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United States News

NSA Leaker Reality Winner Released Early for Good Behavior (therecord.media) 84

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Reality Winner, a former NSA intelligence contractor who leaked a classified hacking report to the press in 2017, was released on Monday from prison for good behavior, her attorney said. From a report: Winner is not yet at large. She has been transferred from prison to a Residential Reentry Management facility in San Antonio, Texas, where she will remain until November 2021, when she will be fully released under supervised release, her lawyer said. Winner, who worked for NSA contractor Pluribus International Corporation, was initially arrested in June 2017 on charges that a month earlier, she leaked a classified NSA report to online news outlet The Intercept.

In the report, the NSA detailed a hacking campaign linked to Russia's military intelligence service, the General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), which compromised the email accounts of multiple employees of election software maker VR Systems ahead of the 2016 US Presidential Election. The hack, which took place in August 2016, was used by the GRU hackers as a springboard to send spear-phishing emails with malware-laced documents to US government employees. Winner's leak, although not extensive, served as the base material for an article titled "Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election."
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NSA Leaker Reality Winner Released Early for Good Behavior More

NSA Leaker Reality Winner Released Early for Good Behavior

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  • Her name (Score:5, Insightful)

    by e3m4n ( 947977 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @01:18PM (#61486620)
    Is her name really Reality Winner?? Reading the headlines my first thought went to a winner of a reality tv show. Which is really strange if the show was about leaking NSA documents. Running Man anyone?
    • To me the headline sounded that NSA leaked a software for virtual reality for good...NSA should be more careful when hiring contractors, avoiding those with silly names.

      • Re:Her name (Score:5, Funny)

        by ItsJustAPseudonym ( 1259172 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @01:33PM (#61486660)
        That's an excellent point, LordHighExecutioner.
        --ItsJustAPseudonym

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
        Heh, it's weird for sure. As for the act she "committed", I get a little torn. I want the misdeeds of the government to be exposed. On the other hand, you never really know the motives of the "leakers". Some of them seem sketchy, but I don't really know them so...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by clovis ( 4684 )

          Heh, it's weird for sure. As for the act she "committed", I get a little torn. I want the misdeeds of the government to be exposed. On the other hand, you never really know the motives of the "leakers". Some of them seem sketchy, but I don't really know them so...

          I have the same mixed feelings.
          I feel that if a leaker leaks a specific item to expose a specific misconduct of the government, then that is a citizen doing something good for the country.

          In this case, the Trump administration was saying "there was no Russian interference with the US election".
          This was a specific bald faced lie because the NSA had certain proof that the Russian government was involved in doing exactly that.
          Ms Winter leaked the NSA document that showed Russian interference by the GRU.
          This is

          • Trump said Putin was "very convincing" never said he agreed with Putin or that he didn't believe US intelligence:

            Trump responds to question form an AP reporter: Where is the server and what is the server saying? All I can do is ask the question - I have president Putin who says it's not Russia (regarding election meddling).

            I really believe this will probably go on for a while. I think it's a disgrace we can't get Hillary Clinton's 33,000 emails.

            I will tell you Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. he offered to have the people working on the case to come and work with their investigators.

            Source 11:52 at bottom of this page: https://news.sky.com/story/liv... [sky.com]

            Notice how freely everyone involved equates and conflates "interference" and "collusion" in the responses to trump's comment.

            Russian influence/interference was known by all as the election was underway, Russian collusion was a baseless claim that Democrats held on to despite having ZERO evidence of collusion between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign. The Hillary campaign was never considered, despite the known identities of paid sources for Michael Steele's so-called "dossier".

          • Accept, of course, the document she leaked did not show any Russian interference by the GRU. You did read the document, right? I certainly did and the lack of evidence contained therein was stunning. What Reality Winner leaked was nothing like The Pentagon Papers. She went to prison for -nothing-. A truly tragic tale.

            • What?
              It literally documented a spearphishing campaign directed at an local-level government officials and companies involved in election software used by those governments.

              Fuck off, Ivan.

              • Unfortunately for Reality Winner, what she leaked didn't document anything. Your problems interfacing with reality are your own and are literally documented by calling people on /. Ivan.

                • what she leaked didn't document anything.

                  Yes, it absolutely did. In a rather large amount of detail of the technical aspects of the campaign, from source to the multiple destinations.

                  So again, fuck off with your misinformation.

                  • Funny how slingers of misinformation get so testy and cursy and finger pointy.

                    • Funny how slingers of misinformation get so testy and cursy and finger pointy.

                      Yes, you sure did - Ivan.

                    • Standard trumpophile dumbfuckery.
                      "I'm not racist, YOU'RE racist!"

                      Come the fuck on. The leaked document has already been posted as a reply to your comment. I assume you haven't replied to that because you know full well you're full of shit.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by clovis ( 4684 )

              I disagree with your claim of "lack of evidence", and I don't believe that you actually read it.
              Here is the document.

              https://www.documentcloud.org/... [documentcloud.org]

          • This is bollocks. The document was a judgement of some analyst that Russia was spying [documentcloud.org]. That is not important , not some 'misconduct' which the NSA wants to keep secret, and certainly not something which justifies calling someone a whistleblower.
            So this stupid broad thinks that must be really important because it looks similar to what she hears in the news and sends it straight to the press who turn it into cyber attacks and then add it to the anti-russia campaign.
            The NSA doesn't mind. The Intercept proves t

      • Not just hiring people with unusual names. I remember that interview with the NASA engineer being asked by a journalist what the organization had learned from the Hubble debacle [when news broken that not only had Hubble been launched to orbit with a defective primary mirror, but that the "spare" mirror left on earth had been perfect...

        With a completely straight face the NASA dude replied, "Never work on a project that has a name that rhymes with 'Trouble'..."

        Pretty sure we could make a good list once

        • It's a good story, marred only by the fact that the agency under current discussion doesn't have that many 'A's in its acronym

    • Yes, it is. Welcome to the "WTF Is Reality Winner" club!

    • Yup (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @01:29PM (#61486648) Homepage Journal

      Is her name really Reality Winner?? Reading the headlines my first thought went to a winner of a reality tv show. Which is really strange if the show was about leaking NSA documents. Running Man anyone?

      That's her real name.

      IMO this is one of the most egregious examples of unequal application of the law I've seen. Anyone in her position would have seen all the other administration leakers giving out damaging information about Trump, would have seen how everyone gets away with it and how it was encouraged, and would have expected to be lauded for her contribution.

      The information she leaked was damaging to Trump, and was essentially the same action that James Comey took, except that she got a prison sentence and Comey got a book deal.

      I'm against breaking the law for political purposes, but fair is fair: what's illegal for one side is illegal for everyone.

      • "The information she leaked was damaging to Trump, and was essentially the same action that James Comey took, except that she got a prison sentence and Comey got a book deal.... I'm against breaking the law for political purposes, but fair is fair: what's illegal for one side is illegal for everyone."

        So as soon as somebody gets away with something, that offense is either drastically reduced or is completely null and void?

        Wouldn't it better to say, "Comey should have gone to prison", rather than, "Reality sh

      • The people at the bottom always pay a higher price than those higher up. Its quite the opposite of being held to a higher standard. During the obama administration the Doj prosecuted a lot of leakers and whistleblowers charging them with espionage act violations. When your running for president, suddenly 'intending' to break the law decides prosecution or not. But in Comeys defense he didnt want to be found suspected of suicide.

      • Leakers break the law for the greater good.

        This invariably harms/embarrasses people in power, who invariably act to punish the leaker. That's just how it goes down.

        Public response is generally mixed, with some people taking a hard line on "breaking the law is bad, regardless of whether or not it benefits the greater good," and those who think "the leaker's service to the greater good earns forgiveness for breaking the law."

        If enough of the public is on the "greater good" side, AND stands up and demands act

    • exactly what I thought.

      I'll be back - only in a rerun

    • Birth certificates should be subject to a sanity check, allowing the state to refuse ridiculous names on behalf of the baby.

    • They can hack into every computer on the planet yet their HR can't screen out an obviously unstable person whose very name is a huge red flag?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Is her name really Reality Winner??

      Yes, apparently it is.

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
      Apparently Professor Oak works at the NSA

    • She certainly got a reality check.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by yagmot ( 7519124 )

      As someone with a shitty name, I feel her pain to a certain extent, at least in that regard. Her parents need a good slap in the face for saddling her with that burden. What a bunch of inconsiderate assholes.

      If there were an application for a license to have children, one of the first questions should ask about the prospective names for your child. "Oh, you want to name your child Beefsteak? DENIED!"

  • Trying to "clear her name" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ItsJustAPseudonym ( 1259172 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @01:23PM (#61486626)
    From the linked article: "For the past three years, Winner’s legal team has been trying to clear her name and obtain an early release."

    Clear her name? I'm not sure what that actually means in this case. She seems to have been solidly caught, since she was identified definitively, and she pled guilty. So, I doubt this could have been overturned in court.

    I think it may mean that they were hoping to get a presidential pardon for her. My understanding of pardons (IANAL) is that the pardoned person is "no longer guilty". Even if that's so, that doesn't erase the events of history. She still would have been the person who leaked the information, got convicted, and then got pardoned. Not really what I think of as a clear name. In any case, the pardon didn't happen.

  • Reality Winner is really a complicated individual. While she was commended for her intelligence work at the USAF for "removing" many high value enemy combatants from the battlefield she also expressed sympathy for the Taliban and thought "It's a Christlike vision to have a fundamentalist Islamic state". Say what?

    While I am against individuals making personal politically motivated decisions releasing classified releasing it outside the prescribed controls and the law, I think it is sad that Roger Stone got

    • Reform the Espionage Act (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @01:47PM (#61486710) Journal

      >While I am against individuals making personal politically motivated decisions releasing classified releasing it outside the prescribed controls and the law

      Same here, but those two should have different scope.

      The law should only cover things that actually harm the country. Instead, whistleblowers are forbidden to offer over-classification or public interest as defenses if they go to trial. (According to Bruce Schneier in "Data and Goliath").

      The proportional and appropriate response in her case to violating the regulations might have been loss of job and definitely loss of security clearance.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by nevermindme ( 912672 )
      Roger stone traded in Washington Rumor with Roger Stone providence attached. You dont tell Roger stone anything that you do not want in both the presidents ear and at the NY post in the next 3 hours. Roger stone is clearly well attached message who was told something mostly true by part of a foreign power.

      Reality Winner at the bottom of the pile of offical Washington traded in Langley, Virginia and Foggy Bottom Facts with that providence directly attached. That that information was also considered fa

    • Stone was a Trump Pardon. Trump would basically pardon anyone high profile enough, that will stroke his ego.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomhath ( 637240 )
      Winner was a Never Trumper. Now that he's out of office she is no longer relevant.

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Winner leaks someone's opinion that the Russians are behind something. That doesn't make sense to me at all. That is the kind of stuff they've been pushing on us all the time.
      What does make sense to me is 'let's make use of this new idiot hire for our own benefit and then throw her away'.

    • Re: Stone gets a Pardon but not Reality (Score:4, Informative)

      by reanjr ( 588767 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @06:35PM (#61487608) Homepage

      Wow, that quote is about as out of context as it gets. Not only does it not really make any syntactic sense without the pre-amble, but the vague syntactically questionable rendering is completely turned on its head with the full quote:

      "Perhaps bin Laden was the Judas to Omarâ(TM)s Christ-like vision of a fundamental Islamic nation. Jacob would know. Where is Jacob? Pakistan."

      It's unclear which Omar she's talking about, but it seems pretty clear that she doesn't have much respect for Bin Laden and that "Christlike" is meant as a contrast to Bin Laden.

      My guess is it's Mullah Omar, founder of the Taliban. If that's the case, all she seems to be saying is Bin Laden and Al Qaeda co-opted the Taliban. This is pretty much the official story from American intelligence, so nothing controversial there.

    • No, she is not complicated. She thinks she shouldn't suffer the consequences of her actions.

      Stone was pardoned by his patron, the person Stone was helping.

      Winner substituted her opinion over that of her supervisors, committed a federal offense thinking that the ends would prevent her from suffering the consequences, and probably put the investigation in jeopardy along with the assets used to gather the intelligence. She wasn't helping anyone but herself.

  • Punctuation Matters (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @01:54PM (#61486728) Journal
    When talking about the leaker, Reality Winner, you should use commas to indicate this is a name. This is particularly important in a headline, where it is difficult to pick out proper nouns due to every word already being capitalized.

  • Edward Snowden? (Score:3)

    by ytene ( 4376651 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @02:26PM (#61486836)
    I wonder if President Biden has received any petitions regarding Edward Snowden? Maybe he'll receive one of those leaving-office acts of clemency that Presidents perform from time to time.

    • Re:Edward Snowden? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @02:54PM (#61486962)

      Winner, did the crime and did the time. Snowden did the crime and went went and hid behind brother Big Brother Putin.

      Civil Disobedience was never a get out of jail free card. Actually the more effective cases of Civil Disobedience, is where when caught they will actually serve their sentence with pride.

      • NO FAIR TRIAL is possible for Snowden. The weak laws we have will also not protect him; he knew it was hopeless which is why he did what he did when he did. His mistake was in thinking Americans give a shit; but cynical enough to run and also not trust congressional oversight (had he leaked it to them we'd not know and he'd be dead.)

        • Snowden doesn't deserve protection. He is guilty.

          And, Snowden probed himself a hypocrite because he had said previously that one should be willing to go to prison for "doing the right thing" and then stole intelligence data and ran to hostile foreign states with it and gave it to foreign actors. No matter what Snowden says, there is no way for him to know if those foreign states didn't get all the data.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Snowden did his duty.

        Enemies if the people, foreign and domestic.

      • When I see someone say something like "Snowden hid behind Big Brother Putin" it lets me know that they do not know what they are talking about. Thank you for so clearly signaling your ignorance on the matter.

        • You are denying reality.

          • No, I'm just denying your delusions. Reality is too busy having a beer to give a flying flip what you think of it. If you think Snowden is hiding behind Putin, then the problems are yours. Though, it is a shared delusion. You have company. Funny how so many American mass delusions seem to line up so nicely with war machine profits.

  • Residential re-entry? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @03:09PM (#61487032)
    Not like she's a gang-banger, nor her "therapists" have a clue about her hacking/information gathering. This is just the government shoveling money to programs that do no good in an effort at good PR.

    And parole? Bet her parole says "no computers". Which is how she makes her living. Parole will be nothing but "ensure this chick doesn't get a job, wait for her to violate some minor provision (which won't break any laws), and lock her up some more".

    Seriously, our prison system is a fucking joke.

    • being 4 years in a small room doesn't help your state of mind either....

      • She should have thought about that before committing the crimes.

        • Snotnose and Maybe111's point is that we're setting her up to be more of a criminal rather than rehabilitating. Whatever punishments we deal out, we need to be careful that we aren't increasing recidivism. You're correct, Dave, that the impact on state of mind is part of the punishment and has a deterrent effect, but we don't want to send her to prison, have her serve that time, and then repeat out of desperation or prison conditioning. That works out bad for everyone.

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