New information has emerged suggesting that Lieutenant Col. Richard Thelin, previously mentioned here and here, may not be the individual who holds the key to what happened with the mishandled Sgrena report leading to the disclosure of classified information: an incident the US military says it takes very seriously.
“The procedures that we used [to safeguard the classified information] were inadequate,” Air Force Col. C. Donald Alston, MNF-I’s chief of strategic communications, said Monday. “We consider this a very serious matter.”
As Forbes reported, but evidently didn't fully explore or disclose yesterday, there is another layer of information accessible from pdf files of this type - meta data.
"We need to improve our procedures. We regret this happened. We obviously didn't take sufficient precautions," said U.S. Air Force Col. Donald Alston, a spokesman for U.S.-led forces.
He added that some of the leaked information appeared classified. Besides offering the ability to uncover blacked-out text, many documents carry "meta data" - embedded information like the document's author and company.
Users of Microsoft Corp.'s Word also routinely send files embedded with previous drafts, all revealed with a few clicks.
The meta data from this document had already turned up on the Internet and was found by me prior to my viewing the Forbes story above.
It at least appears that while Lieutenant Col. Richard Thelin was legal counsel involved with the report, the final responsibility for redacting the report may not have been his. Two versions of the meta data turned up in my research.
The first was at a location I will not link, as it contains a mil email address I assumed could be classified. I will ask Michele Malkin to validate that "redacted" portion of my post.
(note: I did not extract this data myself and can only report it as found. I did, however, X out the mil email address from the data.)
And the second even more revealing information was again at a location I will not link, as it contains a mil email address I assume could be classified. I will also ask Michele Malkin to validate that "redacted" portion of my post. (note: I did not extract this data myself and can only report it as found. I did, however, X out the suffix of the mil email address from the data - it is highlighted, as is the name.)
From the PDF meta data:
<rdf:Description about='uuid:2ef1275e-0950-4557-ab75-0283e844ba9e'<br> xmlns='http://ns.adobe.com/pdfx/1.3/'
xmlns:pdfx='http://ns.adobe.com/pdfx/1.3/'>
<pdfx:Company>"USCENTCOM"</pdfx:Company>
<pdfx:_AdHocReviewCycleID>-553148013</pdfx:_AdHocReviewCycleID>
<pdfx:_EmailSubject>Another Redact Job For You</pdfx:_EmailSubject>
<pdfx:_AuthorEmail>xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx</pdfx:_AuthorEmail>
<pdfx:_AuthorEmailDisplayName>Potter Robert A COL MNFI
STRATCOM</pdfx:_AuthorEmailDisplayName>
<pdfx:SourceModified>D:20050430084305</pdfx:SourceModified>
</rdf:Description>
<xap:ModifyDate>2005-04-30T23:32:08+02:00</xap:ModifyDate>
<xap:CreateDate>2005-04-30T12:46:04+04:00</xap:CreateDate>
<xap:MetadataDate>2005-04-30T23:32:08+02:00</xap:MetadataDate>
The meta data above does appear to jibe with the pdf document in question and the name of Colonel Robert Porter MNFI does appear to be genuine and appropriate to his offices presumed role. Also the STRATCOM reference in the second set of meta data would make sense, as he is apparently Air Force.
Colonel Robert Potter, a spokesman for the US Army in Baghdad, told the New York Times, the assault was "one of the largest such engagements that I'm aware of."
"It is difficult to base a definitive conclusion on statistical data that changes virtually by the day," Col. Robert A. Potter, a spokesman for the coalition forces, said in an e-mail response to an inquiry.
Casey issued his first campaign plan in August 2004, just one month after becoming commander of Multinational Forces Iraq, or “MNF-I,” according to Air Force Col. Robert Potter, the general’s spokesman in Baghdad.
Officials privy to the document say it contained an array of lofty objectives, like bringing stability to the nation and transitioning security responsibilities to newly trained Iraqi forces. But it offered unit commanders virtually no guidance on how to implement the goals and laid out no time lines, officials say.
But a spokesman for the American-led forces in Iraq, Col. Robert A. Potter of the United States Air Force, said in a statement sent by e-mail, “It would be speculative to affirm or rebut whether or not these attacks are random or specifically aimed to cause a specific effect.”
It is reasonable to draw the conclusion from the above that Colonel Potter's responsibilities included disseminating both information, as well as documents. That is not to say that it was his alone, as I am unaware of the command structure.
It should also be noted that it could just as easily have been a Sargent in his command who redacted the pdf document, or that everyone involved followed all appropriate protocol and, consequently did nothing wrong. In that case it would be the process itself that was at fault.
Lastly, I take no delight in pointing a finger at any military person, officer or otherwise. But the Stars and Stripes story was wholly in adequate in addressing this story - as was Forbes or any other MSM media outlet of which I am aware - and, ultimately, the facts are the facts. They can speak for themselves. I am not in a position to make any judgment.
In case anyone wants to talk to the author, his name is included in XML tags within the document: (no longer valid)
ModDate(D:20050430122919+04'00')
CreationDate(D:20050430122742+04'00')
Creator(Acrobat PDFMaker 6.0 for Word)
Author(richard.thelin)
Producer(Acrobat Distiller 6.0 \(Windows\))
Company(ìUSCENTCOMÄ)
AuthorEmail xxxxx@xxxxx
AuthorEmailDisplayName(Potter Robert A COL MNFI STRATCOM)
— John Goldman, 2005-05-02 21:09SourceModified(D:20050430082542)