US Intelligence Chief Defends Attempts To Break Tor

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Arik Hesseldahl writes that James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, says that the NSA tried to penetrate and compromise Tor, but it was only because terrorists and criminals use it, too and our "interest in online anonymity services and other online communication and networking tools is based on the undeniable fact that these are the tools our adversaries use to communicate and coordinate attacks against the United States and our allies." It was all legal and appropriate, Clapper argues, because, "Within our lawful mission to collect foreign intelligence to protect the United States, we use every intelligence tool available to understand the intent of our foreign adversaries so that we can disrupt their plans and prevent them from bringing harm to innocent Americans. Our adversaries have the ability to hide their messages and discussions among those of innocent people around the world. They use the very same social networking sites, encryption tools and other security features that protect our daily online activities." Clapper concludes that "the reality is that the men and women at the National Security Agency and across the Intelligence Community are abiding by the law, respecting the rights of citizens and doing everything they can to help keep our nation safe.""

Comments

I feel safer...

[Anonymous Coward]

and I don't even live in the states

Re:I feel safer...

[flyneye]

Well, maybe he did! The author William Burroughs postulated that by cutting up and rearranging information, you could find what it actually meant.
Let's give it a go, shall we?
"Tor writes that James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, says that the NSA tried to penetrate Arik Hesseldahl, but it was only because terrorists and criminals and compromise, too and our "respecting in online intelligence services and other online communication and networking tools is based on the safe fact that these are the our adversaries use to communicate and coordinate anonymity attacks against the United States and our foreign adversaries." It was all legal and appropriate, Clapper argues, because, "Within our lawful mission to collect foreign to protect the United States, we use every intelligence tool available to understand the intent of our allies so that we can abiding by their plans and prevent them from bringing reality to innocent Americans . Our adversaries have the undeniable ability to hide their features and discussions among those of innocent people around the world. They use the very same social networking sites, encryption tools and other security messages that protect our daily online activities." Clapper concludes that "the harm is that the men and women use it at the National Security Agency and across the Intelligence Community are disrupt the law, interest the rights of citizens and doing everything they can to help keep our nation tools.""[CC] [CC]
Not a word was wasted, and I dropped the excess [CC]s at the end to be dumped in the bin or recycled later.

Officials learn terrorist and criminals use cash

[bsandersen]

In a combined statement the FBI, DEA, and Homeland Security announce a startling discovery: terrorists and criminals use cash. As a result, law enforcement agencies are seizing cash and "near cash" equivalents such as bank accounts from all US residents. Quoting law enforcement officials, "We have only just learned that cash can be used for criminal and terrorist activities. We hope the public understands the eminent danger of these systems and cooperates with these seizures. Our goal is always to prevent harm to the public and once we learned that cash was used by nearly 100% of all terrorist and criminal activities in some form or another we knew we needed to act."