Slashdot Mirror
Carly Fiorina: I Supplied HP Servers For NSA Snooping
MFingS writes: According to an article at Motherboard, shortly after 9/11, NSA director Michael Hayden requested extra computing power and Carly Fiorina, then CEO of HP, responded by re-routing truckloads of servers to the agency. Fiorina acknowledged providing the servers to the NSA during an interview with Michael Isikoff in which she defended warrantless surveillance (as well as waterboarding) and framed her collaboration with the NSA in patriotic terms. Fiorina's compliance with Hayden's request for HP servers is but one episode in a long-running and close relationship between the GOP presidential hopeful and U.S. intelligence agencies.
Trump says her face is a form of waterboarding.
That stuff about small government is for the chumps. The NSA and the rest of the police agencies are there to protect US capitalism. HP is a big US corporation. There's no reason in the world why she wouldn't cooperate with the NSA. Nor is there any reason why any other big corporation won't, whatever they may say publicly.
Being that the program was classified, they would have just ordered are large number of assets without telling her the reason for them. If I were HP and the NSA wanted to buy a large numbers of servers, I would sell the servers to them as well.
From the article
Fiorina said. “They were ramping up a whole set of programs and needed a lot of data crunching capability to try and monitor a whole set of threats... What I knew at the time was our nation had been attacked.”
The summary makes it sound like she purposely did it to screw over Americans. There's nothing to indicate that. The waterboarding issue is added on even though it is not related. This is a flame bait summary, and a misleading article. We really don't need articles on Slashdot that demonize people like this.
I would care so much more about Carly here if I believed that any of the candidates won't cooperate fully with the NSA. Heck, one of the very few things Obama actually promised as a candidate was to cut back on this sort of thing, and he reversed as soon as he was in office. Either the NSA has some good shit on everyone in power, and/or everyone in power values convenience over the interests of the people. Sorry, I wouldn't even believe Bernie or Rand Paul here. We've created a monster.
"Do not summon that you cannot dismiss" - H. P. Lovecraft
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I don't fault her for selling the servers to the NSA. That's the job of a CEO at a hardware company. I do not like her defense of warrantless wiretapping. It's obviously a violation of the Constitution and her attempts to justify it is a disrespect to that fine document and a free society. It bodes ill for a government with her as guardian of the Constitutional rights of US citizens.
Either the NSA has some good shit on everyone in power, and/or everyone in power values convenience over the interests of the people.
No, they have some good shit on everyone. They have said as much, without really coming out and saying it outright, if you see what I mean.
Read all about it here and here.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
It's like she's bragging that she supplied the gas chambers at Auschwitz, and for a very reasonable fee.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I would care so much more about Carly here if I believed that any of the candidates won't cooperate fully with the NSA.
Sanders is the only one that I think would give them any pushback.
He voted against both the Patriot Act and the Iraq war, and in my book that counts for something.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
It's the "involuntary" part that is wrong.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I suspect that sometime between election day and inauguration day a small committee sits down with the president elect and explains to them that they will be allowed use the turn signal and the horn, but not the steering wheel or the pedals.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
"small government" is just a b.s. mantra to support reduced taxes and regulations. Its proponents generally advocate a big, intrusive government, so long as the haves can have and do whatever they want.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Maybe it's the country I grew up in, but anything "framed... in patriotic terms" is usually only ever a disguise for some of the worst atrocities and general scummy behaviour possible.
Be wary of people who are doing things "for their country" rather than, say, "for humanity", "for peace", etc.
My country is a geographic statistic of my birth. How that justifies criminal and/or amoral behaviour against those with a slightly different statistic, I've never quite fathomed.
Fuck, even "I did it because it looked like the right thing to do" holds a billion times more weight than any patriotic shit.
Patriotism is racism without mention of colour. "Not born here" syndrome.
disclaimer: I have a household member who's worked as an engineer at HP under Carly.
The unending wellspring of universal hatred for Carly as a leader from those who worked under her (especially at HP) is impressive, and remains constant even from people whose politics are somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan. She did what she was told, she laid waste to that not-so-micro economy, and she shows no regrets whatsoever -- for either the human or financial disaster in her wake. There's no surprise, then, to find she was unquestioningly supportive of what she perceives to be rungs above her on the ladder of power. Godwin's Law is entirely appropriate for examples of where this leads; don't mistake "comfortable sociopath" for "hawkish."
Carly is precisely the sort of person who should never be allowed to have power over others, or even a sharp knife at dinner: Total obedience and no discernible ethics at all.
I think not...(*poof*)
There's certainly very little downside to it, these days, for most candidates. Even if you gain no traction/little notice, and you drop out early, the net resultis likely that nobody really remembers so it doesn't matter.
On the other hand, if you make a splash, but you lose out after a while, you can write/sell a book, get hired as a contributor on Fox, go give speeches, etc, and do a lot more than you could have before.
The really sad/funny thing is that Fiorina ran in 2010 as a moderate for California Senate. Now she's trying to sell herself as a hard-right ultraconservative republican. It's a bunch of flimflam, and you shouldn't buy it, any more than you should hire her to run your company.
There are people in this country who want her to be president, and that scares me.
Skepticism is certainly warranted - however, far better to go with someone whose track record indicates that they could oppose mass surveillance, or take actions to roll it back. I would choose someone who might go back on their word later over someone who PROMISES to do the very thing I don't want them to.
That, and the fact that it's TORTURE, the sort of thing we prosecuted people for in the past as a war crime.
It's also completely useless for gathering information, because all you get is garbage - someone will tell you whatever they think you want to hear to make it stop, even making shit up. Jesse Ventura put it rather well when he said something on the lines of "Give me Dick Cheney strapped to a folding table and a pitcher of water, and in 5 minutes I'll get him to confess to the Manson Family murders."
Dammit I don't care that I'm Godwinning but enough of my family are dead because IBM took that same bullshit, "Hey I'm just making profit lol it's not my problem!" line when selling to Germany in the '30s.
An ethical code is more fundamental than an economic practice. Whether I'm telling Bob how to get past the guards or selling him the equipment needed to get into the safe, if I have a good idea what he's up to then you better fucking believe I'm morally responsible when the bank is robbed.
The duty of every human being is to act ethically. Their "job" is constrained by their ethics. A position which requires the holder to ignore ethics is unethical to fill, and nobody should be doing it. Nobody is ever just following orders - especially not the guys at the top of the food chain who have all of the knowledge and all of the power to say no and all of the alternatives without causing them significant hardship.
That's really amazing especially when considering that ENIAC, which is regarded as the first digital computer, wasn't introduced until after VE day.
IBM did, however, manufacture M1 Carbine rifles for the US during WWII.
Your problem is you know nothing about computing. The first computers were literally punch cards with counter accumulators. We emulated those on chips and circuits later, as "registers". You probably don't even know why Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper are why those electrons flicker on your screen.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The government calls up your company for a big order of you product, and you make it happen and get the product delivered, and now you're going to crucified for it?
Carly was a horrible CEO and I want to see her ripped to pieces by rabid monkeys and dance about on the incinerated remains of her entrails. But I'm having a hard time seeing how - as a businesswoman - delivering a product for money makes her somehow worse because she happened to sell to the NSA. I'll still hate/mistrust her for the moral support of the questionable practices of the spook community in the 00s, but not for selling stuff.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Kind of like the difference between voluntary and involuntary sex?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
What business success?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I would care so much more about Carly here if I believed that any of the candidates won't cooperate fully with the NSA. Heck, one of the very few things Obama actually promised as a candidate was to cut back on this sort of thing, and he reversed as soon as he was in office. Either the NSA has some good shit on everyone in power, and/or everyone in power values convenience over the interests of the people. Sorry, I wouldn't even believe Bernie or Rand Paul here. We've created a monster.
"Do not summon that you cannot dismiss" - H. P. Lovecraft
You don't even need a conspiracy to explain it:
NSA: I need to look at anyone's email I want without a warrant.
Obama: What? Absolutely not, that's a huge invasion of privacy I was elected to stop!!
NSA: Ok, if there's a significant attack on US soil we'll investigate afterwards and find an email that plausibly could have warned us. Someone will then leak this email to the media and everyone will know that if you didn't take away this power we begged you for there was a non-trivial chance we could have saved the tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people who died in that attack.
Obama: Snoop away!
I stole this Sig
Note that Carly's undergraduate degree is in medieval history. This (of course) has prepared her for her previous position as CEO of Hewlett-Packard and will surely come in handy should she ever become elected to office.
I worked for HP under Carly's reign. Frankly, she'd sell her mother to get what she wants.
I find it interesting that she didn't mention any of this or the "flopping fetus" video crap when running for California Senate.
What's really scary is that some people actually believe she'd be a good President.
I guess we're scraping the bottom, given our choices.
This would assume that the outcome is not predetermined, and in the big (President, Governor, US Senate//Congress) I have come to believe it's fully controlled.
As much as you may disagree with him, look at the press coverage of Ron Paul. My kid in 7th grade noticed how any time they showed a clip on TV it portrayed him as crazy, and the commentary was always about him being crazy. Now look at Hillary who has not dropped out and the Democrats only other candidate is "Socialist Bernie Sanders". Listen to the messages, and the brainwashing becomes pretty obvious. Subtle, but obvious.
There is a whole lot of psychology involved in these campaigns, and even though people claim politicians are stupid that's not really true.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
my dream is trump carries the nomination
and sanders beats hillary (not impossible, she's weak, bland, uninspiring... i'm not sure why republicans get so upset about her, it's not possible to feel great hate nor love for someone so boring)
sanders can't beat a rubio (i don't know why, but people have a thing for plastic liars in suits, the man is a lizard)
but sanders can beat a trump
can you imagine a president sanders? i would weep for joy
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Note that Carly's undergraduate degree is in medieval history. This (of course) has prepared her for her previous position as CEO of Hewlett-Packard and will surely come in handy should she ever become elected to office.
I worked for HP under Carly's reign. Frankly, she'd sell her mother to get what she wants.
I find it interesting that she didn't mention any of this or the "flopping fetus" video crap when running for California Senate.
What's really scary is that some people actually believe she'd be a good President.
I guess we're scraping the bottom, given our choices.
And she used that 'knowledge' of hers to include this priceless quote in her speech just weeks after 9/11:
I’ll end by telling a story.
There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.
It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins.
One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization’s commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between.
And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration.
Its writers created thousands of stories. Stories of courage, romance and magic. Its poets wrote of love, when others before them were too steeped in fear to think of such things.
When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others.
While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent.
Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. Sufi poet-philosophers like Rumi challenged our notions of self and truth. Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership.
And perhaps we can learn a lesson from his example: It was leadership based on meritocracy, not inheritance. It was leadership that harnessed the full capabilities of a very diverse population–that included Christianity, Islamic, and Jewish traditions.
This kind of enlightened leadership — leadership that nurtured culture, sustainability, diversity and courage — led to 800 years of invention and prosperity.
This disgraceful polemic was taken to shreds by an Assyrian who took her speech apart
Dear Madame Fiorina:
It is with great interest that I read your speech delivered on September 26, 2001, titled "Technology, Business and Our way of Life: What's Next" [sic]. I was particularly interested in the story you told at the end of your speech, about the Arab/Muslim civilization. As an Assyrian, a non-Arab, Christian native of the Middle East, whose ancestors reach back to 5000 B.C., I wish to clarify some points you made i
that's communism. that's not what sanders stands for.
here is actually a range of economic systems in the world, thousands of them, of varying complexity. it's not just social darwinistic capitalism versus gulag and toilet paper lines communism. the problem is you're uneducated and you can only think in these ignorant simpleton cartoons. try looking at how the government of denmark, sweden, or norway works. or just canada. that's modern socialism. and they are richer, healthier, safer, freer, better educated, and happier than americans
american exceptionalism seems to be about thinking how you're better when everyone pities you. we do many things wrong, like our pathetic education funding and healthcare debacles, and we need to look to other countries who clearly do it better than us. but no: "america #1! drool, snort". american delusional derangement
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
A tier-1 vendor supplied servers to the NSA! OMG! We need to boycott that vendor!
Wait, what? Other Tier-1 vendors ALSO wanted to win the NSA procurement contract? We must boycott them also!
And you know what? I hear they have Coca-Cola machines at the NSA! I bet their employees drank countless caffeinated sodas from Coca-Cola as they were violating the civil rights of countless millions of Americsns - we need to boycott Coca-Cola as well!
You know what? I bet all the government cars in the NSA fleet come from GM - we need to boycott all GM cars for their support of warrantless wiretaps!
Wow, it's amazing how many corporations secretly support the NSA's warrantless wiretapping! /sarcasm
Ken
And it just happens to be among the most evil acts that human beings can commit, as it is not merely about killing somebody, it is about complete destruction of a person.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Jesse Ventura put it rather well when he said something on the lines of "Give me Dick Cheney strapped to a folding table and a pitcher of water, and in 5 minutes I'll get him to confess to the Manson Family murders."
I think Mr. Ventura would be better served by waterboarding Cheney until Cheney agrees that waterboarding is torture.
Once that's been accomplished, there are only two interpretations: either Cheney has finally admitted the truth, in which case we have established that waterboarding is torture and therefore illegal; or Cheney was lying in order to make the waterboarding stop, in which case we have established that waterboarding is ineffective as means of extracting truthful information.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
"Give me Dick Cheney strapped to a folding table and a pitcher of water, and in 5 minutes I'll get him to confess to the Manson Family murders."
It would also make for an excellent reality tv show. I'm in favour.