Spychief Wants to Tap Into Cyberspace

Wall Street Journal ^ | 1/23/08

[greybull]

Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”

....in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse.

...McConnell, a South Carolina native, also reveals that he fancies himself a fabulous dancer.

[greybull]

The latest attempt to make a free republic a little less free. What will Hillary do when she gets her hands on this power?

[rednesss]

What’s the saying??? 1984 was supposed to be a warning not a manual.

[FoxInSocks]

If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear . . . </sarcasm>

[sourcery]

Every surrender, every compromise simply forms the justification for the next. “If we restrict liberty to attain security we will lose them both.”

[Don Corleone]

And they came after the Jews but I did not resist, because I wasn’t a Jew.

And they came after the Catholics and I didn’t resist because I wasn’t a Catholic so by the time that they came after me...there was nobody left to resist...!”

Same with the guns. It may be a bit past 1984 but we are still on track for a despotic state.

[Jaysun]

"...McConnell, a South Carolina native, also reveals that he fancies himself a fabulous dancer."

WTF? Who cares?

[Jaysun]

I suspect that this entire thing is nonsense. It’s a ploy. First, it would never happen. Second, it would never be this public. Third, the mere mention of it has some benefit in making the terrorist think twice about communicating via the internet.

[KoRn]

Ping

[JOAT]

First, it would never happen.

It has happened already, first documented under the Clinton administration. The now-retired early version of this was called 'CARNIVORE' but in all likelihood has been substantially improved since that 90's version was used to read emails and reconstruct web pages that targets were looking at.

And that was all way back in the pre-USA P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act days, back when you needed a silly warrant.

[Jaysun]

Well I don’t know how many have heard of ‘CARNIVORE’ but I’m not one of them. That further proves my point. And the Patriot Act has really proved to be a civil liberties nightmare, right? No. It hasn’t. Out of more than 300 million people not one has come forth with a violation of civil liberties. I remember the angst over the libraries deal. It turned out to be nonsense.

[JOAT]

Well I don’t know how many have heard of ‘CARNIVORE’ but I’m not one of them. That further proves my point.

A web search cures that. Carnivore

BTW, just because you haven't heard about it, doesn't 'prove' anything.

[Jaysun]

BTW, just because you haven't heard about it, doesn't 'prove' anything.

Of course it "proves" everything. Common knowledge is all the rage, don't you know? It matters, like it or not.