There is a frightening amount of people who do not realize that history goes back further than 1990. During the cold war there were 2 very visible examples of "East" versus "West". E. Germany and W. Germany and N. Korea and S. Korea. A person could stand on the separation boundaries and see the differences for themselves. Does anyone remember in the 1970's the Russians had to send hundreds of undercover minders to keep their international athletes from defecting to the West. Getting into countries is one thing but not being able to get out of a country sounds like prison policy.
The argument should not be centered on why the US is intervening or not intervening. The real question is why Russia and China are doing absolutely nothing other than supplying Assad with more weapons and stonewalling even toothless UN resolutions. The Chinese will do nothing until the conflict is settled one way or another and then step in to see what they can salvage in the ruin. Russia and China are being promoted as the shining lights of progressive international governance and outstanding defenders of human rights and transparency so shouldn't they help resolve this situation?
I think the US should do nothing since I don't see anything that threatens core US interests. The US has not had relations with Iran or Syria for a long time so why spend blood and treasure to help people who go out of their way at every opportunity to express their disdain towards anything related to the US? The real fun will start if the US blows off the UN and does attack Syrian air assets and support systems. Russia will come off looking weak and ineffectual. They are in no position to militarily or economically oppose the US in this instance. Russia is probably going to regret their intransigence and refusal to work with the US on the little extradition drama played out a few weeks ago. That little international episode has guaranteed no one in the US government is really interested in talking things over or compromising. To top it off if the US does hit Syria the Russians risk having the US dismantle the Russian supplied air defense system and making it look easy while doing it. I would expect a sharp drop in sales if the systems Russia is peddling are proved ineffective in front of the whole world.
"NSA/CIA are controlled by politicians who are controlled by corporations"
Elected politicians are supposed to control and regulate the NSA and CIA. The problem is that they just aren't doing a very good job. Of course the US politicians go out of their way to look like total morons and personally taking charge of running down the country.
"Remind me to shed a tear" Personally I don't give a shit what you think. Espionage, secrecy, and intelligence analysis has been a consistent part of governments going back thousands of years. Just wishing it away is not going to change anything. A country collects intelligence on both it's allies and competitors for a wide range of reasons and every government on the planet is aware of that simple fact.
" legislative action to provide more public data/oversight of covert activities" There are already an overabundance of rules, laws, and regulations that get bent or broken when deemed necessary. When it comes to legitimate and necessary covert actions how many people do you trust with seeing the information? FISA and the Senate Intelligence committee are already in the loop so how many other people get added to the list? Should the NSA or the CIA put every operation up on the internet and take a vote to see what the world thinks? That is the only option for those clamoring total transparency will accept. The thing that scares me has nothing to do with the government. It is the echo chamber political activists who shout their defiance using unsupported claims and flat out lies and a total lack of historical knowledge which would allow them to factor in context when forming their stated positions.
All the fuss about the data monitoring programs have revolved around what the government COULD or MAY do with the information. There has been corroborated evidence of the government actually misusing this information to inflict harm on someone. In a perfect world the government should have no secrets but we don't live in a perfect world. Not even close. But governments do have secrets that when exposed can cause a lot of unexpected problems. Leaking some PRISM documents may be OK but releasing details of foreign intelligence operations is another matter. The information released by Manning and Snowden have caused some serious problems in international diplomacy. Snowden will probably go down as the person responsible for starting up the cold war again. Of course he is certainly not solely responsible but he has definitely contributed another issue into international relations that eventually will harm someone down the line. The real kicker in this entire mess is that the people pushing out the information will get the opposite of what they are seeking. Instead of introducing transparency to government affairs the government will double down and put policies and procedures in place to get rid of any existing transparency.
Weapons technology has been evolving ever since there were enough humans to pick sides and started fighting about who gets the bigger cave. During war there is no such thing as a budget. Money doesn't enter the picture and if your country is facing defeat everyone will certainly be motivated. One example would be the British radar technology. If Germany had not been gathering on the other side of the channel threatening invasion their radar technology would not have advanced as much as it did. In contrast today's non-military technology advancements require substantial funding to turn an idea into something real. And I never said that War was required to ramp up technological advancement. I just pointed out that military technical innovations has substantially speeded up the process. Military technology has pushed aerospace technology, computer technology, communication technology, rocket technology, satellite technology, medical technology, materials technology, and even the internet started off initially as a DARPA project to investigate the utility of large scale distributed computer systems for defense purposes. And by the way I have 27 years worth of experience in software engineering. I'll let you calculate my age from that tidbit.
In the US system new laws can be proposed by the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. These new laws are usually vetted by the Executive and Legislative in house council to establish whether the proposed law is illegal or contradicts existing law. The process is very political and any smart lawyer can tailor their opinions to match the sponsors ideological bent. The real test takes place in the Judicial branch but someone needs to be charged and prosecuted using the law and challenge the law in court. The Judicial branch has a history of dismissing cases and striking down laws that are judged illegal. As a legal system this is pretty good but no system is perfect. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights have been a work in progress since day one.
I wasn't talking about the capabilities of the individual components needed to construct and operate such a system . I was referring to the sheer scale of the system. Yearly global IP traffic is estimated at 1.3 zettabytes per year (110.3 exabytes per month). Global mobile data traffic is estimated at 11.2 exabytes per month (134 exabytes a year). Forecasts show these figures increasing13-fold from 2012 to 2017. What type of hardware would be required to process and store this amount of data? Running queries against that amount of data would also require some serious processing power. Even the best keyword targeted algorithms would still return millions of hits a day. The NSA doesn't come close to having enough analysts to sift through all the potential hits.
This is the stupidest thing I have seen lately and that is saying a lot. I am sure every government operating a clandestine intelligence service is just going fold up shop and disband. What is really appalling is the European governments feigned outrage over the NSA intelligence programs when they routinely request and exchange intelligence data with the US. A lot of people today never question any piece of information as long as it makes the government look foolish or evil. Is there any independent proof that the NSA programs are even capable of actually doing the things they are suppose to be doing? We have seen Powerpoint presentations, memos, and white papers that appear targeted at a non-technical audience and includes no technical or operational details. They look more like a sales pitch used secure funding. IT projects of this size are notorious for promising all kinds of capabilities upfront that end up being dropped for a variety of reasons. If the government programs are so encompassing why do they need to solicit data from 3rd parties? I have seen no discussions concerning the hardware and software architecture that is needed for a system supposedly capable of trapping and analyzing all the internet traffic as well as every email and tweet that crosses the wire. What if the NSA is purposely letting some of the capabilities be exaggerated to frighten other governments? If confidential information is leaked the government might want to try and salvage something and making your enemies fear your capabilities can be a positive achievement. .
Actually I have been there 3 times for a total of 5 weeks primarily for work. The Russians are backing Assad in Syria with weapons large and small which means they also support Hezbolla and Iranian policies. Personally I don't really give a shit about Russia or any of the middle eastern states. The only thing I do tend to support is total withdrawal of the US military from that region and let all those countries settle their own problems. After a minimum of 5 years we should re-evaluate the situation and see if the absence of US involvement made things better or worse. If things are judged better then that's great the US can continue on its path while saving a shit load of money. If things are judged worse we can simply say "maybe US involvement wasn't really all that bad" and still continue a cheaper non-interventionist policy.
"Does the fighting in Syria affect day to day life in Russia"
Does the US drone strikes in Yemen or Pakistan affect daily life in the US?
Go ahead and jump on the next plane to Russia. If you are going to pimp their qualities you best get a first hand look at your shining city on the hill. Why you are there see if you can find out if they are publishing the body count from Syria. Russians don't have gag orders when speaking about the government they use a more effective and permanent technique usually referred to as murder by the more uppity countries in the world.
Seriously dude get back on the meds and power down your reality distortion field a bit. It's bad enough a young man killed himself, someone with admitted psychological issues, but laying the blame on others and threatening them with violence is probably not the best way to vent your anger.
Listen sport I am ignorant about a lot of things but I started my programming and system design career over 25 years ago so I am perfectly capable of making an informed decision when it comes to choosing a browser. My first decision was made more than a few years ago was to not even use Firefox. Never needed to use it professionally or personally. However, in regards to this article isn't Firefox an Open Source system. All you need to do is download the code, remove the things you don't want or like, build, and deploy. Catastrophe avoided.
You best get back on your medication before you hurt yourself or others. You have come real close to issuing the kind of threats that people are starting to take seriously.
Without the advertising based revenue you will see nothing but pay walls. Once this happens you will have to fend off the morons who think asking them to pay for content equates to censorship. If cookies really upset your universe you can tighten up your browser settings and move on with your life.
You are right when you say we will never really know where the intelligence comes from that causes the US to send up the drones. I suspect most of the actionable intelligence comes from human assets on the ground and not from some super secret technology used by the government. Technology can provide good survellience tools but you need to point it in the right direction to produce any worthwhile results. The current data collection programs do not provide the information to stop an attack unless the attack is in the planning stage for a long time. There is just too much data and not enough analysts to process that amount of information. Even the most advanced keyword analytics will still result in millions of hits a day that would require human intervention to determine the utility of the information. About the only thing they could do is analyze some of the metadata using targeted queries. One example would be detecting communication patterns to the middle east and other parts of the world where the US has security interests. In my first post I was trying to address the idea that the programs such as the Patriot Act or PRISM really violates somones 4th amendment rights. Until someone is charged with a crime and presents their defense in court the question of violating rights is still up in the air. The executive and legislative branches create and declare new laws and they tend to rely on in-house council to review the proposed law for obvious defects but that is still a long way from declaring the law legal. The law needs to be applied in such a manner that it can be specifically challenged. And the judiciary cannot perform this level of review until a case appears in front of them. The entire reason GITMO exists is to prevent prisoners from accessing the US legal system and risk having the Patriot Act and other laws ruled against. This has already happened to a professor who was charged and prosecuted under the Patriot Act and the court ruled against the Patriot Act articles involved in the case and dismissed all charges.
Yes the 4th amendment protections do end at the border. And I am still waiting to hear of someone being charged and prosecuted for a crime using the surveillance data collected by the NSA as evidence. The government surveillance methods cannot be declared illegal until they are vetted by the judiciary.
The US government actions pale in comparison to the EU shake down of US companies. The EU countries missed the boat on innovation in the digital age products and services so they have switched to plan B which is harassing and fining successful US companies.
As long as you are denouncing the US it doesn't matter what the accusers current or past transgressions are. Stereotypes, exaggerations, unproved speculation, and wild conspiracy theories are used when gearing up to condemn the US. Just a few minor things people are more than willing to sweep under the rug include Russia's arresting and convicting of political adversaries, the new Russian anti-gay laws, acknowledging the fact that every country of any size practices espionage on every one of their so called friends or foes, Venezuela's arresting political opponents and closing down non-government aligned news outlets for not supporting the "revolution" talking points, the Taliban's attempt to murder a little girl for running a blog and then actually having a press conference to explain and justify their actions, and not to mention all the various groups in places such as Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan who are happily murdering anyone who looks at them funny. All of these actions are ignored when criticizing US policies and actions. If anyone makes statements such as these they are automatically,without any supporting facts or evidence, labeled a US shill or even worse a neo-con. If you bring up other's wrongdoing you are blasted with the accusation "Two rights do not make a right!".
Global policy discussions are not about comparing who has committed the biggest atrocity. The problem is the total lack of context when people are formulating their opinions and arguments. Without injecting CONTEXT into the picture the arguments and controversy quickly becomes political instead of factual. Then the arguments escalate into a fight about who is "right" and who is "wrong" and the original cause of the argument gets distorted, lost, and ultimately forgotten. The only thing that is going to happen because of the NSA leaks is the government is going to develop new guidelines and procedures to make sure leaks of this nature will not occur in the future. In other words they are going to be even more secretive than they are now. The "outraged" foreign countries will do nothing but publicly posture and get their pictures taken at the local Anti-US demonstration. No will not do anything meaningful because they have their own security policies and procedures in place that pretty much mirror the NSA programs. Not to mention that several supposed allies of the US have actually been requesting and using intelligence collected by the NSA. Does anyone wonder why the European countries refused the Bolivian President's plane from crossing their airspace? It was immediate, unexpected, bold, and very undeniable action from countries that normally go out of their way to show the world that they are not afraid of standing up to the big and bad US.
If they are collecting the amount of data people seem to believe then they are already overloaded with more data than the can reasonable process and analyze in any useful way. So far there has been no corroboration verifying that they are even capable of doing what they are accused of doing. The information leaked so far looks more like presentations to a non-technical audience used to secure funding, Exaggerations and empty promises run rampant when someone is trying to sell their services and solutions. There also seems to be a lack of technology savvy people willing to question the actual technology that would be needed in these programs. And if the government programs are so invasive and wide ranging why do they need to request data from 3rd parties?
What's really funny is that up until the Snowden circus you could find job advertisements for NSA positions where they actually included the acronyms of the NSA projects and the skillset required from which you could pretty much figure out what type of work you would be doing. And yes, one of the project acronyms was PRISM. SAIC removed the ads but you can still see them in Google cache.
It was worth it because the technologies used in this project can be used in other forays into space. Not to mention they can actually deliver computer service packs all the way to Mars. There are people and companies that cannot even install service packs on their local network without breaking a bunch of shit.
The ITC override has absolutely nothing to do with the Constitution. And please let everyone know when even 1 person is charged with a crime or harmed in anyway by the NSA. programs. People are quick to criticize NSA programs but they do so without even questioning the validity of some of the information released. Look closely at the Snowden data dump and you will see PowerPoint slides and program descriptions do not contain any technical or operational corroboration. Does the NSA actually have the wide range of capabilities people are automatically assuming?
Slashdot Mirror
There is a frightening amount of people who do not realize that history goes back further than 1990. During the cold war there were 2 very visible examples of "East" versus "West". E. Germany and W. Germany and N. Korea and S. Korea. A person could stand on the separation boundaries and see the differences for themselves. Does anyone remember in the 1970's the Russians had to send hundreds of undercover minders to keep their international athletes from defecting to the West. Getting into countries is one thing but not being able to get out of a country sounds like prison policy.
The argument should not be centered on why the US is intervening or not intervening. The real question is why Russia and China are doing absolutely nothing other than supplying Assad with more weapons and stonewalling even toothless UN resolutions. The Chinese will do nothing until the conflict is settled one way or another and then step in to see what they can salvage in the ruin. Russia and China are being promoted as the shining lights of progressive international governance and outstanding defenders of human rights and transparency so shouldn't they help resolve this situation?
I think the US should do nothing since I don't see anything that threatens core US interests. The US has not had relations with Iran or Syria for a long time so why spend blood and treasure to help people who go out of their way at every opportunity to express their disdain towards anything related to the US? The real fun will start if the US blows off the UN and does attack Syrian air assets and support systems. Russia will come off looking weak and ineffectual. They are in no position to militarily or economically oppose the US in this instance. Russia is probably going to regret their intransigence and refusal to work with the US on the little extradition drama played out a few weeks ago. That little international episode has guaranteed no one in the US government is really interested in talking things over or compromising. To top it off if the US does hit Syria the Russians risk having the US dismantle the Russian supplied air defense system and making it look easy while doing it. I would expect a sharp drop in sales if the systems Russia is peddling are proved ineffective in front of the whole world.
"NSA/CIA are controlled by politicians who are controlled by corporations"
Elected politicians are supposed to control and regulate the NSA and CIA. The problem is that they just aren't doing a very good job. Of course the US politicians go out of their way to look like total morons and personally taking charge of running down the country.
"Remind me to shed a tear" Personally I don't give a shit what you think. Espionage, secrecy, and intelligence analysis has been a consistent part of governments going back thousands of years. Just wishing it away is not going to change anything. A country collects intelligence on both it's allies and competitors for a wide range of reasons and every government on the planet is aware of that simple fact.
" legislative action to provide more public data/oversight of covert activities"
There are already an overabundance of rules, laws, and regulations that get bent or broken when deemed necessary. When it comes to legitimate and necessary covert actions how many people do you trust with seeing the information? FISA and the Senate Intelligence committee are already in the loop so how many other people get added to the list? Should the NSA or the CIA put every operation up on the internet and take a vote to see what the world thinks? That is the only option for those clamoring total transparency will accept. The thing that scares me has nothing to do with the government. It is the echo chamber political activists who shout their defiance using unsupported claims and flat out lies and a total lack of historical knowledge which would allow them to factor in context when forming their stated positions.
All the fuss about the data monitoring programs have revolved around what the government COULD or MAY do with the information. There has been corroborated evidence of the government actually misusing this information to inflict harm on someone. In a perfect world the government should have no secrets but we don't live in a perfect world. Not even close. But governments do have secrets that when exposed can cause a lot of unexpected problems. Leaking some PRISM documents may be OK but releasing details of foreign intelligence operations is another matter. The information released by Manning and Snowden have caused some serious problems in international diplomacy. Snowden will probably go down as the person responsible for starting up the cold war again. Of course he is certainly not solely responsible but he has definitely contributed another issue into international relations that eventually will harm someone down the line. The real kicker in this entire mess is that the people pushing out the information will get the opposite of what they are seeking. Instead of introducing transparency to government affairs the government will double down and put policies and procedures in place to get rid of any existing transparency.
Weapons technology has been evolving ever since there were enough humans to pick sides and started fighting about who gets the bigger cave. During war there is no such thing as a budget. Money doesn't enter the picture and if your country is facing defeat everyone will certainly be motivated. One example would be the British radar technology. If Germany had not been gathering on the other side of the channel threatening invasion their radar technology would not have advanced as much as it did. In contrast today's non-military technology advancements require substantial funding to turn an idea into something real. And I never said that War was required to ramp up technological advancement. I just pointed out that military technical innovations has substantially speeded up the process. Military technology has pushed aerospace technology, computer technology, communication technology, rocket technology, satellite technology, medical technology, materials technology, and even the internet started off initially as a DARPA project to investigate the utility of large scale distributed computer systems for defense purposes. And by the way I have 27 years worth of experience in software engineering. I'll let you calculate my age from that tidbit.
War has always accelerated technology development.
The military also introduced tents capable of collecting solar energy to power their field camps. It reduced the reliance on gas powered generators.
In the US system new laws can be proposed by the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. These new laws are usually vetted by the Executive and Legislative in house council to establish whether the proposed law is illegal or contradicts existing law. The process is very political and any smart lawyer can tailor their opinions to match the sponsors ideological bent. The real test takes place in the Judicial branch but someone needs to be charged and prosecuted using the law and challenge the law in court. The Judicial branch has a history of dismissing cases and striking down laws that are judged illegal. As a legal system this is pretty good but no system is perfect. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights have been a work in progress since day one.
I wasn't talking about the capabilities of the individual components needed to construct and operate such a system . I was referring to the sheer scale of the system. Yearly global IP traffic is estimated at 1.3 zettabytes per year (110.3 exabytes per month). Global mobile data traffic is estimated at 11.2 exabytes per month (134 exabytes a year). Forecasts show these figures increasing13-fold from 2012 to 2017. What type of hardware would be required to process and store this amount of data? Running queries against that amount of data would also require some serious processing power. Even the best keyword targeted algorithms would still return millions of hits a day. The NSA doesn't come close to having enough analysts to sift through all the potential hits.
This is the stupidest thing I have seen lately and that is saying a lot. I am sure every government operating a clandestine intelligence service is just going fold up shop and disband. What is really appalling is the European governments feigned outrage over the NSA intelligence programs when they routinely request and exchange intelligence data with the US. A lot of people today never question any piece of information as long as it makes the government look foolish or evil. Is there any independent proof that the NSA programs are even capable of actually doing the things they are suppose to be doing? We have seen Powerpoint presentations, memos, and white papers that appear targeted at a non-technical audience and includes no technical or operational details. They look more like a sales pitch used secure funding. IT projects of this size are notorious for promising all kinds of capabilities upfront that end up being dropped for a variety of reasons. If the government programs are so encompassing why do they need to solicit data from 3rd parties? I have seen no discussions concerning the hardware and software architecture that is needed for a system supposedly capable of trapping and analyzing all the internet traffic as well as every email and tweet that crosses the wire. What if the NSA is purposely letting some of the capabilities be exaggerated to frighten other governments? If confidential information is leaked the government might want to try and salvage something and making your enemies fear your capabilities can be a positive achievement. .
Actually I have been there 3 times for a total of 5 weeks primarily for work. The Russians are backing Assad in Syria with weapons large and small which means they also support Hezbolla and Iranian policies. Personally I don't really give a shit about Russia or any of the middle eastern states. The only thing I do tend to support is total withdrawal of the US military from that region and let all those countries settle their own problems. After a minimum of 5 years we should re-evaluate the situation and see if the absence of US involvement made things better or worse. If things are judged better then that's great the US can continue on its path while saving a shit load of money. If things are judged worse we can simply say "maybe US involvement wasn't really all that bad" and still continue a cheaper non-interventionist policy.
"Does the fighting in Syria affect day to day life in Russia"
Does the US drone strikes in Yemen or Pakistan affect daily life in the US?
Go ahead and jump on the next plane to Russia. If you are going to pimp their qualities you best get a first hand look at your shining city on the hill. Why you are there see if you can find out if they are publishing the body count from Syria. Russians don't have gag orders when speaking about the government they use a more effective and permanent technique usually referred to as murder by the more uppity countries in the world.
Seriously dude get back on the meds and power down your reality distortion field a bit. It's bad enough a young man killed himself, someone with admitted psychological issues, but laying the blame on others and threatening them with violence is probably not the best way to vent your anger.
Listen sport I am ignorant about a lot of things but I started my programming and system design career over 25 years ago so I am perfectly capable of making an informed decision when it comes to choosing a browser. My first decision was made more than a few years ago was to not even use Firefox. Never needed to use it professionally or personally. However, in regards to this article isn't Firefox an Open Source system. All you need to do is download the code, remove the things you don't want or like, build, and deploy. Catastrophe avoided.
You best get back on your medication before you hurt yourself or others. You have come real close to issuing the kind of threats that people are starting to take seriously.
Without the advertising based revenue you will see nothing but pay walls. Once this happens you will have to fend off the morons who think asking them to pay for content equates to censorship. If cookies really upset your universe you can tighten up your browser settings and move on with your life.
You are right when you say we will never really know where the intelligence comes from that causes the US to send up the drones. I suspect most of the actionable intelligence comes from human assets on the ground and not from some super secret technology used by the government. Technology can provide good survellience tools but you need to point it in the right direction to produce any worthwhile results. The current data collection programs do not provide the information to stop an attack unless the attack is in the planning stage for a long time. There is just too much data and not enough analysts to process that amount of information. Even the most advanced keyword analytics will still result in millions of hits a day that would require human intervention to determine the utility of the information. About the only thing they could do is analyze some of the metadata using targeted queries. One example would be detecting communication patterns to the middle east and other parts of the world where the US has security interests. In my first post I was trying to address the idea that the programs such as the Patriot Act or PRISM really violates somones 4th amendment rights. Until someone is charged with a crime and presents their defense in court the question of violating rights is still up in the air. The executive and legislative branches create and declare new laws and they tend to rely on in-house council to review the proposed law for obvious defects but that is still a long way from declaring the law legal. The law needs to be applied in such a manner that it can be specifically challenged. And the judiciary cannot perform this level of review until a case appears in front of them. The entire reason GITMO exists is to prevent prisoners from accessing the US legal system and risk having the Patriot Act and other laws ruled against. This has already happened to a professor who was charged and prosecuted under the Patriot Act and the court ruled against the Patriot Act articles involved in the case and dismissed all charges.
Yes the 4th amendment protections do end at the border. And I am still waiting to hear of someone being charged and prosecuted for a crime using the surveillance data collected by the NSA as evidence. The government surveillance methods cannot be declared illegal until they are vetted by the judiciary.
The US government actions pale in comparison to the EU shake down of US companies. The EU countries missed the boat on innovation in the digital age products and services so they have switched to plan B which is harassing and fining successful US companies.
As long as you are denouncing the US it doesn't matter what the accusers current or past transgressions are. Stereotypes, exaggerations, unproved speculation, and wild conspiracy theories are used when gearing up to condemn the US. Just a few minor things people are more than willing to sweep under the rug include Russia's arresting and convicting of political adversaries, the new Russian anti-gay laws, acknowledging the fact that every country of any size practices espionage on every one of their so called friends or foes, Venezuela's arresting political opponents and closing down non-government aligned news outlets for not supporting the "revolution" talking points, the Taliban's attempt to murder a little girl for running a blog and then actually having a press conference to explain and justify their actions, and not to mention all the various groups in places such as Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan who are happily murdering anyone who looks at them funny. All of these actions are ignored when criticizing US policies and actions. If anyone makes statements such as these they are automatically ,without any supporting facts or evidence, labeled a US shill or even worse a neo-con. If you bring up other's wrongdoing you are blasted with the accusation "Two rights do not make a right!".
Global policy discussions are not about comparing who has committed the biggest atrocity. The problem is the total lack of context when people are formulating their opinions and arguments. Without injecting CONTEXT into the picture the arguments and controversy quickly becomes political instead of factual. Then the arguments escalate into a fight about who is "right" and who is "wrong" and the original cause of the argument gets distorted, lost, and ultimately forgotten. The only thing that is going to happen because of the NSA leaks is the government is going to develop new guidelines and procedures to make sure leaks of this nature will not occur in the future. In other words they are going to be even more secretive than they are now. The "outraged" foreign countries will do nothing but publicly posture and get their pictures taken at the local Anti-US demonstration. No will not do anything meaningful because they have their own security policies and procedures in place that pretty much mirror the NSA programs. Not to mention that several supposed allies of the US have actually been requesting and using intelligence collected by the NSA. Does anyone wonder why the European countries refused the Bolivian President's plane from crossing their airspace? It was immediate, unexpected, bold, and very undeniable action from countries that normally go out of their way to show the world that they are not afraid of standing up to the big and bad US.
If they are collecting the amount of data people seem to believe then they are already overloaded with more data than the can reasonable process and analyze in any useful way. So far there has been no corroboration verifying that they are even capable of doing what they are accused of doing. The information leaked so far looks more like presentations to a non-technical audience used to secure funding, Exaggerations and empty promises run rampant when someone is trying to sell their services and solutions. There also seems to be a lack of technology savvy people willing to question the actual technology that would be needed in these programs. And if the government programs are so invasive and wide ranging why do they need to request data from 3rd parties?
What's really funny is that up until the Snowden circus you could find job advertisements for NSA positions where they actually included the acronyms of the NSA projects and the skillset required from which you could pretty much figure out what type of work you would be doing. And yes, one of the project acronyms was PRISM. SAIC removed the ads but you can still see them in Google cache.
It was worth it because the technologies used in this project can be used in other forays into space. Not to mention they can actually deliver computer service packs all the way to Mars. There are people and companies that cannot even install service packs on their local network without breaking a bunch of shit.
The ITC override has absolutely nothing to do with the Constitution. And please let everyone know when even 1 person is charged with a crime or harmed in anyway by the NSA. programs. People are quick to criticize NSA programs but they do so without even questioning the validity of some of the information released. Look closely at the Snowden data dump and you will see PowerPoint slides and program descriptions do not contain any technical or operational corroboration. Does the NSA actually have the wide range of capabilities people are automatically assuming?
Where did I say anything about ceasing international imports or raising tariffs?