131–140 of 1001 posts
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Can you point to any instance where WikiLeaks has released information that was not authentic and correct?
Can you point to any instance during the election when a leak was not precisely timed/filtered to damage the Clinton campaign and/or advantage the Trump campaign?
"U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is a covert CIA hacker base " Germans are usually privacy nuts. I know many who maintain no presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I wonder how Germany will react to this.
The fact that Frankfurt is a hub among their European intelligence operations is not terribly interesting IMO.
> I wonder how Germany will react to this.
Germany always knew operations were conducted there but now must react to this overt news.
Meta: 351 points in Conclusion: HN is flagging this fairly aggressively.
Question: Why? This is not overtly political, and it is definitely in the interest of the community, with the potential to be at least half as interesting as the Snowden documents or the hack of Hacking Team.
But considering that Wikileaks is essentially a Russian intelligence services front at this point, spreading this kind of disinformation does a great deal to muddy the waters about the hacking.
Can you point to any instance where WikiLeaks has released information that was not authentic and correct?
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> If these actions are being done domestically against US citizens, with no just cause sure I will get upset, but that has yet to be seen. May I just ask, why does this distinction matter? Why do you believe the world should be divided into "people who were issued bits of paper by my overlords" and "people who weren't"? I never understood this division in other people's heads. It leads to all sorts of philosophical p…
I believe that in my heart as well. However, we don't currently live in a world with a federated global government. The recent election in the US highlighted that people do divide the world into imaginary lines on maps and it had a slogan: AMERICA FIRST. It's not just the political class that sees these divisions, it's a majority of the citizens. How would you spark a revolution in people's thinking?
I believe I proposed something like a "no executive" world government, where you had international laws, defined by treaties, and a commitment by some treaty signatories to "arrest" any state actor which broke them. If this coalition of "world police" (which are, of course, armies) were powerful enough, I believe this could lead to less lawbreaking by governments (from the USA to Zimbabwe). Note, the commitment is not to start wars/invade, but specifically to arrest e.g. presidents or generals. You can't do this without an army, but the objective is considerably different from invading, neutralising any opposing forces, and securing a place.
Of course, persuading people something like this is a good idea, your actual question, is just about the hardest problem I've ever thought about solving. I still don't really know where to begin, but I'm interested in teaching people epistemology before other things, as a means to halt the "post truth" stuff (which has been going on for years, not only recently!)
By the way, if anyone wants to work on these idea with me - I'm calling the concept "World Peace, Inc" in my head - please get in touch with me (clues in profile). I'd love for this to be my job rather than the hobby I don't have time for.
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This is a past revelation that was already investigated, no? Without any direct connection to the current release it muddies the waters.
How does it muddle the waters? People are saying "no big deal I expect my agency to defend me from foreign threats", and it turns out they have been used against domestic do-gooders. It seems incredibly relevant.
Based on the overview alone (of course I can't read the entire report that fast!), this is exactly what I expect a spy agency would be doing -- if they were not then I would be disappointed. What exactly in the admittedly shortened list am I supposed to be upset about? It makes no distinction between US citizens and overseas parties. If these actions are being done domestically against US citizens, with no just cause…
> this is exactly what I expect a spy agency would be doing Loosing their "cyber" equivalents of atomic bombs after they deemed it unnecessary to improve the protection of the US against such those weapons is what you expect?
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That has less to do with how I feel and more to do with how the CIA is setup. Their role in domestic affairs is severely restricted, that is primarily the job of the FBI which has more requirements to conduct "searches". For them to be operating to the fullest extent of their perceived role, I can't find myself to be upset.
"their role in domestic affairs is severely restricted" You're delusional if you still believe this.
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It's not delusional to accurately state the law. But there does need to be strong oversight of these organizations to make sure they actually follow the law. Edit: and yes, there is plenty of evidence that especially during the Vietnam war the CIA was actually breaking the law.
there is no oversight because it relies on the character of humans, who are weak and prone to folly. There is no paper trail for this abuse. This is a system that should not exist.
But I know for a fact that the CIA does have a committee of elected officials that oversee it. Whether that is effective oversight is debatable, but the fact is that it exists, and they must legally disclose their actions. This means there are legal means by which they can be held to account in the cases where they do not.
Based on the overview alone (of course I can't read the entire report that fast!), this is exactly what I expect a spy agency would be doing -- if they were not then I would be disappointed. What exactly in the admittedly shortened list am I supposed to be upset about? It makes no distinction between US citizens and overseas parties. If these actions are being done domestically against US citizens, with no just cause…
1. Poor control of the resources means a proliferation concern. Hacking tools are not classified, because it would then be illegal to deploy them if they were. But leaving them unclassified makes it easier for them to spread outside of the agency.
2. The CIA is duplicating the NSA's capabilities for no real reason other than institutional rivalries.
One of the lesser issues I thought was particularly interesting is that the CIA works to make attribution more difficult, and in particular, to pin things on the Russians. That's got to be relevant in the current political climate.