WikiLeaks’ target would be Bank of America shaves off $3.5 billion from the company’s total value Dan Fitzpatrick. “Bank’s stock declines on WikiLeaks Anticipation.” Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2010.
Many of them cited WikiLeaks’ revelations about the U.S. State Department’s disdain for Tunisian president Ben Ali Sami Ben Hassine. “Tunisia’s youth finally has revolution on its mind.” The Guardian, January 13, 2011.
“WikiLeaks, which publishes information written by lying ambassadors in order to create chaos” Robert Mackey. “Qaddafi Sees WikiLeaks Plot in Tunisia.” The New York Times, January 17, 2011.
WikiLeaks had cratered negotiations that might have kept them there longer CNN wire staff. “Obama: Iraq war will be over by year’s end; troops coming home.” CNN.com, October 22, 2011.
choking it to the point of paralysis Will Oremus. “Almost Broke, WikiLeaks Suspends Operations.” Slate, October 24, 2011.
actively coached the young Army private, potential grounds for his own indictment Kim Zetter. “Jolt in WikiLeaks Case: Feds Found Manning-Assange Chat Logs on Laptop.” Wired.com, December 19, 2011.
94 percent of the world’s recorded information Martin Hilbert and Priscilla Lopez. “The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information.” Science, February 2011.
five times as many pages being added to the world’s classified libraries as to its unclassified ones Peter Galison. “Removing Knowledge.” Critical Inquiry, Autumn 2004.
76.7 million documents were classified in 2010, compared with 8.6 million in 2001 and 23.4 million in 2008 Information Security Oversight Office Annual Report, April 15, 2011.
Of those, about 1.2 million have top secret clearance Greg Miller. “How many security clearances have been issued? Nearly enough for everyone in the Washington area.” WashingtonPost.com, September 20, 2011.
“These Days the Web Unmasks Everyone.” Brian Stelter. The New York Times, June 20, 2011.
as the New Yorker cartoon caption reads Peter Steiner. The New Yorker, July 5, 1993.
“a series of unfortunate events” Clay Shirky. “WikiLeaks has created a new media landscape.” The Guardian, February 4, 2011.
CHAPTER 1: THE WHISTLEBLOWERS
on
ly other analyst at RAND who knew about and sympathized with Ellsberg’s leaking plans Daniel Ellsberg. Secrets (London: Penguin Books, 2002), p. 295.
Was that peculiar green color some kind of radiation? Ibid., p. 302.
comb through the encyclopedia-size pile to excise them Ibid., p. 370.
nonchalantly consume a sweet roll and a cup of coffee over the course of several hours Ibid., p. 332.
greet the policemen politely, and carry on his work as soon as they left Ibid., p. 301.
understand exactly what he had done, and why Ibid., p. 305.
aide hastily rescinded the offer Ibid., p. 333.
“Pretty simple and unglamorous” Evan Hansen. “Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed.” Wired.com, July 13, 2011.
devoured the books and looked up to their author Tom Wells Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg (New York: Palgrave, 2001), p. 38.
“It was hard for me to understand people who were willing to burn children like that. It still is.” Ellsberg, p. 23.
hiding his books to keep him at the keyboard Wells, p. 43.
shook the faith his parents had tried to instill in him Ibid., p. 49.
His sister never did Ibid., p. 72.
“I guess I don’t have to play the piano anymore” Ibid., p. 73.
“Then I realized: I felt free, for the first time in my life” Ibid., p. 81.
Ellsberg was handed his first top-secret security clearances Ibid., p. 28.
“couldn’t help one another to find their way home” Ellsberg, p. 239.
one stop sign and fifteen churches Denver Nicks. “Private Manning and the Making of WikiLeaks.” This Land, September 23, 2010.
won the top prize at his school’s science fair three times Hansen.
described him as “demeaning,” another as simply “a dick” Nicks.
he had announced to friends that he was gay Ibid.
“basically really into America” Ibid.
leave them largely isolated Interview with Brian Manning. PBS Frontline, published on Frontline.com, March 29, 2010.
vodka in her morning tea Ellen Nakashima. “Bradley Manning is at the center of the WikiLeaks controversy. But who is he?” Washington Post Magazine, May 4, 2011.
basics of Web servers and Internet routing Hansen.
“quirky as hell” David Leigh and Luke Harding. WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy (New York: Public Affairs), p. 25.
“I have been telling him he needs to get a job and he won’t get a job!” PBS Frontline, “Frontline Exclusive: The Bradley Manning 911 Call.” Available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/wikileaks/bradley-manning/bradley-manning-911-call/
hiding in the bedroom from Davis’s father until he could find a bare-bones apartment in town Denver Nicks. “Manning in the Making.” This Land, March 7, 2011.
finally moving in with his aunt near Rockville and enrolling in a local community college Ibid.
“twisted his arm” Interview with Brian Manning, PBS Frontline.
In October 2009, he shipped out to Iraq Kevin Poulsen. “An Interactive Timeline of Bradley Manning’s Alleged Leaking.” Wired.com, March 7, 2011. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/manning-timeline/
spent practically every waking moment digesting thousands of pages Ellsberg, p. 37.
a rifle in his hand and a grenade in his lap Ibid., p. 110.
Ellsberg Paradox “Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 75 (4), 1961.
within weeks he was in the field, accompanying troops on operations Ellsberg, p. 11.
justify President Lyndon Johnson’s moves to slowly widen the war in Vietnam Ibid., p. 68.
even as he took notes and photographs as an analyst Ibid., p. 152.
POW in a cramped bamboo cage for the next seven years Ibid., p. 113.
In fact, many of the other officers felt the same way Ibid., p. 148.
we were not going to defeat them Ibid., p. 156.
pessimistic comments regarding Vietnam fell on deaf ears Ibid., p. 183.
it was simply “a crime” Ibid., p. 157.
Even if it meant going to prison Ibid., p. 272.
“smart enough to know what’s going on, but helpless to do anything” Hansen.
demoted for hitting another soldier and shouting down a superior Hansen.
the two words I want carved into a wooden chair Nathan L. Fuller. “In-depth notes from the art. 32 courtroom.” Bradley Manning Support Network. Published at Bradleymanning.org
“a double life” Hansen.
“Bradley Manning is in the barracks, alone. I miss you Tyler!” Greg Mitchell. “From Boston to Baghdad.” TheNation.com, March 25, 2011.
He would hand it over to WikiLeaks, where it would become the prologue for a classified exposé to dwarf all others in history. All the uncited facts in the section above come from Wired.com’s Lamo-Manning chat logs.
“ridiculous, counterproductive, and stupid” Amy Davidson. “Ridiculous, Counterproductive, and Stupid.” New Yorker.com, March 11, 2011.
use their computers for marathon hacking sessions Jennifer Kahn. “The Homeless Hacker v. The New York Times.” Wired, December 2004.
sometimes responded by spitting out change or food Ibid.
three hundred thousand dollars in searches on the paid research service Lexis-Nexis Ibid.
pay sixty-five thousand dollars in fines and spend six months under house arrest at his parents’ home Ibid.
“a very dangerous precedent for the government the way it wants to operate today” Sam Bozzo. “Hackers Wanted.” Available on YouTube http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=cLJbMP2S5sA
“If you had unprecedented access to classified networks fourteen hours a day seven days a week for eight plus months, what would you do?” Hansen.
“Isn’t it after all only history?” Ellsberg, p. 357.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do it.” Ibid., p. 363.
sneak into the Cambridge apartment, have the papers photocopied in a nearby shop, and return them Ibid., p. 375.
Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement Neil Sheehan. “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement.” The New York Times, June 13, 1971.
Gelb immediately fixated on Ellsberg as the source Wells, p. 407.
“Ellstein” as Nixon called him Ibid., p. 426.
Boston Globe, the L.A. Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Ibid., p. 396.
the one who had offered Ellsberg her photocopier—testified to the bureau’s agents too Ibid., p. 404.
“The culture fed opportunities” Hansen.
“Resources are strained.” Ibid.
“That truly baffles me” Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, March 10, 2011. Originally broadcast on C-Span, available on YouTube: http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=w_VZ4GANG1o
“Frankly, most of our focus was on the outside intruder threat, not the inside threat” Ibid.
Manning described to Lamo how he used a combination of security tools Hansen.
“Lie to me,” he had told Manning Ibid.
“Have a good day” “Court told of Bradley Manning ‘link to WikiLeaks.’” BBC News, December 20, 2011.
“That’s all there is to it!” Ellsberg, p. 426.
Try him in the press Ibid., p. 432.
The plan was scrapped G. Gordon Liddy. Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980), p. 170.
“totally incapacitate” “Nixon White House Counsel John Dean and Pentagon Papers Leaker Daniel Ellsberg on Watergate and the Abuse of Presidential Power from Nixon to Bush.” DemocracyNow.com, April 27, 2006.
&n
bsp; unlucky protesters at the event’s edges Ellsberg p. 451.
“The bizarre events have incurably infected the prosecution of this case” Wells, p. 556.
had himself been indicted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury Ellsberg, p. 456.
“enjoy a modicum of legal protection” Hansen.
“They touch my life, I touch their life, they touch my life again . . . full circle” Ibid.
Only a life sentence in a military prison “Court martial sought for suspected WikiLeaks leaker.” Reuters, published on MSNBC.com, January 12, 2012.
protesting Manning’s inhumane confinement in a Quantico, Virginia, military prison Video available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Gq0CpWhVag4
Outside the base there, he staged another sit-in and was arrested again Ibid.
“I was Bradley Manning” Ashley Fantz. “Pentagon Papers leaker: ‘I was Bradley Manning.’” CNN.com, March 19, 2011.
The president turns away, and the conversation is over Video available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ifmt Upd4id0
This Machine Kills Secrets Page 37
