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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."
Acknowledging the problem doesn't exist, it most certainly does.
>>> 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 can't believe that Americans, the worlds greatest talkers of democracy, will tolerate such an uttlerly despicible act of totalitarianism, within their own country.
Well, sure, in theory the people won't stand for this egregious violation of our rights, and come November, you can bet that... Omigawd, did you see what Miley did at the VMAs? And that new video of hers - That girl seems headed for trouble, mark my words! Hey, can you stop and McD's on the way over and get me two Big Macs, a large fry, and a large strawberry shake? No, wait... I need to lose a few pounds, make it a small fry. So, who do you think will win the big game tonight?
"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.
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.
Easy.
The NSA have got files on everyone.
Which politician is going to take them on and see all their dirty laundry thrown to the media?
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 ----
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.
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.
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?
The NSA didn't prevent the lunatic from perpetrating the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard.
The NSA didn't stop those idiots from setting off an IED during the Boston Marathon.
The NSA & FBI didn't help with the apprehension of the snipers in the D.C. area a few years back either.
The skippers were caught because they were noticed acting suspiciously in a rest area.
The FBI and NSA didn't prevent the events of September 11, 2001.
I'm afraid you will need a few examples of actual successes in order to make your claims stick, but you are going to have a problem with this, because there are no examples of attacks being prevented.
Oh, and how about that mess in Benghazi ? Yeah, all the NSA spying seems to be really working out
well with respect to keeping Americans safe.
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.
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?)
Actually uniformed and civilian NSA people do go out into the field as we used to deploy (sail) with them on-board every time we went out for a long cruise. So those people were most likely in the field when they were killed.
[How do I know this? Whenever their gear broke and they couldn't fix it, I was one of the few people on board with way more than enough clearance to repair it even though I didn't work for the NSA.]
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.
"The NSA/CSS Memorial Wall lists the names of 171 cryptologists who have died in the line of duty since the Agency's inception in 1952," according to the letter.
This refers to members of the US military doing cryptographic duty who died in the line of duty. Here's the list. Most died during the Cold War or in Vietnam. In recent years, in Afghanistan or Iraq. Only one civilian, Alan M. Blue, who was on the USS Liberty when the Israelis attacked it.
This just in: military personnel work as NSA analysts.
Someone recently told me that the "capture everything" was done because it's "technically" not a search of everyone's communications on the Internet in human readable form. That is until they use search algorithms to build an "instant dossier" on whoever they don't like from the huge pile of data they've collected.
That... is plausible. It's probably even correct.
--
BMO
Blackmail only works on criminals and sleazebags. If you're doing shit so bad that you're willing to sell out your entire country to keep it quiet you deserve to be strung up by an angry mob.
Ordinary people do stupid and embarrassing stuff, but most people don't have histories that they couldn't come clean about if forced to. Only sociopathic assholes whose lives are entirely built on deception (eg politicians) are susceptible to this sort of treatment.
Blackmail is like Danegeld. Only an idiot would choose to play that game and only a criminal would need to.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
playing games with the definition to avoid technically having declared war by action on every nation on earth?
Why not? It's been pretty effective so far.
Russia, China, and the US/UK are bickering empires that share a common enemy, their citizens. But they will always work as a team to protect authority.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Are all the politicians being blackmailed? Every one? Don't you think they talk to each other on occasion? There are hundreds of them, they work together every day. They go out for drinks. They form friendships, just like any other coworkers. Surely one would mention "Hey Bill, I got this threatening phone call from the NSA..." They could disband the entire organization like flipping a light switch if they all wanted to, and if they all were being blackmailed, they'd certainly want to.
And what would the NSA do? Release documents on every person in Congress? That would just prove them right.
You're suffering from a group delusion. The only way to cure yourself is by trying to apply some logic to the situation. I know it's tough. But set aside your anger, your hate, your fear, and THINK.
To get enough money to get into politics means doing deals with people that are associated with criminals and sleazebags, if not the real deal. A scandal works with Kevin Bacon style weak connections so why not blackmail?
Tell that to Hoover. Or his lieutenant, Mark Felt, Mr. Deep Throat himself.
Blackmail works. It's worked most of the 20th century. It's probably working even now.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
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!
Getting a job in politics is like winning the lottery. The "winners" stand to make millions off the kickbacks and side deals. And all it takes to lose that lottery ticket is a small scandal that the press can run with right before re-election. The story doesn't even need to be completely true. The very insinuation of wrong-doing can be enough to lose a re-election. This is especially true for a Republican politician.