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http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37364189
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has reportedly called Republican nominee Donald Trump a "national disgrace," according to leaked emails. The Republican retired four-star general's comments were revealed in a hack on his personal emails. The emails were posted on DCLeaks.com, which has reportedly been tied to other recent high-profile hacks. Mr. Powell, who has been quiet during the election, said he had "no further comment" but was "not denying it".
[...] Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who crossed party lines in 2008 to endorse Democratic [candidate] Barack Obama, has tried to float above this year's tendentious presidential election. So much for that. First the government released his note to Democrat Hillary Clinton advising her on how to use personal email for back-channel communications while secretary of state. Now - in an ironic twist - his personal email has been hacked, revealing sweeping denunciations of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and some sharp criticisms of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
[...] "Yup, the whole birther movement was racist," the email read. "That's what the 99% believe. When Trump couldn't keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim." But the leaked emails also revealed Mr Powell's frustrations with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her handling of her use of private email while at the State Department. "Sad thing... HRC could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me into it," the email read, referring to Mrs Clinton. "I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hampton's party to get their attention."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 16 2016, @01:31PM
With Wikileaks, Cablegate, Snowden, the DNC hack, this hack, and many others we're seeing the spin and illusion stripped away. People have always suspected the fix was in because everyone can see the end results as plain as day, but the timorous have pooh-poohed those who want to see something done, saying they were mere conspiracy theories. With the facts laid bare, counsel for obeisance and complacency loses the ability to persuade. So, in the end, action becomes the only course to take.
Cablegate led to the Arab Spring. The various scandals and revelations have been stripping away the smoke and mirrors in the West. What are the beliefs still holding the status quo in place, and how long before they yield?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @03:15PM
What is the "scandal" here? Is a man not allowed to have personal opinions and private conversations, in or off the job? What spin and illusion is going on here? He's not out there stumping for Trump and saying what a great guy he is, so the fact that Powell considers him a national disgrace doesn't mean two-shits.
His thoughts and personal feelings on people and events on things happening after he's retired are irrelevant. The only appeal here is a TMZ-type of fascination. Your extrapolation to greater levels is pretty misguided.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @11:40PM
What is the "scandal" here? Is a man not allowed to have personal opinions and private conversations
Not in the hybrid Surveillance State / 24 Hour News State. If you put yourself out there everyone feels entitled to knowing everything about you.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 16 2016, @04:34PM
> Cablegate led to the Arab Spring.
An ingredient. No leaks take governments down without some other organization pushing for it.
Judging the tree from the fruits, the arab spring left it all open for ISIS to expand. A guy called Orsini made a book (ITA only I fear) "ISIS, the luckiest terrorist in the world, and all that has been done to help them."
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday September 16 2016, @08:51PM
There were 4 organizations in Tunisia (where the whole Arab Spring thing got started) who were involved enough to take over after the initial protests created a vacuum of power. All 4 of them, to their credit, got together and decided they'd collectively support an effort to create real proper democracy and let the population decide what they wanted to do now.
Sure, it takes some sort of political opposition to take down a government. But leaks are often enough to give that political opposition much more support and therefor much more power than they once had, and to cause those who support the government to at least question their choice to support the government, making the government weaker. So yes, the leaks themselves matter, quite a bit.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 16 2016, @11:01PM
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday September 17 2016, @01:27PM
Unless the current involution is part of the progress. Remember that a "revolution" implies the return to the initial state, so those who called the shift in power "revolution" might be playing an inside joke on you. This is a theory but not mere speculation: big changes in the last decades (russia and china going capitalist, usa going china and saudi lapdog) did not profoundly affect the system of power already in charge.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:22PM
Unless the current involution is part of the progress. Remember that a "revolution" implies the return to the initial state, so those who called the shift in power "revolution" might be playing an inside joke on you.
No, revolution doesn't imply that nor is anyone's claim about revolution relevant to my observation. The 1848 revolutions were a period of widespread turmoil in Europe very similar to the recent Arab Spring with similar authoritarian governments overthrown or weakened in a similar, spotty manner and the revolutions similarly experiencing mixed results with some anti-democratic ideologies gaining ground and a number of governments surviving the challenge.
big changes in the last decades (russia and china going capitalist, usa going china and saudi lapdog) did not profoundly affect the system of power already in charge.
I disagree. Big changes were big and the effects on the systems of power were as expected IMHO. For example, you neglect that China experienced a dramatic increase in power relative to both the US and the USSR which wouldn't have happened if they hadn't switched to a more capitalist approach. And humanity is experiencing a period of growing prosperity that has not been seen before in history.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:27PM
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday September 16 2016, @06:43PM
I dunno, wikileaks in particular has drifted into crazy, reality-divorced partisan hackery.
That's not to say I have any opposition to whistleblowing organizations, but their credibility took a freight train off a cliff in the past year or so, what with refusing to publish a subset of leaks that might implicate Russia, intentionally fueling an "earpiece" scandal with leaked emails datestamped for an event years apart, doxxing human rights activists in muslim countries, and just generally not giving a shit about leaking mostly useful things.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday September 16 2016, @08:36PM
what with refusing to publish a subset of leaks that might implicate Russia,
I was unfamiliar with that specifically, but I know that they try to conceal the identities of sources. Do you think that anonymous sources are important for journalism? Do you think that Bob Woodward had an obligation to either reveal who Deep Throat was or not run the Watergate story? I think it's actually a comparable situation, since Deep Throat turned out to be the #2 guy at the FBI and could concievably be part of a larger conspiracy within the government (I'm betting he wasn't). From a certain perspective, Woodward only told half the story by withholding that information. He even outright lied to conceal the identity. But then, Woodward couldn't break Watergate without promising anonymity. And Wikileaks might be able to obtain and verify certain information if they don't make similar promises. Does this matter to you? Are the cases different somehow?
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday September 16 2016, @08:38PM
might not be
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @11:28PM
> I dunno, wikileaks in particular has drifted into crazy, reality-divorced partisan hackery.
They went full conspiracy theory on clinton's health with this recent tweet. [mashable.com] I am bummed about their fall from grace. They used to stand for revealing conspiracy, but now they look like a variation of a political action committee. They didn't need a questionable swedish rape charge to discredit them, they've done it with their own words.