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The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

arstechnica.com

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Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#3
Figures that the cause for one of the biggest government abuses in history is the extension of the president's power. It's like humans never learn. Never give a single man too much power.

AUMF is just as bad, too. Did you know US is effectively still in a "state of emergency", today? - and will probably continue to be for long, long, LONG time, if nobody does anything about it.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gregorydjohnsen/60-words-and-a-war-w...

Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#4

Figures that the cause for one of the biggest government abuses in history is the extension of the president's power. It's like humans never learn. Never give a single man too much power. AUMF is just as bad, too. Did you know US is effectively still in a "state of emergency", today? - and will probably continue to be for long, long, LONG time, if nobody does anything about it. http://www.buzzfeed.com/gregorydjohnsen…

What's interesting is that the "office" of president has grown into countless agencies and sub-agencies, each with their own motives, political will, and desire for survival. It's like Daenerys with her dragons: completely under command, yet good luck ordering them not to eat the local children.

Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#5
The same offensive narrative repeats itself.

- The government is bulk collecting data on foreigners.

- Meh...

- They're also incidentally spying on US citizens in the processs.

- SAY WHAT?!

If the USA could try to acknowledge the human rights of non-US citizens, that would be really nice.

Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#6
post #5

The same offensive narrative repeats itself. - The government is bulk collecting data on foreigners. - Meh... - They're also incidentally spying on US citizens in the processs. - SAY WHAT?! If the USA could try to acknowledge the human rights of non-US citizens, that would be really nice.

I feel offended by the way US-media approaches this matter and by my country's stance on the matter (not even a comment about it).

Civilisation (broadly speaking) doesn't evolves hand-in-hand with technology. It is the major danger of our future.

Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#7
You can't make this stuff up. According to TFA:

1. CIA created black propaganda in USSR linking Soviets and international terrorists to foment dissent in Russia.

2. Somebody picked it up from outside and wrote a book about Soviet-terrorism links.

3. CIA director read the book, took it seriously, freaked out, lobbied for more powers.

4. CIA and NSA got more powers.

It's clearly not the first time in history that an intelligence organisation engineered a privilege escalation from fraudulent circumstances, but doing it by accident seems almost funny.

Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#8
post #5

The same offensive narrative repeats itself. - The government is bulk collecting data on foreigners. - Meh... - They're also incidentally spying on US citizens in the processs. - SAY WHAT?! If the USA could try to acknowledge the human rights of non-US citizens, that would be really nice.

Extending rights to non citizens? What are you, some sort of communist? Next you'll be asking them to dip their flag to a host nation, or measure something in meters, or some other outrage.

edit - though admittedly here in the UK we are currently borrowing our citizenship and rights law direct from the pages of 2000AD http://usvsth3m.com/post/75158899178/the-uk-government-is-no...

Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#9
post #6
post #5

The same offensive narrative repeats itself. - The government is bulk collecting data on foreigners. - Meh... - They're also incidentally spying on US citizens in the processs. - SAY WHAT?! If the USA could try to acknowledge the human rights of non-US citizens, that would be really nice.

I feel offended by the way US-media approaches this matter and by my country's stance on the matter (not even a comment about it). Civilisation (broadly speaking) doesn't evolves hand-in-hand with technology. It is the major danger of our future.

Because for non-US countries nothing has changed. It's been a publicly known fact that the US spies on non-US citizens by monitoring internet traffic for over 20 years. Ask any hacker aged over 24. There's simply hardly anything worth being surprised about as a foreign national.

If you asked anyone in The Netherlands 10 years ago if they thought their e-mail on Hotmail or GMail was monitored by authorities in the U.S. I am sure their answer would have been yes.

Re: The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

#10
post #5

The same offensive narrative repeats itself. - The government is bulk collecting data on foreigners. - Meh... - They're also incidentally spying on US citizens in the processs. - SAY WHAT?! If the USA could try to acknowledge the human rights of non-US citizens, that would be really nice.

This narrative openly stretches to the top. See: every Presidential speech on the matter.

But the worst part isn't that it's offensive to foreigners (which nobody cares about), it's that people so easily ignore that history knows no such thing as a unidirectional spy camera.

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