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Letter to "Extended Family" Assures That NSA Will "Weather This Storm"
An anonymous reader writes "The National Security Agency sent a letter to its employees, affiliates and contractors to reassure them that the NSA is not really an abusive and unchecked spying agency engaged in illegal activity." Whatever you think of the commentary, you can read the original, attached to the linked story.
Seriously, though, just because you say it doesn't make it true.
Actions speak much, much louder.
I guess that makes them Big Brother in law.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Not surprised. Not surprised at all.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Even a corrupt, militarised state like the united states, this is just too nasty, visible, and public a scandal, for prosecutions of NSA staff, and any political leadership, with knowledge, to be avoided. I can't believe that Americans, the worlds greatest talkers of democracy, will tolerate such an uttlerly despicible act of totalitarianism, within their own country.
Acknowledging the problem doesn't exist, it most certainly does.
End of discussion.
>>> It was intended to reassure them that the NSA is not really the abusive and unchecked spying agency engaged in illegal activity that someone reading former NSA contractor Edward Snowdenâ(TM)s disclosures might think...
Uhh what? Snowden just released existing documents, he didn't create them.
It stands to reason that the NSA should be judged exactly by their actions, i.e. the content of the documents they themselves created.
Of course they're not "engaged in illegal activity". They control the law.
I am sure that the NSA sees itself as the good guy, and I am sure it does serve some useful, protective services. However, if those services come at the expense of civil liberties then the price is too high. And if it comes at a small cost to civil liberty, then it won't be too much longer until the bureaucracy feeds on itself until the small infractions become large ones.
Of course the NSA will weather it, will continue to exist and will continue to spy. For them it's a (short) embarrassing time after which the news media will forget them and all will be the same for them again.
The ones who pay for this are the US IT companies which will be distrusted world wide and the US government (politicians, diplomats, secretary of state, etc) who will be distrusted even by their closest allies. US companies will notice it in the long term bottom line e.g. when big foreign companies won't outsource to a US company. The public will forget the scandal soon like they forgot Echelon, the big companies who have actual trade secrets however won't, and if they do they will probably regret it soon when their secrets aren't secret anymore and their US competitors magically know everything they do. These losses are however far in the future: more than a quarter away so they will be denied, at least publically and especially by the ones responsible: the politicians.
The politicians will have a lot less trust and goodwill from their foreign counterparts, even and especially from allied countries.
I had not heard about this new style sheet standard. Do I need to start to use it on my web sites ? Does it protect my sensitive information from the commies/taliban/mafia/... ? Which browsers support it ?
Gee, I wonder why NSA employees are handing out printed copies of the letter instead of just emailing (or Facebook sharing) it to their family members?
(There might be a lesson there for the rest of us.....)
"In the coming weeks and months more stories will appear"
In other words there's shit storm that's about to rain down on the NSA that will shake the organization to it's knees. And they know it.
Weather this storm indeed.
.. an abusive husband/father. "I hit you because I love you and you deserve it. Now fix dinner/clean your room"
To paraphrase the letter:
We're family, we love you, so you should love us. Everything said in the media (except for a few pundits who we are paying off) is lies, the leaks didn't really say what they said. Everything we do is legal because we have the power to define the meaning of legal as anything we do.
Has anybody verified this letter is real? I smell a hoax.
It's not about hundreds of honest agents and managers doing the right thing. It's about creating an apparatus where a rogue agent at the behest of some powerful politician can get lost among the many and spy on opponent politicians and their supporters.
With easy to defeat or ignore technological barriers and just "you should go get approval first before you listen in", i.e. relying on agent honesty to Do The Right Thing, we've already lost. I keep bringing up the Watergate people -- these thugs, most of which would have been agents or that level of clearance, wouldn't think twice about doing this.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Nope. It is a thinly veiled threat. You, dear family member, could be number 172 ... on second thought make that 173; we'll get Snowden first!"
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Sounds like the NSA has a quitting problem they are trying to abate.
Is that completely unrelated to this story, or do we expect the US government to prevent similar from happening here on American soil while the NSA and FBI dutifully obey all laws on the books?
Those were all military personal collecting data for the NSA.
They were NOT NSA people.
NSA people sit in their little cubes in the Virginia and Maryland areas. They do NOT risk their lives. That's all bullshit that any of those people lost their lives in the line of duty.
Why the NSA is not writing a letter to the American people to explain themselves?
The reason is that whilst NSA is well protected from normal folk, but they are very scared for more of their employees to leak more information - one more Snowden and the NSA as we know it won't exist.
This rhetoric is no different than the cigarette companies, which pretended to be standing up for "smokers rights." Their leaked documents proved a very different story and motivations.
Except in forests... when occurring to trees.
NSA are 'family' all right.
And 'family' members don't let each other down. Even if it does sound a bit like the Mafia.
What NSA SHOULD have done after the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War ended was to say:
"Hey, we aren't needed so much any more. If it can be shown that there is less threat nowadays, we'll just wind down our most expensive facilities and keep a small corps going so that if we're ever needed in the future we can build up rapidly. In the meantime, it's going to be great living in peace..."
What they ACTUALLY said was:
"OMG! Our Threat has gone away! Quick, start up a new threat, in the Middle East or somewhere, to keep justifying our existence! Something that we can claim will go on for EVER! We HAVE to keep people frightened, or our budget will start to disappear."
the fact that they wrote the letter is an acknowledgment of everything and pretty much says it all!
Writing to employees' families and referring to his organization as a "national treasure" both give off a sense of defensiveness. As another poster said, they will almost certainly weather the political storm and continue doing what they do, but this letter doesn't make them look any better.
"If it's real, then it gets more interesting the closer you examine it. If it's not real, just the opposite is true." -
I can't help but think of Apple's 1984 commercial.
2. Deny their story
3. ....
4. They win
Just admit that you have no concern for civilian privacy (whether they're American or otherwise), that you have no trepidation when it comes to breaking the rules and inventing your own, that you think you can decide what is right for yourselves when you know very well that it's wrong (and if you don't, that you need to go back to grade school philosophy), that you have no respect for the sovereignty of other groups and nations (many of which want to have nothing to do with you), and that you are a lying, secretive, pragmatic organization with no morals, conscience, values or principles other than feeding your own greed, power and corruption.
Seriously, denial is the first indication that you have a problem. If anything, this idiotic claptrap is indication that the NSA needs more than ever to be dismantled and banished into the annals of corruption autocracies.
I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
In 6 months we wont remember who the NSA is or what happened.
Humans today have the attention span of a turnip.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Obviously all of the rhetoric surrounding our illegal or unconstitutional behavior are extremist lies that jeopardize the safety of your country and families.
THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
The NSA denied the spying flat out, until they were caught.
The government claimed the court oversight was adequate, until FOI releases proved they're not.
They said they were only using the surveillance data to catch terrorists, until it was revealed that the DEA was getting a feed.
Why should anyone, even an NSA employee, believe anything these idiots have to say any more?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
"The National Security Agency sent a letter to its employees, affiliates and contractors to reassure them that the NSA is not really an abusive and unchecked spying agency engaged in illegal activity."
We have always been at war with Oceania.
"For more than 6 decades, NSA/CSS has been responsible for protecting the United States through its information assurance"
If anyone was thinking of breaking up with the NSA family, the letter states, “We want to put the information you are reading and hearing about in the press into context and reassure you that this Agency and its workforce are deserving and appreciative of your support.”
Family == Mafia [*]
[*] or used to be until the National Stasi Agency sullied the term ...
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there
I hope that there are lots more courageous NSA employees and contractors who will stand up and be whistleblowers.
They're probably our last best hope to turn back this police state.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Looks like Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf (the Iraqi Information Minister during the second Gulf War) has snagged himself a new contract. WE ARE NOT SPYING ON ANY AMERICANS, AND THERE IS NO FAILURE OF OVERSIGHT.
“It has been discouraging to see how our Agency frequently has been portrayed in the news as more of a rogue element than a national treasure."
The robust and aggressive, effective and highly competent intelligence gathering of the NSA does require oversight. I expect the US Congress to do this job, unfortunately they prove themselves over and over to be political whores loyal to their Party and extreme ideologies rather than their country.
So there is risk. But think of the NSA as a Bletchley Park on steroids. These are normal, intelligent people trying to solve hard problems. I'm sure there are administrators who might compromise integrity for personal gain here and there, and rogue elements with access to the information could abuse it horribly. That's why effective oversight is required. In my opinion Snowden himself is an example of the damage to national security that can be caused by a rogue element with access to this information.
The knee-jerk anti-NSA sentiment even among intelligent people here and places like hacker news is so horribly misplaced. How many of these people dump their lives into facebook and let any app from any random developer suck their contacts list from their phones? Get some sensible priorities for directing all of the energy and hate. I direct my anger at the incompetent oversight committee -- the US Congress -- and incompetent controls in hiring and protecting information especially among sys admins.
I'm sure the SS did not think of themselves any differently than the NSA.
Working for NSA is like working for SD6 :)
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
I'm not sure why everyone is so shocked the people don't stand up for their dignity and shut this system down. The answer is the concept of 'bread and circuses' and it's in chapter 4 of the dictator's handbook, and always has been.
Read it for yourself. http://dictatorshandbook.net/book/node79.html
There is no legal impediment to the NSA collecting, logging, analyzing, and possibly mischaracterizing *everything* I do online, and sharing the results of that analysis with the relevant local cops. The constitutional protections extended to American citizens do not apply to foreigners, from those living in other Western democracies, to those living in countries controlled by various "our-sonnfabitches" that the USA has supported over the years. It's well documented that the CIA has, on a regular basis, interfered in the domestic politics of other countries around the world, including aiding politically convenient despots in enforcing repression. In the old days, the computational tools to surveil everyone in the world simply didn't exist, so the CIA and NSA were naturally limited in who they could bother. Now, such limits apply to a much lesser extent. In terms of the technical capability (and I'm not implying equality of motives) it's heading in the direction of what the Stasi could do - to every single person on the entire planet. And, sorry, I am *not* happy that the United States government has that kind of reach. And nor should you be.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
stays together. Now let's all gather around the fireplace and take turns throwing copies of the Bill of Rights into the fire to stay warm.
stays together. Now let's all gather around the fireplace and take turns throwing copies of the Bill of Rights into the fire to stay warm.
Would that be the original Bill of Rights, the post-slavery Bill of Rights, the post-women's suffrage Bill of Rights, the post-interracial marriage Bill of Rights, or the post-gay marriage Bill of Rights?
I just want to make sure I know what era we're in before discussing the heinous act of passive eavesdropping, can't have any shades of grey or anything don'tcha know.
Yes, Prime Minister
watch it. learn something.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
The NSA is going down. But that there is still a habitat that it occupies. And another entity will fill it. We should be vigilant.
is not a none stater that shuts down the government I mean grown men and spying on citizens and every government on earth. It has all just caused me to go from wrapped in flag the first second I was born veteran to absolutely no faith in my fellow man. And have had to change my life to living it as a everyman for them self deal. Exchanged the new deal for the raw deal so the rich can get richer on Billionaire who dont want to be tax fair share say so. How can one have faith in anything ever again. The only thing that trickled down was food stamps. And even that they are trying to take away. And a few billionaires have sold them this is a good thing. And it would be if trickle down had not failed so badly that it all trickled I mean flowed like the colorado river up.
Really? A letter.
'Cause, you know, I always figured that people could pretty much see for themselves and make up their own minds...
The same basic questions about US law would have been placed in the ~1950-60-70-80-90~2000. Any individual would have just been reassured, reassessed and later promoted to a less legally challenging area.
A few generations later the people doing the hiring and been re hired for contracting would have been more understanding of the role of global communications at a domestic level.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Any issues raised about "passive eavesdropping" by protesters in the real world would be surrounded by police, federal agents and domestic mil support if near a base/camp/fort... :) :)
Long term surveillance and infiltration would blunt the message.
Press can be fired, set up, distracted or ensured fame until stories about "eavesdropping" become a distant memory.
Academics can be ensured fame as they write about other safe topics or are questioned over every 'privacy' 'crypto' or 'rights' paper.
If all that fails just set up well funded front 'foundations' or present other 'academics' to question the role of the Fourth Amendment at a state and federal level until it becomes just another party political mess.
Sockpuppets have a great role to play too
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Every word they've said After Snowden has been public relations. "Our extended family" "sensationalized the leaks" "wrongly cast doubt" "more of a rogue element than a national treasure"
"Denial, Anger, Acceptance" is the third episode of The Sopranos.
"You must try to forget all you have learned. You must begin to dream." -- Sherwood Anderson
Do they have ties to the Calabreses, the Sicilians, the triads ... ?
I am so reassured now.
1. There are plenty of articles and assumptions over the past 20 years about what they were doing. It never made this much impact before. Yet another gay guy and some good looking guy running from Obama and the government made it more interesting for the media.
2. The vast majority of people could care less. They are living paycheck to paycheck. They have more interesting lives. They aren't going to be impacted by the NSA. They aren't paranoid.
3. The NSA has a job to do in order to protect the US and they didn't use their abilities for evil.
The land of the watched, and home of the scared.
More a return to the 1990's role of the NSA - limited funded and called on only when really needed outside the tasks of setting the codes.
The CIA and mil/contractors will take their lost 'share' back from the NSA that just grew too fast in the past ~10 years.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
"I am not a crook."
The NSA should take a lesson from Nixon. Save face and step down before your ass has to get dragged through court and embarrass us all.
Have gnu, will travel.
I'm going to send all my email as Captcha jpgs. To hell with encryption, your recipient has to be savvy enough to install it, and a I can't even figure that out on my end. So let the NSA have it, but I'll make damn sure they can't index it without using human eyeballs. Or at least make them work harder on anti-captcha software first. Most email programs can send jpgs just fine already, and Facebook and Twitter handle them fine, also. I just need to come up with a captcha program that will do an entire paragraph.
The message is clear,
The NSA think the majority of internet users are liars, Snowden misconstrued what he stole - and the NSA and the preseident (who ever is in the chair) will not do a damn thing to stop the NSA. There's no guilt, no shame, no remorse.
The message is clear... The NSA are not going to change based on what they've seen so far. That means there's only one option. Escalate what we've seen over the last two months. If you want the NSA to change ... you better work even harder. Obama and the powers in the NSA are a little hard of hearing.
I am pretty sure there were surely "good" german really thinking they were the good guy , saving the world from the evil of the jews/gay/gypsie.
If they can withstand the 1970's, the only surprise is the lack of effort given towards bringing Snowden in to face justice in the US.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
methinks thou dost protest too much!
Yes, I do! I find it quite amusing that America was schooled by Putin on exceptionalism.
For a country one who claims to boast its own national exceptionalism and moral superiority. Yet, forgets to mention they are the holders of the largest national debt known to man. If you ask me. I find this fact hardly exceptional or superior ... heck it's not even moral!
the NSA is not really an abusive and unchecked spying agency engaged in illegal activity.
Nah of course not!
We all know there is no one responsible for anything, after-all it's been public knowledge for months now and nothing at all has been done thus far. All those documents and of course Mr. Snowden are nothing but lies and liars who should be burned at the steak. All our politicians are true and wholesome people who would never, ever, in a million years betray the people who grant them such power. Now get back in-line with the rest of us peasants of this world, we don't decide who's guilty or not we let the higher-ups decide that for us...
Afterall we the people have no power and we should not speak unless spoken to.
Have a think about that next time you sleep in your comfortable warm bed because sooner or later things change, they always fucking change. Always. And by the time you know you won't have that bed or even the house you live in because by the time you realize it you will have no more rights to speak of. Yet humanity grasps to a brighter and blissful future... what fucking future?! You people wouldn't be able to tell reality from reality if it fucked you all up the asses every night for the rest of your lives.
Enjoy.
The American mafia has made money through selling information to foreign countries since 1977.
Without help from the mafia cops, lawyers and hospital workers to allow Americans to be tortured, the Soviet Union would never have had the concept of super-cavitation, the neutron bomb, active stealth or cermet.
While the American mafia allows kids/relatives of parents with access to classified data to be tortured, the American government has had it's hands tied, it's about 30 years past time for some crooked cops and their gang members to meet the waterboard for espionage.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
" NSA is not really an abusive and unchecked spying agency engaged in illegal activity.""
I initially read that as " NSA is not *merely* an abusive and unchecked spying agency engaged in illegal activity" and couldn't see the big surprise...
The problem is, what the NSA does ISN'T illegal.
Iraq, meh. Wars end, we win some, we lose some.
No, the real bitter pill is "Thanks for Dual_EC_DRBG." Information assurance, my ass. It took decades before we realized they strengthened DES against differential analysis, and those decades of credibility on information assurance have now been thrown away. No budding cryptographer in the academic community who values his career can work for NSA, because it will forever be a blot on his CV. We're fine for the next 10 years, but what the fuck are we going to do when the current generation of cryptographers grows old, retires, and eventually dies of old age?
I don't think they realize that they are not starting a trend of things switching away from the U.S, they are helping to accelerate an already existing one. The U.S. has increasingly been viewed as a rogue state. People in other countries have been expressing less confidence in US leadership for decades.
The dot com boom changed things for a while; but the industries reliance on H-1B increased the switching of tech to outside the US. The dot com bust, followed by 9-11 made the US a much less attractive place. Europeans that came to the US eventually stayed long enough to find out about our healthcare system and ran back home. In my company now has more developers in Europe than in the US.
The data theft by the NSA will accelerate this trend. It is a tipping point. They act like it all started with Snowdon. The competitive situation has changed dramatically. We have been adding one more straw for decades. Is this the straw that breaks the camels back? Probably not, but it is several steps closer to it.
What amazes me is that the "line" has been communication between US citizens should be untouched, but anything involving foreigners is fair game. Placing the rights of Americans above the rights of everyone else has created the gap. If you have a system that protects everyone’s privacy. Where any access to information or monitoring must be substantiated and require a warrant or something similar, the system is far less open to abuse. Freedom is lost one piece at a time. The failure to stand up for the rights of others means that you are one step closer to giving up your own. “Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself - that is my doctrine.” Thomas Paine