Said it to congress, NO punishment. NOTHING. Why do we even HAVE a congress?
Posted on 04/25/2016 6:56:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
"From our standpoint, it’s not a good thing," Clapper said of accelerated advancements in encryption technology.
Whistle-blower Edward Snowden, by leaking classified data two years ago, contributed to the acceleration of sophisticated encryption methods that militants are using to hide their communications, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said Monday.
The rapid advancement of commercially available encryption software is proving to be a difficult obstacle in detecting potential threats, he said at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
"From our standpoint, it's not a good thing," he said of the rapidly advancing encryption, adding that the software has had "profound effects" on the government's ability to gather intelligence.
Clapper, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who took over the DNI post after Navy Adm. Dennis Blair was dismissed by President Barack Obama in 2010, called the Islamic State "the most sophisticated user of the Internet," continuing to use evolving software for end-to-end encryption of its activities.
And the National Security Agency believes Snowden, who exposed the agency's massive phone surveillance program in 2014, has helped accelerate encryption technology by about seven years, Clapper said.
In his remarks, Clapper acknowledged that there needs to be a balance between intelligence capabilities and guarding against law enforcement invasions of privacy -- echoing Obama's prior statements against "absolutist positions" on the matter. Clapper called the balance a "holy grail" the U.S. intelligence agency is seeking.
Clapper cited ongoing terror threats and efforts in Europe as factors that favor intelligence sharing and sources that have shed new light on the Islamic State's operational strategies.
DNI James Clapper said Monday that U.S. intelligence branches, including the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, have been profoundly affected by an accelerated advance in encryption technology that could make it substantially more difficult to detect potential terror threats from the Islamic State and other groups.
Also Monday, Clapper echoed predictions by the White House and a former Senate intelligence chairman that a decision should be made by June whether to declassify nearly 30 pages of a 2004 report by the 9/11 Commission.
Some observers have speculated that the classified pages might implicate some Saudi officials, formal allies to the United States, in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Clapper said the June time frame is realistic, and the administration is trying to coordinate agencies' positions on the materials.
Former Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham, D-Fla., who also co-chaired the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States between 2002 and 2004, told NBC News Sunday that he hopes Obama will "honor the American people and make it available."
Obama deploying 250 special operations forces to Syria in Islamic State fight "The most important unanswered question of 9/11 is did these 19 people conduct this very sophisticated plot alone, or were they supported?" Graham said on Meet the Press. "I think it's implausible to think that people who couldn't speak English, had never been in the United States before, as a group were not well-educated could have done that.
"So who was the most likely entity to have provided them that support? And I think all the evidence points to Saudi Arabia."
Good for Snowden.
If Clapper doesn’t like it it is a good thing.
L
Keep the damn terrorists out of the country in the first place, then you won’t have to worry about encryption.
Translation: “We can’t spy on tea-partiers.”
More positives than negs to e with Snowdenmon this one. Given the unconstitutional attitudes permeating fedgov.
It’s OK. Feinstein and Burr only want to stop US citizens from using encryption. They’re fine with Islamofascists using it.
Novel idea there. Probably why they aren’t doing that. :)
ping
That is the truth. The subversives sleep in the white hut and they seek to use the most sophisticated communications monitoring system in the world to monitor the patriots who will defend the nation.
Said it to congress, NO punishment. NOTHING. Why do we even HAVE a congress?
Remember when Obama (who always tells the truth) said “Nobody is listening to your calls”.
True. Not actively. It’s translated to text and mined by computer. Hit the right set of keywords and the data will be flagged for review.
Old, old technology from the Jimmy Carter days (the TRW satellites compromised in “The Falcon and the Snowman” were precursors).
We have them to name post offices...
Why is it good for him? He’s a prisoner of a dictator?
Yes, what Obama said was TECHNICALLY true. It was a lawyerly non-lie.
What Clapper stated was MUCH closer to a lie.
The non-NSA world understands “intercept” to mean a signal in transit has been recognized, received and stored, even if garners no immediate human scrutiny at all —the bar is low.
But NSA does keep it’s own professional lexicon:
At NSA “intercept” is has a very narrow, specific definition which DOES include human scrutiny —the bar for the same word is higher:
That slight of hand means Clapper CAN go up speak in “NSA-ese” to Congress, and have confidence that the meaning that pops up in the mind of the American public and their elected representative inquisitors is very different from that in his own.
The same word has two different meanings to two different groups, much life gift in America being a present and in Germany being poison.
Clapper really IS a liar, though a well-paid and unindicted one.
Why do you think the encryption is targeted to terrorists.
Why don't we just go over there and beat the crap out of them?
Then we don't have to worry about playing cat and mouse.
You don’t weaken people’s encryption to make your freaking job easier.
You do common sense work, including bugging suspects’ homes, to get real intelligence.
Any weakness put in place is a vulnerability China or criminals can exploit, as well.
[It was a lawyerly non-lie.]
That’s all I’ve come to expect from him and his direct employees.
you mean mooslims? right!
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