The repetitive cry goes out, over and over, in smoothly metallic tones garbled by electronic glitches: Illumination, for illumination, we called for illumination.

This snippet of a classified military field report from Iraq one of hundreds of thousands of such files passed along by Chelsea Manning and released to a bewildered public in 2010 by WikiLeaks is the text for one section of The Source, the unnerving and chaotic oratorio by composer Ted Hearne and librettist Mark Doten that opened a six-performance run over the weekend at SF Opera Lab.

It is also a deft encapsulation of the works raison detre.

Haunting, scattershot, seductive and overambitious, The Source represents a desperate attempt to shed some kind of light on the horrors of this chapter in U.S. history not only the venal crime of the Iraqi invasion itself, but the shadowy national security apparatus that was strengthened even further in its aftermath.

Mellissa Hughes sings in Ted Hearnes The Source at SF Opera Lab.

Mellissa Hughes sings in Ted Hearnes The Source at SF...

If the result, witnessed on Saturday, Feb, 25, at the Taube Theatre, delivered only intermittently on that promise, consider the depths of the darkness that the creators were trying to explore. The flashes of brilliance scattered throughout the 75 minutes of The Source like the searing bursts of rocket and artillery fire that crop up repeatedly as reference points are at once revelatory and disorienting.

An omnivorous eclecticism sets the tone for much of the evening. Dotens libretto is built largely around military and diplomatic logs, along with some of the online chat-room communications between Manning and Adrian Lamo, the hacker who eventually turned her over to the authorities. Much of this material is atomized into short fragments that float free of their syntactic moorings.

Hearnes music, scored for seven instrumentalists and a quartet of vocalists, is equally dissociative. There are soothing hymnal chorales and jittery rock grooves, soul ballads and eerie, keening solo vocal lines. Hearne also interjects tiny rapid-fire samples of pop-culture detritus Bobby Darins recording of Mack the Knife, snippets of TV talk shows to further unmoor the listener. You cant resist the beauty and urgency of this material, even as it whiplashes you from one stylistic vein to the next.

Perhaps the scores most inventive aspect is the electronic processing that Hearne overlays on the work of the four superlative singers (Mellissa Hughes, Samia Mounts, Isaiah Robinson and Jonathan Woody) who perform from perches nestled within the audience. Its a variant of the increasingly ubiquitous Auto-Tune, which gives an other-worldly, digital-age patina to the vocal writing; in everything these singers do, you can hear an undercurrent of human foibles struggling to resist the computers sleek soullessness.

Overall, Hearnes investigative methods here (as in his equally freewheeling Katrina Ballads) are not unlike those of a nuclear physicist: He bombards his subject with every kind of musical projectile he can lay his hands on, trying to determine some piece of truth from the angle of the ricochet.

This proves most effective when The Source confronts the war head-on, creating an ensemble portrait of military servicemen as disembodied but still all-too-human enactors of atrocity. A section devoted to Julian Assange, the elusive figure behind WikiLeaks, leaves much of his mystery intact; issues of gender identity (Manning was Bradley Manning when the leaking occurred, only to transition in prison ) are tentatively floated, then abandoned.

For this production, director Daniel Fish and videographer Jim Findlay have provided a visual backdrop, displayed on four large screens surrounding the audience. This is footage of a large range of New Yorkers as they watch leaked video footage of a scene of carnage perpetrated by an American helicopter crew on Baghdadi civilians; their expressions range from stoicism to unease to outright grief.

There is something exquisitely haunting about these reactions, which imply so much more than they state you can tell theres something horrific lurking off-camera, but its not until the final moments of the performance that you discover what it is.

The attack footage, unfortunately, brings with it an infusion of literalism that actually undercuts the power of everything thats come before. To show us the truth at this point everyday Iraqis being mowed down like grass reads like an admission that art is not up to the task.

But the potency of The Source, with all its jump cuts and musical feints, puts the lie to that assertion. There is illumination to be had, all right, even if its of an impressionistic and transitory nature.

Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicles music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman

The Source: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, March 1-3. $35. Taube Atrium Theater, Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 864-3330, http://www.sfopera.com

Excerpt from:
'The Source' takes a powerful, jumbled measure of WikiLeaks - San Francisco Chronicle

The mysterious "Vault 7" continues toarouse public curiosity.

WikiLeaks, an international non-profit organization that publishes news leaks and classified information, started releasing cryptic questions about "Vault 7" onTwitter onFebruary 4, 2017.

The riddle has prompted speculation amongsocial media users asto what exactly WikiLeaks was going toexpose this time. Some users suggested that it would be explosive revelations aboutthe 9/11 terror attacks inNew York City, while others opined that the international organization is aboutto leak a new portion ofHillary Clinton's emails.

WikiLeaks Exposes CIA's Meddling inFrench Presidential Election

A video released byAnonymous Scandinavia onTwitter hinted atthe possibility that something "big" is likely tosurface onFebruary 19.

"WikiLeaks asked what Vault 7 was, where Vault 7 was, and when is Vault 7. While the world waits forthe 'why' and 'who', we assume that the answer asto 'when' is onFebruary 19," the video said.

However, it was onFebruary 16 when Julian Assange tweeted aboutthe US Central Intelligence Agency's meddling inthe French presidential election back in2012.

"My new story: the CIA conducted a 10-month espionage operation targeting the last French presidential election," Assange wrote onhis brand new Twitter account.

According toCIA documents published byWikiLeaks, the US intelligence service officially ordered its agents topenetrate all the major political parties inFrance aswell astheir electronic systems beforethe country's 2012 presidential election.

Speaking toRadio Sputnik onSunday, veteran journalist Diana Johnstone said that this operation was obviously part ofa broader pattern.

"We know that the United States and the CIA inparticular are notorious forintervening inelections all overthe world. There is nothing surprising aboutthat," Johnstone remarked.

The unconfirmed claims regarding Russia's alleged interference intothe 2016 US election have immediately paled incomparison withthe large-scale cyber campaign launched bythe CIA againstFrance a few years ago.

The Flynn Scandal and Clinton's Aides' Alleged Meeting With the Chinese Ambassador

Meanwhile, onFebruary 19 WikiLeaks turned the spotlight onHillary Clinton's national campaign chairman John Podesta, whose emails it released last October.

One such email said that back inJanuary 2016 Chinese Ambassador tothe US Cui Tiankai sought "an informal, private, offthe record get-together" withthe Clinton campaign's top aides "to discuss the next year and the current state ofUS-China affairs."

Predictably, this email has taken ona new significance amidthe scandal overDonald Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's alleged contacts withRussian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.

However, tothe disappointment ofmany, neither WikiLeaks nor Assange have released anything explosive comparable tothe Iraq War Logs or the Podesta emails.

So, is the "Vault 7" mystery overhyped?

REUTERS/ Courtesy of WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds up his new kitten at the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London, Britain, in this undated photograph released to Reuters on May 9, 2016

'We Open Governments': WikiLeaks' 'Vault 7' Exposures

Sputnik got intouch withCharles K. Ortel, an investigative journalist and renowned Wall Street analyst and investor, todiscuss this issue.

"I am happy totry answering your questions withthe caveat applying toeach ofmy answers that I am joining you inmaking educated guesses I have no connection, direct or indirect, withWikiLeaks or withanyone connected toWikiLeaks," Ortel responded toSputnik.

AP Photo/ Carolyn Kaster

"Under President Obama, the United States government and elements connected toit intervened inopenly expressing preferences concerning candidates and issues inforeign elections and referenda," the Wall Street analyst pointed out.

Donald Trump's victory was a bolt fromthe blue forHillary Clinton's supporters fromboth Democratic and Republican camps, prompting some ofthem toclaim that elements connected with "the Russians" had stepped into intervene inthe election.

"As a guess, WikiLeaks knows precisely who leaked the Podesta emails and that this source was not Russia or elements connected toRussia," Ortel said.

"Moreover, asa guess, WikiLeaks (and others) have obtained all ofthe missing Hillary Clinton emails and may have obtained emails found inOctober 2016 onAnthony Weiner's laptop computer. If so, WikiLeaks has much valuable information it could choose toshare ona schedule ofits own choosing," he suggested.

"If Vault 7 is a reference tothe 7th Floor atthe US State Department (which it may or may not be), then it is possible that the forthcoming release will document more intervention inforeign elections and referenda and show previously unseen communications and deliberations involving US government personnel, possibly including Hillary Clinton, her aides, and other members ofthe Obama Administration," Ortel noted.

According tothe analyst, it is also possible that WikiLeaks may release heretofore unseen communications explaining how the Clinton Foundation came tobe re-organized afterJanuary 20, 2009 when the Obama administration acquired the ability tounderstand how the Foundation and its affiliates operated outsidecompliance withapplicable state, federal and foreign laws fromOctober 23, 1997 when it was founded onwards.

"To me, the release of 'Vault 7' seems a natural progression inthe evolution ofWikiLeaks," Ortel noted, "and I should add that no credible person has argued that the Podesta emails, forexample, or other releases are forgeries, so their record is noteworthy and any additional releases should be taken seriously and reviewed carefully."

AFP 2016/ Brendan Smialowski

Clinton advisers Jake Sullivan (L), Nick Burns (2L) and John Podesta (2R) wait with Clinton Campaign Chairman, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on September 19, 2016 in New York.

Ecuadorian Elections: 'Vault 7' and Julian Assange's Future

Is it possible that the Vault 7 campaign was aimed atdrawing attention toJulian Assange amidthe Ecuadorian election, which took place onFebruary 19?

"Julian Assange may lose protection fromextradition that is afforded bythe Government ofEcuador, depending uponnational elections inprogress there, so your suggestion is certainly possible," the Wall Street analyst responded.

REUTERS/ Suzanne Plunkett/Files

However, the election is due togo toan April runoff betweenthe candidate fromthe Left, Lenin Moreno, and Lasso. That means that Assange's future is hanging inthe balance.

Can we assume that Assange postponed the much-discussed leak tothe time ofthe April runoff?

"I suspect that the next set ofWikiLeaks papers may drop earlier thanthis coming April if they are extensive, they may need many days todisseminate this information tothe general public," Ortel said.

'Vault 7' and Upcoming 2017 Elections inEurope

The Wall Street journalist believes that the forthcoming leaks would have something todo withEurope's 2017 elections inFrance, the Netherlands and Germany.

The release ofthe CIA's files concerning the 2012 French election could have been an appetizer.

"Watching the reaction inFrance, I suspect that WikiLeaks may wish tohave Vault 7 spread particularly toother nations scheduled tohold elections and referenda during2017," Ortel highlighted.

AP Photo/ Manuel Balce Ceneta

"I think Wikileaks has evolved tobecome a serious force and there is no doubt that powerful governments and individuals have positive and negative reasons toconsider intervening innational elections (and inthe affairs ofmulti-lateral grant-making government entities) so educating the general public concerning potential corruption and influence peddling is truly a welcome service," he said.

Ortel pointed outthat those who operate withingovernments using secrets have a paramount duty, underthe US Constitution, toobey laws, and toprotect secrets.

"Concerning the Podesta emails, what WikiLeaks shows us is rampant, so far unprosecuted criminality particularly withregard tosoliciting and spending funds inthe supposed care ofthe Clinton Foundation, and evident failures toprotect secrets, some ofwhich held commercial value (as well asbeing classified atthe highest levels)," the analyst stressed.

So should we expect more fromthe much discussed "Vault 7" campaign?

"Given its long record, and recognizing that WikiLeaks has become bigger thanJulian Assange alone, I fully expect more releases," Ortel emphasized.

The views expressed inthis article are solely those ofthe author and do not necessarily reflect the official position ofSputnik.

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Mysterious #Vault7: What Secrets is WikiLeaks Due to Release? - Sputnik International