Slashdot Mirror
Citizen Eavesdrops On Former NSA Director Michael Hayden's Phone Call
McGruber writes "The Washington Post has the news that former head of the NSA Michael Hayden took a call while on the Acela train between D.C. and Boston. Hayden was talking to a journalist 'on background', which means the reporter is not allowed to cite Hayden by name. Unfortunately for Hayden, another train passenger overhead the call and live-tweeted it. 'Mattzie continued to livetweet Hayden’s conversations slamming the Obama administration, all the while insisting that he be referred to only on background. The conversation also seemed to touch on Hayden’s time as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President George W. Bush as well. "Hayden was bragging about rendition and black sites a minute ago," Mattzie wrote. Hayden has in the past defended the use of waterboarding against detainees held in various sites around the world, and dismissed torture as a "legal term."'"
That's basically what I came to expect from Bush officials like him. I sometimes forget how bad things were.
This might help the situation. If government officials were subjected to the same scruitny and privacy violations the rest of the have-nots suffer, we might be able to straighten this train wreck of a country out.
I bet it'll change his outlook.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Of course, it would be worth a lot more if we got more than someone's probably biased interpretation of one side of a phone call. Like, actual quotes would be a lot better. Even then, who knows what the questions were.
but that doesn't make its referent any less barbaric or useless. Also, the irony of this article is pretty.
Even took a picture with him afterwards.
NOW!
That'll IMPROVE his advocacy!
Oh, and BTW:
Thanks, Obama! Thanks for the CHANGE!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
This is exactly what is required. We all need to out these people, all of them who work for the NSA and CIA, and subject them to constant surveillance, harassment, and ostracism. Perhaps an open source project to map and publicize the personnel of these agencies, as an exercise in democratic resistance to creeping tyranny. Heck, we can even enlist the assistance of kindly freedom-loving people around the world to ensure it will be impossible to shut down. The American government needs to understand the American people are onto them and deem them the enemies of freedom they are. Whether further, more stringent measures are required remains to be seen.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Okay sure... it's not illegal, but really
And while I know that sometimes you can't help but overhear stuff that's happening in a nearby conversation, that still doesn't mean you have to pay enough attention to what you heard to actually do something about it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
How the heck does a former NSA director come to be talking about such things in public?
It's like fight club, you don't talk about it in front of other people.
I should think sitting on a train conducting this interview would be an epic breach of both his secrecy agreements, and his common sense.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
We bid you a fond farewell, fellow citizen, and will remember you long after you have been disappeared.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
From what I understand of your political system you'd need a lot of money to buy the lobbyists needed for this kind of change. Perhaps use one of those crowdfunded sites to get the funding?
Reporting on how our government ignores our Rights under all the amendments in the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Conventions.
Everyone is a reporter now.
Everyone.
Hit Record.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I think we are moving toward a transparent society where privacy for all is minimal. Right now it is pretty one sided but I think openness and transparency for the government and large corporations will also happen. Technology will force them to open up. David Brin wrote a book called The Transparent Society that talks about this.
His approval of waterboarding is specific to a context. It is done to enemies of his government, generally ones who are not themselves aristocrats.
He is vehemently opposed to government officials being waterboarded (his for sure, and probably rival governments as well). He would consider that an egregious offence against propriety to do such a thing.
Waterboarding him will not change his position one bit. He knows it is horrible, and that is exactly what he likes about it. That is also why he thinks it is appropriate for them but not us.
If he was suddenly stripped of power, permanently, and put in a position where he might be randomly water boarded by the authority above him, you can bet your bottom dollar he would advocate against it. But THAT will never happen, so his position will never change.
Killing (without a trial), sure. Indefinitely detaining (without a trial), sure. Stalking to the ends of the Earth and forcing them to seek political asylum with countries not really known for their own human rights records, sure.
But torturing? Goodness no! How barbaric!
Are we not allowed to think all of those are terrible, or do you just take exception to people thinking torture is a special kind of evil on par with rape?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
What's the big deal, Mr. Hayden? "If you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to hide," right? You aren't suddenly uncomfortable with this perpetual retort to privacy advocates, are you?
an ex senior NSA guy is talking in public to a hack FFS how did this guy get any job at the NSA with such a poor gasp of security 101 - and you dont do an OTR briefing in public for flips sake.
So is my text message about acquiring bomb components. Those are all codewords for take-out Chinese food.
"Picking up the dry cleaning" is the code word for arming the WMD.
Have gnu, will travel.
OBSERVATION: When given the means and opportunity to make an actual audio recording of Mr. I-Listen-To-You that would have been admissibly real, capable of rendering into a complete transcript, with real historical value... instead choosing to tap out 3rd party observations.
CONCLUSION: Twitter causes brain damage.
The jury is still out on Slashdot.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
The mainstream media had (IMHO thankfully) a bit of a hate-on for Bush, so every little thing his administration did wrong was broadcast loud and clear.
Exactly what do you think the media reported on that was out of proportion to the actions taken by Bush and his administration? Under his watch we saw two unjustified wars started, illegal and immoral kidnappings and torturing and even worse arguing that these crimes were somehow justified, squandering of the first budget surplus in decades, an utterly incompetent response to a major natural disaster, and (though arguably not the administration's direct fault) the worst economic crisis in 80 years. If anything the media was WAY too nice to Bush and the rest of them.
They don't seem to have the same diligence towards the current administration
In case you didn't notice the media gave the Bush administration basically a free pass for a good long while after 9/11. Hell, they were positive enough that the guy got re-elected. Furthermore you an alternative explanation for the media's behavior is that there simply is less bad behavior to report on. While the Obama administration is FAR from innocent (they've done some pretty evil things too) they don't have anywhere near the track record of abuse and incompetence of their predecessors. That might be damning with faint praise but it's a better explanation that media ennui.
If the Bush administration handled, say, the whole Benghazi incident exactly the same way our current administration had, would there or would there not be calls for impeachment from the likes of CNBC
Probably not - at least not any more than we hear it from FOX news these days about the Obama administration. The Bush administration did things that were FAR worse than Benghazi and suffered little for the trouble.
Look, on the freakin' Acela train you've got zero expectation of privacy. Come on.
Don't be ridiculous. Hayden worked for the last administration. He's long gone already.
Are you sure that the USA does not torture children? Consider the scenario: The CIA has captured a terrorist involved in a bomb plot. He knows when and where the bomb will hit. He is a tough bastard, trained by Al Qaeda to resist insipid American torture methods. This guy will take a long time to break. But wait, he has a 7 year old daughter who he clearly loves very much, She was captured with him and she is very frightened. He has been doing his best to protect her. Do you really think that the CIA would not torture her in front of him? That is the road you go down when you start torturing because the ends justify the means. A dozen innocent Americans are worth more than a little pain and suffering to the daughter of a filthy murdering terrorist. Right?
Heavy is the head that wears the tinfoil hat.