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Cringely on Domestic Eavesdropping
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."
Suck my dick. Modern day conservatives are nothing more that apologists for tyranny, murder, criminality, and rampant immorality. They seek nothing other than power through fear, and are worthy of nothing less than the gallows.
Wiretapping also works: the Al Qaeda cell in Italy that was planning to outdo 9-11 was caught by wiretapping.
There is no doubt that FDR knew about the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor from hundreds if not thousands of monitored Japanese communications as well as highly placed sources from several different countries. In fact he wanted war so much he actually encouraged and abetted the attack, freezing Japanese funds in the US, cutting off oil to Japan, and feeding false information to Hawaii about the location of the Japanese fleet. There is more, but it could take a book to do it justice. Take a look at http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html . FDR was guilty of treason.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
Oh my god! I just discovered that "mean" and "nice" technically mean *exactly the opposite* of how most people use them. Wow, all of those people who thought Mr. Rogers was "nice" actually disliked him, without even knowing it!
And news bulletin: "flammable" and "inflammable" mean the same thing these days. Horror of horrors! Can you believe what these rubes are doing to our elegantly designed langauge?
Cheers
-b
PS: English is a living, evolving language. Get used to it.
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
The difference between us is that I'm not a scared little monkey who willingly sacrifices EVERYTHING out of fear of some overrated boogeyman.
You're exactly that. You're willing to sacrifice the Brooklyn Bridge (spared from attack because of spying) out of fear that someone might listen in on a conversation to Iraq or Afghanistan.
So this guy is talking to people saying "Im going to use a torch".... what is to keep other terrorists, connections, etc. from contacting him and saying "but I have access to bombs"? The argument that a net is not worthwhile only because it tends to catch small fish is silly. There just happen to be more small players, some are just kooks, but a kook with a good connection is a dangerous crazy person.