Okay, so we have a few joke "abuses" to divert attention but what about the intentional non-abuses and the non-joke ones... Unless the NSA folks are just a bunch of love sick adolescents without plans for after retirement or some aspirations for making a killing in the stock market or that the way in which the national interests of the US are defined no longer includes maintaining a lead in certain strategic industries--aircraft manufacture, chip design, gene splicing or whatever--then this is just pablum for the gullible.
M -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James S. Tyre Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 11:56 AM To: 'liberationtech'; 'cpunks' Subject: Re: [liberationtech] NSA Admits: Okay, Okay, There Have Been A Bunch Of Intentional Abuses, Including Spying On Love Interests | Techdirt Best summary: https://twitter.com/slworona/status/370946271646711809 -- James S. Tyre Law Offices of James S. Tyre 10736 Jefferson Blvd., #512 Culver City, CA 90230-4969 310-839-4114/310-839-4602(fax) [email protected] Policy Fellow, Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:liberationtech- [email protected]] On Behalf Of > coderman > Sent: Friday, August 23, 2013 9:46 PM > To: liberationtech; cpunks > Subject: Re: [liberationtech] NSA Admits: Okay, Okay, There Have Been > A Bunch Of Intentional Abuses, Including Spying On Love Interests | > Techdirt > > LOVEINT!!! > > oh god this alone makes it all worth it,,, thank you Snowden! > > P.S. setup a bitcoin donation address. > > best regards, > > > > > On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Yosem Companys > <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130823/18432024301/nsa-admits-oka > > y- > > okay-there-have-been-bunch-intentional-abuses-including-spying-loved > > -o > > nes.shtml > > > > NSA Admits: Okay, Okay, There Have Been A Bunch Of Intentional > > Abuses, Including Spying On Love Interests > > > > from the and-we're-just-now-telling-congress dept > > > > So, this week, we wrote about the NSA quietly admitting that there > > had been intentional abusesof its surveillance infrastructure, > > despite earlier claims by NSA boss Keith Alexander and various folks > > in Congress that there had been absolutely no "intentional" abuses. > > Late on Friday (of course) the NSA finally put out an official > > statement admitting to an average of one intentional abuser per year > > over the past ten years. The AP is reporting that at least one of > > the abuses involved an NSA employee spying on a former spouse. > > Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal suggests that spying on love > > interests happens somewhat more > often: > > > > The practice isn't frequent - one official estimated a handful of > > cases in the last decade - but it's common enough to garner its own spycraft label: > > LOVEINT. > > > > A handful is still significantly more than once. And it's a lot more > > than the "zero" times we'd been told about repeatedly by defenders > > of the program. > > > > While the NSA says it takes these abuses seriously, there's no > > indication that the analyst was fired. > > > > Much more troubling is that it appears that the NSA only told its > > oversight committee in the Senate about all of this a few days ago: > > > > The Senate Intelligence Committee was briefed this week on the > > willful violations by the NSA's inspector general's office, as first > > reported by Bloomberg. > > > > "The committee has learned that in isolated cases over the past > > decade, a very small number of NSA personnel have violated NSA > > procedures - in roughly one case per year," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, > > the California Democrat who chairs the committee, said in a > > statement Friday. > > > > Of course, this is the same Dianne Feinstein who, exactly a week > > ago, said the following: > > > > As I have said previously, the committee has never identified an > > instance in which the NSA has intentionally abused its authority to > > conduct surveillance for inappropriate purposes. > > > > Yeah. Because apparently the NSA chose not to tell the committee > > until a few days later, despite it happening for years. > > > > And, of course, they release this all on a Friday night, hoping that > > it'll avoid the news cycle... > > > > In the meantime, the NSA just made Senator Feinstein look like a > > complete fool. She's been its strongest defender in Congress for > > years, and has stood up for it time and time again, despite all of > > this questionable > activity. > > Then, last week, it lets her tell lies about it without telling her > > beforehand that there had been such abuses. At this point, it's > > abundantly clear that Feinstein's "oversight" of the NSA is a joke. > > She's either incompetent or lying. Either way, it appears that the > > NSA is running circles around her, and isn't subject to any real > > Congressional oversight. At some point, you'd think that maybe she'd > > stop defending it and actually start doing her job when it comes to > > oversight. You'd think the fact that it let her make a complete fool > > of herself by claiming there had been no intentional abuses should > > make Feinstein realize that the NSA situation is out of control. > > But, tragically, this seems unlikely. Even her statement seems to > > want to minimize the seriousness of the fact that she -- the person > > in charge of oversight -- was completely kept in the dark about very > > serious intentional > abuses. Senator Feinstein just got hung out to dry by the NSA. > > You'd think she'd stop going to bat for it and its lies. > > > > Either way, we've now gone from General Keith Alexander and > > Feinstein claiming "no abuses," to them saying no "intentional" > > abuses, to this latest admission of plenty of intentional abuses, including spying on lovers. > > Perhaps, instead of lying, it's time for the NSA to come clean and > > to get some real oversight. > > > > > > -- > > Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. > > Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: > > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. > > Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing > > moderator at [email protected]. > -- > Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on > Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. > Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing > moderator at [email protected]. -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at [email protected]. -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at [email protected].
