Here's my preliminary list of potential reasons for faking a GCHQ slide. Not meant to be comprehensive, and not every possibility is highly likely. Some are included only for completeness, but I'm sure there are possibilities I missed.
There have been a few incidents already where the slides have been challenged or at least partially debunked. The German prosecutor found a lack of evidence that the NSA was illegally monitoring their government and concluded that the alleged NSA order was a fake. Snowden has also accused The Independent of attributing slides to him that he never gave to them.
The why depends on the who. Candidates include:
- GCHQ
- Snowden (included for completeness, but least likely. Why fake this particular slide among many apparently legitimate ones?)
- Russian chekist agencies
- Chinese intelligence agencies
- The Intercept
- Intel service X
If the GCHQ, then there are a few possible reasons:
- ???
- Makes no sense as an isolated incident, little evidence to the contrary
- Would not necessarily recognize a fake slide, since he didn't examine all of the ones he passed on
If Russian disinfo:
- Discredit the GCHQ
- Discredit western governments and undermine their intelligence agencies
- Inflate the importance of Cryptome prior to attempting to use them to release disinfo
If Chinese disinfo:
- Smear British cyber operations as part of their ongoing cyberwar with the west and related cognitive warfare
- Discredit the GCHQ
- Discredit western governments and undermine their intelligence agencies
- Inflate the importance of Cryptome prior to attempting to use them to release disinfo
If The Intercept:
- Fame
- Money from being paid to publish a fake by any interested party
- Financial compensation from media attention as suggested by Razer/Rayzer@riseup.net
If Intel service x:
Juan juan.g71@gmail.com
Sat Oct 10 17:31:29 EDT 2015
>I still don't get who would make such a fake and why.