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Cringely on Domestic Eavesdropping

Posted by Zonk on from the tomorrow-comes-today dept.

krygny writes "In this week's The Pulpit, Robert X. Cringely presents some interesting factoids he uncovered in his research into the NSA's domestic surveillance. He makes no judgements but offers some interesting stuff you might not have already known." From the article: "Intercepting communications for purposes of maintaining national security is nothing new. From before Pearl Harbor through 1945, EVERY trans-Atlantic phone call, cable and indeed letter was intercepted in Bermuda by the Coordinator of Information (COI) in the White House and later by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Sir William Stephenson revealed this in his autobiography, A Man Called Intrepid. They literally tapped the undersea cables and shipped all post to Europe through Bermuda, where every single call was monitored, every cable printed out, and every letter opened. FDR and Churchill needed intelligence and they took the steps they needed to get it."

4 of 584 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yeah, great, guess what by uncqual · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    And what was your plan? Surrender to the Japanese?

    Oh, I forgot, you didn't have to have a plan. You just get to enjoy the benefits of not having to learn Japanese and kowtow to the Emperor.

    Oh yes, how long do you think you would have lived after posting something critical of the Emperor? Count your blessings.

    You can trash the current administration (by inference) because the history books haven't yet been written. However, I'd suggest that if you want anyone to take you seriously, you don't show your idealistic bent by second guessing how WWII was conducted when you enjoy the benefits of it. War is ugly, war is to be avoided if feasible (but not to a Neville Chamberlainistic level), war is sometimes necessary.

    --
    Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading /.
  2. Re:Yeah, great, guess what by Karma+Farmer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    And what was your plan? Surrender to the Japanese?

    You don't surrender to a country because they bombed a third world backwater extra-territorial sea port. Even if they had taken over Hawaii, Japan still had thousands of miles to go before they could threaten any American states...

  3. Re:Okay... by dangitman · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    First of all, you spelled "apoligised" completely wrong.

    Heh. So did you. One shouldn't criticise someone else's spelling if one can't spell.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  4. Re:Okay... by jcr · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    First of all, you spelled "apoligised" completely wrong.

    So did you.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."