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Wikileaks and Anonymous Join Forces Against US Intelligence Community
pigrabbitbear writes "The most recent bombshell of confidential documents dropped by infamous watchdog organization Wikileaks is already looking to have an enormous impact on our understanding of government security practices. Specifically, intimate details on the long-suspected fact that the U.S. has been paying a whole lot of money to have private corporations spy on citizens, activists and other groups and individuals on their ever-expanding, McCarthy-style naughty list. But perhaps more importantly, the docs demonstrate something very interesting about the nature of U.S. government intelligence: They haven't really got much of it."
You're a complete and utter dumbass if you believe that US foreign intelligence agencies' primary purpose is going after US citizens.
Hint: the CIA and NSA, and every other component of the Intelligence Community, DO NOT COLLECT ON US PERSONS unless specifically and explicitly allowed by law or executive order. And even then, even with all of the confusion with the Bush wiretapping order under the AUMF — which, by the way, has NOT been declared "illegal" by any court, and even when in full force targeted very few persons within the US, i.e., in the hundreds — targeting of US Persons REQUIRES A WARRANT. Doing ANYTHING with regard to US Persons is also a vanishingly small part of what the IC does. The vast majority of our intelligence apparatus is looking outward — that's the fucking point.
To the extent it looks inward, it does so with very explicit and clear legal controls with respect to US Persons, and armies of lawyers approving and advising on any questionable action. If you actually worked in the Intelligence Community and saw how things worked, especially with respect to US Persons, you'd want to kill yourself for being such a fucking low-rent moron. No, literally: you'd wonder how you could have believed this bullshit for all of those years when the IC in fact isn't the evil beast you believe it to be. Yes, it's a giant bureaucracy and like any other features its own share of maddening inefficiencies, turf wars, and idiots. It got on the post-9/11 gravy train like everything else related to national security. But it's not what you think it is. The funny thing is that if you actually cared, you can easily learn this in an unclassified context.
Of course, this is slashdot, and everyone believes there is a secret cabal trying to "keep down the common man" and that the IC's near-sole purpose is spying on US citizens, so no surprises seeing this kind of mental vomit spewed on my screen.