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Secret docs reveal: an FBI with vast hidden powers

397 points| cylo | 9 years ago |theintercept.com | reply

167 comments

order
[+] alrs|9 years ago|reply
Anyone who thinks Trump is the problem is missing the mark: An imperial presidency with an unchecked intelligence apparatus is a systemic problem that inevitably led to this.

If one person can pervert a system, that system sucks.

[+] burkaman|9 years ago|reply
One person cannot pervert the system. One person, 63 million voters, lots of members of congress, lots of federal employees, etc. can. Not that the system doesn't have problems, but the people that make up the system are voluntarily giving Trump power. It's not possible to design a system that the participants themselves can't destroy if they decide to.
[+] mikeash|9 years ago|reply
It's not one person. Trump wouldn't be nearly as much trouble if the other parts of government weren't his willing accomplices. Separation of powers can only do so much. Once all the various parts are controlled by the same party, it ceases to matter much.
[+] Terr_|9 years ago|reply
My naive hope is that, post-Trump, we'll see a change in the relative-strength of the Presidency versus the Congress.

Over the years Congress has given away a lot of cultural and practical power to the Presidency, partly because it allows them to look good in the short term, by pushing decisions over to the executive branch and then giving "oversight".

[+] empath75|9 years ago|reply
I just gave up arguing over the surveillance state with people. People just trust that the government had their best interests in mind, or they think that they're too unimportant for anyone to care about them.
[+] okreallywtf|9 years ago|reply
I would argue that paranoia about the intelligence services and spying helped create the situation we're currently in. We feel like we're living in a police state and that feeling is going to cause us to sit back and watch a true police state be implemented.

That isn't to say that spying and warrentless wiretapping isn't/wasn't a problem, but I think we'll come to realize that it was nothing compared to what we've done now.

[+] news_to_me|9 years ago|reply
If there's any silver lining in all this, it's that Trump and the alt-right aren't moving in the shadows anymore, and they're moving too quickly. If this keeps up, surely there must be a breaking point when Congress and the people are too alienated.
[+] pklausler|9 years ago|reply
I agree that Trump is not the problem, but only because it's Trump voters who are the problem.
[+] josephpmay|9 years ago|reply
This article is part of a massive 17-part drop about the FBI from The Intercept today. Wow. https://theintercept.com/series/the-fbis-secret-rules/
[+] b2600|9 years ago|reply
Just started diving into it. It's fascinating from a bureaucratic, administrative, and operational perspective. --we have to increase CI/Intelligence capability or we'll lose primacy to another agency-- Paraphrasing
[+] masonic|9 years ago|reply
Note that Intercept claims to have been sitting on this content since "before the election" yet holds it for a massive flood in the first week of the new Administration.
[+] overcast|9 years ago|reply
What is going on with that page scrolling, picture changing insanity.
[+] caf|9 years ago|reply
...the FBI’s so-called Type 5 assessments — through which federal agents have authority to investigate people in the United States who are not suspected of having committed crimes, but who, in a federal agent’s opinion, could be recruited as informants.

In light of this, is anyone who has confidently declared "my personal threat model doesn't include nation-states" reconsidering?

[+] trendia|9 years ago|reply
Sometimes excluding nation states from your threat model gives you a blissful ignorance.

After all, proper computer security protocol isn't going to protect you from being disappeared.

[+] coldcode|9 years ago|reply
None of this should be surprising after 9-11 and the Patriot Act.
[+] beamatronic|9 years ago|reply
It saddens me that we are still reacting to 9/11
[+] danielschonfeld|9 years ago|reply
that! and yet nobody is willing to revisit that topic
[+] Esau|9 years ago|reply
Look at what can be accomplished with some fear-mongering and millions of apathetic citizens. The intelligence community must be so proud of themselves.
[+] hindsightbias|9 years ago|reply
I wonder how many people would have to know if a secret Executive Order required a few XKEYSCORE terminals be installed in the West Wing.

If only Nixon had had that tech.

[+] anonbanker|9 years ago|reply
Secrecy is incompatible with a republic.
[+] EekSnakePond|9 years ago|reply
At the time of this comment: (6 hours after OP)

14 mentions of Trump. 8 mentions of Bush. 2 mentions of Reagan.

vs.

10 wistful mentions of Hillary Clinton being the better choice. 4 mentions of Obama. 1 mention of Bill Clinton expanding ECHELON.

Obama had 8 years building and using it this entire apparatus, after 8 years of Bush putting it into place after 9/11. Trump had been taking it for a test drive over the past 2 weeks.

Can we please rename HN to "Silicon Valley and Democrats Only" so lurkers know what they are getting into?

[+] Strom|9 years ago|reply
I'm not from Silicon Valley and don't identify as a democrat. I've never even visited the Americas. Throughout my years on HN I've seen that there are plenty others like me on HN. To say HN is for "Silicon Valley and Democrats Only" is very naive.
[+] jarjoura|9 years ago|reply
How about we try not to shame liberals? This is a community and we should all be respectful of each other. Don't take comments of a president current or past so personally.