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NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

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Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#31
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitution violations and hollowing of citizen protection worldwide. It is amusing to me that -- in context of your comment -- the current second comment starts with "Well, this isn't news".

It's not news to me. But it does seem like most people don't care. Or don't care enough. However, what could they do, even if they cared enough?

If people care enough, they can bring down governments...

And in much worse conditions...

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#32
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's this really interesting assertion in Weight of Chains 2 by Boris Malagurski: Serbia (Yugoslavia) before the Balkan Wars had an excellent education system that produced many scholars in the diaspora still today. The West/NATO/EU bombed that to the ground, along with the economy (factories, banks, telecom). Those who are still in Serbia now and are in charge have not been able to recreate an education system th…

I call Bullshit on you. The one of the product of that excellent education system was Milosevic as well. Serbia with Milosevic started the last Balkan Wars in its desire to renew Dusan's Empire, or in common tongue, to make a greater Serbia. First in Slovenia, later on in Croatia then in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When it started on the south, in between Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, it became too…

> The one of the product of that excellent education system was Milosevic as well.

Not the best phrasing, one could deduct from it that the education system was broken.

Of course bad people will benefit from education as well as good people, but this is not a reason to stop educating people.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#33
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I saw the movie Idiocracy, I said this is a bit exaggerated. Well, we are heading there in acceleration. It's astounding how little people care about the many walks of life.

They'll start caring again about privacy when people start being dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night for participating in protests, not just against the government, but against large corporations, too. And many people will lose their lives in the process, or will be imprisoned for years until things change again, and so on. I guess we'll have to do real fighting for our human rights once again (unfo…

>They'll start caring again about privacy when people start being dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night for participating in protests, not just against the government, but against large corporations, too.

They still will not, since it will be others, and a small minority, that does that and gets dragged, etc.

The problem is that a society that stifles those small minorities (from labor activists in early 20th century to MLK, Snowden, and so on) ends up worse for everybody.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#35
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's this really interesting assertion in Weight of Chains 2 by Boris Malagurski: Serbia (Yugoslavia) before the Balkan Wars had an excellent education system that produced many scholars in the diaspora still today. The West/NATO/EU bombed that to the ground, along with the economy (factories, banks, telecom). Those who are still in Serbia now and are in charge have not been able to recreate an education system th…

I call Bullshit on you. The one of the product of that excellent education system was Milosevic as well. Serbia with Milosevic started the last Balkan Wars in its desire to renew Dusan's Empire, or in common tongue, to make a greater Serbia. First in Slovenia, later on in Croatia then in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When it started on the south, in between Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, it became too…

>I call Bullshit on you. The one of the product of that excellent education system was Milosevic as well. Serbia with Milosevic started the last Balkan Wars in its desire to renew Dusan's Empire, or in common tongue, to make a greater Serbia.

Rather that's the party line. Because other sides weren't angels either, and a lot of the atrocities/stories pilled on the Serbian side were manufactured BS.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/16/denying-the-srebrenic...

In the end, it was all for creating another protectorate (Kossovo) -- and militant islamism penetration thriving.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#37
post #19

So who's going to prison over these "illegal searches"? Oh, let me guess - nobody, because intelligence agencies seem to always be above the law?

Why should the people in power go to prison for doing illegal stuff just because they got caught? If they don't imprison themsleves, who's going to force them? What do they have to lose by not doing so themselves? These are the simple questions (with relatively simple answers) you need to ask. If they have nothing to lose, then why do you expect them to follow the law? Until you give them something to lose, why shoul…

You're exactly describing the reason why there is checks and balances. "People in power" is supposed to be a heterogenous group with different interests and formal functions. Your post suggests that it doesn't work properly in your country anymore. I wonder where exactly one could pinpoint the weak spots and systemic issues.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#38

I think the most dangerous thing is that what Snowden predicted actually happened by now. After all the revelations, nobody is interested anymore. There's this general fatigue and powerlessness that leads to a feeling of "well, yeah, everbody knows by now... what's the news here?" - even for me as a security expert and privacy proponent. The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitutio…

You're absolutely right. When I saw this headline, I just thought, "yeah we know​, is anyone surprised?"

It shouldn't be like this, we should be outraged every time. I wonder if they planned it like this.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#39
post #29

I think the most dangerous thing is that what Snowden predicted actually happened by now. After all the revelations, nobody is interested anymore. There's this general fatigue and powerlessness that leads to a feeling of "well, yeah, everbody knows by now... what's the news here?" - even for me as a security expert and privacy proponent. The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitutio…

> The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitution violations and hollowing of citizen protection worldwide. The upside is that a society that doesn't care, eventually gets what it deserves.

That's an upside?

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#40
post #26
post #12

Well, this isn't exactly news. What's interesting, however, is how interagency sharing doesn't get mentioned often in this debate. Such as SOD, where DEA, DHS, FBI, IRS, etc can access the data.[0,1,2,3] And use it secretly in criminal investigations, through parallel construction. Which, by the way, involves criminal conspiracy to suborn perjury. 0) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130... 1)…

One unanticipated consequence of the Snowden revelations is that other agencies now know what to ask for.

Maybe so. But SOD started in the 70s. Its focus was drug cartels. I'm guessing that NSA staff reached out to the FBI.
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