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DNC Hacker Releases Clinton Foundation Documents (washingtonexaminer.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the strengths-and-weaknesses dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Following a report that Russian hackers penetrated the DNC's database, a hacker, who identifies himself as "Guccifer 2.0" after a popular Romanian hacker who hacked various American political figures, most notably Hillary Clinton and her private server, has published documents on Tuesday that he says came from the party's digital files. The documents detail Clinton's weaknesses as a candidate, and include a collection of negative press clips about the Clinton Foundation and a list of defenses against attacks on her private email use. Washington Examiner reports: "Another document, titled '2016 Democrats Positions Cheat Sheet,' listed major policy issues and indicated where Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb, Lincoln Chaffee, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden -- all former or possible rivals for the Democratic nomination -- stood on each issue." The documents contain information ranging from how the Clinton Foundation and its allies should respond to criticisms of the Clinton Foundation's revenue sources to how Chelsea Clinton wasn't able to answer questions about Clinton Foundation donations and other instances in which Bill Clinton was called a "sexual predator" for his past indiscretions. Even though the cybersecurity breach was blamed on the Russian government, the Kremlin has denied any involvement. The DNC also has yet to confirm or deny the authenticity of the leaked documents.

10 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Putin's just showing he likes Trump by rahvin112 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Putin's just showing he likes Trump, after all one dictator can recognize a rising dictator. He'd love to see America in Trumps meglomaniac hands, the US would alienate all it's traditional allies and he's destroy our military power in short order invading countries that insult him.

    1. Re:Putin's just showing he likes Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      -we have more allies than just Israel. and most of them were alienated by bush the lesser, and those relationships repaired by Obama.

      W put together a coalition of 48 countries for the Iraq war. Most of those contributed little but they were signed on.

      I'm really interested to hear which countries were alienated by W and when the alienation occurred. I Googled for "George W Bush alienated" and found this, which is an article saying that President Obama's administration is doing such a horrible job that it makes the W administration look good.

      -our military is in NO WAY in shambles

      http://www.ibtimes.com/us-navy-doesnt-have-enough-ships-send-marines-crisis-zones-may-borrow-foreign-vessels-1990659

      https://news.usni.org/2015/11/04/navy-half-the-carrier-fleet-tied-up-in-maintenance-other-5-strained-to-meet-demands

      https://news.usni.org/2015/11/19/report-navy-and-marine-corps-strained-to-breaking-point-second-forward-carrier-in-the-pacific-could-help

      https://military.id.me/aircraft/marines-forced-raid-military-museum-aircraft-parts/

      "The U.S. Air Force is now short 4,000 airmen to maintain its fleet, short 700 pilots to fly them and short vital spare parts necessary to keep their jets in the air. The shortage is so dire that some have even been forced to scrounge for parts in a remote desert scrapheap known as 'The Boneyard.'"

      http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/14/wiped-out-air-force-losing-pilots-and-planes-to-cuts-scrounging-for-spare-parts.html

      http://dailysignal.com/2015/12/04/is-the-obama-administration-trying-to-wreck-the-military/

      -labor participation is dropping regardless of anything any one does. it has to do with the boomers retiring, not the economy.

      http://www.forbes.com/sites/louisefron/2014/08/20/tackling-the-real-unemployment-rate-12-6/

      http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/sorry-but-the-real-unemployment-rate-is-9-8-not-5/

      -inequality is horrible, but its not thanks to the current occupant, but rather the past several decades of structural issues in the economy

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/income-inequality-obama-bush_n_1419008.html

      -maybe you forgot, but the economy crashed a few years ago. of course stamps are up, and will remain up until people get back to where they were. that's what they are for

      As a candidate, and then as President, Mr. Obama was quite willing to blame W for the economy. Mr. Obama didn't cut W any slack on the economy; why should I be more forgiving toward Mr. Obama than he was toward his predecessor?

      And a robust economy helps people... "a rising tide lifts all boats." The Obama recovery is the worst economy recorded in modern times. It's nearly flatline.

  2. Re:Not Again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Lazar said he did extensive research on the web and then guessed Blumenthal’s security question. Once inside Blumenthal's account, Lazar said he saw dozens of messages from the Clinton email address."

    He did not get admin access. He got access to an account and leapfrogged from there. Pentesting 101 material. Access is access no matter how it was done. Leave the leetspeak and elitism back in the 90s.

  3. That's TRUMP'S playbook, literally in his book by raymorris · · Score: 4, Interesting

    >> Watch the press not talk about it, as they focus on
    > Trump saying something stupid ... again ...

    That's Trump's playbook. He spent way less than most candidates, and got much more coverage. One of his books has a chapter about publicity. It can be summarized as "be outrageous, the press is always looking for a story that's not boring." It's LITERALLY his playbook, available on Amazon.

  4. If you're not in a swing state, vote libertarian by raymorris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My state is solidly Republican, so my vote couldn't possibly affect whether Hillary or Trump wins.

    However, in this election the Libertarian candidate is polling higher than ever. Both major parties have to notice this and think about adopting some libertarian views next time. I can encourage this by voting Libertarian. No, the Libertarian won't get elected this time, but the Republicans and Democrats WILL notice "gee, a lot of voters like libertarian policies. Maybe we should think about offering those voters some of what they want."

  5. Re:If you're not in a swing state, vote libertaria by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Interesting

    However, in this election the Libertarian candidate is polling higher than ever. Both major parties have to notice this and think about adopting some libertarian views next time.

    It happened after Perot.....both parties got serious about the deficit after that. Didn't last very very long, but it was good while it lasted.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  6. Less creative than it could have been by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is some excellent analysis and commentary here, focusing on the metadata and and how it exposes the political/financial connections.... I *highly* recommend you scroll down and go thru the comments there, keeping in mind the Clinton foundation was accepting multi-million dollar gifts from mideastern countries while she was arranging arms deals as Secretary of State. BTW the site I linked is starting to remind me more and more of the old Groklaw.

    I always see things like that and wonder whether anyone, anywhere can play a higher level of game.

    The person releasing the documents could have thought through what would happen. Knowing and with reasonable prediction, he *could* have placed some false and condemning documents in with the stash - something that would be outrageous if true.

    For the right and subtly-constructed data, the press would leap on it in a heartbeat and it be a sensation for a few days. Then it would be roundly disproven, and then it would cast doubt on all the other documents.

    The end result would be a lot of people chaotically talking about that specific candidate for a few days. Depending on the persuasion dimension, that could be crafted to be good or bad for the chosen candidate. Misleading identity would be bad for the candidate: something that causes the public to give the candidate a derogatory nickname. Misleading facts would be good for the candidate: cause a lot of talk, easily dis-proven, and doesn't apply to their persona.

    All we really see in this world is straightforward and transparent actions.

    I'd like to see someone hatch a conspiracy or elaborate prank on the world, just to show that there are people who can do it.

    1. Re:Less creative than it could have been by hey! · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, with a politician as un-charismatic as Clinton, it doesn't take much to generate a scandal; if you were going to salt the documents then all it would take is light hand.

      That said, having looked at them myself I see no actual revelations. The strategy documents you could easily reverse engineer from the commonplace lines of attack the Republicans have been using and the public responses. The donor list contains no revelations, either.

      So the document corpus doesn't appear to have been salted. It's just an occasion to rehash the same points which can be argued from what was already public record.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  7. Re:Torrent Magnet Link to the Documents by plopez · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I often think of the foreign emoluments clause of the US Constitution. If a corporation is controlled by the leadership of a foreign country and a gift is accepted, or campaign contribution, is that a violation?

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  8. Re:We got some real winners in poltics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Grats on drinking the kool-aid. She talks out both sides of her mouth. Watch when she actually takes impromptu questions and has to think about what to say. She'll give a speech to one group of people one day, saying one thing, then the next day in front of a different crowd, say the opposite. She has scandal after scandal following her and all she can say is "vast right wing conspiracy". Her email scandal was all about hiding information from the public. Her foundation is a scam. There's till the linger of whitewater. She has no idea what the truth is. 100% politician for the sake of being a politician.

    As for her experience, she lost her right to practice law, she accomplished nothing special as a carpetbagger Senator (the only reason she ran was to bolster her credentials to run for President), her watch as Secretary of State was a disaster and is a major part of the problems in the Middle East today. Yes, you can blame Bush for what he did, but you cannot wish away what you inherit and expect that completely disengaging will make things magically better. She left a power vacuum that imploded the region that was somewhat stable and recovering. From some of the released emails, it appears that Obama didn't even trust her as an adviser and left her out of policy meetings. Her record is a farce.