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The NSA: An Inside View

lorensr.me

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Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#11

Post by jonknee »

te_chris wrote: post #8

Thank you so much, kind American intelligence guy, for having the grace to not look at USA citizens emails, all the while not even mentioning foreigners, who should apparently just lie down and take it.

Not just lie down and take it, the foreigners should be re-assured that their communications are also shared to the USA's best friends:

> If you are a citizen of the UK, Canada, New Zealand, or Australia, you may also be glad, because everything the NSA collects is by default shared with your government (the default classification is TS//SI//REL TO FVEY, or "release to five eyes", which are the aforementioned countries and the US).

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#13

Post by dmfdmf »

Translation: Trust us, we are the good guys.

This blog post does nothing to answer the fundamental questions that the Snowden leaks have raised. This man basically argues that, with few exceptions, everyone that works for the NSA is a true American and a patriot who only has your interests at heart and what is a little spying amongst friends anyway. Follow that with some scary hints about cyber war with nuclear responses to further raise the stakes (and the fear) to justify their dragnet surveillance police state. This man is a moron if he can't see that constitutional protections were not created to protect us from good people but bad people who can gain control of such a system in the future.

Moreover, if what he says is true that we are facing real dangers then the government has the obligation, in a free society, to reveal these threats and explain what they are doing about it. The method of using such secret threats as a basis for increase police powers and (implicit) suspension of constitutional rights is not proper for a free society.

If the result of the so called "war on terror" is a gutted and shredded constitution then I'd say the terrorists have won.

Edit: Apparently Loren is a man, Sorry.

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#14

Post by lorendsr »

room271 wrote: post #3

While I do not agree with much of the sentiment, I enjoyed the article. My question to the OP: even if you believe that at the moment abuses are rare and that your colleagues are trustworthy and law-abiding, does the capability and level of information concern you in terms of the potential for future abuse it enables?

Potential future abuse, whether due to laws becoming more permissive or a radical in-agency culture change that led to more people ignoring the law, is certainly concerning. As are current abuses. I just believe that the capabilities provided under the powers currently given to the agency are worth the abuses and potential future abuse. If I thought there was much chance that in the future, law enforcement and intelligence would not remain separate, my decision would change. I would prefer to live in a free unsafe state than a police state.

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#15

Post by timdiggerm »

te_chris wrote: post #8

Thank you so much, kind American intelligence guy, for having the grace to not look at USA citizens emails, all the while not even mentioning foreigners, who should apparently just lie down and take it.

Do you think the US (& friends) is the only one doing (or at least trying) to do this?

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#16

Post by EthanHeilman »

Zigurd wrote: post #4

Is this the best defense of the actions of NSA employees publicly available? He spends a lot of time denying pervasive surveillance puts us in a panopticon where the FBI and other LEAs can observe everything we do. And never mentions parallel construction once. He tries to justify a Cold War sized, and then some, security state by invoking North Korea. This is a big bowl of very weak sauce. The director's standard of…

"Project MINARET was a sister project to Project SHAMROCK operated by the National Security Agency (NSA), which, after intercepting electronic communications that contained the names of predesignated US citizens, passed them to other government law enforcement and intelligence organizations." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MINARET

The NSA has a history of sharing intelligence with LE, to state that the NSA is not a LE agency is extremely misleading, if not an outright lie. Not only did the NSA do this in the past but the Snowden revelations show that they continue to do this.

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#17

Post by beachstartup »

yeah, all that juicy data, just sitting there. trust us. we won't touch it. neither will the fbi. or the cops. they don't care that you smoke weed. really.

except they do care. and they want that data. and they will get that data. you can bet your fucking LIFE on it.

if it's there, it will be used, and very possibly by someone with less than good intentions. how the hell could anyone convince themselves that this isn't true? it's mind boggling.

look at mccarthy era politics. THAT CAN HAPPEN. IT DID HAPPEN. IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN.

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#18

Post by rdtsc »

Zigurd wrote: post #9
te_chris wrote: post #8

Thank you so much, kind American intelligence guy, for having the grace to not look at USA citizens emails, all the while not even mentioning foreigners, who should apparently just lie down and take it.

Not to mention other members of the Five Eyes who are not restrained from reading US intercepts.

You are missing the important aspect of it, and that is, just like their citizens are fair game for us, we are also fair game for them.

I would be highly surprised if those agencies are _not_ allowed to "look" at our data, since they won't be breaking any "laws".

Fuck everything about finding loopholes and skating on the edge of what is legal. NSA has repeatedly lied so far, never apologied for it. A lie would come out and bam! exposed by Snowden's docs. It was spectacular to watch.

The bottom line is, I am more scared and afraid of our NSA than of the Chinese bogey men or "cyber warriors" out there. I have not seen anything but lies, trickery and dishonesty come out of their mouth. I think they are traitors and unpatriotic.

They are betraying fundamental principles this country is founded on. I can see how slimey mafia lawyers would want the laws re-interpreted to fit their clients' purposes ("well, it depends what 'is' is, your honor"), I don't want out government doing the same. It technically might be legal it doesn't mean it isn't shitty.

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#19

Post by mtgentry »

No offense to OP, but this reads like propaganda to me. It feels like someone at the Pentagon realized they weren't winning the war of the minds of hackers, so they encouraged some of their own to blog about their experiences.

I hate to sound like a tin hat wearing conspiracist. I really do. But I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of concerted effort by the NSA to encourage a dialogue with hackers on platforms like HN.

Sorry for the paranoia OP. Glad you enjoyed your time at the NSA.

Re: The NSA: An Inside View

#20

Post by Tarang »

Well looking at the end it says that its declassified/published with the NSA's blessing.

If an employee had a contrarian opinion to the NSA would it be declassified like this one?

Its hard to read it and feel that it is balanced or even truthful.

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