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NSA Whistleblowers Reveal Extent of Eavesdropping
ma11achy was one of several readers to write about claims made by two former military intercept operators who worked for the NSA that "Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home." Ars Technica has a brief report as well, and reader net_shaman adds a link to Glenn Greenwald's opinion piece on the eavesdropping at Salon.
Two things:
1)When I was doing this 20 years ago, it was drilled and drilled and drilled that we were NOT to intercept Americans.
2)There was (and I'm sure there still is) a thing called "tip off"; if you came across a conversation not targeted you were supposed to "tip off" to the appropriate group/individual and roll on, staying on your assigned target. You never knew when the trick chief was listening and we did not get caught staying on something we weren't assigned.
Is this generation not so strenuously warned against intercepting Americans?
What happened to targeted topics for intercept and 'tip off'? Is it anything and everything now?
I'm thinking things have changed and not for the better.
Actually, Senator Obama co-sponsored legislation to strengthen whistleblower protection. McCain? Wasn't there for the vote.
You are welcome on my lawn.
What, according to the U.S. Constitution, constitutes a declaration of war? I would contend that the "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002" passes Constitutional muster as a declaration of war by Congress. If Congress did not mean it as a declaration of war than they were derelict in their duty, because the Constitution does not contain a provision for the use of military force (other than in defense of the territory of the U.S.) except for declaration of war. When the U.S. Congress authorizes the President to use military force, they are declaring war.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
I am HUMINT, not SIGINT, but we are warned about not collecting on US persons. Military Intelligence personnel also have to watch a yearly video about it and "intel oversight", a related, if not the same, issue. That video also talks about the dangers of government or administration decrees about collecting on US persons, such as in the era of McCarthy-ism, when "un-American" activities were a valid reason to illegally collect on people.
Look at the timing: huge 05:56PM post for the story opened at 05:54PM
The user "daveschroeder" is a Slashdot subscriber... that means he is able to see stories and start writing his posts 20 minutes before the rest of us, and when the story appears on the main page he can post right away. That's how we often end up with walls of text as the first comments.
I can't believe you're serious, and somebody ended up modding you up somehow. Weird and bad things happen in the world, but it's not quite as tin-foily as you seem to think it is.