In a US Senate hearing, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander said the programmes had disrupted dozens of terror plots.And:
"I know that it has been successful in preventing terrorism," [Sen. Al Franken] said.With all due respect guys, prove your assertions. Show some hard proof that there have been "dozens" of terrorist plots disrupted because the NSA has been wiretapping everyone. Show how the NSA's work would have been harmed if they couldn't have done that.
Bald-faced assertions from known liars will not suffice.
On another topic, it seems that since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established, the government has submitted over 30,000 requests for various forms of surveillance. Only eleven requests were denied.
So, 0.037% of all requests were denied. Which suggests to me that the money that it's cost to run that court for the last 34 years has largely been wasted, since a better name for the court would have been the Stockholm Syndrome Spy Court. We'd have been better off setting up a tribunal of trunk monkeys.
Things need to be overhauled.
I have no confidence that it will happen.
So maybe we need to start doing things such as this:
NSA Wiretapping Public Service Announcement - watch more funny videos
you might want to try this:
ReplyDeletehttp://trollthensa.com/
The law that set up the FISA court actually prohibits the judges from asking questions about the details of the request. The way it works is that the Feeb steps forward and says, "I have probable cause to believe that person Z is engaged in or possesses information about terrorist activities. I need a warrant to get record X from entity Y about person Z." The judge isn't allowed to ask about that probable cause, even, because it may divulge "intelligence sources and methods". WTF?
ReplyDeleteBut apparently even that rubber stamp is too big an imposition upon the TLA's. Which is baffling. Unless there is another purpose for this vast dragnet. Am I paranoid if there really is a conspiracy?
If you can't trust your own judges, the real problem is with YOU.
ReplyDeleteLast night on Thom Hartmann, I heard One of the most disturbing things I've ever heard about our government. You know how there's certain things that are insane to leave to for-profit organizations? Like health insurance, police, fire, military, etc.? Because it sets up necessary and required abuse... certain corruption?
Well, I heard that 70% of the national intelligence budget is now spent on private industry. Contractors.
Think they have incentive to reduce risks against Americans? Think it will be easy to investigate them for wrongdoing? Or even gross incompetence?