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Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by matthewdgreen on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @01:10PM (#25201155)
I think it’s amusing that the takeaway from this episode is “the intelligence agencies screwed up” and not “the intelligence agencies found no evidence, and then were directly pressured by their political masters to construct evidence to justify a desired military outcome.”
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by ABeeSea on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @03:45PM (#25202836)
It wasn’t even a real intelligent agency that drummed up support for war. It was a temporary agency created by Rumsfelds and Cheney with the Orwellian name of “Office of Special Plans.” They deliberately lied and misused raw intelligence signals to force us to war.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Plans

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by scottlocklin on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @04:00AM (#25207249)
There's some CIA disinfo right there. Rumsfeld and the neocon claque certainly ginned it up. The spooks though, said it would be a "slam dunk" that there would be WMD in Iraq. Here's Tenet grousing he was quoted:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cia-slamdunk-idUSN264...

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by peanutz454 on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @01:16AM (#25206439)
So season 2 of TV Series 24 aired between October 29, 2002 May 20, 2003. Its main theme was US govt using fabricated evidence to attack middle eastern countries. The Office of Special Plans (OSP) existed from September 2002 to June 2003.
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by eirki on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @07:10AM (#25208374)
Reminds me of the "House of Special Purpose"

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_of_Special_...

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by alasdair_ on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @09:21PM (#25205313)
The intelligence agencies repeatedly highlighted that the information was dubious at best.

The politically appointed heads of the intelligence agencies used this information to lie to the American public.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by artificialLimbs on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @01:37PM (#25201447)
If the people at the agency had integrity, they would have immediately brought these concerns up the chain or public.
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by skissane on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @01:55PM (#25201656)
Who is to say they didn't bring them up the chain, and the chain just ignored them?

Try to bring issues to the public and they'll charge you with "espionage"/"mishandling classified information"/etc. Even if the charges don't succeed, you'll lose your career and the court case will ruin you.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by n0nc3 on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @03:45PM (#25202838)
Not just a court case though, an investigation or a "psych eval" are enough to ruin someone. Take a look at Russ Tice.

Also, read Ronan Farrow's piece from the New Yorker last week. They targeted a straight-laced DOJ lawyer with >20 years of experience. These organizations are out of control and pose a very serious threat to our freedom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Tice

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/how-a-cia-cove...

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by cycomanic on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @06:08PM (#25204102)
Thanks for posting this great article in the new yorker!
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by harry8 on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @08:22PM (#25204979)
>Who is to say they didn't bring them up the chain, and the chain just ignored them?

And that is why those senior public servants with power in security agencies hate wikileaks and are willing to trash the constitutional protections for journalists to get Assange and also want to destroy Snowden so very badly.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by lostcolony on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @02:31PM (#25202106)
See: Edward Snowden
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by zhengyi13 on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @04:10PM (#25203032)
See Deep Throat, while you're at it.
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by mumblemumble on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @04:33PM (#25203220)
Here, let me save y'all from the results of a Google search for that one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_(Watergate)
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by alasdair_ on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @09:23PM (#25205326)
They did. And they did again.

And the public had literally millions of people on the streets shouting about it.

And we still went to war anyway.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by mapmap on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @01:54PM (#25201637)
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by techer on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @02:28PM (#25202073)
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by skissane on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @02:51PM (#25202323)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%E2%80%93East_Timor_s...

Australia and East Timor negotiated a treaty to divide up oil and gas in the sea between the two countries. Australia bugged the East Timorese government offices to get an unfair advantage in the negotiations.

The East Timorese government found about this, and then sued Australia in the Permanent Court of Arbitration to have the treaty invalidated.

An Australian intelligence agent (''Witness K''), who knew about the bugging, contacted East Timor's lawyer – Australian Bernard Collaery – offering to testify for East Timor.

The Australian government responded by cancelling Witness K's passport to stop him from testifying, raiding the offices of East Timor's lawyer, and now both of them are on trial – in secret.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by BLKNSLVR on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @03:41PM (#25202796)
The word on the street that the extremity of the "in secret" part is the Director of Public Prosecutions, Christian Porter, protecting old party mate, Alexander Downer, to keep his name out of the mud for as long as possible, as it's likely he was the top of the chain of authorization for the bugging, being that he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time and was outspoken against East Timor for accusing Australia of spying.

The problem is that in protecting one person's reputation they're ruining the reputation of an entire country.

Shameful Australia.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by skissane on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @04:02PM (#25202970)
I agree with you.

Minor factual correction though: Christian Porter is the Attorney-General, not the DPP

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by BLKNSLVR on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @05:32PM (#25203783)
Sorry, yes, Christian porter is the Attorney-General and the Director of Public Prosecutions is a position within the Attorney-General's Department.
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by stirlo on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @06:37PM (#25204306)
I'm sorry but whats wrong with this?

It's exactly the job of the Australian intelligence agencies to protect for the countries interests and gain advantages where they can.

This case is even more reasonable as it's a country spying on a country so both parties have the opportunity do so.

The NSA has directly spied on corporations (Airbus) and passed the information to their own corporations (Boeing) in the past which seems less acceptable to me.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by GlennS on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @09:53PM (#25205528)
There is no way East Timor has an equivalent opportunity to spy on Australia.

Australia needs these island states to stay friendly for national security reasons.

It shouldn't be taking advantage of their small and relatively unsophisticated governments to make a quick buck.

Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by harpiaharpyja on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @07:20PM (#25204600)
I think there's an argument that kind of underhanded behaviour is not in the best interests of Australia.
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by sokoloff on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @07:44PM (#25204746)
Getting caught at it is not in the best interests. Getting away with it presumably is.
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by BLKNSLVR on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @09:50PM (#25205511)
There's obviously something fairly deeply wrong with it, or wrong with it being known by the Australian public, given the government's efforts at suppressing it.
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by ckozlowski on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @05:54PM (#25203972)
Re:Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert by EGreg on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @10:02PM (#25205563)
The thing is that we are always told there is evidence, like for sure, trust us:

Assad bombed his own people

The Russians hacked the election (a very broad statement, like “let’s believe in evolution”)

North Korea hacked SONY

All at very convenient times for our moves abroad and totally nonsensical from the point of view of motivation of the ones doing it (like Assad)

It’s like they don’t even try anymore. They just say “17 intelligence agencies all concur” with each other.