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NSA Considers Linux Journal Readers, Tor (And Linux?) Users "Extremists"
New submitter marxmarv writes If you search the web for communications security information, or read online tech publications like Linux Journal or BoingBoing, you might be a terrorist. The German publication Das Erste disclosed a crumb of alleged XKeyScore configuration, with the vague suggestion of more source code to come, showing that Tor directory servers and their users, and as usual the interested and their neighbor's dogs due to overcapture, were flagged for closer monitoring. Linux Journal, whose domain is part of a listed selector, has a few choice words on their coveted award. Would it be irresponsible not to speculate further?
One more reason to use FreeBSD.
'I don't know what it's called. I just know the sound it makes, when it takes a man's life.' ~ Four Leaf Tayback
I do feel kind of extreme. Extremely awesome for being a Linux user!
I guess that makes me usr bin Laden?
ftfy
Finally someone pays attention to us Linux folk!
At this point, I think I'm not going to be too far away from the mark by saying that if you're not part of the USA' "Military-Industrial Complex", then you're a terrorist.
Are they in any way successful in catching "terrorists"?
Hardly - maybe they caught one guy in - was it San Diego - to give money to some far away organization labeled as well, offensive/dangerous in some way (don't recall all details).
There was also a hearing and a lied number of 20-isch? was admitted but later debunked.
So - all in all, the tremendous snooping effort is not showing much result and essentially being a flop.
Remedy: Increase effort in more and more complex systems.
Otherwise, maybe it's just inner need for control, power and conditioned thinking which motivates and attracts humans to participate in this nonsense (religions come to mind following the same principle).
Actually a very dangerous route this is taking - thought control (if you THINK that, you are...) and modeled prediction of events based on secret procedures
If you dare to not follow the herd, think for yourself, make up your mind by yourself without the aid of government "guided" media, of course you must be an extremist.
It's frightening how close the US already got to the USSR of old.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I cant imagine how you can find spare time amidst all of your jihadding to post on slashdot...
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
With people like Richard Stallman at forefront, who can blame them?
You mean the guy screamed about the government spying on us and that we can't trust closed source anything for decades. Guess what he turned out to be right.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
They say to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a frightened small-minded cop, everyone looks like a crook. To an agency charged with protecting a nation against people who keep secrets, everyone looks shifty, and like he has something to hide.
To the hanging judge, every man looks guilty, and to a coward, every man is a terrorist.
Their attitude reflects their mindset: they're a bunch of frightened, small-minded cowards. The sad thing is...
We. All. Collectively. Hired. Them. To. Protect. Us.
What does that say about us? Sure, it was by proxy, we hired the useless, corrupt, bought-out politicians who hired them, but it is still the fault of the person who voted these clowns into office. Don't blame the NSA for doing their job, blame the lazy, stupid, good-for-nothing assholes who hired them and gave them permission or negligently allowed them to do what they do, and then blame the people who elected THEM.
There is an old saying: in a democracy, people deserve the government they get. To be honest though, it's not just democracies where this happens. In general, people deserve the government they get. Period.
Really? Check out the beards on Islamic fundamentalists and l33t *nix sysadmins. Are you ready to assume that's a coincidence?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I'm a Linux sysadmin, run Tor at home and vote Green Party. (In UK were considered domestic extremists - http://www.theguardian.com/pol....
I do wonder how that Ice cream van outside stays in business, its not even hot outside!
Time to remind everyone of the last time this happened.
Except it was J Edgar Hoover, the FBI, their programs like COINTELPRO, and those crazy radicals like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Einstein as well as people on the list for being part of the women's right movement, civil rights movement, "the new left", criticizing the Vietnam war, and the typical boogy-man organizations of socialists and communists.
Or hey, how about MINARET? or SHAMROCK?. Both of which had no warrents, but when people got a whiff of them, congress came down hard and the projects were discontinued.
What's so different about this time? Why are the power that be not doing their job?
Here's a great quote by meta-monkey, from A YEAR AGO:
Re:"Congressional hearings" (Score:5, Insightful) ...
by meta-monkey (321000) Friend of a Friend on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @12:39PM (#44437417)
Scarier part: why aren't they blaming each other for this "serious overreach?" That they will then investigate, have some hearings, and then go right back to biz as usual? That's all politicians do. Make vague, meaningless statements and take no responsibility, blame everyone else, then do nothing. Instead they're making firm, direct statements. "Legal!" "Constitutional!" "Full oversight!"
Why are they so far off script? Here's how the script is supposed to go:
Snowden: "They doin' teh snoops!"
Democrats: "Bush started it!"
Republicans: "Saint Bush never would have authorized this! This must be part of a secret communist Muslim plan to install sharia law!"
Obama: "No, really it was just the Cincinnati branch of the NSA!"
Senate committee: "Thank you for your service, Mr. Snowden for bringing this overreach to our attention. We've got top men working to correct it. Top. Men."
Snowden: "No prob, I'll go rot in obscurity now."
Clapper: "Ow. My wrist. From the slapping. Wheeeeeelp, back to the shadows for biz as usual."
The mask isn't just slipping. It's on the floor. The man behind the curtain is doing a tap dance. Just what the fuck is going on?
One YEAR. The exact same trend is continuing. No one of power is fighting this. No one is backing down. Just what the fuck is going on?
You are missing the point.
Threat has to be created for the apparatus to be funded.
Repeat the above until it sinks in. People would lose jobs if they said "hey, well, we don't really have a serious threat.... so yeah, we are doing nothing at this time". So they make shit up to keep busy.
Wars are fought for the idea "keep population distracted".
If people were actually rational beings, not "retarded emos", we would not need more than half (more like 90%) of the so called security apparatus. And FBI would not be having a war on drugs, they would be having a war on DUIs (driving under influence), speeding and we would require yearly vehicle safety checks. Also, most people would not be speeding anyway, because hey, would be rational creatures. We would not need to even debate US's outdated second amendment.
But no, we live in a world of phycohistory. Masses are not governed by rationality, but by emotion. The world is "fuck you, got mine". So that's what we have and deserve. We have thousands of nukes still ready to kill off our civilization *today*. We have War on Drugs and War on Everything. We have people protesting nuclear power, because hey, AGW is not real and somehow they think coal is better.
So, it's back to square one. "Fuck you, got mine". That's why we are where we are. /RANT
I was once on a US military ship, having breakfast in the wardroom (officers lounge) when the Operations Officer (OPS) walks in. This guy was the definition of NOT a morning person; he's still half asleep, bleary eyed... basically a zombie with a bagel. He sits down across from me to eat his bagel and is just barely conscious. My back is to the outboard side of the ship, and the morning sun is blazing in one of the portholes putting a big bright-ass circle of light right on his barely conscious face. He's squinting and chewing and basically just remembering how to be alive for today. It's painful to watch.
But then zombie-OPS stops chewing, slowly picks up the phone, and dials the bridge. In his well-known I'm-still-totally-asleep voice, he says "heeeey. It's OPS. Could you... shift our barpat... yeah, one six five. Thanks." And puts the phone down. And then he just sits there. Squinting. Waiting.
And then, ever so slowly, I realize that that big blazing spot of sun has begun to slide off the zombie's face and onto the wall behind him. After a moment it clears his face and he blinks slowly a few times and the brilliant beauty of what I've just witnessed begins to overwhelm me. By ordering the bridge to adjust the ship's back-and-forth patrol by about 15 degrees, he's changed our course just enough to reposition the sun off of his face. He's literally just redirected thousands of tons of steel and hundreds of people so that he could get the sun out of his eyes while he eats his bagel. I am in awe.
Cue downmods and comments of "Slashdot has literally become reddit."