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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Curt, I'd go a step further: Wikileaks only seems to take actions that damages western democracies. We don't see anything from Russia, nothing from China or North Korea, all hotbeds of cyberattacks throughout the world.
Seems like an anarchist agenda to me.
Why don't they release Trumps income taxes: they don't see a benefit TO THEM to doing so.
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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Mar 10, 2017 - 11:33am PT
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DMT: . . . US interests at heart . . . .
And what ARE those? Is the U.S. the standard bearer for all things democratic, fair, equal, compassionate? Shall it see it as its mission to spread, maintain, protect those values to other countries? Or is it the same as many other countries (Russia included): self-preservation: creating a position to defend against different ideas, values, and loyalties; putting its citizens’ own welfare ahead of other people in the world?
It’s a bit ambiguous, isn’t it? Our math friends might want to employ game theory to tell us how we should proceed, but game theory assumes clear, somewhat unequivocal, and non-conflicting objectives.
We are a fragmented nation in so many ways. This happens to be one of democracy’s problems no matter where it shows up. In time, there develops a lack of unity, and a diminishment of intellectual and moral capabilities to deal with issues facing a democracy.
Visit Alexis de Toqueville’s, “Democracy in America” (1835). Wiki summarizes Toqueville’s treatise casually in the following manner:
According to Tocqueville, democracy had some unfavorable consequences: the tyranny of the majority over thought, a preoccupation with material goods, and isolated individuals. Democracy in America predicted the violence of party spirit and the judgment of the wise subordinated to the prejudices of the ignorant.
Of course, just who is ignorant and who is prejudiced may turn the interpretation from one side to another. (Ignorant of what?)
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Mar 10, 2017 - 04:25pm PT
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+1 Dingus
Could be a "white hat" type person that wants the info out so all systems can be more secure to enforce a more idealistic balance of power between any government and private entities.
Could be a person that just wants to take down the biggest kid on the block.
Could be a few brave people acting with little support or safety net, and Wikileaks is a sort of rallying point for these "lone wolf" whistle-blowers.
Could be state players
Could the CIA itself as part of a trick to underplay what their capabilities really are, a sort of lulling the enemies into a false sense of security.
Who knows?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Mar 11, 2017 - 07:48am PT
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Could also be just some pathetic soul with no life who sees this as his chance to be somebody.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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Apr 22, 2017 - 10:17am PT
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Very informative, interesting exchange between Gen M Hayden and Sam Harris on the waking up podcast this week. Eg, distinction between NSA and CIA, the necessity of espionage and intelligence, the constantly shifting, negotiated line bet privacy and security, and a bunch of other stuff (why Snowden should be prosecuted if he were captured or ever to return and the harm he's done).
https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/privacy-and-security
Is government secrecy always illegitimate?
"Shame on us for giving them the opportunity..." -Hayden
...
PS There's this actor, Kurtwood Smith, who could play General Hayden to a t I bet.
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F
climber
away from the ground
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May 19, 2017 - 10:32am PT
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Is that the chick that Cosmic doesn't like?
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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May 19, 2017 - 12:08pm PT
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Zero Hedge reports that Seth Rich, a DNC functionary, had been in contact with Wikileaks and is the likely source of the leaked DNC emails.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-16/murdered-dnc-staffer-seth-rich-shared-44000-emails-wikileaks
So far the MSM have been suppressing this story. It would invalidate their case that Russia was behind this. Also note, Julian Assange has said that it was not Russia.
Rich was murdered, shot in the back as he was walking home at night. This was officially attributed to robbery, but nothing was taken.
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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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May 19, 2017 - 02:43pm PT
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Years ago, Bill Buckley and Gore Vidal debated the death penalty, with Buckley for, and Vidal against. Buckley made the point that if it deters even one murder, it's worth it. Of course, that is hard to prove one way on the other.
The same argument can be used for spying on Americans. If you gather lots of illegal data that pries into our personal lives, but then you happen to uncover a plot to blow up a huge bomb in Penn Station which would kill 200 people, then is it worth it?
Even ordinary surveillance footage in stores and malls has made it a lot easier to apprehend killers. So it is a two-edged sword.
Still, I think it is good that Assange exposed it.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 19, 2017 - 04:08pm PT
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Yeah, what's a few Americans' lives worth when we're talking about protecting yer texts to yer mistress?
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Sep 25, 2017 - 12:19am PT
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Nov 17, 2017 - 09:17am PT
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While the surveillance per se is an invasive thing, the really insidious part is the selective enforcement of what they find. If we all are guilty of violating some law or other, then we all live in fear of being prosecuted when it strikes the fancy of those in power. It enables powerful people to have a legal shield and arms-length deniability for engaging in personal vendettas or underhanded means of preserving and consolidating their power. It’s a way of silencing adversaries and preventing the carriage of justice on larger issues, which erodes the quality of our democracy and society.
We see evidence of it now even in the private sector, where filthy rich men pay former Mossad agents to dig up dirt on their victims to keep them quiet.
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SuperTopo on the Web
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no easy way to verify that you are encrypting a message to the correct recipient (maybe it's using the keys of ProtonMail too so they can keep a copy? The trust model is a little ugly without digging into techie methods of client-side verification. I may be off base on this, haven't played with it myself
Let us know!