The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust • Hacker News Board

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#41

Post by scott_karana » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:30 PM UTC

knodi123 wrote: post #37

scott_karana wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this an issue of partisanship? This is the CIA hacking the Senate. It's not GOP vs Democrat or even Executive vs Judiciary vs Legislative. Besides, I think it can be entirely fair for newspapers to pose the question of "Is this tantamount to treason?", and let people decide for themselves.

It's the CIA looking at activity logs on CIA servers, to monitor what Senate users were doing, so they could interfere with the things the Senate found. It's shady, and likely illegal, but it's not quite hacking, and it's definitely not hacking the senate.

Well, yes. It was an imprecise paraphrase because it wasn't the relevant point I was making:

"How is this issue partisan?"

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#42

Post by poof131 » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:30 PM UTC

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #22

secstate wrote: post #17

Well, I wrote my congressmen. What else can we possibly do? This is, however, a fucking travesty of justice. How can you possibly be caught committing a crime and have the higher-ups formally apologize, and say they wont do it again? This is high treason against the United States Senate. What the hell is wrong with this country? I feel like the US is one big democratic tease, pretending to be a bastion of free though…

> relatively peaceful [citation needed] The US has seldom had a decade of peace in its history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_United_...

The US Military has seldom had a decade of peace, New York and San Francisco have had centuries.

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#43

Post by mikeash » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:31 PM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #4

kyllo wrote: post #2

No surprises here, of course this is what happens when you create an agency whose mission is to lie, decieve, and break the law, and then give it limited oversight and almost unlimited funding. The CIA's entire history is just one scandal after another.

The CIA's charter forbids any domestic campaigns...

And clearly that's working out just great.

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#44

Post by state » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:32 PM UTC

I recently read "Legacy of Ashes"[1]. If you're interested in the extremely long list of breaches of trust that the CIA is responsible for it's a great resource.

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_Ashes

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#45

Post by Symmetry » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:33 PM UTC

poof131 wrote: post #38

TeMPOraL wrote: post #25

You know what's CIA's even more reckless breach of trust? Organizing fake vaccination campaigns[0]. Now the efforts with eradicating Polio in some parts of the world meet with resistance of people who don't trust the vaccination campaign isn't a cover for US clandestine operations[1]. Hard to blame them, to be honest. "The edict by the Islamic militants to ban immunization was in response to the CIA's setting up a fa…

I don’t believe that is an entirely fair characterization of that action. Was the United States not supposed to go after Osama Bin Laden? Hiding in an allied country whose intelligence services derailed previous missions? [1] I’m impressed by the diligence in trying to make sure your most wanted target is there before taking lethal military action. I’m disappointed by the immediate release of operational details for…

Was the United States not supposed to go after Osama Bin Laden?

No, but sometimes the price of a just aim is too high to pay. In retrospect at least the damage to the anti-polio campaign was too high a price to pay for his death, just as nuking the city to get him wouldn't have been justified. I find the mistake they made somewhat understandable since they could easily have failed to foresee the consequences of their actions, but it was still a mistake.

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#46

Post by krapp » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:42 PM UTC

scott_karana wrote: post #33

krapp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the media's purpose to declare something treason - doing so would make them look like partisan hacks.

How is this an issue of partisanship? This is the CIA hacking the Senate. It's not GOP vs Democrat or even Executive vs Judiciary vs Legislative. Besides, I think it can be entirely fair for newspapers to pose the question of "Is this tantamount to treason?", and let people decide for themselves.

The issue itself may not be partisan, but it will still be interpreted that way. The media has been a political strawman for both parties for a long time. Each accuses the other of essentially controlling it to further their agenda. Once accusations of 'treason' are made from a media source, then inevitably at least half of the country will dismiss it as propaganda.

If a media outlet did, I think they would probably have to do so carefully.

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#47

Post by scott_karana » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:49 PM UTC

krapp wrote: post #46

scott_karana wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this an issue of partisanship? This is the CIA hacking the Senate. It's not GOP vs Democrat or even Executive vs Judiciary vs Legislative. Besides, I think it can be entirely fair for newspapers to pose the question of "Is this tantamount to treason?", and let people decide for themselves.

The issue itself may not be partisan, but it will still be interpreted that way. The media has been a political strawman for both parties for a long time. Each accuses the other of essentially controlling it to further their agenda. Once accusations of 'treason' are made from a media source, then inevitably at least half of the country will dismiss it as propaganda. If a media outlet did, I think they would probably…

Ah, fair enough. I see your point. Thanks! :-)

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#48

Post by sp332 » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:51 PM UTC

poof131 wrote: post #42

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> relatively peaceful [citation needed] The US has seldom had a decade of peace in its history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_United_...

The US Military has seldom had a decade of peace, New York and San Francisco have had centuries.

Well, SF has had about 1 century.

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#49

Post by dghf » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:51 PM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #4

kyllo wrote: post #2

No surprises here, of course this is what happens when you create an agency whose mission is to lie, decieve, and break the law, and then give it limited oversight and almost unlimited funding. The CIA's entire history is just one scandal after another.

The CIA's charter forbids any domestic campaigns...

"Oh, that's just the window-display charter. Our real, secret charter gives us unlimited power forever!"

-- Boss to Agent Norbert in The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.

(Okay, that was the Federal Atomic Regulatory Taskforce rather than the CIA, but the principle holds.)

Re: The CIA's Reckless Breach of Trust

#50

Post by pasbesoin » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 8:59 PM UTC

In this as other spheres of recent, catastrophic failure (i.e. the financial crisis): I'm down to saying to TPTB:

"No jail? You fail."

If Brennan can't be prosecuted for perjury, then a very public and (really) career-ending firing is in order.

As for the Congress that has been soaking up these lies and dissemblance, well, if you're a U.S. citizen, don't forget to vote. Also in local elections, where candidates grow into future Congress-critters -- or used to, before they started simply buying their way in.