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Member of President Obama's NSA Panel Recommends Increased Data Collection
cold fjord writes "National Journal reports, 'Michael Morell, the former acting director of the CIA and a member of President Obama's task force on surveillance, said ... that a controversial telephone data-collection program conducted by the National Security Agency should be expanded to include emails. He also said the program, far from being unnecessary, could prevent the next 9/11. Morell, seeking to correct any misperception that the presidential panel had called for a radical curtailment of NSA programs, said he is in favor of restarting a program that the NSA discontinued in 2011 that involved the collection of "meta-data" for internet communications. ... "I would argue actually that the email data is probably more valuable than the telephony data," ... Morell also said that while he agreed with the report's conclusion that the telephone data program, conducted under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, made "only a modest contribution to the nation's security" so far, it should be continued under the new safeguards recommended by the panel. "I would argue that what effectiveness we have seen to date is totally irrelevant to how effective it might be in the future," he said. "This program, 215, has the ability to stop the next 9/11 and if you added emails in there it would make it even more effective. Had it been in place in 2000 and 2001, I think that probably 9/11 would not have happened."' — More at Politico and National Review. Some members of Congress have a different view. Even Russian President Putin has weighed in with both a zing and a defense."
*speechless*
"Helping to keep you two steps ahead of the Thought Police!"
And expect steady revenue drops for US tech companies.
Nuff said.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Fire him. It's the only sane option.
...when we need you most?
...recommended killing more Jews too.
Putin: I Envy Obama In Light Of NSA Revelations ‘Because He Can Get Away With It’
Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the U.S. National Security Agency, and even said he envies President Barack Obama in light of the NSA revelations “because he can get away with it.”
Putin’s comments at a Thursday news conference reflected support for the NSA surveillance as a necessary tool to fight terrorism, but added that government rules should “limit the appetite” of the data-collecting agency, CBS News reports.
Keep in mind that Putin knows the NSA spies on Russia too. What is the world coming to? That really is an interesting development.
Well, maybe if Russia's security agencies got their hands on the NSA tasking list that Snowden took they now feel much less vulnerable. They would be right.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Before anyone pipes up with "oh, this doesn't affect me, I'm just a nobody", then try thinking further ahead than the next quarter.
You may be one among, say, millions of students, but what about 5-10 years from now when you do or invent something important and it's in conflict with what the government of the day wants you to do ?
That's the point at which your student past is dug up and it's explained to you that unless you play ball your past will be revealed.
Even if you are the most boring person in the world, then what about the people one or two steps removed from you, ie: members of your class. Guilt by association and all that.
I really dislike it when people think about where they are today instead of where they may be a few years from now. People like these will sleepwalk into this future without realising it until it's too late.
Because terrorists are so stupid as to use plaintext email to plan their nefarious plots
"He also managed the staff that produced the Presidential Daily Briefings for President George W. Bush. Morell was Bush’s briefer during the September 11, 2001 attacks, and has been quoted as saying, "I would bet every dollar I have that it’s al Qaeda."
So this was one of the people, that ignored the 9/11 warnings, and then went even farther to lie about who did it.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
from Richard Clark (the one who warned Bush on possible Al-Qaida threats pre-911) who was also on the panel. His line was that many of the NSA's programs are useful, (phone meta data not so much) but the program need more judges (to handle all the requests properly and perhaps a civilian advocate.
Obama is Bush 2.0, even though he led us to believe he was the anti-Bush. We all thought he was going to undo the draconian actions of the Patriot Act, to restore personal liberty and freedom, but that's sure not what we got, is it?
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
"A policeman's job is only easy in a police state"
... you know your doing something wrong.
Be seeing you...
Imagine what plans they're keeping secret from you. This kind of jabber from "the most transparent administrations ever" should really knock your socks off.
So Bloomberg wants us to live in a shoebox like the Chinese slaves do, you can't walk your dog down a public street without breaking some kind of health code, speak your mind publicly and become a target for some special interest group and God forbid you attempt to have any private life lest the government let its IRS dogs loose on you.
This is some future we've elected for ourselves. Wouldn't you agree?
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
I could understand that after 9/11, drastic measures were necessary to fight terrorism at the time. But now . . . ? We seem to be hunkering down, and assuming that we will need all of this surveillance and security . . . forever.
All this stuff is purely defensive in nature: trying to prevent terrorist attacks. Despite all these security measures, it is just a matter of time before another attack succeeds anyway . . . like in Boston.
I'd like to see a plan to reduce these threats forever . . . so we can go back to our normal ways, before the war. Now, it seems that we are preparing for an endless war on terrorism. A permanent state of war is not good for any society.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
What could possibly be of such interest to go to such lengths? Power? Political corruption? Racial/Religious superiority? The lengths to which they are going bear similarity to some very historic, oppressive regimes.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Also were suggested to put all americans in maximum security prisons, to avoid to be attacked by foreigners. They could keep working from jail for their safety, but their salaries will have a cut to maintain the jail system safe for them.
Other options like killing all the americans to avoid them to be killed by terrorists, and killing everyone with a doomsday device to avoid the same, if well would be effective for the security of american goals, were discarded as, for now, excessive.
For those with the short memory a reminder is needed: currently email headers and selected contents is collected. Please review once again NSA slides if you need refresher.
So this basically represents parallel construction of justification: ahem.... we, NSA, should consider collecting emails (even though we already do).
Somehow they magically think that the public will forget that that collection of emails has been going for the decades and will believe that somehow in 2011 collection stopped.
Mafia argues payment of "protection" money is needed for good of community.
Drug Cartels argue drug wars are a cleansing force for society, ridding country of evil doers.
Chinese defend organ harvesting of prisoners as necessary to save lives of important people.
Scientists determine it is possible to find an argument that any force of evil is actually for good.
Story at eleven.
save time & trouble, we have only imaginary 'secrets' anyway. free the innocent stem cells never a better time to discover momkind our spiritual centerpeace.
free the innocent stem cells. ask to be in the interrogation witness program
So terrorists will simply use snail mail. I don't think they're in that much of a hurry.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
Remember that the crooks on both sides have always been allies.
If the U.S., Russia, the former acquired the power business will move into other dimensions.
> "He also said the program, far from being unnecessary, could prevent the next 9/11."
Why stop there? If you put everyone in jail you'll prevent attacks too.
And give us all tracking collars and big bonuses for yourself and your crony pals for the contracts to fulfill all the work.
As long as we don't consider unintended consequences, history, or conflicting interests like the Constitution and public opinion, expanding surveillance makes a lot of sense.
Then again, the slightest thought to any of these things makes him sound like a total idiot, if not a traitor.
Wolves vote to keep eating sheep for dinner.
Require ALL citizens to report weekly to a local board. While there, each will strip, bend over, and have a water hose inserted anally. This is meant to cleanse the evil out of the citizen. This not only will prevent the next 9/11, it will prevent the next 9/12 too!
Just require all tracking information be public and easily data-mineable. Let’s see those connections between congresscritter and bankers, defense contractors, the RIAA, etc. IT'S THE FISHBOWL FOR EVERYONE!
I'd contend that after 9/11, no measures were necessary to fight terrorism. In fact, it would've been far better to shrug and move on.
Think about it: What better move to show the world that you won't budge to terrorism by showing you aren't intimidated, and what better way to do that than to just ignore the whole thing, except for mourning your dead and putting the building back together?
You can always get your own back later. But nooo, you had to fight. Right away. And give up scads of freedoms to do it. And everyone else's too. And wage two wars that have now destabilised the entire area. Destabilisation that is causing yet more people to die and more terrorism to leak back into the rest of the world. These drastic measures have compounded the problem several orders of magnitude. So really, you're reaping what you've sown.
Instead, what was necessary was to fire every last single intelligence agency in its entirety and rebuild from scratch. For they've been at it for sixty-odd years, had their feelers in every network, and... didn't see this one coming. And they still don't. But in the meantime they've grown that much more in size, power, budget, influence, access, hunger for data, you name it. The intelligence community is completely out of control. So the only fix is still, only much more so, to get rid of it entirely. That, or we'll have to get rid of the entire state of the USoA. Or we'll indeed end up with a permanent state of war.
According to the Globo report, Mr. Snowden said the NSA hasn’t produced evidence to suggest the disclosures have caused harm. He said U.S. law doesn’t distinguish between a whistleblower revealing illegal programs “and a spy secretly selling documents to terrorists.”
The biggest offense one can commit in the U.S. isn’t to damage the government, but rather to “embarrass it. It’s clear that I could not possibly get a fair trial in my country,” he said, according to the report.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/12/22/snowden-criticizes-u-s-panel-overseeing-surveillance/
Chief of Security Wolf vows his pack will personally guard the Hen house
Private prison owners: "The country needs stiffer drug penalties"
FBI: We need surveillance to help keep you safe from the people we keep radicalising and arming!
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
A program like the one suggested is a lurking danger to democracy.
Had it been in place in 2000 and 2001, I think that probably 9/11 would not have happened.
Because "YOU THINK"? That is a good enough reason to rape Americans' of their privacy?
And if we station armed soldiers at every interstate entrance and exit, every state border, every entrance and exit to every major cvity, to interrogate all travelers, strip search everyone driving -- demand to see and record the "metadata" (identification of all vehicle passengers, and their reported origin and destination) --- just maybe we stop the next 9/11 or carbombing too.
The terrorists will just have to use a different technique...
Let me see if I get this right: Three letter agencies refuse to work in compliance with the Constitution and pre-Bush era FISA law... where few people can remember why the original FISA was passed (look it up, it has everything to do with illegal three letter agency data collection on US citizens during the early to mid-20th century, very much like what we're facing now)... where people forget that NSA lawyers were directed by Darth Cheney to find every means of justifying to the secret court (what? a secret court in America? really???) four (that we know so far), count 'um, four illegal spying programs... which the aforementioned secret court accepted with few, if any limits!... so Baby Bush could wave a court signed piece of paper that granted his illegal spy programs legitimacy... and that anti-American "socialist" Obama continually supports... where citizens of the Formerly Great Country of the USA demand safety in nearly gleeful exchange for freedoms... and not one single person involved in these clearly illegal activities has been put on trial... while the US Government hunts those who might reveal aforementioned illegal activities...
Problem? What problem? Oh. Right. Ice cold Busch and NASCAR await. Gotta go...
...but I'm picturing Walter Matthau in 'Fail Safe'.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
You know what else would prevent another 9/11? Let the police burst into any home/business/etc at any time, without a warrant, and based on the barest of suspicions. Let them arrest people based on "looking like they might be a terrorist" or "possibly helping terrorists" or simply "wasn't patriotic enough when we broke down their door." Also let the police stop random people on the street to ask for their citizenship papers, where they are going, and why. If the officer doesn't like the answers, allow him to arrest the person. Track the movements of every citizen and arrest anyone even slightly outside of the norm. I guarantee that terrorist attacks will drop to zero if we put this in place.
As a side benefit, companies will make lots of money building new city-sized prisons to hold all the potential terrorists the police will round up. It's a win-win.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
instead of the other way around?
Or is that just me?
Any "terrorist" with half a brain assumes the NSA is looking at all standard comms now. To keep tapping these mediums is beyond pointless.
Our wonderful government has learned from tyrants very well indeed. Make your citizens afraid, very afraid.
> parties have informally (Or possible, conspiratorially)
We know they formally agree to what questions will be asked in campaign debates. They are open about that. So at least it is "sometimes conspitatorially".
What part of the NSA is collecting everything we do online, don't we understand!?! They are already listening on the pipes, intercepting all port 25 traffic on the internet backbone. Just for good measure, they've got backdoors in all the popular webmail services. They ALREADY are slurping down all available data on you and storing it for perpetuity as they are bound by NO laws. They PRETEND they have boundries and ask for increases in what they are legally allowed to do, but Snowden has proven they LIE about the scope of their current data collection activities. In other words they are only asking for permission for what they have already been doing for the past decade!
Indeed. It's called TERRORism because it's intended to make people scared. The way to render it ineffective is to refuse to live in fear. One of the best anti-terrorism efforts was the "Anthrax this!" cover, a clear statement that we will not be terrorized.
So wouldn't the terrorists just resort to dropbox and notepad? Maybe everyone's dropbox contents should be indexed....just in case. Besides, what terrorist would continually use the same email address anyway.... seems like a pretty stupid terrorist would... that's who.
This is exactly the level of thinking the TSA uses to design its so-called security protocols. Figure out what was done. Design something that looks like you are looking at it. Then do it.
Meanwhile, terrorists move ahead to different protocols, different targets. Such as (as has been written), using Google Mail and cross-editing mail drafts to pass information. The drafts are never sent. They are an ongoing, live document. Let me repeat, the drafts are never sent. No emails are generated.
So all that we are left with is a bloated, monstrous governmental organization that monitors the citizenry but not the terrorists. And justifies its own existence and growing expense.
Life by fear.
Seems Obama's advisers are his worst enemy.
Wuddooeyeno? IITYWYBMAD? Like nuts? eclecticallyincorrect.com
Why does the public let go unchallenged the claim that there will be a "next 9/11" to prevent?
The 9/11 attacks were the most ambitious terrorist attacks in history. They certainly terrorized the United States, and government officials obviously remain terrorized to this day. So in that sense, they were kind of a success. They also had massive blowback that Al Quaeda might not be keen to repeat.
Before 9/11, bin Laden was a folk hero in some parts of the Muslim world because he fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. After the atrocity he masterminded, most of his financiers and sympathizers dropped him like he was radioactive. Middle Eastern governments that had formerly turned a blind eye to Al Quaeda started shutting down its finance network and jailing its contributors, raiding training camps and arresting radical clerics. Then there is the US armed response, which was deeply misguided in important ways but which undeniably brought ruin on Al Queada and the Taliban government of Afghanistan. Since at least the battle of Tora Bora, Al Quaeda has been struggling to survive. It's hard to see how redoubling American resolve, just now when the public is war-weary, cynical, and worried about the war debt, would advance the aim of a global Caliphate.
It has also been said that the 9/11 attacks were self defeating in the sense that exactly because they were so devastating and well-planned, they are nigh impossible to surpass. Next to them, just bombing an embassy looks like small time. So the effectiveness of typical terror attacks may actually have been diminished because the public's expectations have been raised.
So, even if any organization could pull off "another 9/11", I seriously question whether they would want to. I believe the radicals' current objective is to get the US out of Afghanistan so they can rebuild their safe haven there. In other words, to pick up the pieces from the blowback from 9/11 and get back to where they were on Sept. 10, 2001. There is considerable doubt whether this is possible: the US will definitely pull out, but its drones will still rain Hellfire missiles from the sky day or night, and the US-backed Afghan army is in a position to keep the pressure on for a good long while.
Which brings me back to why preventing the "next 9/11" is something we should be worried about. If bin Laden had 9/11 to do over again, knowing the consequences for his organization and his agenda, would he go for it? I have to go with "no." Why can't any politician stand up and say that? Claim some credit for the progress in the "war on terror" instead of jumping at shadows?
Of course, I can answer my own question. The bogeyman of terrorism serves the authoritarian purposes of the government, so they refuse to abandon it. But please, let's start calling them on it.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
No, no, and just in case you're having trouble keepin up, NO!
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
Note I am not an Obama fan, but this guy doesn't exactly qualify as an Obama administration official. He's been in the CIA since 1980 and is a Deputy Director; typically the Director of the CIA is a political appointee but the Deputies are career officers with experience; they're fixtures whereas the Director moves in and out with the prevailing political winds. This guy qualifies much more as a spy than an administration official.
That being said, total scare tactics. Al Qaeda's core group has been on the run and isolated for over a decade; they're mostly irrelevant. The guys who carried out 9/11 were highly trained, highly skilled, and dedicated; those guys are few and far between and most are dead now. Al Qaeda's franchise groups openly defy them, such as Al Qaeda in Iraq now moving into Syria and trying to take over the Syrian rebels as Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant, despite orders not to from Zarqawi. They're much more interested in their operational territory of the Levant and the Middle East than anything going on here. AQ in the Arabian Peninsula is more focused on Yemen and establishing an emirate there, whcih they did and utterly failed at. They have tried transnational things against the US, but each one has failed miserably; they're also the prime target of the drone attacks. AQ in the Islamic Maghreb is too busy being pushed back by French forces supporting Mali troops while trying to absorb the strength of the Tuaregs that came home from the fighting in Lebanon. Each group is independent, using the AQ name as a moniker but they're mostly focused on their own turf than anything else and are under serious pressure from Western forces, drone strikes, and more immediate concerns.
The threat isn't ended, but the transnational threat is suppressed. Maintain the pressure at a low level, train and bolster governments in the MIddle East and Africa, and occasional strikes to take out key leaders. Meanwhile invest in the countries in a way that gives the locals options for a better life than joining militants. That will keep the next 9/11 from happening, not monitoring email, especially when the AQ guys have already figured out how to spoof email monitoring through shared account/Draft box.
Because Bush and Cheney are out of office.
Let's not give up our rights for something that literally can't happen again, and was statistically impossible from the start.
They do realize they won't get away with it right?
Best case everyone upgrades their security until they're pretty sure the NSA is not able to read it.
Worst case... big backlashes against the US and NSA...
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
say we need more military hardware
beer brewers say drink more beer
of course they are going to peddle their wares
what would you do for a klondike bar?
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
should repost to 4chan?
We could have stopped 9/11 had we listened to the FBI field operatives who noticed the behavior of individuals learning to fly, but not land. Technology is a tool, nothing more. Properly motivated/educated agents with a flexible/responsive command structure will make the biggest difference.
could prevent the next 9/11?
Know what we need to do to "prevent the next 9/11"?
Not one fucking thing.
Passengers already know that the statements by officials and so called experts in the 70's, 80's and 90's regarding being taken hostage is no longer valid.
We were told for decades to just keep calm and do what they say.. We will end up in cuba or someplace and all will be well.
No such behavior will ever happen again, if someone tries to take a plane the passengers will go rabid and the problem will end there, plus, all cockpits have locking doors now (who would have EVER thought to put a lock on a door... WTF).
This is all so much bullshit.
We survived decades of the fucking soviets with thousands of state sponsored nuks pointed at our cities and factories. We have fought a REAL war with many thousands of deaths every decade or so since the founding of our country and have left our liberties intact, why the hell do a couple of hundred of backward religious nutters cancel our rights?
Hell, more people die in car crashes each year than on 9/11, year after year after year.. People just have no sense at all about this stuff and the spooks and creeps are just playing to the ignorant and fearful.
"This is an emergency. Give us extraordinary powers -- the tools of tyrrany, but we won't ever use them that way. We promise!"
Nevermind this is how democracies of the past have failed.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Or do they not remember that they're the ones who helped organize it in the first place. How about putting a stop to their unnecessary power so they can't pull off another 9/11.
This whole NSA spying debacle is nothing more than a self-licking ice cream cone if there ever was one, albeit a rather dangerous one for any democracy to be involved in.
In at least two court cases now the government has had to admit that its massive dragnet operation has, over the years, not prevented a single terrorist incident; the ones we did catch on time were thanks to tip-offs and good old fashioned detective work. Yet, why does the establishment seem to double down on this issue, even though it's clearly unconstitutional and public sentiment is against it?
Because of the money involved.
80% of the NSA consists of private companies that do almost all of the work and it's these companies that have such a massive stake in this gigantic data collecting operation. Normally the government should be able to simply tell them to stop, but the problem is that the tail is now wagging the dog: these companies don't want to see any drop in their profits, which is only their main interest and whole reason for being. So, they're fighting back using mainly legal methods, which these days includes the option to make donations to key politicians. Remember: money equals free speech these days.
The politicians involved, especially the members of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Feinstein, Chambliss, et al.), are the most obvious targets for these donations. Like all other members of Congress, they know that 94-95% of the time the candidate with the most money will win the next election, so they actually spend most of their time raising money while in return doing and saying most anything that their most important donors want. Our representatives don't work for us anymore: they work for their donors. Consequently, the government squanders untold billions on so many unnecessary "employment projects" every year, but this NSA mega-project to spy on everyone and everything is a particularly dangerous one.
That's why we must put a stop to it ASAP: by getting big money out of politics.
Lucky for us, this is actually easier than you might think. It would be very difficult in any other country, but the United States Constitution happens to include Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).
Is anybody doing this yet? Yes indeed, and you too can get involved! WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky.
However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.
It looks to me like this is going to happen. The only question is whether it will be sooner or later. As an ex-pat I can only donate, but if you live in the US you can also contact your favorite State Legislator and ask for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result maybe we can change t
cold_fjord gets angry.
...the taxpayers should be asked if they are willing to fund this? Or do we assume a Tyranny is in effect?
Not getting into the right/wrong debate, the simple fact is that it is his job.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The real Obama, Democratic National Committee and NSA just stood up in lip-lock embrace.
Expect to see Senator Feinstein and other Senate Dems to jump up and shout hallelujah for the next few days.
"I would argue that what effectiveness we have seen to date is totally irrelevant to how effective it might be in the future," he said. "This program, 215, has the ability to stop the next 9/11 and if you added emails in there it would make it even more effective. Had it been in place in 2000 and 2001, I think that probably 9/11 would not have happened."'
OK, let's take your utterly preposterous claim at face value. Let's say that this program would have prevented 9/11, and would prevent another 9/11 tomorrow, and has done fuck-all in between. That means we'd save 3,000 American lives every 12 years. Call it 3,600 to make the math easy. That's 300 lives per year. Against the 4th amendment. How does that price measure up against some of our other freedoms?
To retain the right to drive automobiles, we spend 34,000 lives per year.
To retain the right to drink alcohol, we spend 34,000 to 75,000 lives per year (depending on how you count alcohol-related accidents).
To retain the right to use tobacco, we spend 440,000 lives per year.
To retain the second amendment, we spend 30,000 lives per year.
To retain the right to be obese, we spend 300,000 lives per year.
With the possible exception of tobacco, I support the retention of all those rights. Three hundred per year for The Fourth Amendment (and the chilling effect on The First)? Even if his preposterous supposition were true, it would be a bargain at ten times the price compared to some of the other rights we hold dear.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
I am speechless!!!!!!
I don't think gathering more info would have stopped 9/11 or even prevent it!!!
> Our resident NSA shill is the submitter. I expect he'll be here all day.
Yes, I noticed :-)
While we're going down that line of thought, granting me absolute authority over the nation could also prevent 9/11.
There were numerous reports about the 9/11 hijackers doing things like learning to fly jets and many of them were already on terrorist watch lists.
The issue wasn't a lack of information, it was apathy and incompetence. Gathering *even more* information about innocent people won't help stop anything. Having competent people who do their jobs can.
All that said, freedom isn't safe. If we want to be free, we have to understand that there are those who are unbalanced, criminal, or just downright nasty out there. We need balanced laws and competent people to address this, but spying on everyone isn't the answer. That is all.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
It is interesting that you use the word "shill" since 4 out of 5 of your last comment posts* have been to disparage me, not even really discussing elements of the story. Does that make you an "anti-Cold Fjord shill?"
News flash: you are a stupid fuck. That's why he is bashing you. I guess I must be another anti-cold fjord shill too, huh? Probably hired by the Tea Bagger Party to harass and intimidate you into silence. lol
--shiftless (410350)
I don't think this guy read the panel's report.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2013-12-12_rg_final_report.pdf
Economic analysis shows that government spending, especially on safety nets has a net positive effect (each dollar spent increases economic activity by more than a dollar) on the economy. I was looking around for a good example of such an analysis, but there are so many, I'll let you pick the one you like best.
I like the one where you take your "economic analysis" and shove it up your fucking ass. You do not have the right to rob me at gunpoint to financially support faggots, drug abusers, and losers, no matter how many government funded studies you wave in my face to try and convince me it's OK. Fuck you.
Why thank you. I think that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all day.
It's not *my* economic analysis. Heck, I didn't even cherry pick the links. I just did a google search for "Social Safety Net Economic Multipliers" and linked to the results.
I'd also point out that your homophobic remarks are pretty puerile. I'll even wave a government (NIH) study in your face that points up your latent homosexuality.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
Recommdation 31: Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial systems;
http://disinfo.com/2013/12/report-suggests-nsa-may-manipulating-financial-data/
http://disinfo.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/LwJ1J6r.jpg
We frigging doubt it.......
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/outrageous-hsbc-settlement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-20121213
Or this?
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/pentagon/#article/part3
Obama's administration is suppressing the $40 million CIA report on illegal torture.
What I would be most interested in are the recipients of that $40 million for a report which they planned on suppressing from the get-go?
Anyone who followed the appointments Obama made should not pretend astonishment.
No story, move along people.
(In fact, just the opposite. Thanks, Slashdot, for being the government's mouthpiece. The real strategy, for anyone brain dead, is that regardless of the success or failure of the email proposition it will normalize what the government is already doing.)
In my view there is NO threat, no matter how big that in any way justifies wholesale surveillance.
Fine, we'll rob you for 10x as much money, because prisons are more expensive than social programs.
No social programs, more crime, more crime, more prisons, more money from you.
The world does not give one shit what you think is right or just or moral.
The wold is a giant interconnected system, and whatever is most efficient does not give a flying fuck what you think.
It turns out that doing the Christan thing, and helping the poor is also usually the cheapest thing to do for society.
Go figure.
Also, the poor use drugs at a lower rate than middle class and rich, most 'faggots' are wealthier than you, and when was the last time TurboTax held a gun to your ugly fucking head? That's what I thought you little twink. I bet you have a fucking 'support the troops' sticker on your junky car... Want to talk about handouts? Every troop is a 100% tax leech.. free food, tax payer salary, free medical for life? But fuck-em right?
You are an island and live without resources or labor of any other human on the planet.
Asshole
Nobody is addressing the real problem. This is all about CYA and continuing the Cold War budget. Every time an enemy disappears, they create a new one to keep the bureaucrats in power. All of this money could be used to improve out aging infrastructure, build new schools, and clean up the air, water, and food. Instead we are being sold the same lies as before to keep is fearful an in need of daddy govt. to protect us.
I suppose that this guy would have made himself a glorious career in the Gestapo. In a a democracy however there is no room for totalitarian fascists like him. I wonder why a person like this can get to such a high position in the CIA? Maybe this says something about the level of democracy in the US of A ( and the rest of the world for that matter)?
causes the 9/11 hijackers all sent plans of what and how to do stuff to each other via email....what a crock a shit ....
these guys all should go up on treason charges cause they are trying to screw with the people of the nation and other nations.
THEY ARE MAKING US ALL LESS SAFE.
Had it been in place in 2000 and 2001, I think that probably 9/11 would not have happened
Before 9/11 I posted a comment on /. warning of an impending attack by Islamic terrorists.
That comment of mine was modded to -1 by the libtards.
Few months later 9/11 happened
I had warned of the attack, although at that time I did not know when and where they were going to strike, I had already enough information that they would strike. /. is not the only place I commented. I also passed on the info to an intelligent agency that I rather not mention here but they didn't take my warning seriously.
It was not that nobody know what was going to happen. There were people who knew, including me - we are part of the global network of "observers" who monitor things happening (not snooping on others, but rather, getting constant information feed from insiders belonging to extremist groups) especially those related to religious fanaticism.
I do not know if /. does keep that comment that I posted, but you guys who do have paid subscription for /. can try to search for it.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
...cupcakes on Afghanistan could prevent the next 9/11 just as well.
Because government employees dropped the ball.
And NONE of them have EVER been held accountable.
We can see the shoes of the person behind the curtain.
And they are shiny, black FBI shoes.
The NSA, instead of responding that they were overdoing their snooping, has take the approach of asking for much much more surveillance (snooping). By asking for big increases, I think that they believe that by so doing, we will be happy to let the current situation stay as a comprimise.
The NSA is now more powerful than the president. I bet President Obama does not know the illegal killings that have taken place by other USA security forces who received "orders/encouragements" from NSA to remove objectionable people.
I created a site to address this very concern (metadata collection). Although an email address is required for initial setup, one could use an anonymous email account for that, then conduct fully encrypted lawful online exchange of messages and files without the use of email or let the site proxy all email notifications. This secure, encrypted threaded messaging facility is cost-free, ad-free, easy-to-use, requires no installation and is HIPAA and HITECH compliant. See site for implementation details and vulnerability assessment. To find out what the site is, just search for "private secure encrypted". It will be the first organic result.