[Carry_Okie]

The lesson to be taken from all this is that the NSA’s well-known (because of the nature of modern technology) capacity to intrude and manipulate electronic communications – but only those that are not thoughtfully guarded – combined with lack of quality control, leaves it at the mercy of any of its targets that wishes to feed it disinformation and then to watch the US government’s self-discrediting reactions.

Any self respecting terrorist with a brain knows to encrypt serious communications. Hence, this is a smokescreen to justify the NSA recording all communications. Even phone calls on land lines are digitized when they are put onto fiber optic trunk lines.

[D-fendr]

NSA had bin Laden’s HQ phoned tapped for 3 years.

They tracked two of the hijackers to the U.S. before they lost them. (They stayed the night in a hotel a couple of miles from NSA HQ).

It is not a lack of information or the need for storing every com on the planet.

They’re incompetent on a much lower level than that.

[Elsie]

Even phone calls on land lines are digitized when they are put onto fiber optic trunk lines.

Mine are' as I have fiber to the house.

The phone, the 'net, the TV - ALL of it comes in this way.

(I'll bet there is a local Master Switch; somewhere in the bowels of the beast; that can be thrown to tie all outgoing info thru whatever device the Powers that Be wants it to flow thru.)