Posted on 06/15/2013 2:08:07 PM PDT by Lazamataz
Earlier this year, Edward Snowden went to The Guardian, who then published an article on June the 6th that had numerous damning revelations about the National Security Agency.
Edward Snowden broke an oath he had sworn, and revealed that the NSA had committed acts of domestic espionage far beyond anything most people had ever suspected. He revealed that data about the phone calls of millions of Americans, the entire customer base of Verizon, had been collected and stored in perpetiuty. Experts concluded that the same records were likely collected and stored by the NSA, from most or all of the other telephone carriers.
There are no white-hat-wearing good guys in this story.
Edward Snowden violated an oath of secrecy. Some, including the Speaker of the House John Boehner, have called him a traitor. While I cannot go that far, I do consider his actions unacceptable and unethical.
Yet the NSA has systematically violated the privacy of almost every American who use the telephone. These actions are also unacceptable and highly unethical.
And therein lies the moral dilemma. It seems there is no one to root for in this story. On one hand, we have a man who violated his personal integrity and his oath; and on the other, we have an agency who has overstepped the boundaries most Americans find tolerable with regards to privacy.
Few phone calls were listened to, although a small number were. However, much information can be gleaned by a complete record of who a person calls, and how often, and when. This information should never be collected or kept, unless a warrant is issued for a particular person and for a specific law enforcement reason. While a warrant is rumored to have been issued, if it exists, it was done in secret and it is unacceptably broad. It covers all Americans, even the vast majority who are not under suspicion. It amounts to a fishing expedition. It is not how America is supposed to operate.
These actions by the NSA are violations of all of our privacy, on a grand scale, remind us of nothing so much as the East German Stasi -- that secret-police group in the formerly Communist state that kept tabs on the entire population to ferret out the few lovers of freedom and free markets.
Snowden has said a few things about his revelations:
While the actions of Edward Snowden were underhanded and immoral, the actions of our government were even more so -- simply because of the scale and the number of people affected.
There is an underreported aspect to the story of the NSA intercepts: Text messages and electronic text communications are kept in their entirity. This means that if you have sent a password or a credit card via electronic media of nearly any flavor, it now sits in the data centers of the National Security Agency. Furthermore, the ability and the opportunity to abuse this information against political opponents is huge, and this administration has already demonstrated a great propensity to target its political opposition with any tool at their disposal (c.f., the targetting of 'Tea Party' and "Patriotic" 501-c political action organizations).
Congress must rein the NSA in. The President has already said he won't, and the Democrat-controlled Senate cannot be counted on to do the right thing.
Feel free to peruse my excellent writing on all this so you can see a glimpse of how scrtinized you are and the power you no longer have.
Also, feel free to inform me:
“What grievous harm has the shinny object, “Snowjob”, actually caused”??
I am still waiting to hear any real secret.
He didn’t give any information that wasn’t already public.
I’ve been in telecom for 30 years and already knew what he knew.
Not some smart guy. Just been around and I read a lot especially any legislation regarding communications.
spent the last four hours writing it.
I have been in telecom for 39 years. Luv it.
The history, the laws, innovations. It’s all kewel to me.
Helps that I met or know many of the luminaries who made all we use today possible over the last 40 years.
Just read the stuff in bold. It’s enough.
Besides, some of it is technical. I did write it with some sarcasm and humor though.
I was kiddin’ ya, and posting a bookmark for myself to read it all tomorrow. Cheers!
I actually don’t expect anyone to read a tome.
but, wanted to demystify this Snowden guy as nothing more than a shinny object for everyone to amuse themselves with while all the other....What were they? oh yeah, scandals have been relegated to nothingville.
An unjust law is void. An oath to support an unjust law is therefore without force. To spy on every American every time he uses any sort of electronic means is, no matter how many laws are passed, intrinsically evil. The laws authorizing such actions are unjust, and thus, are void.
Edward Snowden violated no valid oath in revealing that the US government has set up a complete surveillance state, in violation of our constitutional and inalienable rights.
Old Xerox PARC networking type here. Nice work, you hit all the high points.
“Snowden committed a crime that pales in comparison to the (unfortunately legal) criminality of the NSA.”
One is illegal, the other illegal.
The illegal is moral, the legal immoral.
Where you gonna come down?
Thank you for the excellent summary.
Thnx. I wanted to get the important stuff out there without going to deep.
I scratched a bunch of other acts and “determinations” off my tome so as to make it somewhat readable.
Hope the sarcasm came through well enough.
PARC guys rock!
Always admire anyone who worked there.
No oath to conceal crimes is ethically binding.
I’ve read quite a bit of that and it’s late at night now, so will read the rest of it tomorrow and comment. I appreciate your posting all this, and, yes, I understand it.
Look for the line I carefully inserted about MPLS. I believe once that becomes ubiquitous their argument for whole pipe is void.
If you don’t know networking you’ll miss it.
Thanks for that lengthy explanation. I gobbled it up eagerly! I owe you a drink ... no, given the work put into it, I owe you a bottle of Scotch. [That is what you drink, isn’t it? I’m getting old and the memory cells are not as flexible as they once were.]
That you read it is enough.
I made an oblique reference to MPLS which, in my opinion, destroys their argument for “Whole Pipe” access eventually
I have an old friend who builds the switching stations for fiber optic systems. I was astounded by what the technology has reached! He calls me occasionally. The calls are fun to get because he routes his calls through exotic locations just for the fun of where it appears he is. Getting a call from Scotland, Dubai, or South Africa is a hoot. He called me one time from my driveway, but the phone said I was being called from Moscow ... Idaho! Problem is, now I answer the darn phone regardless of where the call originates. Odd thing that many tele sales calls are now coming from 202 area code.
Absolutely.
Anything the NSA can do, the IRS can do. In anger! In support of Progress!
She?
Reportedly, Fräulein Kiesler had an aptitude for intelligence work. It just wasn't her core competence.
check this out.
It was installed in 1977 and could transmit 1 gigabyte theoertical.
I think it was installed in Southern California.
Today, with the right equipment at the head ends, that same fiber link could, theoretically, transmit 1 Petabit per second.
That is equivalent to transmitting 1,000 gigabits per second by using certain new technologies called a Lambda.
A Lambda uses different light waves and colors to carry information.
Each Lambda can carry up to 80 seperate wavelengths, carrying one gigabyte each.
As technology continues we can open several Lambdas to carry more information.
As of 2006 we could open up to 36 Lambdas or 2880 Gigabytes of information over the very first fiber optic line.
With innovations the theory is that so long as we can increase the number of numbers of Lambdas, then we can make a nearly 40 year old circuit carry unlimited data.
never underestimate human ingenuity.
We took a copper cable that was theoretical 9,600 baud maximum and increased it carry realistically, today, more than 20 gigabytes on an existing copper pair.
No where to go but up!
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