"Why the US is turning into a Banana Republic" - example #89: The personal e-mail account of a State Department whis­tle­­blower was hacked, and four years worth of messages - some detailing alleged wrongdoing at the agency - were deleted, The Post has learned. The computer attack targeted the Gmail account of Diplomatic Security Service criminal investigator Richard Higbie, his lawyer, Cary Schulman, confirmed. "They took all of his e-mails and then they deleted them all," said Schulman. He said that he could not prove who was responsible for the hack job, but said the attack was "sophisticated" and called the targeting of Higbie "alarming." "Obviously, somebody is not happy with something he's doing and wanted to get that information and also cause him an inability in the future to have ready access to that," Schulman said. The e-mails included evidence about misconduct by top officials at the department, communications with other potential whistleblowers there,...(Read Full Post)