<story><title>The Surveillance State Puts U.S. Elections at Risk of Manipulation</title><url>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/the-surveillance-state-puts-us-elections-at-risk-of-manipulation/281232/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>spoiledtechie</author><text>As much as you might think this is out there, I have a hunch, however stupid it might be that leaks about candidates could in fact come out this way.&lt;p&gt;it might not even be Obamas team leaking.  Lets sat a partisan person who works for the NSA wants to destroy a candidate.  They could in fact do all the research themselves rather than anyone even close to Obama.&lt;p&gt;I look at one direct example of Herman Cain.  How did the press ever get ahold of the fact that he was paying women out?  Literally, you could say the women spoke up, but with the NSA, you could say someone who works at the NSA leaked the information just because they didn&amp;#x27;t like Herman Cain to begin with.&lt;p&gt;Now that&amp;#x27;s scary.  Someone&amp;#x27;s reputation could be destroyed just by a rogue NSA agent.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Surveillance State Puts U.S. Elections at Risk of Manipulation</title><url>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/the-surveillance-state-puts-us-elections-at-risk-of-manipulation/281232/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>001sky</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I worry more about people high up inside the national-security state using their insider knowledge to help take down a politician. Is part of the deference they enjoy due to politicians worrying about that too?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is an argument[1] that this may have been what took out General Patreaus. It was no coincedence he was removed from the Army and put into the CIA post just prior to catching Bin Laden [2,3]. Patreus would have received all of the credit, not Obama. But we know that the prep work for Bin Laden involved building a replicate of the abbatobad compound in the US, etc. so was well underway under the leadership of Patreus, not Panetta. Obama was very wary of Patreus entereing the 2012 elections, and would have been a much more credible candidate than any republican. In the end, Patreus was of course done in by someone snooping through his gmail. Wether or not he was also the victim of a parallel construction, in how that came about, we&amp;#x27;ll never know.&lt;p&gt;[1] ie, Informal line of resoning or logic. In this case, circumstantial.&lt;p&gt;[2] edit: The move was orchestrated and announced earlier in the spring. viz: &lt;i&gt;On April 28, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that he had nominated Petraeus to become the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] Bin Laden: Died May 2, 2011 (aged 54)
Abbottabad, Pakistan 34°10′9″N 73°14′33″E</text></comment>