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NSA Wants To Reveal Its Secrets To Prevent Snowden From Revealing Them First
binarstu writes "According to a recent report by Tom Gjelten of NPR, 'NSA officials are bracing for more surveillance disclosures from the documents taken by former contractor Edward Snowden — and they want to get out in front of the story. ... With respect to other information held by Snowden and his allies but not yet publicized, the NSA is now considering a proactive release of some of the less sensitive material, to better manage the debate over its surveillance program.'"
When you get to frame the issue the way you want, you can try to convince the people that it was for their own good. Snowden may likely say show that it was used abused in practice, and the NSA likely wants to say that they prevented a suspected domestic terrorist.
Snowden Wins.
Spent All My Mod Points
"Snowden is a loser because he doesn't have anything new to tell you! Don't listen to losers! NSA are the popular dudes now! Hot NSA gossip over here! Snowden loses celebrity status!"
Would anyone actually believe anything the NSA has to say at this point?
Whether government openness happens because of a leaker, or it happens because of fear of leakers, or because it believes it's the right thing to do...the more open the government is about its activities, the better.
Basically means "Framing the narrative" which is the foundation for successful newspeak. This is an attempt to control the base from which relative judgments are made by the public. No thanks.
Either the information is too sensitive for the public to know, or it isn't. If it isn't, then it should have been public to begin with.
Since they are releasing trivial information about themselves, how about this:
What role did the NSA have in the piece of shit hatchet job movie on wikileaks that came out recently?
If reality was anything like it people would have just told Assange to fuck off and wikileaks would never have happened. All the movie character has is dance moves and insomnia.
Where's the great catastrophe for all the TRILLIONS of dollars we are wasting at the NSA?
This is unimaginable waste for negligible gain. And these people call themselves patriots . . ..
Indeed. It'll be spun, they are trying to frame the narrative, but it's awesome that they are being forced to try that. Info will come out. Some truth will come out accidentally. For example, when a leading democrat senator was asked about restoring funding for children's cancer treatment during the government shutdown he said "why would I want to do that?" - accidentally revealing that getting one over on the republicans is far more important to him than saving kids suffering from cancer. I'm sure NSA will have a few things like that.
However, as crioca points out, some of what NSA releases will be disinformation. We need to guard against not just the spin they put on it, but probably complete fabrications as well.
What really scares me isn't that the Americans themselves don't seem to care a lot. Europe has been a prime target of all this and even there the reaction is "meh". How many USA ambassadors have been summoned to explain and apologize? The USA has treated their allies worse than most of Europe would treat their enemies and still nothing came of this. It turns out Europe isn't that different after all....
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Whether government openness happens because of a leaker, or it happens because of fear of leakers, or because it believes it's the right thing to do...the more open the government is about its activities, the better.
You think they're actually going to tell the whole truth? Or even a meaningfully valid part? It may be openness, but if it is just an attempt to expose a small thing to hide a bigger ugly truth (or crime), then it's deceptive nonetheless.
I await the openness. I don't have a strong expectation it will be worthwhile.
This is an agency that is rooted in deception. Why do you think Snowden's uncomfortable facts are going to change their nature?
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That's not true you know, only 17% of Americans think the NSA oversight is OK, with the majority wanting reform.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/02/surveillance-poll_n_4195379.html
They may be misinformed about the depth of the problems, but even the problems they can see are enough to demand better oversight.
In the UK, the press is very pro-surveillance nanny state, but even there that's swinging now against the spooks mass surveillance programs. They're trying to rein it back in with "speculation helps terrorists", and threats to the press, trying to shut down the debate they know they would lose.
Really we're past that now, enough people are concerned enough to effect change and the spooks are accusing them of being terrorists that need to be watched.
Cameron is deleting former speeches, so he's compromised. He's was against the police state and now he's trying to re-write history by deleting his speeches on it. The spooks are trying to drive the agenda with scare-mongering and arrests under anti-terror laws of journalists.
It's tipping point stuff.
After all the material that's been leaked by Snowden, is there any question that the man is a patriot?
So what does that make our government?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
This is probably mostly because those european contries where actively working with the NSA. So they (the governments) pretty much knew what was going on and they are scared of their own criminal activities being revealed.
Where I live (The Netherlands) the government is trying to pretty much start doing the same as the NSA is doing, just more in public. Very scary indeed. I really hope the sensible people here will be able to stop them.
A limited hangout, or partial hangout, is a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details.
[sarcasm] By lucky coincidence [/sarcasm] the NSA are now allowed to go direct to the public with their message (see "'Anti-Propaganda' Ban Repealed... Direct Broadcasting at American Citizens"), not that private mass media was not on their side to begin with anyway.
When journalists get around later to releasing Snowdens whistleblower material as a "full hangout" truth, most mass media will then shout LALALA OLD NEWS nothing to see here as loud as they can to drown it out. You might even see it being marked as a dupe here on /.
Is this what you would call "spin control"? People have gradually been more educated on the nature of spin and are no longer quite as affected. Ok, so people ARE affected still but fewer than ever before. And besides that, no matter what the NSA "reveals" it will be fact-checked against everything we know, leakers from insiders and, of course, from Snowden and his documents.
When I was younger, I once reflected that the nature of a government can be determined by which directions it points its guns. Fondly, I used China and the USSR as examples where the guns pointed inward. But now, in the USSA (not a typo) we've got an unprecedented amount of guns and ammo pointing inwardly at us. I just never thought I would use the gun pointing direction thing to describe what's wrong with the USSA.
499 of them redacted, one blank.
NSA had the chance, in a court, to tell the truth. They declined. Why would they do thing any differently?
I think the first thing I want to hear from the NSA is how they are going to bring those to trial who were responsible for all the lies, breaking of laws, and how tax dollars got approved for a f#cking Holodeck.
I'll take Snowden's version all day long. He's got the facts and proof backing it up. NSA is just going to mudsling, spout rhetoric, run damage control and spin, spin, spin. There will be no truth.
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Its about time. What really pisses me off about the NSA isn't that its just a warmed over version of Pointdexter's TIA (Total Information Awareness) but the secrecy.
Forget about privacy. That toothpaste been squeezed out of the tube for years.
WE'RE paying for all of this in all the ways possible and we're not seeing any benefits.
Why not?
Because its all supposed to be a big secret.
SCREW the NSA's sense of entitlement to OUR data.
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