Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Bark louder, little dog.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You cannot shame the shameless.

This blog will pay for itself.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: All the Halls of Mirrors

Monday Evening Open Thread: All the Halls of Mirrors

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basic nsa snooping badly

An informant working for the F.B.I. coordinated a 2012 campaign of hundreds of cyberattacks on foreign websites, including some operated by the governments of Iran, Syria, Brazil and Pakistan, according to documents and interviews with people involved in the attacks…

The details of the 2012 episode have, until now, been kept largely a secret in closed sessions of a federal court in New York and heavily redacted documents. While the documents do not indicate whether the F.B.I. directly ordered the attacks, they suggest that the government may have used hackers to gather intelligence overseas even as investigators were trying to dismantle hacking groups like Anonymous and send computer activists away for lengthy prison terms.

The attacks were coordinated by Hector Xavier Monsegur, who used the Internet alias Sabu and became a prominent hacker within Anonymous for a string of attacks on high-profile targets, including PayPal and MasterCard. By early 2012, Mr. Monsegur of New York had been arrested by the F.B.I. and had already spent months working to help the bureau identify other members of Anonymous, according to previously disclosed court papers…

One expert said that the court documents in the Hammond case were striking because they offered the most evidence to date that the F.B.I. might have been using hackers to feed information to other American intelligence agencies. “It’s not only hypocritical but troubling if indeed the F.B.I. is loaning its sting operations out to other three-letter agencies,” said Gabriella Coleman, a professor at McGill University and author of a forthcoming book about Anonymous…

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I just got the first four volumes of Skin Horse in bound paper (yes, I’ve read the whole series online, but for an Old like me paper is just better). So I know what I’m doing this evening — what else is on the agenda?

Reader Interactions

19Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    they suggest that the government may have used hackers to gather intelligence overseas even as investigators were trying to dismantle hacking groups like Anonymous and send computer activists away for lengthy prison terms.

    What a dumb statement.

  2. 2.

    Pogonip

    Is the character on the left supposed to be male or female?

    What am I doing this evening? Pondering useless things like androgynous cartoon characters. But yesterday I cleaned out a closet.

    I used to have a terrible time deciding what to keep until I remembered J.R.R. Tolkien’s “He who cannot cast away a thing at need is in fetters.”. Thanks, Professor.

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    I’m also waiting to find out why I’m supposed to be outraged that the US gathers foreign intelligence about foreign countries. If anything, the troubling part is them pressuring people into becoming informants, not that the US is — gasp! — spying on foreign countries.

  8. 8.

    kc

    First of all, she’s not a goddamned victim, and secondly, HE’S RIGHT.

    Really? All this other stuff I listed above has been going on for years and this ridiculous conversation with his girlfriend is what puts you over the edge?”

    Never rely on a fucking TPM headline.

  9. 9.

    dmbeaster

    @Mnemosyne: Not only that, but most spying involves illegal activities. Burglary, wiretapping, bribery, fraud; now add hacking to the spymasters toolkit. Using suspects for spying by promising leniency can endanger suspects, except hackers probably face the least degree of exposure.

  11. 11.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    (yes, I’ve read the whole series online, but for an Old like me paper is just better

    Say thankya big-big.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    I was all worried about Palin’s evilness yesterday, and so here’s the closing from an article in today’s WaPo about her waning influence in the GOP, even among the faithful:

    Yet, as she grows closer to Cruz and Lee, Palin is finding herself in more of a supporting slot, and her best-attended rallies this year have been with them. “Sarah may have been Led Zeppelin for conservatives, but Cruz is the Beatles,” said Steve Deace, a conservative talk-radio host based in Iowa.

    Cruz is gonna blow the GOP to smithereens, I tell ya…

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Pogonip:

    Is the character on the left supposed to be male or female?

    Not sure what difference it makes. Why does it matter?

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    They offered the most evidence to date that the F.B.I. might have been using hackers to feed information to other American intelligence agencies.

    This is not new. In Russia, the Tsarist secret police had agents who led marches against the Tsar.

  18. 18.

    John Weiss

    @ranchandsyrup: Are you nuts? The world is going to Hell in a hand basket (you probably know what a hand basket is) and you’re all about fake candles? Mercy!

  19. 19.

    Shinobi

    The information the government has access to about you is like, nothing, compared to what google, facebook, your credit card company and your cell phone company have, and they are using it to profile to you and market to you and resell that information. So I have a hard time getting up in arms about the government having it. Here’s a great article on TP about a woman who tried to keep her pregnancy a secret from the internet.

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