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WTF? OMG, LOL! CIA Gives WikiLeaks Taskforce Naughty Name
US spy agency forms taskforce to assess fallout from 250,000 leaked US cables
The CIA has launched a taskforce to assess the impact of 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables. Its name? WikiLeaks Task Force, or WTF for short.
The group will be charged with scouring the released documents to survey damage caused by the disclosures. One of the most embarrassing revelations was that the US state department had drawn up a list of information it would like on key UN figures – it later emerged the CIA had asked for the information.
"Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. But at CIA headquarters, it's mainly known by its all-too-apt acronym: WTF," the Washington Post reported.
WTF is more commonly associated with the Facebook and Twitter profiles of teenagers than secret agency committees. Given that its expanded version is usually an expression of extreme disbelief, perhaps the term is apt for the CIA's investigation.
Earlier this month the Guardian revealed that the CIA was responsible for drafting the data "wishlist" that the US state department wanted on UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and other senior members of the organisation.
The Washington Post said the panel was being led by the CIA's counter-intelligence centre, although it has drawn in two dozen members from departments across the agency.
Although the CIA has featured in some WikiLeaks disclosures, relatively little of its own information has entered the ether, the paper reported. A recently retired former high-ranking CIA official told the Post this was because the agency "has not capitulated to this business of making everything available to outsiders".
"They don't even make everything available to insiders. And by and large the system has worked."
While most of the agency's correspondence is understood to be classified at the same "secret" level as the leaked cables that ended up online, it is understood the CIA uses different systems to those of other government agencies.
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27 Comments so far
Show AllYJKMTSU! (You Just Cant Make This Stuff UP!)
You know that the clueless dinosaur McCain is going to go on TV WTFing up a storm about what this task force is doing. LOL, ROTFLMAO!
rofllmfho.
The size and scope of the stupidity that is the American government is only outshined by the ignorance of the American people! If ever a people get what they deserve, it's us!
There is a difference between administrations, who are elected for specific times, and bureaucrats, who are there for the long haul. If you think the members of congress are engaged in CYA just watch the bureaucratic professionals. That said, too many of our citizens vote their emotions and not their heads.
RE: "They don't even make everything available to insiders. And by and large the system has worked."
Yep: Massive lies, false flag operations, a duped population, wars of aggression for resources masked as "spreading democracy" when, in fact, the US spreads weapons, death, and destruction throughout the world... THE SYSTEM HAS WORKED.
good observation stiv........................
"MANINFEST DESTINY"
If there is a man in the sky... I hope he rains down a wrath of punishment for corrupted government officials.
Perhaps an asteroid hitting Earth and causing cataclysmic devastation would be necessary to "re-do" this nation.
Judging by the duped nature of many American citizens... this would also aid in Darwinism. Please God. Help us.
Not that I believe in God.
This ill-conceived name that was thought up by the mass murderers known as the CIA is reminiscent of the code name that was given by the United States during the invasion of Iraq back in 2003:
Operation Iraqi Liberation [OIL}
The Bush administration had to hurriedly change that name as it revealed to the world what their true intentions were vis a vis Iraq.
You know, Erroll, that was the first thing that came to my mind too: OIL, before it was changed.
I wonder if the janitor at the CIA gets a code name?
Agent Dry Mop
009
License to Dust
Pentagon janitors actually have to have top secret clearance and since this is a requirement for the job their starting salaries are in the mid 80k range.
I don't know about the code names though.
Obviously the operative in the photo accompanying this article is participating in Covert Operation Clean Kept Sweep.....
Just wait till the our neo-liberal overlords destroy the federal workers' unions.
Operation BOHICA
Too bad that the perception of the CIA is largely formed by Tom Clancy novels. I flipped through a Tom Clancy novel once - someone had left it on the train. It was worse than Dianetics.
Of course, Ian Fleming also wrote many textbooks on spying, both covert and wildly overt. The training films that followed were fascinating. In real life, no one gets the girl, yet everyone gets screwed.
Hav they finished investigating the First Ammendment?
"WTF is more commonly associated with the Facebook and Twitter profiles of teenagers..."
WTF, like other chat acronyms, predates Facebook and Twitter by 20-30 years and is certainly not used exclusively by teenagers. The author himself appears quite young*, has been "a news reporter for the Guardian ... since 2009", lol, so may be personally unfamiliar with the relevant historical facts. FWIW
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/adam-gabbatt
I think the CIA's WTF force will conclude that the rest of the government and the public has a better view of what the rest of the government is doing because of wikileaks, but the rest of the government and public will not get to find out what the CIA's WTF force discovered because the CIA does not even let the rest of the CIA know what it discovers.
WTF... What The Fuck?
Hey! I'm famous......not!
i did think of you when i first read this...........anyway, you adopted the moniker before them.
The ruling elite and their top bastard minions are in denial. They believe that they can carry on as they have for many decades. In truth, their world is crumbling, as must any world that is based on lies/deception, racism, genocide, merciless violence, and extreme greed.
VIVA WikiLeaks!
"It is impossible to correct abuses unless we know that they're going on... if we are to produce a more civilized society, a more just society, it has to be based upon the truth. Because judgements which are not based upon the truth can only lead to outcomes which are themselves false." Julian Assange
"Truth like the sun, submits to be obscured; but like the sun, only for a time." Bovee
"We think... we can go on in the old ways... more competition, more greed... It is not so any longer; it does not work. If two-thirds of the world’s population are living in poverty then the economic system does not work. If we think that they will go on without asking that it work for them, then we are sorely out of step with reality."
Benjamin Creme
WTC7
This made my day.
David Frost & Julian Assange
The WikiLeaks founder talks about secrets, leaks and why he will not go back to Sweden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6mcSXge4Qo
thanks for that link..........great interview.
Dear CIA:
You are so CLUELESS! WTF NOW actually means: Washingtoin Terrorists Flourish!
TERRORISTS! They're hiding in plain sight! Look for men with big bonuses in their pants! They're still screwing the country!
Rip off those Congressional condoms and find the real leaks!
Courage is contagious. Courage is admired and cowardness is never admired. Go Jullian!
Funny article. But not very informative. Also contains some of the usual neo-con talking points, such as the myth that Wikileaks indiscriminately released 250,000 cables.
Actually, Wikileaks has released only 1862 cables (as of today), as one can see from their site (see, for example: http://www.wikileaks.ch/cablegate.html).
I realize that wasn't exactly the point of the article, but purveying that falsehood plays into the hands of fearmongerers who wish to use Assange to further erode our civil liberties. These releases were anything but indiscriminate.