WHY make a fake GCHQ slide?

Michael Best themikebest@gmail.com
Sat Oct 10 15:46:13 PDT 2015


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:

   1. Part of a proposal/demo
   2. Disinfo to discourage visitors from going to Cryptome
   3. Disinfo to create paranoia
   4. Disinfo to discredit other slides (Snowden suggests something
like that here http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/23/uk-government-independent-military-base
)
   5. Disinfo to convince a FIS (foreign intel service) that their
capabilities are better/more complete than they are (or were better
than they were at the time)

If Snowden:

   1. ???
   2. Makes no sense as an isolated incident, little evidence to the contrary
   3. Would not necessarily recognize a fake slide, since he didn't
examine all of the ones he passed on

If Russian disinfo:

   1. Discredit the GCHQ
   2. Discredit western governments and undermine their intelligence agencies
   3. Inflate the importance of Cryptome prior to attempting to use
them to release disinfo

If Chinese disinfo:

   1. Smear British cyber operations as part of their ongoing cyberwar
with the west and related cognitive warfare
   2. Discredit the GCHQ
   3. Discredit western governments and undermine their intelligence agencies
   4. Inflate the importance of Cryptome prior to attempting to use
them to release disinfo

If The Intercept:

   1. Fame
   2. Money from being paid to publish a fake by any interested party
   3. Financial compensation from media attention as suggested by
Razer/Rayzer@riseup.net

If Intel service x:

   1. Any of the above

*Juan* juan.g71@gmail.com
>
> <juan.g71%40gmail.com?Subject=Re%3A%20Why%20cryptome%20sold%20web%20logs%20to%20their%20paying%20customers%3F&In-Reply-To=%3C5619825d.361f8c0a.691ce.fffffe96%40mx.google.com%3E>
> *Sat Oct 10 17:31:29 EDT 2015*>*I still don't get who would make such a
> fake and why. *
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