Wow, long list but it gives perspective on many angles.
To: Nachum; null and void
2 posted on
09/25/2013 1:13:38 PM PDT by
Old Sarge
(Opinions are like orgasms: only mine count, and I couldn't care less if you have one...)
To: foundedonpurpose
The government is spying on essentially
everything we do. It is
not just metadata
although that is
enough to destroy your privacy
- NSA whistleblowers say that the NSA collects all of our conversations word-for-word
- The NSA not only shares our information with other American agencies, it also gives personal, sensitive unfiltered information on Americans to Israel and other foreign countries
-
While the government initially claimed that mass surveillance on Americans prevented more than 50 terror attacks, the NSAs deputy director John Inglis walked that position back all the way to saying that at the most one (1) plot might have been disrupted by the bulk phone records collection alone. In other words, the NSA cant prove that stopped any terror attacks. The government greatly exaggerated an alleged recent terror plot for political purposes (and promoted the fearmongering of serial liars). The argument that recent terror warnings show that NSA spying is necessary is so weak that American counter-terrorism experts have slammed it as crazy pants
- Harvard law school professor and director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (Yochai Benkler) says:
We have learned that in pursuit of its bureaucratic mission to obtain signals intelligence in a pervasively networked world, the NSA has mounted a systematic campaign against the foundations of American power: constitutional checks and balances, technological leadership, and market entrepreneurship. The NSA scandal is no longer about privacy, or a particular violation of constitutional or legislative obligations. The American body politic is suffering a severe case of auto-immune disease: our defense system is attacking other critical systems of our body.
- The feds are considering prosecuting the owner of a private email company who shut down his business rather than turning over records to the NSA for refusing to fork over the information and keep quiet. This is a little like trying to throw someone in jail because hes died and is no longer paying taxes
- Mass spying creates an easy mark for hackers. Indeed, the Pentagon now sees the collection of big data as a national security threat
but the NSA is the biggest data collector on the planet, and thus provides a tempting mother lode of information for foreign hackers
- IT and security professionals are quite concerned about government spying
We collect this information for many important reasons: for one, it could provide the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy. It also could provide insight into other countries economic policy or behavior which could affect global markets.
- A huge majority of Americans wants the director of intelligence Clapper prosecuted for perjury. One of the chairs of the 9/11 Commission agrees
- The NSA feels contempt and scorn for the American people. For example, Spiegel notes:
The authors of the [NSA slides] draw a comparison with 1984,
revealing the agencys current view of smartphones and their users. Who knew in 1984 that this would be Big Brother
the authors ask, in reference to a photo of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. And commenting on photos of enthusiastic Apple customers and iPhone users, the NSA writes:
and the zombies would be paying customers?
- A Congressman noted that even if a mass surveillance program is started for good purposes it will inevitably turn into a witch hunt
- There are indications that the spy agencies arent just passively gathering information, but are actively using it in mischievous ways
3 posted on
09/25/2013 1:14:31 PM PDT by
dragnet2
(Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
To: foundedonpurpose
America - R.I.P.
Amerika - the NEW Reality. Muchos gracias seniores Bush y Obama!!!!
4 posted on
09/25/2013 1:14:43 PM PDT by
ZULU
(Impeach that Bastard Barrack Hussein Obama)
To: foundedonpurpose
5 posted on
09/25/2013 1:19:33 PM PDT by
Nachum
(I am Breitbartacus!)
To: foundedonpurpose
Snowden and Greenwald did the country a bigtime solid. Exposing the wholly unconstitutional spying on the american public helped point out total liars like mike rogers and helped unmask statist opportunists like michelle bachman. On a broader level it’s helped to confirm to some and awaken others to the fact that the united states stopped operating as a constitutional representative republic a looooong time ago.
7 posted on
09/25/2013 1:25:30 PM PDT by
Orangedog
(An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
To: foundedonpurpose
10 posted on
09/25/2013 2:20:46 PM PDT by
Sergio
(An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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