4 ms·

Why would it be of the interest of any US citizen for elected officials to have any "secret" ? Full transparency should be paramount.

mcchew 6y ago
Congress constantly gets briefed on things that are behind closed doors. Not to mention our president is also leader of the armed forces.
davesque 6y ago
I suppose then that you'd be happy to make any and all conversations you've had in private during recent years public for all to see.
- pessimizer 6y ago
  That observation makes as much sense in context as when people compare the national debt to household debt. If the problem is that we might get to know what porn Pelosi likes or whether she has hemorrhoids, the theft of this laptop is trivial.
- alacombe 6y ago
  I've not been sworn to serve The People.
jorblumesea 6y ago
Secrets need to be kept in the intelligence world. It's naive to think we can be fully transparent on issues of methods and means. Congress needs to know things about our security apparatus but shouldn't be made public for obvious reasons. The entire idea of a representative democracy is we elect people to act for us. That includes knowing information that shouldn't be public and making the correct decision for the country.
- alacombe 6y ago
  > The entire idea of a representative democracy is we elect people to act for us. How do you keep elected representatives accountable then ? Their words alone is not worth the storage space it's being recorded on...
bregma 6y ago
> Full transparency should be paramount. Full transparency is paramount. It's just not practice.
scarmig 6y ago
That's the theoretical argument Assange pushes. Wikileaks does, however, keeps tons of information about its internal operations secret...
- alacombe 6y ago
  > Wikileaks does, however, keeps tons of information about its internal operations secret... It shouldn't... as long as its action, as whistleblowers, shouldn't be prosecutable either. ps: I do think that both Manning AND Snowden (as US citizens) should be pardoned, and charges on Assange (as a non-US citizen) dropped.
charonn0 6y ago
Because other countries exist.
wwwdonohue 6y ago
Let's say the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee learns via his work that a high-ranking member of the CCP is sending secrets to the United States in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Is it ultimately beneficial for that information to be made fully transparent?

mcchew 6y ago

Congress constantly gets briefed on things that are behind closed doors. Not to mention our president is also leader of the armed forces.

davesque 6y ago

I suppose then that you'd be happy to make any and all conversations you've had in private during recent years public for all to see.

pessimizer 6y ago
That observation makes as much sense in context as when people compare the national debt to household debt. If the problem is that we might get to know what porn Pelosi likes or whether she has hemorrhoids, the theft of this laptop is trivial.
alacombe 6y ago
I've not been sworn to serve The People.

jorblumesea 6y ago

Secrets need to be kept in the intelligence world. It's naive to think we can be fully transparent on issues of methods and means. Congress needs to know things about our security apparatus but shouldn't be made public for obvious reasons. The entire idea of a representative democracy is we elect people to act for us. That includes knowing information that shouldn't be public and making the correct decision for the country.

alacombe 6y ago
> The entire idea of a representative democracy is we elect people to act for us. How do you keep elected representatives accountable then ? Their words alone is not worth the storage space it's being recorded on...

bregma 6y ago

> Full transparency should be paramount. Full transparency is paramount. It's just not practice.

scarmig 6y ago

That's the theoretical argument Assange pushes. Wikileaks does, however, keeps tons of information about its internal operations secret...

alacombe 6y ago
> Wikileaks does, however, keeps tons of information about its internal operations secret... It shouldn't... as long as its action, as whistleblowers, shouldn't be prosecutable either. ps: I do think that both Manning AND Snowden (as US citizens) should be pardoned, and charges on Assange (as a non-US citizen) dropped.

charonn0 6y ago

Because other countries exist.

wwwdonohue 6y ago

Let's say the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee learns via his work that a high-ranking member of the CCP is sending secrets to the United States in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Is it ultimately beneficial for that information to be made fully transparent?