Right on the heels of Saturday Night Live skewering 60 Minutes for softball interviews:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/rob-ford-cold-o...
NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
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Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#32The fact that Clapper is still in office months after it was revealed that he had in point of fact lied to congress during sworn testimony should tell you everything you need to know. The surveillance machinery formerly known as Total Information Awareness is being built and fielded with or without the consent of the governed and most definitely without the consent of those of us who don't happen to be "US Persons".…
It is incredibly simple politics. He is in place to continue to soak up the bad publicity from the Snowden event. Once the bad publicity stops, he will step down. There is no point, politically, of taking him out right now. His replacement will end up tarnished with the bad PR as he starts his gig.
http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm
The NSA is unable to do a thorough damage assessment -- they don't know how which documents Snowden took.
Greenwald is drip feeding the world press "stories" which can go on for an indeterminate amount of time (see "no damage assessment").
Only viable option is to keep Clapper in place until Greenwald et al. have exhausted their supply of new scandals.
If, for example, Snowden had gone all Wikileaks and dumped the whole lot of files at once, Clapper would have been gone months ago.
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#33This was public relations, plain and simple. Paint Snowden like a weirdo, ask softball question after softball question, give vague hints about the scary threats that deem this all necessary, and blindly trust the answers of the guy in charge of the entire operation, as if he had no incentive whatsoever to mislead anyone. Then wrap it all up with "Just how did we get this access that no other news agency could?" Gee,…
Watching these "interview with officials" I always remember Manufacturing Consent by Edward Herman and Chomsky. It just explains so well the attitude, the approach, the type of questions asked, how they answered and how the presentation is done.
As a contrast, then there is a interview with Assange from a while back. It was immediately confrontational. He didn't have a chance to present his views or what the organization stands for, talk about "global persistent boogeymen", none of that. Reporter zoomed in on the rape (please, true or false?). And that's that. Due to the constraints and rules these agencies operate under and comparing the two approaches it is funny how similar the external effects to that of a state run propaganda agency. It is like having RT report on Putin pretty much.
John Miller might as well be a thawed out frozen sea bass and this piece might as well be a "released by NSA" PR piece. I would laugh normally as it is pretty funny, but this stopped being funny a while back, now it is just scary.
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#34Quick Question about encrypted email: For extremely sensitive data, rather than mess with PGP for Thunderbird and private and public keys. Can't you just email a TrueCrypt container with a hidden TrueCrypt container inside of it back and forth between your clients?
You'd have to find a way to negotiate the volume password electronically if you didn't do it in person, which in turn would basically just be asymmetric crypto, which would probably lead you to PGP.
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#35This was public relations, plain and simple. Paint Snowden like a weirdo, ask softball question after softball question, give vague hints about the scary threats that deem this all necessary, and blindly trust the answers of the guy in charge of the entire operation, as if he had no incentive whatsoever to mislead anyone. Then wrap it all up with "Just how did we get this access that no other news agency could?" Gee,…
What annoyed me is that, as with anything, the devil is in the details. And the questions failed to clarify on details.
A few examples (all quotes paraphrased):
1. "we only listen to conversations of non americans"
-----Ok, so what happens when an American has a conversation with a non American? Do you tap it at all? Do you get both sides of conversation? Only one side?
2. "you can only look at a protected phone number if you have access"
----Awesome, but this is sort of a non-answer. How many people have access? How long does it take to get access? How easy is it to request access? Do you need access per phone number or if you get access for one protected number do you now get access to all of them?
3. "PRISM only lets us target US persons with probable cause under court order"
-----What is a US person? US Citizen? Person living in the US? This also contradicts so much of what I thought I knew about PRISM that I'm baffled that no clarification was asked for.
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#36This was public relations, plain and simple. Paint Snowden like a weirdo, ask softball question after softball question, give vague hints about the scary threats that deem this all necessary, and blindly trust the answers of the guy in charge of the entire operation, as if he had no incentive whatsoever to mislead anyone. Then wrap it all up with "Just how did we get this access that no other news agency could?" Gee,…
Taking a wider view... it seems the politicians have not yet figured out that the Internet is a total game changer in terms of their ability to manage the political and social agenda, spin the "truth" and the events of the day in their favor, etc. Going on 60 Minutes to give your side of the story is so last century, lol. This was from a pre-Internet playbook and it won't work (except maybe on the older folks who still get their news and analysis from ABC/NBC/CBS but their numbers are dwindling as even that generation is going online now) but its all they know.
Here is a link to one of the best explanations that I have read about how the Internet has changed the social, political and power structures of our time. We are living in the greatest political and social revolution since the invention of the printing press. The entrenched powers can no longer use the press like 60 Minutes or the NY Times to maintain their control. Nobody knows how this will end.
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking...
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, they keep saying that as if all the collected data wasn't already "looked at" through keyword alerts or similar systems, or that they wouldn't give themselves permission to look manually at someone's data anyway. Also last I checked, the 4th Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches (I would think searching/fishing for elements in the data through autonomous systems, is still called "searching", no?) and seizure…
4th Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches of persons , houses , papers , and effects . It has never prohibited the government from doing other searches, otherwise government agencies would not be able to subpoena business records about you from third parties. Sometimes Congress passes separate laws adding a specific requirement to obtain a warrant before doing a certain type of search, and the Supreme Court has a…
Wouldn't an average, reasonable person in today's age consider an email or digital file to be a modern version of a "paper" or a cell phone to be a modern "effect"?
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#38The fact that Clapper is still in office months after it was revealed that he had in point of fact lied to congress during sworn testimony should tell you everything you need to know. The surveillance machinery formerly known as Total Information Awareness is being built and fielded with or without the consent of the governed and most definitely without the consent of those of us who don't happen to be "US Persons".…
Him lying to Congress actually isn't that black and white. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intel-dir-james-clapper-lie-c...
If you specifically choose definitions of words that don't agree with the typical usage and act like those were the definitions that were used when you were asked a question, you are, in fact, a big fat liar.
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#39Right on the heels of Saturday Night Live skewering 60 Minutes for softball interviews: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/rob-ford-cold-o...
Meh. What would you expect an NBC show to say about a CBS show?
In terms of performances, it's not like they have anything to brag about. SNL is averaging less than one funny skit per year across multiple full-cast rotations.
Aside from the Moderately humorous skit every once-in-a-blue-moon (such as The Insane Clown Posse parody for their Miracles video), SNL has been borderline unwatchable for well over a decade.
Re: NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying [video]
#40The fact that Clapper is still in office months after it was revealed that he had in point of fact lied to congress during sworn testimony should tell you everything you need to know. The surveillance machinery formerly known as Total Information Awareness is being built and fielded with or without the consent of the governed and most definitely without the consent of those of us who don't happen to be "US Persons".…
Him lying to Congress actually isn't that black and white. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intel-dir-james-clapper-lie-c...
Clapper said, "No" and "not wittingly." That mind-rotting article you linked to is one guy speculating that he was put on the spot and had to say something in order to not confirm that they were openly spying on people...WHAT?
Everything we have seen makes it clear that they are spying on Americans and they obviously know they are doing it. Clapper's answer was thus a LIE. He was asked a question and gave an answer he knew was wrong. HE LIED. THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF LYING.
I wish someone around here would ante up and starting banning the shills.