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Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

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Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Capitol Police were either incompetent or complicit. There are literally no other options. They knew there would be a big protests, numbers put it around 200k~300k (a tiny percentage of which actually went into the capitol building mind you). If they weren't prepared for this: incompetence. But there are videos of people getting selfies with guards, and staying within the velvet ropes when coming in. Something is…

They were understaffed, and it was clear that they could not protect both the building and the people. They correctly prioritized evacuating the people.

They turned down an offer from the Pentagon to supplement manpower, days before the protest. Why?

A police department with an intelligence unit couldn't guess that things might get a little out of hand when 3 weeks before, the President publicly used Twitter to ask his followers[1] to attend a "wild" protest on January 6th? Not that an intelligence unit was required as the plans were in the open. I have great difficulty in putting this down to incompetence, all things considered.

1. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13401857732205158...

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being downvoted, but it's been proven police helped the rioters and even took selfies with them.

It has not been proven. This is false. Please stop spreading it. Multiple people were killed in clashes with the police. They did not help the rioters. This is the type of misinformation that caused all these problems.

Police taking selfie with terrorist: https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1346920198461419520

Police letting terrorists in: https://twitter.com/joshuapotash/status/1346931235176783873

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Capitol Police were either incompetent or complicit. There are literally no other options. They knew there would be a big protests, numbers put it around 200k~300k (a tiny percentage of which actually went into the capitol building mind you). If they weren't prepared for this: incompetence. But there are videos of people getting selfies with guards, and staying within the velvet ropes when coming in. Something is…

They were understaffed, and it was clear that they could not protect both the building and the people. They correctly prioritized evacuating the people.

Being understaffed on a day when protesters have warned you they may take direct action is incompetence or complicity. They have agreements with nearby law enforcement who are often deputized in DC, yet didn’t activate those agreements until the perimeter had been fully breached.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Capitol Police were either incompetent or complicit. There are literally no other options. They knew there would be a big protests, numbers put it around 200k~300k (a tiny percentage of which actually went into the capitol building mind you). If they weren't prepared for this: incompetence. But there are videos of people getting selfies with guards, and staying within the velvet ropes when coming in. Something is…

They were understaffed, and it was clear that they could not protect both the building and the people. They correctly prioritized evacuating the people.

This can be correct, but so can GPs point: two possible findings are that the capitol police were deliberately left understaffed because

* higher level leadership judged the threat of the protestors to be insignificant (incompetence)

* higher level leadership wanted the potential for a mob to enter the building (complicity)

However they found themselves in the position, they did, and once there I think they had an unenviable task. And the fact that the occupants of the building were safely sheltered until a larger force came to clear the building shows that they made a good decision.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#55
post #32
post #7

>Nancy Pelosi told fellow House Democrats that she had received reassurances about safeguards to prevent Donald Trump from launching a nuclear attack Maybe this is too political or HN, but this is the bigger news on that page. It tells me we don't have a functioning chain of command and our government is currently responding to a hard coup attempt with a soft coup which is also pretty scary. Trump should either be re…

Personally I find the idea that there are any safeguards against Trump lunching nukes a comfort Nixon's aides did likewise in the days before his resignation. The fact that the president has the power to decide to punch nukes all by himself is terrifying and should have been fixed long ago

[deleted]

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#56

Beyond the information security risk around the loss of this specific device, what really worries me is the physical security implications here. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but it seems to me like, in a building like the US Capitol, it should not be anywhere near this easy for unauthorized people to waltz into an office or conference room in the first place. Let alone walk away with items from within that…

I've traveled to countries before whose offices of government are behind very large fences, protected by unfriendly looking men standing behind heavy machine guns in armored vehicles – and the guide books are very clear that you are not to take photos of them. I much prefer the approach taken in the USA, where our offices of government are accessible to the people that the government serves. It's very good that I can…

Yep, in India they directly detain all protesters anywhere near the parliament area and the immediate surroundings

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#57
post #4

Clearly a big deal and congressional IT staff are going to have a crazy few weeks ahead of them. However, my understanding is that any classified information would have to be in a SCIF. I assume that would be the case with congresspeople as well. I've also heard that the congressional paging system locks devices when an emergency is announced, but haven't seen that corroborated anywhere. Anyone know if that's true?

What is a "SCIF"?

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#58
post #7

>Nancy Pelosi told fellow House Democrats that she had received reassurances about safeguards to prevent Donald Trump from launching a nuclear attack Maybe this is too political or HN, but this is the bigger news on that page. It tells me we don't have a functioning chain of command and our government is currently responding to a hard coup attempt with a soft coup which is also pretty scary. Trump should either be re…

I would hope all entities with nuclear capabilities have de facto safeguards in place to prevent anyone from actually launching a nuclear attack. Although, I would also hope they wouldn't talk about them as it diminishes the deterrent effect that is the only potentially good thing about such weapons. Nuclear weapons should never be used but people who can use them should not say that.

You think the full missile command chain being loyal to him today?

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#59
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that Pelosi's desktop was logged on and unlocked, there's a fair chance the laptop was too which would render full disk encryption useless. As long as whoever stole it didn't close it and send it to sleep anyway.

Logged on, unlocked and unattended? That shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

to be fair, I'm sure the training on insurrection defense for a staffer was lacking since this hasn't happened since the early 1800s.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#60
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter evidence: the protesters were saying that they saw computers unlocked with email still open.

Uhh yeah, probably because the congresspeople were evacuated in a hurry because there was an angry mob storming their building?

At least where I work, we're required to configure computers to lock after 10 minutes of inactivity.
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