Hegseth orders Cyber Command to stand down on Russia planning | Hacker News Reader

Hegseth orders Cyber Command to stand down on Russia planning

therecord.media

76 pointsjbegley7 comments

This is probably an empty gesture, since NSA and “sigint work” is excluded from this order.

That said, if it’s followed up with similar orders to NSA and “sigint work”, then I will humbly suggest that our executive branch has been fully compromised, most likely by Russia.

This is the only optimistic view I've heard on the subject. But it seems similar to other wishful thinking along the lines of this gutting of a federal agency / this realignment of foreign policy / etc. is just for show, surely the actual nuts and bolts of American policy and governance will continue functioning somewhere. Surely they don't actually want to hand over national security to the Russians. Right?

> This is the only optimistic view I've heard on the subject.

In no way was my comment optimistic. It was charitable at best.

> Surely they don't actually want to hand over national security to the Russians. Right?

Well, that ship has sailed with DOGE.

Honestly, I am as much or more concerned about Chinese and (perhaps surprisingly) Israeli intelligence as I am about Russian intelligence.

Another charitable view:

I think Trump, Vance, and Hegseth are actually cooking up something that they think has internal logic in terms of a negotiations stance.

It’s probably a poorly implemented form of the “madman theory” of negotiation (a Nixon-style strategy), but who really knows?

There was a Tass reporter in the Oval Office with Trump earlier today. How much more evidence does anyone need?

> How much more evidence does anyone need?

“Being cozy with” and “being compromised by” may look similar, but aren’t the same thing. We can’t be certain just based on the presence of a Tass reporter.

Remember, Trump is the same dipshit who saluted a North Korean general. I fully chalk that episode up to narcissistic stupidity rather than being compromised.

Edit: I mean, let’s be clear… Trump is a gift to any and every foreign intelligence service.

One does not simply "Being cozy with" with russia. If you are "Being cozy with" with russia you are fully compromised by russia. It's like "Being cozy with" with Nazi Germany. There are no "halfsies".

Sometimes the collection of headlines and links tells a story "US Intel shows Russia and China trying to recruit disgruntled federal employees" from another post in /new: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43211000

Reply on news.ycombinator.com