Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
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Posted on 07/26/2013 7:28:22 AM PDT by Dysart
They’ve been helping the government spy on people for a very long time. The cozy relationships go back decades.
BREAK
In an interview with National Journal, former NSA Director Michael Hayden indirectly confirmed Microsoft’s involvement. “This is a home game for us,” Hayden says. “Are we not going to take advantage that so much of it goes through Redmond, Washington? Why would we not turn the most powerful telecommunications and computing management structure on the planet to our use?” Most of this co-opting of the private sector has happened with the full-throated support of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, again behind closed doors. Today, Hayden says, the agency itself is all but indistinguishable from the private sector it has exploited. Its best technology is designed by the private sector—“There isn’t a phone or computer at Fort Meade that the government owns,” he says—and its surveillance systems are virtually interwoven with their products. The huge controversy over Snowden’s employment by one of these private contractors, Booz Allen Hamilton, was just the barest tip of the iceberg, according to intelligence and industry officials. One by one...the NSA contracted with companies to “make them part of our team,” as he puts it.
BREAK
Some intelligence experts believe one of the biggest problems about the extent of the government-industry surveillance program is that both government and industry have tried to keep it all secret for too long, rather than just being frank with the public about America’s national security needs. “It might have been better if they’d shown a little ankle,” says a former senior CIA official. Adds Harman, “I think the FISA opinions should be declassified to the extent they don’t compromise sources and methods, and Congress should have a robust debate about whether the law and the way it works is too broad.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
I'm pretty sure when Zero touts more "investments in infrastructure" you can bet it's spin for a stepped-up march toward Totalitarianism, and he'll rely on the cooperation of their greedy corporate partners while using our tax dollars to fund it. All for our safety and security, of course.
Is it a coincidence today’s big tech company presidents are big libs.
Good grief, is a hammer a good tool or an evil tool?
IT DEPENDS ON WHETHER ITS AIMED AT A NAIL OR YOUR HEAD!!!
Doesn’t make Stanley Tools “evil”.....
I know this. The public would be proud of NSA if it only knew.....
Big business and big government are a bit too cozy.
“You know what's wrong with scientific power?" Malcolm said.
“It’s a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are. It never fails."
Hammond said, "What is he talking about?”
Harding made a sign, indicating delirium. Malcolm cocked his eye.
“I will tell you what I am talking about," he said.
"Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power.
There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years.
Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru.
Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort.
You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you.
And once you have attained it, it’s your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you.
It is literally the result of your discipline.
Now what is interesting about this process is that,
by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands,
he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely.
So that kind of power has a built-in control.
The discipline of getting the you so that you won't abuse it.
But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline.
You read what others have done, and you take the next step.
You can do it very young. You can make progress very fast.
There is no discipline lasting many decades.
There is no mastery: old scientists are ignored.
There is no humility before nature.
There is only a get-rich-quick, make-a-name-for-yourself-fast philosophy.
Cheat, lie, falsify--it doesn't matter. Not to you, or to your colleagues.
No one will criticize you. No one has any standards.
They all trying to do the same thing: to do something big, and do it fast.”
“And because you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can accomplish something quickly.
You don't even-know exactly what you have done, but already you have reported it; patented it, and sold it.”
“And the buyer will have even less discipline than you. The buyer simply purchases the power, like any commodity.
The buyer doesn’t even conceive that any discipline might be necessary.”
Hammond said, "Do you know what he is talking about?"
Ellie nodded.
“I haven't a clue”; Hammond said.
“I’ll make it simple.” Malcolm said.
"A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife.
The person who kills is the person who has no discipline no restraint,
and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special.”
“And that is the kind of power that science fosters, and permits.
And that is why you think that to build a place like this is simple."
"It was simple," Hammond insisted.
'Then why did it go wrong?"
--from Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. New York: Ballantine Books, 1990, pp.305-307.
-------------
Except that they started working on this stuff under Bush.
Like a typical Techie the general reason often is “because we can”.
I don't see any dichotomy there. Bush was perfectly comfortable with lots of lib stuff. He just didn't get many of their dollars.
“And because you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can accomplish something quickly.
You don’t even-know exactly what you have done, but already you have reported it; patented it, and sold it.”
This best describes today’s tech giants. If not for the likes of guys like Kelly Johnson, Edison they would be baristas at best.
"Some things are better left extinct." Also by Dr. Malcolm
This article gets to the heart of the matter. The real question is, which behemoth do you want in charge of your communications and data? I don’t think trusting Apple, Google, or Microsoft is the answer.
If you think that these companies are any more patriotic than the NSA or that their employees are likely to worry about following the law or the Constitution, I have a bridge you may be interested in.
I am not interested in protecting the status quo, but there is a serious debate that has never taken place in the public arena. Personally, I prefer complete privacy with all its dangers to the current system of wholesale search and seizure—”legal” or not.
That said; Snowden is still a traitor. ;)
Doesn’t make Stanley Tools “evil”.....
You'll note that hammers are designed for a job, the shape of the head, the weight, the balance, is the face slightly domed to drive a sinker nail straight? Or is it checked to not slip on a roofing nails? Does it have a curved claw to pull nails? Or a straighter claw for ripping open boxes and pallets? Or does hit have a ball peen for shaping metal?
Or is it deliberately optimized to spike through a baby's skull and pulp her widdle brains?
If Stanley diligently worked with Hannibal Lecter at great effort and expense to design and build the later, one could argue that Stanley is evil, couldn't one?
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don’t add you to the list...
Not sure about that analogy. Here, I think, documented favor-trading for the ultimate goal to advance each concern's respective interests(namely profit and power/control), and arguably, as a consequence to the great detriment of society involves in this case a moral hazard and implies evil.
Go look up Veritas and Dale Shipley.
Just did, haven’t a clue what I was supposed to glean from it, though...
whoz he a traitor to
Amen to that!
Hey guys....these tools were made to look OUT, at the foreign bad guys.
That is the constraint of the charter for those agencies.
That this administration decided to point them inward is a function of abusing the extentions of the Patriot Act, to track foreign bad guys internally.
The abuse is this administrations focus on Constitution loving, American Conservatives.
NOT the folks who designed the tools!
Given what I know about that agency and its total disregard for the fourth amendment I, for one, must say I am deeply ashamed of them. — The BATFE is another agency that I am ashamed over… though that long ago turned to absolute-loathing (see: Waco & Fast and Furious).
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