FBI's Unknown Eavesdropping Network
An anonymous reader writes "Building off the design mandates of CALEA, the FBI has constructed a 'point-and-click surveillance system' that creates instant wiretaps on almost any communications device. A thousand pages of restricted documents released under the Freedom of Information Act were required to determine the veracity of this clandestine project, Wired News reports. Called the Digital Collection System Network, it connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure. From the article: 'FBI wiretapping rooms in field offices and undercover locations around the country are connected through a private, encrypted backbone that is separated from the internet. Sprint runs it on the government's behalf. The network allows an FBI agent in New York, for example, to remotely set up a wiretap on a cell phone based in Sacramento, California, and immediately learn the phone's location, then begin receiving conversations, text messages and voicemail pass codes in New York. With a few keystrokes, the agent can route the recordings to language specialists for translation.'"
I hear they have sattelite-based laser microphones that can lock onto the string. Point-and-click interface too. About as believable as TFA...
Bush is evil. And "stupid" is an oversimplification. He sure is stupid generally, but he's a savant politically. "Intelligence" means having an accurate working model in your skull of the world outside your skull. Bush's world outside his skull is limited to the aristocracy he was born into, especially the Republican Party that his father ran for Richard Nixon. He is extremely intelligent at the cokehead fratboy manipulations that raise ratfuckers to the top of that cesspool. By the same token, abusing that much power solely to enrich and empower your Republican cronies, at the necessarily wasteful expense of the rest of the country (and the world that depends on our 1/3 of the global economy), is very stupid.
But it's inescapable that Bush's mountain of "failures" have all benefited him and his cronies. He has had maximum success. His only expense is his "popularity" and the ruins (possibly temporary, if Bush history is any indicator), but thieves don't care about popularity once their getaway car is full. He has cashed his check, and it's the biggest ever written. That's not so dumb, even if it is epically foolish.
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Bush worshipping trollMods burst into flames when they hear the truth.
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make install -not war