McCain Asks For Committee On Wikileaks, Anonymous 268
Trailrunner7 writes "In the face of continued attacks on federal agencies and contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton and IRC Federal that do highly sensitive security work for the U.S. government, Sen. John McCain has asked Senate leaders to appoint a select committee to look into the attacks and data leaks that have plagued Washington throughout 2011. In a letter to Democrat leader Harry Reid and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, McCain (R-Ariz.) said that a temporary Senate committee is necessary in order to get a handle on all of the disparate cybersecurity legislation proposals and to address the threat posed by groups such as Anonymous, LulzSec and Wikileaks."
Yep, a committee. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Difference being? (Score:5, Insightful)
That is blatantly unfair and derogatory. Suggesting that the parties discriminate between which set of corporations they work for is ridiculous. All dollars are created equal.
Re:Difference being? (Score:4, Insightful)
The democrats are a conservative party. The republicans are a regressive party. We don't really have a progressive party.
Examine the phrase "freedom of the press" (Score:4, Insightful)
We keep seeing court cases and lively debate over "Freedom of the Press," usually with regards to whether this blogger or that product reviewer etc... have a right to say what they say without "press credentials" or a large corporate news organization backing them, etc... A lot of self-professed "patriotic" US citizens want Wikileaks destroyed.
So where does the phrase "Freedom of the Press" come from? First Amendement of the US Constitution:
At the time this was written, what was "the press?" What was the relationship between the authors and founders of this country and "the press?" The press was a nifty machine that several of these men owned... a printing press. They used these devices to take their speech and propogate it further than mere voice could. They used this kind of speech to foment revolution against an unjust government and the press was a vital tool in this effort. Upon establishing a new government, they sought to extend that protection to all citizens.
So, when someone issues communications through technology, that is the press protected by the 1st Amendement.
Re:False Flag Working! (Score:5, Insightful)
If they really want to do something productive, they should investigate how it's possible that government contractors are so incompetent when it comes to computer security.
Re:Yep, a committee. (Score:5, Insightful)
it worked in the 50's!
we found SO MANY unamerican commies back then. we blacklisted their asses. really worked well and america is really proud of that era.
(see woody allen film 'the front' for an easy-to-digest education on what went on in the 50's).
Re:Yep, a committee. (Score:5, Insightful)
Republican since '71, and damn proud of it
I'll translate what McCain said; (Score:5, Insightful)
We cannot have private groups picking up the slack for our stenographer media. After burning Dan Rather and firing numerous other investigative journalists, and imprisoning more reporters in the Iraq invasion than were imprisoned in all other wars combined -- I thought we made it clear that we do not want investigative journalism.
Whistleblowers like Bradley Manning, are a threat to our incompetence and graft -- and we'd really appreciate being able to continue this "war on whatever" scam so that we can burden the middle class with lots of debt that will require austerity -- we cannot train your kids to be indentured servants if we continue this concept of "RIGHTS" and such, now can we?
The only way to win the war on Terror, is to allow your military, government and secret services, total access to everything, no responsibility or questions on failure or missing Billions, and to be able to say; "nothing to see hear, move along." With the lack of transparency, we reserve the right to humiliate and/or jail the people who speculate on Conspiracies. Not that they are a threat, we just don't like those geeky twerps and we enjoy crushing the nuts of someone -- so it might as well be them.
After that brain fart, McCain would go back to his soft spoken tones as if he were a reasonable adult, and use words like "concern", "responsibility" and "prudence." As if he gave a rats ass and wasn't thinking about the Poker and Prostitutes party at Boehner's house this Friday night.
Re:Yep, a committee. (Score:5, Insightful)
McCarthyism seems to have a lot in common with our new War on Terror.
To be fair, the rabid fanatical commy hunters actually caught some commies. And, the terror warriors have actually bagged some terrorists. But, the cost? Just not worth it . . .
alot of those 'leads' were complete bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
the venona decrypts were fascinating but there are several reasons i disagree with your interpretation (which has been repeated by many others)
1. the actual decryption took decades, and was not finished until the 70s or 80s, so during the actual mccarthy period of the late 40s early 50s, many of the contents of the crypts were not known.
2. alot of the decryption was of poor quality
3. alot of it used various code names
4. the biggest problem of all, is that you are decryption messages from KGB(NKVD)field agents back and forth to headquarters. the Soviet Union was built on a system of faking your reports and your production numbers, no matter what your field, in order to meet quotas and keep from getting executed. they couldnt even get a reliable census going in the 1930s because politics worked its way into every bureaucracy of the country. to believe the venona decryptions at face value, you have to believe KGB(NKVD) agents statements to moscow at face value, which to me seems like a horrible way to research history.
5. alot of them are 'proven' by cross referencing them with the statements of elizabeth bentley or others. what was her source? the same agents who were writing the cables back to moscow.
the venona has a lot of fascinating information in it and shows a lot of soviet inlfuence in ameirca, but alot of those 'leads' were fucking bullshit.
you can just look at the 'Silvermaster Files' for information, take Bela Gold for example. they put his wife under surveillance. what intelligence do they get? she went shopping. she met with other suspects for an hour here, an hour there. she went shopping. she got pregnant. case closed. Thats the 'damning evidence' somebody wanted to use in a courtroom.
since in America the courts are somewhat independent (unlike, say, the soviet union) the government dropped these cases. Venona couldnt be used in courtrooms not simply because it was 'classified', but because it was unreliable garbage.
then take alger his and whittaker chambers. they decided the laws were not good enough to prosecute him, so they broadened them. what did that leave us with? the Espionage Act subparagraph (e) , which is now being used against whistleblowers like Thomas Drake...
and of course the Emergency Detention Act, completely unconstitutional and cancelled by Nixon when he became president. Think about that. it was too draconian for Nixon.
Re:Yep, a committee. (Score:4, Insightful)
Thank God they are finally getting around to addressing this criminal negligence. Go Committee Go!