4 ms·

Wikileaks tweets: Google boss Eric Schmidt on secret project

24 points by giis 10y ago

meira 10y ago
Good bye, Killary.
- sctb 10y ago
  Please comment civilly and substantively on Hacker News or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - meira 10y ago
    If it was a Trump joke, would it be ok for you (and the rules)? It seems so.
IIAOPSW 10y ago
So the big reveal here is that there may have been some neopotism in the rush to unfuck the Obamacare website instead of the usual federal hiring procedure? Based only on the text seen it looks like "hey, this Mike guy is good. Get this him on it and we can promise him a campaign position later on to sweeten the deal". Considering how doing things the proper way led to the Obamacare website kerfuffle in the first place, this is the type of corruption I'd actually want more of.
- napoleoncomplex 10y ago
  What I got from the e-mail was that this is after the Obamacare website rework was already done, and they wanted the same guy to work on a "secret" Eric Schmidt project, since he proved to be a good leader. Since the guy questioned "how legit it is", the insinuation I get from Wikileaks that this project was some kind of shady government spying project. Edit: to be clear, based on the e-mail it could literally be anything. But I guess the main point is to show how tightly SV is integrated into the inner workings of government.
  - giis 10y ago
    Thats my understanding from that tweet too. The concerned part was when he asks about legitimacy of 'Eric Schmidt project' and they want to convince him with some position/reward later on.
- bobsgame 10y ago
  I have not seen any amount of corruption which convinces me of genuine wrongdoing. The biggest thing I've seen is a lowest level classified document was sent to an unsecured email account. In my opinion, the whole email thing is making a mountain out of a molehill to rile up Trump supporters and give them some irrational reason to oppose the other side. It's groupthink at its finest. The sexual predator stuff is the same thing on the other side, both issues are totally irrelevant. I'm voting for Hillary because she is far better suited for the position, and her platform isn't based on bullying and boasting of impossible plans.
  - hga 10y ago
    Getting off topic, but "lowest level classified document was sent to an unsecured email account" does not describe the NSA TS/SCI/SAP GAMMA material a no longer cleared Sidney Blumenthal sent out. I suppose there are higher level classified materials like nuclear weapons designs (check out the DoE Q clearance), but GAMMA is already stratospheric and the compromise of it is in the "can get people killed in real time" variety. If you haven't read about this, you need to expand your sources of information. I've also read, without sufficient verification, that the names of 4 CIA agents were burned, and in general it's clear it's a counter-intelligence nightmare of catastrophic and unprecedented proportions. ADDED: Getting back to the email in question (which I found in full at https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/36617 https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/36617) there's no way of telling if anything nefarious was implied, it's all the way back to mid-2014, so unless the structure was set up so illegal coordination would be required, and which sort of structure was to be set up was in the air, it's unlikely illegal "illegit" was implicated. More likely Schmidt was generally ignorant of the details of these sorts of things and wanted to make sure the structure would be set up so nothing like that would come into play. And we haven't heard of anything like it with whatever his org eventually became, but it's something to be careful about, as the Project Veritas sting videos demonstrate.
    - bobsgame 10y ago
      OK, so she messed up with some emails. That's still not enough to make me want to vote for a pushy business guy whose platform consists of impossible claims and juvenile name calling. She could have accidentally forwarded a top secret email to her bowling club mailing list and I still wouldn't think she was less qualified. It's just irrelevant in the bigger picture. I think Trump is not qualified at all and I don't think he will do a better job. The president is not a dictator and they can't bs or bully their way into getting changes made. If he can manage to accomplish anything he says, which I doubt he can, it will end up making life worse for a lot of people. I get his rhetoric, the government isn't perfect and some things aren't working well, but he's not going to be able to fix any of it. He's just pointing fingers at red herrings to get people to back him.
- hga 10y ago
  Considering how doing things the proper way led to the Obamacare website kerfuffle in the first place Actually, that wasn't the case, whatever the competence of the contractors (and the lead company did a fantastic job on the Medicare Part D (prescription plan) subsite, which I have been using for a decade now), they were faced with a no win situational where major changes were being made right up to the week or half month before launch, requirements in general were delivered too late, CMS, which tried to play the general contractor role for which they didn't have the expertise, among other things required them to use a non-RDMS database with a paradigm they weren't even familiar with, I can go on and on and can dig up contemporaneous HN posts with more details. Bottom line/TL;DR, the higher quality "dream team" people retained to "unfuck the Obamacare website" would have inevitably failed if they'd been in the same position prior to its launch, it's only after it became a crisis that anyone had a chance to make it work.
Oletros 10y ago
I expect that this is not the big Google reveal that Assange promised
hga 10y ago
Some more on what Eric Schmidt did/is doing for Hillary's campaign (ignore the source, it's a "just the facts, ma'am" report, and all anodyne and entirely proper stuff, and per a linked article the company they set up is getting paid directly by the campaign, so there's no coordination issues, i.e. it's legit): http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/10/31/wikileaks-googles-eric-schmidt-wanted-to-be-head-outside-advisor-to-clinton-campaign/ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/10/31/wikileaks-googles-e... And it sounds like he gave good advice.

24 points by giis 10y ago

meira 10y ago

Good bye, Killary.

sctb 10y ago
Please comment civilly and substantively on Hacker News or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- meira 10y ago
  If it was a Trump joke, would it be ok for you (and the rules)? It seems so.

IIAOPSW 10y ago

So the big reveal here is that there may have been some neopotism in the rush to unfuck the Obamacare website instead of the usual federal hiring procedure? Based only on the text seen it looks like "hey, this Mike guy is good. Get this him on it and we can promise him a campaign position later on to sweeten the deal". Considering how doing things the proper way led to the Obamacare website kerfuffle in the first place, this is the type of corruption I'd actually want more of.

napoleoncomplex 10y ago
What I got from the e-mail was that this is after the Obamacare website rework was already done, and they wanted the same guy to work on a "secret" Eric Schmidt project, since he proved to be a good leader. Since the guy questioned "how legit it is", the insinuation I get from Wikileaks that this project was some kind of shady government spying project. Edit: to be clear, based on the e-mail it could literally be anything. But I guess the main point is to show how tightly SV is integrated into the inner workings of government.
- giis 10y ago
  Thats my understanding from that tweet too. The concerned part was when he asks about legitimacy of 'Eric Schmidt project' and they want to convince him with some position/reward later on.
bobsgame 10y ago
I have not seen any amount of corruption which convinces me of genuine wrongdoing. The biggest thing I've seen is a lowest level classified document was sent to an unsecured email account. In my opinion, the whole email thing is making a mountain out of a molehill to rile up Trump supporters and give them some irrational reason to oppose the other side. It's groupthink at its finest. The sexual predator stuff is the same thing on the other side, both issues are totally irrelevant. I'm voting for Hillary because she is far better suited for the position, and her platform isn't based on bullying and boasting of impossible plans.
- hga 10y ago
  Getting off topic, but "lowest level classified document was sent to an unsecured email account" does not describe the NSA TS/SCI/SAP GAMMA material a no longer cleared Sidney Blumenthal sent out. I suppose there are higher level classified materials like nuclear weapons designs (check out the DoE Q clearance), but GAMMA is already stratospheric and the compromise of it is in the "can get people killed in real time" variety. If you haven't read about this, you need to expand your sources of information. I've also read, without sufficient verification, that the names of 4 CIA agents were burned, and in general it's clear it's a counter-intelligence nightmare of catastrophic and unprecedented proportions. ADDED: Getting back to the email in question (which I found in full at https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/36617 https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/36617) there's no way of telling if anything nefarious was implied, it's all the way back to mid-2014, so unless the structure was set up so illegal coordination would be required, and which sort of structure was to be set up was in the air, it's unlikely illegal "illegit" was implicated. More likely Schmidt was generally ignorant of the details of these sorts of things and wanted to make sure the structure would be set up so nothing like that would come into play. And we haven't heard of anything like it with whatever his org eventually became, but it's something to be careful about, as the Project Veritas sting videos demonstrate.
  - bobsgame 10y ago
    OK, so she messed up with some emails. That's still not enough to make me want to vote for a pushy business guy whose platform consists of impossible claims and juvenile name calling. She could have accidentally forwarded a top secret email to her bowling club mailing list and I still wouldn't think she was less qualified. It's just irrelevant in the bigger picture. I think Trump is not qualified at all and I don't think he will do a better job. The president is not a dictator and they can't bs or bully their way into getting changes made. If he can manage to accomplish anything he says, which I doubt he can, it will end up making life worse for a lot of people. I get his rhetoric, the government isn't perfect and some things aren't working well, but he's not going to be able to fix any of it. He's just pointing fingers at red herrings to get people to back him.
hga 10y ago
Considering how doing things the proper way led to the Obamacare website kerfuffle in the first place Actually, that wasn't the case, whatever the competence of the contractors (and the lead company did a fantastic job on the Medicare Part D (prescription plan) subsite, which I have been using for a decade now), they were faced with a no win situational where major changes were being made right up to the week or half month before launch, requirements in general were delivered too late, CMS, which tried to play the general contractor role for which they didn't have the expertise, among other things required them to use a non-RDMS database with a paradigm they weren't even familiar with, I can go on and on and can dig up contemporaneous HN posts with more details. Bottom line/TL;DR, the higher quality "dream team" people retained to "unfuck the Obamacare website" would have inevitably failed if they'd been in the same position prior to its launch, it's only after it became a crisis that anyone had a chance to make it work.

Oletros 10y ago

I expect that this is not the big Google reveal that Assange promised

hga 10y ago

Some more on what Eric Schmidt did/is doing for Hillary's campaign (ignore the source, it's a "just the facts, ma'am" report, and all anodyne and entirely proper stuff, and per a linked article the company they set up is getting paid directly by the campaign, so there's no coordination issues, i.e. it's legit): http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/10/31/wikileaks-googles-eric-schmidt-wanted-to-be-head-outside-advisor-to-clinton-campaign/ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/10/31/wikileaks-googles-e... And it sounds like he gave good advice.