Iranian Operatives Charged in the US With Hacking Donald Trump's Presidential Campaign (apnews.com) 49
The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Friday against three Iranian operatives suspected of hacking Donald Trump's presidential campaign and disseminating stolen information to media organizations. From a report: The three accused hackers were employed by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and their operation also targeted a broad swath of targets, including government officials, members of the media and non-governmental organizations, the Justice Department said.
The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. Multiple major news organizations that said they were leaked confidential information from inside the Trump campaign, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post, declined to publish it.
The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. Multiple major news organizations that said they were leaked confidential information from inside the Trump campaign, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post, declined to publish it.
Humor rich story (Score:1)
Come on folks, this one is a gold mine for the jokes.
Doubt.exe (Score:1, Troll)
I think most people are thinking what I'm thinking without having to elaborate.
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Mod parent funny? Even though I have no idea what you're thinking? Please elaborate.
But I think the obvious joke about 'only hiring the best people' is too obvious for a Funny mod. (Another obvious joke I've been looking for would involve an orange albatross with three right wings...)
Re:Doubt.exe (Score:5, Informative)
The illusion that the vast majority of people think so much like you they automatically know what you think is a by-product of consuming too much content mediated by engagement maximizing algorithms. Or in some cases relying to much on cable news.
Re:Doubt.exe (Score:5, Funny)
The illusion that the vast majority of people think so much like you they automatically know what you think is a by-product of consuming too much content mediated by engagement maximizing algorithms. Or in some cases relying to much on cable news.
that was exactly what I was thinking.
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I was very impressed by the spread of "Let's go Brandon". Such witty, independent thinkers!
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Perhaps what makes it funny is that people reading it will all read something different into it, and react without realizing they've been made fools of. :D
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But in the case (of this branch of the discussion), then it didn't get the Funny moderation it deserved. What's showing now appears to be censorship moderation.
I'm beginning to smell some kind of bug in the moderation system. Is it possible that some gamesters have figured out how to get infinite mod points without penalty? Or just that "reasonable" people "who are thinking what I'm thinking" (per the OP) tend to trigger a no-mod-points-for-you bug?
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I don't know what he's thinking either. Justice Department says there was a hack by Iranian actors of the campaign; and the campaign itself says it was hacked by Iranian actors; so where's the doubt.exe?
If there's a knee jerk reaction to doubt the justice department, if you combine that with a knee jerk reaction to believe everything the campaign says, then I can only imagine there's a lot of Riverdancing going on in places...
Where are they? (Score:3)
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If all of their documents are written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, or is it just Trump's posts?
I think the Iranians hacked something. Then fed it all to ChatGPT for translation into their fancy R-L crusive script-like written language and got this material pointing it all to Trump. So they translated all that ChatGPT translated stuff into English and handed it over to the Democrats.
Only thing missing from the news is a request from the Iranians to the Democrats asking them to Pay Up Or Else for this service.
Motive (Score:1, Insightful)
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Or maybe they think Trump is the insane wild card that he is and would rather deal with a rational grown-up.
See, the partisan arguments can go both ways here
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... it would seem that Iran is more afraid of Trump than Harris.
Actually they're angry that Trump had Qassem Soleimani killed.
It's kind of funny. The Russians hack the Democrats, the Iranians hack Trump. The Russians and Iranians are practically allies. They should probably schedule some collaborative hacker meetings to make sure they're on the same page.
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A shit hole for you, a shit hole for you, a shit hole for everybody!
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++insightful
United we stand, Divided we fall.
Re: Motive (Score:2)
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When did the Russians hack the Harris campaign? If you're talking about the Clinton e-mail server, it has since become clear, it wasn't just the Russians, Iranians, Israelis, even Germany and North Korea was supposedly poking around, which you know, if you're running an Exchange 2003 server in a bathroom is kind of what you deserve.
Iranians hack Trump, they made it clear why, they want revenge for effectively decapitating their terror network for several years, only last year is when they got things back up
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They are in an alliance of circumstances, like the US and the Taliban in early 1980s. The common statement between Russia and Iran is their hate for the West, though they might disagree on which Westerner they hate the most.
Re:Motive (Score:4, Insightful)
It would be foolish to think that the Russians or Iranians would side with one American political party or another. They view the US as an adversary, no matter who is elected. Their goal, clearly, is to sow as much discord in American society as possible. The internet and social media is a wonderful tool for that, and these other countries are having a field day encouraging Americans to fight with each other [npr.org].
It helps to understand how Russian propaganda works. It's not like WWII propaganda that was just about controlling the channels of communication and putting out the version of events you wanted people to believe. Russian propaganda is about putting out so many different narratives that nobody knows what is true or who to trust. The Kremlin actually allows people to criticize the government, at least to a certain degree, to make it seem like there's a rich debate going on, but in those cases the critics are given strict rules about what they can criticize and what they can't say. Nobody will criticize Putin for instance, but they would be allowed to criticize a certain ministry, particularly if Putin wanted to put pressure on the person running that branch of government. But the ultimate goal is to send out so much inconsistent and contradictory information that people just disengage from politics, and in Russia this is largely successful.
The fall of professional journalism in the west is creating similar conditions here. We no longer have trusted sources that we feel will give us a dry unvarnished retelling of the facts. Trust in institutions is at an all time low. People get most of their news from cable news stations (which don't even pretend to be unbiased) and social media, or even late night talk shows. And we know all these sources are biased. I use two different YouTube profiles and I watch more left-leaning stuff on one and right-leaving stuff on the other, and it actively *pulls* you down rabbit holes. Russia, Iran, and China just step into this situation and pour fuel into the echo chambers.
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More likely it's Trump's pro-Israel stance. He moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, in a move that was seen as provocative by Iran, who support the Palestinians.
If Trump gets back in he will probably continue to arm and support Israel unconditionally. Harris seems a lot less keen on what Netanyahu is doing, even if she hasn't really said or done anything to stop it.
Plus if Trump loses there are likely to be at least some incidents from MAGAs who have been primed to expect a civil war when Biden and Harris "st
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...it would seem that Iran is more afraid of Trump than Harris.
You really think it's that and not that Iran expects Trump to attempt another insurrection and plunge the USA into chaos?
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You really think it's that and not that Iran expects Trump to attempt another insurrection and plunge the USA into chaos?
Downmod my post if it hurts your feelz, but it remains a legitimate point.
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Downmod my post if it hurts your feelz, but it remains a legitimate point.
To be a legitimate point it needs to be sequitur. It's not. Why would Iran (an infamous *NOT* ally of the USA) want to support the USA and prevent it from being plunged into chaos. For your post to make sense they would have had to hack the Dems.
Re:Motive (Score:4, Interesting)
You've got it the wrong way around. I'm not suggesting Iran would be supporting the USA if they caused Trump to lose the election, just the opposite. I'm suggesting that the point of the hack might have been to make Trump lose the election so he would challenge the results, plunging the US into chaos. That also tracks with their alleged plot to assassinate him.
If I'm wrong, fine, but let's discuss it instead of cowardly moderating my posts down.
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That makes more sense. But before you shit on moderators remember that not only were you modded down but at least some people (like me) completely misunderstood your point.
Those who say "I am communicating, they just don't understand!", missed the point of communication.
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You replied, they modded.
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Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on 3 January 2020 by US drone strike under the Trump administration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Iran isn't interested in having a US president that demonstrated bellicose intends against them.
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If this story is true, and not some misinformation, it would seem that Iran is more afraid of Trump than Harris. It's in Iran's best interest to have as weak an America as possible, so perhaps they're thinking that another four years of deep state rule, by whoever is pulling the deep state's strings, will weaken America significantly. Four more years and perhaps they'll only have to deal with Israel by itself.
The US military power is orders of magnitude more powerful than Iran, so weakening that is pointless. And a weaker US in less able to influence the Saudis and Israelis, Iran's arch-nemesis, so a less influential US is counter-productive.
And the idea that the US would "weaken" so much in 4 years that they would be unable or unwilling to defend Israel, is not only dumb, but ignores that Israel still has Nukes.
No, it's in Iran's best interest to have as friendly an America as possible, and probably a strong on
Re:Motive (Score:5, Interesting)
That's a weird way of reading the situation. Everyone other country is dubious about Trump because they saw the four years of chaos when he was already there. Iran doesn't want either to be president but it's not like they have a third choice. They're not really scared of Trump, they're more scared of an unrestrained Netanyahu opening up a new war front. Iran sees America as a country of liars; promising a nuclear deal then backing out a few short years later, they have no trust for either politician.
Trump is absolutely with no doubt whatsoever going to take Israel's side in all conflicts. So Iran would prefer anyone else. This is NOT because Trump is strong though, it is because Trump is too weak to stand up to Netanyahu! Trump promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem, a disputed city, as a gift to Netanyahu. Trump scuttled the nuclear deal as a gift to Netanyahu. As well as gifts to the "bring about the second coming as soon as possible" evangelicals. This isn't strength, this isn't great deal making, this is just naivete.
US does not have a deep state rule, it has the rule of law. Meaning that the law takes precedent, not the president's whims. It may seem like deep state if you try to make an illegal dictate order that gets ignored, but they're just following the law. We do not want a dictator in charge, even if many voters think this will simplify things and allow a president to accomplish all the impractical and illogical campaign promises.
Pointer to the Dossier in question (Score:4, Informative)
Article: https://www.kenklippenstein.co... [kenklippenstein.com]
J. D. Jance dossier https://www.kenklippenstein.co... [kenklippenstein.com]
Revolutionary Guard? (Score:2)
Iran = CIA (Score:1, Interesting)
... declined to publish it. (Score:1)
Yes, of course, nobody expects them to bite the hand that feeds. They sure were quick to publish the Clinton bullshit though. If they have it and don't publish, they are negligent in their duty to the public. If it was Iranians (which I doubt), then apparently they don't want it widely released either, or looking for a "reward", otherwise they would just put it up on their own servers for all to see. The story is bogus. Pics or GTFO!
Why bother? (Score:3)
We're talking about the Trump campaign. Could anything honestly come out of this that could possibly shock or surprise anyone? Trump could admit to having eaten the babies of poor people after shooting their parents, and his supporters would just yawn and say "that's nothing compared to the deep state stuff".
Maybe they were hacking to help (Score:2)
Anyone understand this? (Score:1)
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Trump is isolationist. In truth, the USA has so many nudge, nudge, wink, wink deals in place, they can't afford to turn their back on their 'allies'. So, Trump won't be isolationist for long: He won't demand a shooting match, like Reagan and Bush Jnr did but his don't-interfere policies won't last. Then, the question will be, what level of interference is correct? We know what answer the Dems will give him, what answer his own party will give him, what Israel's Netanyahu has been demanding for forty ye