Police State

Another viewpoint about the motive for the surveillance state.

"That the massive effort is utterly uncoordinated and scarcely able to communicate one part's "findings" to another only strengthens the conclusion that the goal is not stopping terrorism, but getting the taxpayers' money and putting it into privileged pockets. Even if the expected damage from acts of terrorism against the United States were $10 billion per year, which seems much too high a guess, it makes no sense to spend more than $75 billion every year to prevent it — and it certainly makes no sense to spend any money only pretending to prevent it.
What we see here is not really an "intelligence" or counterterrorism operation at all. It's a rip-off, plain and simple, fed by irrational fear and continually stoked by the government plunderers who are exercising the power and raking in the booty to "fight terrorism.""

But if just one life is saved...

Despite all the surveillance, the FBI and New York police still haven't solved the 2008 Times Square bombing of a military recruitment center.

Every day the government makes more exaggerated claims about how many terrorist plots its surveillance has prevented. Today the NSA director claims it stopped 50 plots.

"At least 10 of the plots targeted the U.S. homeland, Alexander told the House Intelligence Committee, including a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.
"I would much rather be here today debating this,'' Alexander told lawmakers, referring to the programs' value, "than explaining why we were unable to prevent another 9/11'' attack."

Ooo. Good fear-mongering there. Well done. Too bad he can't point to stopping another 9/11. When the truth behind these so-called plots comes out, these exaggerations are going to bite him and the government.

After FBI and NSA tag team softball Senate hearing, they go for a beer.

NSA disruption of plot to bomb Stock Exchange disputed. That didn't take long. This is why they won't give any details.

"Fowler declined to comment any further, including whether he would seek to reopen the case, given the government admitting that secret, and constitutionally suspect, methods were used to gain access to his phone records."

Uh-oh. This could backfire. Anybody who's been convicted of a terrorist plot could demand to see NSA's record on them to see if unconstitutional methods were used to identify them.

The subway bomber claim is also being challenged.

"The Obama administration officials gave more details about four cases in which information taken from the NSA's databases of foreign internet communications and millions of Americans' phone records had contributed to stopping attacks. Two of them have been previously disclosed, especially that of the 2009 arrest of would-be New York subway bomber Najibullah Zazi. That case has been sharply challenged thanks to court records as more attributable to traditional police surveillance. "

Imagine that.

Obama says NSA's super-secret spy programs are transparent. Transparent is the opposite of secret. 

Google files first amendment challenge against FISA gag order. I think Google is feeling the pain of partnering with NSA.

Young people tend to be sympathetic to NSA whistleblower Snowden, thank goodness, believe government should be transparent. They're so naive.

The government is running scared of Snowden.

"The White House is waiting for the Snowden story to die down. But Snowden keeps letting more cats out of bags. He is keeping the surveillance community in the spotlight. Now he has broadened it to Great Britain.
The United States government has yet to demand that Hong Kong extradite him. To demand his extradition, the government must accuse him of a crime. It must then try him. If it tries him, an international media feeding frenzy will begin. How much does Snowden know? No one in high places knows. He knows a lot more than any other whistleblower on the spy network who has gone public before.
He has already become a worldwide phenomenon. The government cannot get this toothpaste back into the tube. But if it extradites him, it will have to try him. It is sure to get a lot more toothpaste out of the tube."

I'd be surprised if he lives long.

"So far, the government has refused to ask for his extradition. The White House is trapped: he will not shut up. But giving him new opportunities to tell more of his story to the public is a real threat to the government’s credibility."

And I hope Obama is scared to order a drone strike in Hong Kong. But he might not be. He might believe he can weather China's anger than Snowden's leaks. I think Obama will kill him with old fashioned human resources. The CIA probably has Triads tracking him now. More.

More tips for internet privacy and security.

Monopoly is the root problem of US security forces.