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NSA Surveillance Heat Map: NSA Lied To Congress
anagama writes "NSA officials have repeatedly denied under oath to Congress that even producing an estimate of the number of Americans caught up in its surveillance is impossible. Leaked screenshots of an NSA application that does exactly that, prove that the NSA flat out lied (surprise). Glenn Greenwald continues his relentless attacks with another bombshell this time exposing Boundless Informant. Interestingly, the NSA spies more on America than China according to the heat map. Representative Wyden had sought amendments to FISA reauthorization bill that would have required the NSA to provide information like this (hence the NSA's lies), but Obama and Feinstein demanded a pure reauthorization of FISA, which they got at the end of 2012." And if you don't mind that you might have your name on yet another special list, you might enjoy this Twitter-based take on the ongoing news.
Absolutely nothing to nobody.
The United States of Apathy.
Germany is yellow. Just mentioning...
Professional liars lying, who would've thought?
This is impossible and I am willing to believe everything the NSA said.
And if you do not believe the same you are very unpatriotic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Veag-ptUkXI
"NSA officials have repeatedly denied under oath to Congress that even producing an estimate of the number of Americans caught up in its surveillance is impossible.
They probably matched one IP to one user to get their numbers.
Transcend Conditioned Consciousness None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds
Captcha: enlists
It's too late to stop this or even do anything about it. The only actions that can be taken would be to physically destroy the facilities that handle this data gathering and store the harvest.
It's clear that the US government doesn't care about our laws of Constitution. They lie to the people, to Congress, to judges and even to each other. This crap started late in the GWB's second term and our current administration of "change" has done nothing about it except to expand its reach.
The PUTUS lied to the congress
The congress lied to the people ... and the people ... becomes sheeple
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I hope you americans now realize what you let happen.
Inaction is no worse than active support.
No one?
The only surprising part is the Congress citters seemed to believe them. After all, they are politicians themselves, they should know NSA lied, each time, every time.
you might enjoy this Twitter-based take on the ongoing news.
From the twitter:
Declassified: our research indicates that 95.9% of Americans who claim to be LOLing are in fact L-ing silently, if at all.
News indeed.
Interestingly, the NSA spies more on America than China according to the heat map
I thought my eyes had fooled me, and I ended up re-read that sentence 5 times ...
What the fuck is going on ?
Did we elect the WRONG president ?
I'm the reason they're yellow is because of NSA industrial spionage?
Belief is the currency of delusion.
The Lives of Others
There's a big difference,though.
Aside being complete fiction, the monitor was directly listening in, empathized with the folks he was spying on, was disillusioned with his cause and leadership and basically burned out with the whole job - IIRC.
With the NSA, they have mostly automated systems that are listening in on everyone in a mechanical way that doesn't allow for empathy and identification with the vict...subject, you have monitors that believe that they are "protecting" the US from its enemies (drank the Red, White and Blue Kool-Aids),and add in bureaucrats who have to cover their asses in order to keep their over paid cushy jobs (please, getting chewed out by a grandstanding toothless namby pamby Congress that would NEVER think of really doing anything for fear of being labeled"Soft on Terror" by the morons on Fox News and the idiots who watch it? Entertainment for the grillee! ).
The other thing is, where's the Jewish community? Why aren't they up in arms over this? Doesn't this feel like Nazi/East Germany?
Never forget indeed.
I have a hard time believing the US performs more domestic surveillance than Putin's Russia.
Knowing how many people in the USA are surveilled is not the same as knowing how many Americans are surveilled. Two very different numbers. What's more, without breaking privacy by looking at the content, the NSA cannot be absolutely sure. Statistically confident but not without the element of uncertainty.
Congress should ask better questions. They are mostly lawyers after all.
Who will be hanged for this? And why no one?
It's time to show them their place.
"NSA officials have repeatedly denied under oath to Congress that even producing an estimate of the number of Americans caught up in its surveillance is impossible. Leaked screenshots of an NSA application that does exactly that, ...
They denied it was impossible, and they have a tool that does it. Where's the lie? Where's the source for this to see what the real claim is?
The closest source says that NSA has said it cannot tell "with certainty" who or where all the participants in a communications are. They have the IP address. They're admitting that the IP address doesn't identify the user, which is what we yell at **IAA when a story of them suing someone for megabucks based on identification via IP appears here.
The IP address doesn't tell you where they are at more than sometimes the city-level. Even with that, you don't know if the person is there or on the other side of the planet bouncing their communications through that address. I log in to my home from all over the world when I travel, so do you know where I am when I send mail from "home"? I use my work IMAP server for work email -- am I at my desk when I send an email through there from Brazil? No and no.
Not who, not where. What lie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
If we're going to go the way of China, could we at least have some of our manufacturing jobs back?
"Man bites dog" is news. Please come back when they tell the truth.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
one: that they lied about being able to report on how many Americans are being spied upon. "We cannot determine WITH ANY CERTAINTY..." - right, that's what error ranges are (ie: approximately 90,000,000 +/- 5%) The whole issue is now not the spying, but the evasive tone of all their answers. They obfuscate the truth and give answers that completely deflect the question under the guise that even ANSWERING would somehow compromise their program.
two: that they cannot come up with relative locations. Please. I can run a list of IP's through my system and come up with countries of origin in seconds, so I can't imagine how the freaking NSA (with ITS resources) can't come up with something far more comprehensive.
This whole line by the NSA about doing this for our protection is a complete joke. According to that map, they're spying more on us than many of the countries out there. If anything, we should be at a virtual zero level, and everyone else should be lit to some degree.
Contact your Representatives and DEMAND that the PATRIOT act be repealed. It is wrong that it ever became permanent and was supposed to only be a temp measure.. IT is being abused and is an abomination to everything that america holds dear.
Write a LETTER and an email you your representatives now and demand they repeal it. Without the PATRIOT act, Everything crumbles at their feet.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
With all the spying and lying going on, have those spying really learned anything at all, or do they believe the lies they are collecting?
Wrong question anyway...
What is it with the apparent belief that the US Constitution is only supposed to guarantee rights for US citizens?
This seems to be an implicit assumption in the public reaction to the NSA spying scandals. The Constitution makes no such distinction; it is intended to limit the power of the government, period, regardless of who is affected. If this were not the case, the US government could do anything it wanted to foreigners: search without a warrant, detain them indefinitely without charges, torture them, even murder them.
Oh, right...
Sorry for the cynicism, but the point should be obvious: This is clearly not the intent of the Constitution. The US government is out of control, but too many Americans excuse this by saying "well, it's mostly them foreigners, so it's ok". It is not ok. Anyway, it is now beyond obvious that the US government routinely violates the rights of everyone including US citizens.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Wait-- "NSA officials have repeatedly denied under oath to Congress that even producing an estimate... is impossible. "
They denied that it's impossible? So, it's possible.
This may be the worst-written summary ever, since it says exactly the opposite of what the headline says. Could slashdot find some people who understand double negatives?
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
"She [NSA spokesperson] added: "The continued publication of these allegations about highly classified issues, and other information taken out of context, makes it impossible to conduct a reasonable discussion on the merits of these programs.""
Oh. Oh really? Well, that's really a shame, given that you should have conducted a reasonable discussion on the merits of these programs BEFORE implementing them!
People might even be okay with these programs depending upon the nature of what's being done and the rationale for it. People already accept things such as the need for police to conduct wiretaps if the case is good enough for a judge to issue a warrant. But we're in a democracy. If you don't even talk to the people about this kind of widespread sweep, and get feedback on whether it is acceptable to them or not, then of course they're fricking angry when they find out how far you've gone without consulting them. This thing has long been suspected by plenty of people. It's not a big surprise. But why the hell are you surprised that it's a freaking mess to try to sort things out after the fact becomes official? I mean, I know the "act first, ask for forgiveness later" approach might be deeply engrained in the intelligence community, but you're talking about wholesale monitoring of people's communications. Of course there is going to to a be a lot of misinformation and confusion when you don't provide any information yourself about it. Deal with it. Properly. Please. Correct the inaccuracies.
This is one of those situations where if you don't get out in front of the thing with some factual and specific information promptly, then nobody is going to believe you even if you do tell the truth.
How can public relations people working for an intelligence agency be so clued out about how to handle this? Oh, there's misinformation? No kidding? And you think not saying how the program actually works will cure the problem? Bizarre.
So does anyone have any suggestions on what keywords I should be avoding in my posts.
I suppose
Jihad
9/11
Al-Qaida
would be some, are there other's?
We got the Congress we deserve, so we have no one to blame but ourselves. How many times did the electorate fall for commercials saying "vote for me, I'll make the country safe"? Time and time again, politicians go to the law and order/kill the bad guys card, and the public falls for it every...single...time. Instead of being outraged, the country should be planting a giant palm on its gigantic face.
Name of the game is, "Control." The Elites have complete control of the Democrat Party and a strangle hold on the GOP via the GOP Establishment because the Elites cover their bet on elections. Whomever wins, will be their puppet from either party to further the Elite's agendas. Elites also own and control the mainstream media and that is why we have to get any real information on what is happening in the US Government from the UK or, surprise, Russia. If you starting to think something smells in America, it's the stench of Fascism (under which government and corporations combine) as they prepare for control of American society when economic chaos begins. Aren't you glad the US Government that monitors you also has your complete medical records and is dictating on what medical treatments you may receive under Obamacare? Good sheep will get limited health care, bad sheep, well the paperwork is somewhere, just have to wait till they find it and correct it and the IRS has questions for you on your premiums.
Butlerian jihad, anyone?
Whatever you say, troll boy. You just ignore all the money printing that is keeping this shitshow afloat. I'm sure that we can ignore the consequences of ignoring reality indefinitely. Also, assume the position for your daily fingerbanging by your TSA overlords.
"Leaked screenshots of an NSA application that does exactly that..."
"...producing an estimate of the number of Americans caught up in its surveillance..."
Going by the summary and the only readable screenshot in the links, approximately 3 billion Americans are under surveillance! That's three times the reported population of the United States! The Census Bureau must be part of the conspiracy! Just how deep does this rabbit hole go?!
I would wager that the screenshot is showing total connections or pieces of data being monitored, not individuals.
Apparently none of you read the statement by James Clapper outlining exactly what prevents NSA/CIA from gathering intelligence on U.S. citizens. You love reading out of context documents. Perhaps it gives you a reason to go into the kitchen and get your tin foil. Go read the FISA, and you'll see exactly what protects your 4th amendment rights. Of course you probably won't go and read the document because you're too busy basking in your dystopian fantasy.
I could get that software.
Very well stated. I wish I had mod points now.
But you forget to mention that most of Congress are crooks. Democracy in the west isn't real - you get a choice between two fascist figureheads. It all boils down to money and corporate influence.
From a previous post, here's the collected list of suggested actions
people can take to help fix the government.
Have more ideas? Please post below.
Links worthy of attention:
http://anticorruptionact.org/
http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html
http://action.fairelectionsnow.org/fairelections
http://represent.us/
http://www.protectourdemocracy.com/
http://www.wolf-pac.com/
https://www.unpac.org/
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/
Suggestion #1:
(My idea): If people could band together and agree to vote out the
incumbent (senator, representative, president) whenever one of these
incidents crop up, there would be incentive for politicians to better
serve the people in order to continue in office. This would mean
giving up party loyalty and the idea of "lessor of two evils", which a
lot of people won't do. Some congressional elections are quite close,
so 2,000 or so petitioners might be enough to swing a future election.
Someone added: Vote them out AND remove their lifetime,
taxpayer-funded, free health care. See how fast the health care system
gets fixed.
Someone added:You can start by letting your house and senate rep know
how you feel about this issue / patriot act and encourage others you
know to do the same.
If enough people let their representivies know how they feel obviously
those officials who want to be reelected will tend to take notice. We have
seen what happens when wikipedia and google go "dark", congressional
switchboards melt and the 180's start to pile up.
I added: Fax is considered the best way to contact a congressperson,
especially if it is on corporate letterhead.
Suggestion #2:
Tor, I2dP and the likes. Let's build a new common internet over the
internet. Full strong anonymity and integrity. Transform what an
eavesdropper would see in a huge cypherpunk clusterfuck.
Taking back what's ours through technology and educated practices.
Let's go back to the 90' where the internet was a place for
knowledgeable and cooperative people.
Someone Added: Let's go full scale by deploying small wireless routers
across the globe creating a real mesh network as internet was designed
to be!
Suggestion #3:
A first step might be understanding the extent towards which the
government actually disagrees with the people. Are we talking about a
situation where the government is enacting unpopular policies that
people oppose? Or are we talking about a situation where people
support the policies? Because the solutions to those two situations
are very different.
In many cases involving "national security", I think the situation is
closer to the second one. "Tough on X" policies are quite popular, and
politicians often pander to people by enacting them. The USA Patriot
Act, for example, was hugely popular when it was passed. And in
general, politicians get voted out of office more often for being not
"tough" on crime and terrorism and whatever else, than for being too
over-the-top in pursuing those policies.
Suggestion #4:
What I feel is needed is a true 3rd party, not 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th
parties, such as Green, Tea Party, Libertarian; we need an agreeable
third party that can compete against the two majors without a lot of
interference from small parties. We need a consensus third party.
Suggestion #5:
Replace the voting system. Plurality voting will
The NSA Prism program began in 2007 under Pres. G.W. Bush and was authorized by Congress and has been reauthorized. It's not a Democratic or Republican program, it's bipartisan. Anyone who thinks the NSA is finding and listening to their phone conversations (2B/day), reading their emails (144.8B/day), or reading their txts (6B/day) would have to be awfully vain.
A lot of pessimistic posters are saying how nothing will change and people don't care. I wonder if this is just a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you're one of these people, have you done ALL of the following?
If the answer is no, then YOU are the problem.
..way back in the 90's for a while it was "a thing" to attach fake "false positive" sentences and words to online posts and e-mails to "gum up" the data collected by echelon. How come American's haven't immediately started that up again? I haven't even heard the idea mentioned. You'd think Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert would think of and be on board with something like that.
They could call it "talk like a terrorist" month.
Can anyone explain to me why all this shits coming out now? All at once? From several different agencies? This can't be a coincidence. Is the NSA stuff getting leaked on purpose to get the media off the IRS story? I really don't get this. I could see all the NSA stuff coming from one source. But the other stories? Clearly we're being manipulated, but by whom and for what purpose?
Urm, we're supposed to live in a democracy, right?
If there are real threats, (and seems to be plenty of them), that this technology can efficiently and effectively combat, then explain it to the people who vote and also pay for the damn thing.
Don't give me BS about how that will somehow "compromise" the security of the system; specific facts (like the names of agents) compromise security, not generic information about what information you are gathering, on whom.
These people lie to avoid oversight, is all. That way leads to tyranny.
If they cannot explain why this is in our interests, then it's not.
Quantitative Easing: all the government bond which don't sell on the free market are bought by the Federal Reserve. This isn't a side effect of the QE. It is QE. As long as the Federal Reserve keeps buying excess debt, the interest rate is artificially low. This "debt" is then repaid with issuing more bonds and selling them to the FED through QE. This wouldn't be money printing if there was an interest on the debt. It would be a pyramid scheme, but not printing. BUT! Any interest paid to the FED is deposited in the Treasury as "profit". So FED buys Treasury bonds, Treasury repaid this debt with interest. Treasury gets back the interest from the FED as "FED's profit from interest on lending". End effect? Treasury borrows from the FED at 0%. What is called when you borrow money at 0%, never pay the principal and only pay the interest? It's not money printing? What is it, then?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Now that the western governments are getting at a point where resisting them can be perceived by the public as a freedom fight instead of terrorism. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
In the real world everybody lies, whether in court, congress or on the street. Get used to it.
This means YOU, United States techie boyz & girlz. This thing is playing out just as I sketched it out here on Slashdot a couple days ago.
NSA is orchestrating a limited hangout to try and focus and tie off the entire surveillance issue into a neat little package of FISA and a 'manageable' number of transactional transgressions. Not surprisingly the New York Times gobbled up the bait, fronting the idea that this whole rasmatazz is about a few digital drop boxes where companies dropped users' data upon being served with warrants.
"Look marge, the Times says there were only 1,856 FISA warrants served last year. Probably for baad people. What's all the fuss about?"
Straw man going DOWN.
NSA needs to be summoned to Congress to disclose the nature and extent of their domestic communications backbone piggyback-slurp operation: its collection points, its storage capabilities and the number of personnel who are aware of and have access to this raw data source. And whether SOME of those personnel are foreign nationals recruited for the task to reduce their exposure and liability. (Greetz Israel.)
NSA needs to be summoned to Congress to disclose any SSL private key sharing agreements, an intimidation tactic that goes like this, "We're either going to move in here with secret directives, equipment and gag orders ... OR you will share all your private keys on a regular basis," which gives them access even to emails that never left their networks, they can read it as you drop it off and pick it up.
Nothing less will work.
EFF is fighting a jurisdictional war right now. FISA has told them they must take their case to local district and federal court. Those courts have said they must take it to FISA. It is an impasse. This is a bas Constitutional Supreme Court issue and the only way to get there is through the circuit. Enough Congress must be raised to estabish through legislation or resolution that this issue is an existential threat to the republic and the courts are authorized to hear it because this surveillance is occurring within the borders and citizens are being targeted.
Only Congress has the power to do this. No amount of picketing or marching or whining will win this one.
Or just let it go and knock that PRISM limited hangout straw man down, declare the problem solved and let the terrorists win. Fall of the republic.
Ball's in our court.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
A picture is worth a thousand words, but it's also worth a thousand questions.
Side note, the Federal Reserve is currenly planning on buying 67% of all US treasuary debt this year. That is the same amount they bought last year.
It's worse then that. The bonds the fed just bought are 'hard assets'. Through the magic of fraction reserve banking the Fed loans out about 10x that amount, getting about inflation from their customers.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0znHKs-Vrg
Watch the video, he confirms the two programs, he confirms they're secret, so much for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebooks denials....
He does a little dance, pointing to Congress as blame, "you're duly elected representative... has renewed these since 2006",
i.e. "I'M NOT TO BLAME, CONGRESSCRITTERS DID IT"
If you watch James Clapper testifying to Congress, he touches his head massively when we get to the BIG FAT FUCKING LIE.
But if you watch General Alexander, he lies with the confidence of someone who knows that nobody can touch him, he can simply dig up any number of scandals on any of those Congresscritters if they really annoy him.
They're quite correct if they "repeatedly denied ... that it was impossible". That means it's possible.
I've found the video, watch James Clapper act. Senator Ron Wyden, *ALREADY KNOWS* they are spying on everyone in America, he's a Senator whose been briefed. So Wyden knows Clapper is fucking lying to him/America.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/07/privacy-wyden-clapper-nsa-video
You thought you had a democracy, you thought things were agreed, set in law, and yet we find out, you were kept out of the loop. A country run by an elite. Mushrooms fed on shit and kept in the dark.
Here's the BIG fork in the road where we went the wrong way:
The Split http://www.markdotzler.com/Mark_Dotzler/split.html
Congress, the Executive and FISA, and the BushObama Supreme Court will rubber stamp any and all requests they have.
Verizon collects it. The NSA just receives it.
"NSA spies on America more than China" could read a couple of ways. From the context this apparently meaning "than on China", but it would be interesting to see the "heat map" not being shown. We know China have equivalent operations, and no doubt so do the FSB, Mossad, etc., etc., etc. According to McKinnon, et al. the Chinese have had wholesale access to .mil for ages, for instance.
What's sad is that if the NSA was doing it's job instead attempting to ace out all the agencies fighting to be the U.S. Grant Memorial Graft Dept., we might not even need it any more. As it is, we're not even going to need a Defense Dept., because the enemy won't have to invade or fire a shot. Just pick up the phone and have the sheriff service a dispossessory or a warrant.
Aaah, what's the use. Keep them Facebook pages coming, suckers.
It is not only Americans and it is not only now.
No great movement has ever been inaugurated Without Bloodshed. Even Marx said it.
People need to come to a desperation point before they will stand up. We all wait for the other guy. You know...someone ought to do something about that kinda thing.
Look, I am no G. Bush lover, but come one. Why does everyone keep actin like that boob started it.
The beginning of the end was when Truman started up the NSA in 1952.
Nice story, but you messed up from the start.[quote]Quantitative Easing: all the government bond which don't sell on the free market are bought by the Federal Reserve.[/quote]They're buying mortgage backed securities. Why, because they're trying to prevent deflation. If you think inflation is bad or debt is bad, you have no idea how bad deflation is. The bonds they buy expire. When they do, they money is unprinted or whatever that's called.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7t9W_Nxc4E
Yes, English had double negatives at least as late as Shakespeare's time, but no longer.
Two main exceptions, slang ("we don't take no guff from nobody"), and simply redoubling the negative ("you should never never never do that. That's a no no.")
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
I will work harder!
Oh. Oh really? Well, that's really a shame, given that you should have conducted a reasonable discussion on the merits of these programs BEFORE implementing them!
It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. A dark truth, but a truth nonetheless.
~X~
Money works better when it is stable. Both inflation and deflation are bad.
I suggest you put the 2nd to good use while you still have it.
But...you won't. If fact because of how pussyfied you've become you'll be offended that it is even suggested, which is exactly how you've been conditioned.
50 years ago there were people called Men in you country, and they went off and kicked the shit out of at least 2 super powers that stepped over some very definitive lines. It's a shame there are no men left in your country, only pathetic effeminate excuses for 'men' that resemble women more than anything else. (inb4 omg you sexist! ...No, just a realist.)
Nice story, but you messed up from the start.[quote]Quantitative Easing: all the government bond which don't sell on the free market are bought by the Federal Reserve.[/quote]They're buying mortgage backed securities.
No, I didn't mess up. There are (presumably) two programs. "Quantitative easing" and "Operation Twist". The first is buying of treasury notes the 2nd is buying of medium and long maturity MBS'. They might mix the two up because they really don't have to have any kind of accounting.... They are not accountable to anyone. So they might keep bonds bought through both programs on the same books. But QE, at least when it started, was a way to prevent interest rates from rising because Treasury notes weren't getting bought. Without QE, the Treasury would have to pay higher interest on the notes it sold and would not be able to steal $1billion in stimulus money for 2 years in a row.... I mean give it out to prop up... aaah. who cares? Steal.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
The bonds they buy expire. When they do, they money is unprinted or whatever that's called.
It's called paying of the principal. But if it's paid with the money that they just borrow from the FED again, the principal is never paid back. I stand by it. They borrow at 0% and never pay the principal.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Clapping as Mr Clapper hauled off to jail for repeated lies and contempt for congress.
This crap must stop. Even if we have to end the WoT.
Good point, but in my head it was even simpler: the implication of her statement is that we could have conducted a reasonable discussion of the merits of the programs just so long as we knew nothing at all about them. Which pretty much sums up the absurdity of the position the NSA is currently occupying.
> Representative Wyden had sought amendments....
The Hon. Ron Wyden is the senior senator from Oregon, and serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA
Iran is one of the countries with the most monitoring Internet by the NSA. How does the NSA get its hands on a network which is controlled by an openly hostile regime?
Society use your Sciences
"NSA officials have repeatedly denied under oath to Congress that even producing an estimate of the number of Americans caught up in its surveillance is impossible. Leaked screenshots of an NSA application that does exactly that, prove that the NSA flat out lied (surprise)" (emph. added)
:P
So, "denied [...] impossible" means not denying that it's possible, right, so then they didn't lie
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Let's take the communist slogan to start with: "From each according to his ability. To each according to his need."
Which means take from those who work harder and give to those who don't work as hard.
Damn, you are giving stupid people a bad name. I love how you transposed 'Those who work harder' with 'those who are rich', as if they were synonymous terms. You really buy your own bullshit, don't you? You don't get rich by working harder. If that was the case, every immigrant who slaved their way up to middle manager through hard work in a shitty fast food joint would be rich, wouldn't they?
The point of the slogan was 'those who could produce more' would be willing to share more of their excess, because they realized that they didn't need it. It seems to imply some degree of intelligence and enlightenment that seems to be conspicuously absent from the world right now, so don't spend too much time fretting that Communism will take over the world any time soon. The 'each according to their need', also suggests sharing with people who are less fortunate, like giving a crippled child a pair of crutches that they can't otherwise afford.
I have never even read a word of Marx, but you have to be pretty fucking stupid to miss his point as spectacularly as you do...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
There is a big difference between kidnapping someone, throwing them in a secret prison and denying them access to a lawyer and looking at badly anonymized metadata. Of the two I would rather someone look at my anonymized call logs than to haul me off to a secret prison and a secret military tribunal.
He's done that, too.
As far as I'm aware Obama also hasn't manufactured evidence to send hundreds of thousands of troops into harms way resulting in a war that's killed tens of thousands of civilians and thousands of Americans and costing trillions of dollars.
Well, he did start the drone program that indiscriminately killed civillians.
I had hopes when Obama was first elected but I think it's time to judge the man by his deeds, not by the words he says. That also goes for the acts of officials he appointed, the acts of officials he allowed to be retained in the government and the acts of officials which he sanctioned or were aware of.
Let us not act like cuckolded husbands who insist all evidence to the contrary that their unfaithful wife is a virgin.
Ps. if you disagree, by all means please present your facts. I will be more than happy to be proven wrong.
Bravo, a keen observation.
If the authorities were truly concerned about the information being taken out of context, they could have explained the context. It's still not too late to do so. I hear crickets, however.
Perhaps a more apt summary of the PR statement would be, "We were caught with our hand in the cookie jar and have no excuses".
I did some research, and these are the facts.
In 2012, of the 1,789 requests made by the government to monitor electronic communications, one was withdrawn by the government. Of the remaining 1,788 applications which came up before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), not a single one was denied. Yes, all 1,788 applications to monitor electronic communications were approved.
In case you question the source, we know this from a 30 April 2013 letter from the Department of Justice to Senator Harry Reid. The source article is here.
With a track record of 1,788 out of 1,788, thats an amazing homerun for the DoJ. Im forced to conclude that you are right, it is a fig leaf and a mighty flimsy one at that.
Incidentally, Reggie Walton, presiding judge of the FISC has denied being a rubber stamp court. In his own words :-
"There is a rigorous review process of applications submitted by the executive branch, spearheaded initially by five judicial branch lawyers who are national security experts and then by the judges, to ensure that the court's authorizations comport with what the applicable statutes authorize."
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Doing the sums, 1,788 applications in 365 days (assuming they work over over Christmas and weekeneds etc) means they process almost 5 applications per day. One wonders how rigorous the review process can be under such deadlines.
nice informations Admissions Open 2013-2014 so thx
Now we know why Feinstein wants to take all our guns.
Emmel, the NSA spokeswoman, told the Guardian: "Current technology simply does not permit us to positively identify all of the persons or locations associated with a given communication (for example, it may be possible to say with certainty that a communication traversed a particular path within the internet. It is harder to know the ultimate source or destination, or more particularly the identity of the person represented by the TO:, FROM: or CC: field of an e-mail address or the abstraction of an IP address).
If the NSA can't track an IP address to its ultimate source, how is it that the RIAA and MPAA are able to do it.
OK first of all I want to say I sick I am of morons who think that exposing our criminal government is a crime. It is not, nor will it ever be. It is the right thing to do, period. Disagree? Than you are as big a scumbag as the crooks who were exposed. In fact under the law, not exposing them is a crime. Number two. You are aware that there are 20 (yes TWENTY) security levels above the President's security level and every program that is in those 20 levels is above his security level and he is never told. Uh what?? Excuse but it says he is Commander in Chief, not recruit. Nothing should be above his level. The military does not have the right to lie to the President, to Congress, to the American public. No government organization does. Anything that supposedly is doing it for our own good, well they are scum who are trying to hide their illegal actions. PERIOD. I am so sick of groups with a bunch of initials thinking they know best and that its ok for them to break the law and spit on the constitution. NSA, CIA, FBI, OSI, and so on. It's wayyyyy past time for us to make these criminals accountable. It is time for them to realize they work for us, we don't work for them. No one is above the law. No one.
I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
This is the NSA's position. They will lie to deny any and all illegal (and many legal) surveillance capabilities until their existence is leaked out and cannot be denied anymore.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
NSA was chartered to monitor foreign "matters".
The Cyber Agency was given the authority to monitor "matters" in the USA.
Depends on where you live!
What is called when you borrow money at 0%, never pay the principal and only pay the interest? It's not money printing? What is it, then?
That's not money printing. That's called "a gift", since the entity you borrow from no longer has the money.
No?