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Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

nytimes.com

51–60 of 146 posts

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#51
The US is a close ally of Israel for obvious reasons. Israel wants to better defend itself, so it co-operates with the N.S.A. This is what Israel needs to defend itself, and Israel probably does the same thing to help defend the US.

There will always be a conflict between privacy and security, you can stick to one on expense of the other, but you will never be able to "fix" things.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#52
Israel's Arab civilian's regularly attempt to blow themselves up in public places (believe me, I've stopped a few on them myself). Meanwhile the Palestinians gleefully lob rockets at populated cities in Israel. Of course Israel would want to monitor them as much as possible, and corroborate with the NSA to get as much data as possible. If that monitoring saved YOUR child from getting blown up on a bus, wouldn't you support it, or would you prefer your kid gets blown to smithereens so that social justice can be upheld? There's a big difference between America's domestic surveillance program and Israel's. Last time I checked, the central USA hadn't just recently been shelled.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#53
post #41

The way Israel owns American military and foreign policy should be a national shame. Reminds me of this other story about Israel going behind Obama's back to get weapons straight from the Pentagon. http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-sway-over-israel-on-gaza-...

That's politics bullshit, Obama wanted to "remind" the Israelis who's boss and make sure the world sees.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#54
post #37

I think this is the most damning leak to date. There is no justification for freely giving information to Israel. And the part about people's porn habits being tracked is even scarier. That could be used to discredit virtually anyone (well, any male at least). Who hasn't visited an embarrassing porn website at least once in their life ? Now imagine your name being publicly associated with that website.

There is justification, it's a co-operation between Israel and the U.S. Just like the US helps Israel, Israel helps the US.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#55
post #31
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my fellow uneducated hackers: "a water drop hollows a stone not by force, but by falling often"

I know you're just being cheeky, but I don't believe that "knowing latin" == "educated", same for its corollary.

It's the other way; si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#56

Israel's Arab civilian's regularly attempt to blow themselves up in public places (believe me, I've stopped a few on them myself). Meanwhile the Palestinians gleefully lob rockets at populated cities in Israel. Of course Israel would want to monitor them as much as possible, and corroborate with the NSA to get as much data as possible. If that monitoring saved YOUR child from getting blown up on a bus, wouldn't you s…

So if you object to this type of surveillance then you prefer your children to be blown up by suicide bombers?

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#57

Palantir has their hand in all of this.

Palantir has their hand in all of this. What is the evidence for this statement? (I read the fine article, and didn't see a lot of discussion of the business corporation Palantir there.)

They're the only company that has the technology to parse / analyze datasets like the ones mentioned in the article.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#58
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those working within the system should follow Snowden's example, IMHO. Force the government to either stop these practices altogether, or reveal their true cost to the American way of life.

Why should any insider do that? Snowden did it, and look what happened. Nothing. Sad truth is, the majority don't care. If they did, then it would be reflected in voting, and things would change. But no. Mean while, Snowden is a wanted man in exile. Don't get me wrong, I don't like this one little bit, but it seems I'm in a minority.

>Snowden did it, and look what happened. Nothing. Sad truth is, the majority don't care. If they did, then it would be reflected in voting, and things would change. But no. Mean while, Snowden is a wanted man in exile.

Publicly, that is all that happened.

Within the NSA, I imagine there was quite a bit of upheaval. Most importantly, the entire system was redesigned so as to prevent the same thing from happening again.

If you read Julian Assange's early essays State and Terrorist Conspiracies, you'll see the inspiration for Wikileaks and the explanation of the strategic and tactical value of leaking: It breaks the bonds of trust within state organizations, preventing them from starting and executing programs their conspiracies (anything within the NSA is by definition a conspiracy; security clearances are conspiracies writ large).

Imagine the impact if the NSA became mistrustful of itself! Truly it is a vision worth leaking for.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#59

Palantir has their hand in all of this.

We live in such a cyberpunk novel. Governmental conspiracies, global dystopia (overt or covert), and slick-named surveillance-tech megacorps.

Except, in this world, the balance is too weighted in favor of the powerful. There will be no Panther Moderns in our world's cyberpunk future. There will be no punk in our cyberpunk. Only a cyberboot stamping on our cyberface(book), forever.

Re: Israel’s N.S.A. Scandal

#60
post #56

Israel's Arab civilian's regularly attempt to blow themselves up in public places (believe me, I've stopped a few on them myself). Meanwhile the Palestinians gleefully lob rockets at populated cities in Israel. Of course Israel would want to monitor them as much as possible, and corroborate with the NSA to get as much data as possible. If that monitoring saved YOUR child from getting blown up on a bus, wouldn't you s…

So if you object to this type of surveillance then you prefer your children to be blown up by suicide bombers?

Most every democracy with serious and continuing problems with terrorism throw out the law book and human rights.

Afaik, this goes for USA, Britain, Israel, Germany, Spain and Italy. And probably more cases. (Note "continuing problems". e.g. Breivik was a lone crazy.)

The reason is shown by the grandparent comment; terrorism is optimized to scare voters. And politicians are scared of hysterical voters, they need to fix that to keep their jobs.

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