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: 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.