J. Kirk Wiebe

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John Kirk (J. Kirk) Weibe is a former intelligence official with the United States National Security Agency, [1] conspiracy theorist, [2] [3] and whistleblower. [4] Kirk managed data programs and criticized the NSA's data-collection policies during the Barack Obama administration. [5] He made the false claim that it was not true that Russia interfered with the 2016 US election. Weibe argued that Russia was not behind the DNC server hacking. [6]

Contents

Weibe would go on to spread conspiracies about QAnon [7] and claims of election fraud in 2020 United States presidential election [8]

Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kirk grew up in northern Indiana, near Lake Michigan. After graduating high school Weibe enlisted in the United States Air Force and spending four years with the intelligence branch from 1963 – 1967. After the Air Force Kirk attended Indiana University, receiving a master's degree in the Russian language in 1974. Kirk then took a position in the National Security Agency (NSA), retiring in October 2001 [9]

Whistle blowing

In September 2002, Kiebe, along with William Binney and Edward Loomis, filed a request for the U.S. Defense Department Inspector General (DoD IG) to investigate the NSA for allegedly wasting "millions and millions of dollars" on Trailblazer [10] Wiebe developed a competing system, ThinThread, which was shelved when Trailblazer was chosen instead. [11] The Whistleblower's complaint noted Trailblazer's ineffectiveness and unjustified high cost compared to their alternative ThinThread. [12]

Conspiracy Theories

Russian Election Interference

As a member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Kiebe would claim that U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election was falsifed, and that the Democratic National Committee e-mails were leaked by an insider instead. [13] [14]

Kiebe and VIPS colleagues argued argued that the metadata in files associated with the DNC hack were altered to add Russian fingerprints, and that file transfer rate proved they were transferred locally [15]

The memorandum from Kiebe et al. was promoted by Breitbart and Fox News. President Donald Trump would then request Mike Pompeo to meet the report authors. [16] The theory was later debunked and it was proved VIP's director Blinney was given fabricated data from a Pro-Russian outlet. [17] [18]

QAnon

Kirk Wiebe was a major voice in spreading QAnon. [19] He would appear on podcasts spreading QAnon theories like movies such as I am Legend were really secret documentaries. [20]

According to David Troy many members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity were essential in spreading QAnon lies. [21]

2020 US Presidential Election Fraud

J. Kirk Wiebe was very involved in spreading false conspiracies about election fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election. [22] Wiebe would appear with LaRouche members in Stop the Steal round tables [23] Conspiracy conspirasists would insist in court filings that tools developed by Wiebe proved massive voter fraud. [24]

Wiebe would go on to work with Mike Lindell to prove election fraud. Wiebe would state that Lindell did not have evidence to back up his claims. [25]

Related Research Articles

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) is a group of former officers of the United States Intelligence Community which formed in January 2003. In February 2003, the group issued a statement accusing the Bush administration of misrepresenting U.S. national intelligence information in order to push the US and its allies toward that year's US-led invasion of Iraq. The group issued a letter stating that intelligence analysts were not being heeded by policy makers. The group initially numbered 25, mostly retired analysts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray McGovern</span> US CIA officer turned political activist

Raymond McGovern is an American political activist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement, returning it in 2006 to protest the CIA's involvement in torture. McGovern's post-retirement work includes commenting for RT and Sputnik News, among other outlets, on intelligence and foreign policy issues. In 2003 he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QAnon</span> American conspiracy theory and political movement

QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement which originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters are operating a global child sex trafficking ring which conspired against Donald Trump. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many other theories. QAnon has been described as a cult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ThinThread</span>

ThinThread was an intelligence gathering project by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) conducted throughout the 1990s. The program involved wiretapping and sophisticated analysis of the resulting data. The program was discontinued three weeks before the September 11, 2001 attacks due to the changes in priorities and the consolidation of U.S. intelligence authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Adams Award</span> Annual award for intelligence professionals

The Sam Adams Award is given annually since 2002 to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The Award is granted by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers. It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trailblazer Project</span>

Trailblazer was a United States National Security Agency (NSA) program intended to develop a capability to analyze data carried on communications networks like the Internet. It was intended to track entities using communication methods such as cell phones and e-mail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas A. Drake</span> Former NSA senior executive, military veteran, and whistleblower (born 1957)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turbulence (NSA)</span> United States National Security Agency information-technology project

Turbulence is a United States National Security Agency (NSA) information-technology project started c. 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive "test" pieces rather than one grand plan like its failed predecessor, the Trailblazer Project. It also includes offensive cyberwarfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. The U.S. Congress criticized the project in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as the Trailblazer Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Binney (intelligence official)</span> Former U.S. intelligence official and cryptoanalyst; whistleblower

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global surveillance disclosures (1970–2013)</span>

Global surveillance refers to the practice of globalized mass surveillance on entire populations across national borders. Although its existence was first revealed in the 1970s and led legislators to attempt to curb domestic spying by the National Security Agency (NSA), it did not receive sustained public attention until the existence of ECHELON was revealed in the 1980s and confirmed in the 1990s. In 2013 it gained substantial worldwide media attention due to the global surveillance disclosure by Edward Snowden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global surveillance whistleblowers</span>

Global surveillance whistleblowers are whistleblowers who provided public knowledge of global surveillance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Roark</span> American whistleblower (born 1949)

Diane Roark is an American whistleblower who served as a Republican staffer on the House Intelligence Committee from 1985 to 2002. She was, right after 9/11, "the House Intelligence Committee staffer in charge of oversight of the NSA". In late 2001, Roark was informed by NSA official William Binney about the Bush administration's domestic surveillance programs, including Stellar Wind. Along with Binney, Ed Loomis, and J. Kirk Wiebe, she filed a complaint to the Department of Defense's Inspector General about the National Security Agency's highly classified Trailblazer Project. Her house was raided by armed FBI agents in 2007 after she was wrongly suspected of leaking to The New York Times reporter James Risen and to Siobhan Gorman at The Baltimore Sun in stories about NSA warrantless surveillance. This led her to sue the government in 2012 for not having returned her computer, which they had seized during the raid, and because the government failed to clear her name. The punitive treatment of Roark, Binney, Wiebe, and Loomis, as well as, and, in particular, then still-active NSA executive Thomas Andrews Drake, who had gone in confidence with anonymity assured to the DoD IG, led the Assistant Inspector General John Crane to eventually become a public whistleblower himself and also led Edward Snowden to go public with revelations rather than to report within the internal whistleblower program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic National Committee cyber attacks</span> 2015-16 data breaches by Russian hackers as part of US election interference

The Democratic National Committee cyber attacks took place in 2015 and 2016, in which two groups of Russian computer hackers infiltrated the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer network, leading to a data breach. Cybersecurity experts, as well as the U.S. government, determined that the cyberespionage was the work of Russian intelligence agencies.

The 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak is a collection of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails stolen by one or more hackers operating under the pseudonym "Guccifer 2.0" who are alleged to be Russian intelligence agency hackers, according to indictments carried out by the Mueller investigation. These emails were subsequently leaked by DCLeaks in June and July 2016 and by WikiLeaks on July 22, 2016, just before the 2016 Democratic National Convention. This collection included 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from the DNC, the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The leak includes emails from seven key DNC staff members dating from January 2015 to May 2016. On November 6, 2016, WikiLeaks released a second batch of DNC emails, adding 8,263 emails to its collection. The emails and documents showed that the Democratic Party's national committee favored Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders in the primaries. These releases caused significant harm to the Clinton campaign, and have been cited as a potential contributing factor to her loss in the general election against Donald Trump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections</span>

The Russian government interfered in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to the U.S. intelligence community, the operation—code named Project Lakhta—was ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The 448-page Mueller Report, made public in April 2019, examined over 200 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring any conspiracy or coordination charges against Trump or his associates.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conspiracy theories related to the Trump–Ukraine scandal</span> Dispute about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections

Since 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his allies have promoted several conspiracy theories related to the Trump–Ukraine scandal. One such theory seeks to blame Ukraine, instead of Russia, for interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. Also among the conspiracy theories are accusations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, and several elements of the right-wing Russia investigation origins counter-narrative. American intelligence believes that Russia engaged in a years long campaign to frame Ukraine for the 2016 election interference, that the Kremlin is the prime mover behind promotion of the fictitious alternative narratives, and that these are harmful to the United States. FBI director Christopher A. Wray stated to ABC News that "We have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election" and that "as far as the [2020] election itself goes, we think Russia represents the most significant threat."

<i>Absolute Proof</i> 2021 film by Mike Lindell

Absolute Proof is a 2021 political propaganda film directed by and starring Mike Lindell. It was distributed by One America News Network and promotes the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election instead of Joe Biden. The documentary was removed by video hosting sites YouTube and Vimeo for violating their community standards.

Italygate is a pro-Trump, QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theory that alleges the 2020 United States presidential election was rigged to favor Joe Biden using satellites and military technology to remotely switch votes from Donald Trump to Biden from the U.S. Embassy in Rome. The conspiracy was also rumored to involve the Vatican. Fact-checkers at Reuters and USA Today, who investigated these claims, described them as "false" and "baseless".

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Arjen Kamphuis was a cybersecurity expert and hacktivist. He addressed topics like open standards and free software, safe elections and an IT-aware and IT-capable government, eventually to protect free speech and democracy. Ever since Edward Snowden leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, he was especially dedicated to protecting investigative journalists. He wrote the book ‘Information security for investigative journalists’ with co-author Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch.

References

  1. ↑ Page, Peter Eisler and Susan. "3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  2. ↑ "Kirk Wiebe, an Air Force veteran and former senior analyst for the NSA, speaks during the Qanon …". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  3. ↑ "Opinion | US Intel Vets Dispute Russia Hacking Claims | Common Dreams". www.commondreams.org. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  4. ↑ Responding to anonymous whistleblowers (Report). Committee on Publication Ethics. 2013-01-01. doi: 10.24318/z9gtpzca .
  5. ↑ Page, Peter Eisler and Susan. "3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  6. ↑ Kopan, Tal (June 21, 2016). "DNC hack: What you need to know". CNN. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  7. ↑ "Kirk Wiebe, an Air Force veteran and former senior analyst for the NSA, speaks during the Qanon …". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  8. ↑ Blake, Aaron (2021-08-12). "Analysis | The spectacular implosion of Mike Lindell". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  9. ↑ American Accounting Association (2020-07-29). "Kirk Wiebe, Retired NSA Senior Intelligence Analyst, NSA Whistleblower (Mass Surveillance of Americans)" (PDF).
  10. ↑ Hettich, Paul (2011). "What Would You Say? What Would You Do?". Eye on Psi Chi Magazine. 15 (2): 10–11. doi:10.24839/1092-0803.eye15.2.10. ISSN   1092-0803.
  11. ↑ Shorrock, Tim (April 15, 2013). "The Untold Story: Obama's Crackdown on Whistleblowers: The NSA Four reveal how a toxic mix of cronyism and fraud blinded the agency before 9/11". The Nation.
  12. ↑ "NSA Whistleblowers William (Bill) Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe". Government Accountability Project. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  13. ↑ Ryan, Danielle (2017-08-15). "What if the DNC Russian "hack" was really a leak after all? A new report raises questions media and Democrats would rather ignore". Salon. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  14. ↑ Tani, Maxwell. "Conservative media figures are embracing a wild WikiLeaks conspiracy theory that the CIA hacked the DNC, and then framed Russia". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  15. ↑ Responding to anonymous whistleblowers (Report). Committee on Publication Ethics. 2013-01-01.
  16. ↑ Risen, Duncan Campbell, James (2017-11-07). "CIA Director Met Advocate of Disputed DNC Hack Theory — at Trump's Request". The Intercept. Retrieved 2023-12-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ↑ "Was Donald Trump behind meeting of CIA chief and conspiracy theorist?". NBC News. 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  18. ↑ Fri, Aug 3rd 2018 05:41am-Karl Bode (2018-08-03). "As 'DNC Hacked Itself' Conspiracy Theory Collapses, Key Backer Of Claim Exposed As UK Troll". Techdirt. Retrieved 2023-12-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ↑ "Kirk Wiebe, an Air Force veteran and former senior analyst for the NSA, speaks during the Qanon …". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  20. ↑ Bill Binney & Kirk Wiebe - The Key To The Coup , retrieved 2023-12-24
  21. ↑ Cuda, Heidi Siegmund (2021-03-02). "The Network: The American and Russian Moralists Behind the January Insurrection". Byline Times. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  22. ↑ Blake, Aaron (2021-08-12). "The spectacular implosion of Mike Lindell". Washington Post.
  23. ↑ ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION: The 2020 Election—An Intelligence War With Very High Stakes for the World , retrieved 2023-12-24
  24. ↑ KESHAVARZ-NIA, Navid (2020-11-05). "DECLERATION OF DR. NAVID KESHAVARZ-NIA Case 2:20-cv-13134-LVP-RSW" (PDF).
  25. ↑ Blake, Aaron (2021-08-12). "The spectacular implosion of Mike Lindell". Washington Post.
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