
Secret Trump order gives CIA more powers to launch cyberattacks - furcyd
https://news.yahoo.com/secret-trump-order-gives-cia-more-powers-to-launch-cyberattacks-090015219.html
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Someone1234
George Washington is a national hero, but I feel like arguably his greatest
feat hasn't remained popular: Willfully giving up power.

Regardless of who happens to be sitting in the Oval, and if they're using
their executive authority for "good" or "evil," one could very easily make the
argument that congress has given up too much power to unilateral action by the
executive (and or too little actionable oversight).

Going back to George Washington, the absolute hardest thing anyone can do is
give up power. That's why I hope to one day see someone in the WH who is
patriotic enough to call for their own political party for help in stripping
their own office of unilateral powers.

Hand wringing when the "other side" is swinging the executive stick wildly
isn't enough. You have to give up power, not just for you, but for who happens
comes next. You also have to give up power early in your own term so it
impacts you, and you cannot be accused of trying to sabotage.

The US shouldn't be a turn-key despot.

PS - I don't really expect to see this in my lifetime, but boy would it be a
sight to see.

~~~
deeg
> George Washington is a national hero, but I feel like arguably his greatest
> feat hasn't remained popular: Willfully giving up power.

In popular history you're probably right; GW is largely known as being the
first president. Historians are aware of his place in history, though, and
even some of his contemporaries. Supposedly George III said this when
Washington resigned from the army: "If he does that, he will be the greatest
man in the world." [0]

I'm leery of "American Exceptionalism" but those early leaders did something
pretty remarkable: an armed revolution deposed a government and replaced it
with a more peaceful one. That is very rare in history.

[0] -
[https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdstatehouse/html/gwresignation...](https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdstatehouse/html/gwresignation.html)

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nogabebop23
You can fault the man for many reasons but James K Polk didn't run for a
second term because he had a pretty narrow mandate and felt he accomplished it
in his first. America's first agile president!

~~~
jjk166
It's worth noting that Polk was extremely exhausted by his time as president
and died 3 months after leaving office.

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notRobot
In the near future it's just constantly going to be countries launching cyber-
attacks on each other, stealing private citizens' data, taking public
utilities down, engaging in disinformation campaigns, etc.

And the ones who'll be affected worst by the whole ordeal will be innocent
people around the world who aren't very tech-savvy and are just trying to get
through the day.

~~~
101404
Just as in other areas where countries use violence against each other's
populations, it will be a question of the state defending its citizens.

Maybe, some day, there will be some sort of international agreement about what
can be done and what must not be done. Like with ABC weapons.

~~~
wtetzner
> Just as in other areas where countries use violence against each other's
> populations, it will be a question of the state defending its citizens.

Unfortunately the state seems to be more interested in using these same
attacks against its own citizens.

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stunt
Legal bases aside, How any of these attacks are useful though? It just gives
them an excuse to retaliate.

" \- Publishing hacking tools (malware) from APT34, an Iranian government
hacking unit, on Telegram.

\- Doxing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence agents on
Telegram by revealing their full names, home addresses, phone numbers, and
social media profiles.

\- Dumping details about 15 million payment cards from three Iranian banks
linked to Iran's IRGC.

\- Hacking two contractors that provide cyber-weapons and surveillance
solutions for Russia's FSB intelligence agency and sharing the data online via
a hacktivist group called Digital Revolution. "

[https://www.zdnet.com/article/report-cia-behind-apt34-and-
fs...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/report-cia-behind-apt34-and-fsb-hacks-
and-data-dumps/)

~~~
classified
You could have said the same thing about the Iraq war. Obviously there are
wildly differing definitions of "useful".

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hirundo
> The finding allows the CIA to more easily authorize its own covert cyber
> operations, rather than requiring the agency to get approval from the White
> House.

What a horrible policy. Not only do we get covert acts of war not authorized
by Congress, without a declaration, in defiance of the War Powers Act, but now
they don't even need specific executive authorization. Unelected permanent
bureaucrats in times of peace can now launch major aggressions against foreign
countries without direct approval of anyone accountable to the electorate.

Congress devolves power to the presidency, and now the president devolves
power not only to unaccountable bureaucrats, but to the most professionally
conspiratorial, paranoid, secretive among them.

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Lendal
I don't believe they are conspiratorial or paranoid. The mission of the CIA is
information gathering and analysis to gain knowledge, not paranoia. The
current president may not listen to facts, but that doesn't mean everyone in
government follows his lead. Or even most. I believe they are good people
overall, who take their mission to protect democracy seriously.

I know this isn't a popular opinion here, but I've been following this for 4
years now and I don't believe the CIA or the FBI can be described as
"unaccountable bureaucrats". Furthermore I believe it is dangerous spreading
such beliefs without good evidence to the contrary about people who are out
there every day trying to do heroic things in our defense.

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broooder
Seems not so secret.

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peter_retief
This is hardly a new "secret" order. It has been going on since I can
remember, or is this the new parody? Parody is getting harder by the day.

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boomboomsubban
This relatively new order made it significantly easier for them to get
permission to engage in these attacks, and the order's exact provisions are
still a secret.

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peter_retief
If it was secret how come you know about it?

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boomboomsubban
The document is still marked as secret, and as I said the exact contents are
unknown. We know of what it allows as members/former members of the CIA told
the reporters about it.

