
Ajit Pai grilled by lawmakers on why FCC spread “myth” of DDoS attack - LinuxBender
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/ajit-pai-must-answer-for-fccs-lies-to-congress-about-ddos-senators-say/
======
Rotdhizon
These grilling sessions do nothing. The person being interviewed simply gives
memorized responses, feigns ignorance, or attempts to pass the blame.

~~~
s73v3r_
Seriously. How many times now has the leadership of Wells Fargo been brought
in to get a tongue lashing by Congress? And how many times now have they
continued to appear repentant and then go right back to being evil?

~~~
pstuart
Sorry, but Wells Fargo isn't evil anymore. I saw their ad that says they're
sorry and they're gonna behave now. All good!

~~~
drewmol
It's easy to be pessimistic and jaded about this stuff, so thanks for keeping
an open mind and for pointing this out. Wells Fargo started in 1852 with good
intentions. They were fortunate and experienced exponential growth quickly,
and simply lost sight of core values during the chaos of windfall profits
stage, finally secumbing to evil sometime during the Spring of 1853. After
some overdue self-reflection big changes were put in place, effective Q2 2018.

~~~
pstuart
I was actually being sarcastic. To me this is all lip service.

How many executive heads rolled? Went to jail?

~~~
drewmol
Yes, I was too. Facebook made has similar advertising which is basically
saying: "Listen, things got fucked up, we made lot's of $$$, and we don't
really admit fault. If you do happen to blame us however, we think some
forgiveness is in order because things are different now and we're all in this
together!"

~~~
pstuart
Well done, thank you.

------
ddtaylor
Oh no, they've been _grilled_ \- that'll stop them from ever doing something
like that again...

~~~
jfim
From TFA:

> "[T]he IG found that you made a series of misrepresentations to Congress
> about the event, which were corrected for the first time in the IG's
> Report," the Democrats wrote in their letter to Pai.

> The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia declined to
> prosecute anyone at the FCC even though making false statements to Congress
> can be punished with fines or imprisonment.

I wonder if further inquiry into this will lead to charges being pressed.

~~~
craftyguy
I wonder if citizens can prosecute the United States Attorney's Office for the
District of Columbia for failing to do their job?

~~~
drewmol
If you live in DC it may be worth filing a small-claim to recover damages.

------
mistrial9
There might be a small combination of pills here .. something like a muscle-
relaxer plus an anti-psychotic prescription drug .. together they powerfully
mute the normal human response to stress, but not so much that the subject
does not appear normal, and can speak clearly enough. Then the subject sits
there, on camera, sworn in under oath perhaps, and glides through the session
with good notes from a hired lawyer.

For an industry measured in the many-billions of dollars, per year for many
years.. how many wanna-be Fortune Magazine cover cuties would do that ? lots.
This is all conjecture, for the record.. think for yourself

~~~
bbrian
Sounds like beta blockers. They’re used in cardiac medicine but abused by
people wanting to keep calm.

------
stevew20
So why is it that you can be hit and handcuffed for yelling at a police
officer, but you can swindle the entire population of the USA, force sweeping
policy on them against their wishes, and send a wave of lies at them to cover
your retreat, and all you get is a tongue lashing? I vote execution. I'd say
that he has caused damage he can never repair, and it is tantamount to
treason. And imagine how many people will choose not to follow in his
footsteps of fucking the public, when those steps include a last dance?

Washington needs more corporal punishment.

------
nickthemagicman
What's the difference between a myth and a lie?

~~~
fosco
a lie is identified as intentional deception. [0]. by definition a lie is
incredibly difficult to prove...

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie)

------
choward
Getting "grilled" doesn't affect anyone one bit whatsoever. It's just another
day at the office, you're just sitting in a different room.

------
paulddraper
I thought Pai already gave a response weeks ago.

> I am deeply disappointed that the FCC’s former Chief Information Officer
> (CIO) [David Bray], who was hired by the prior Administration and is no
> longer with the Commission, provided inaccurate information about this
> incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people.

This information is conspicuously absent from the article. Was the statement
revoked?

~~~
moorhosj
==This information is conspicuously absent from the article.==

Did you read the article? This part seems to answer your question:

"The FCC's lies to Congress were contained in letters Pai sent to lawmakers
but were based on the assertions of former FCC CIO David Bray, the IG's report
said. Pai has claimed that the IG report proves that he did nothing wrong, but
House Democrats want to know exactly when Pai found out that Bray's statements
about DDoS attacks were false."

~~~
kbutler
Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read
the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions
that."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
moorhosj
Removing "even" from that sentence certainly changes the tone if not the
intent, but your point is taken.

Did you respond to the original commenter about posting blatant dis-
information, as the information requested was in the article?

~~~
kbutler
No need, as you provided it.

