May 11, 2006
Wiretapping and Our new CIA Chief
Well folks, USA Today just broke the news that NSA has a massive data base of America's phone calls. It's out. The phone companies (with the exception of Quest, bless their little hearts), succumbed just like Google and Yahoo, and released their records, with nary a peep, to the NSA in 2001. That's what GENERAL Hayden, I mean, Mike, has been up to. Now he'll be in charge of the CIA. And guess what? He's no incompetent like his predecessor, Porter Goss. No siree, this guy is organized. He knows what he's doing. You betcha.
But you don't have to worry, really. You're probably not doing anything wrong, right? Like advocating for peace, or maybe alternative energy sources, or civil rights for gay people, evolution, science, secular humanism, telling your friends to watch Steven Colbert's speech, or the the Emperor has no clothes. .... gee, that list could get very long. Should you have trangressed, criticized, railed or deviated, you'd better stop because the Panopticon is already in place, and it is now possible to watch you, very carefully. We shall all be inspired to behave ourselves. Of course the NSA can apply all these techniques to finding terrorists, but terrorists are much more likely to know how to avoid surveillance than you are.
Robert Block, who has been writing a series on domestic surveillence for the Wall Street Journal (of all publications to bring light to the subject), was interviewed by Robin Young on WBUR the other day. (Sorry I can't find the link) He said that if you're looking for a needle in a haystack, it doesn't make sense to increase the size of the haystack. That's what the NSA is doing by spying on citizens, most notably peace activists, Quaker groups. But perhaps their purpose is to supress dissent in the USofA. Since Quakers have a long history of pacificism, it seems unlikely that they are harboring terrorists in their bosom, but who knows what else itson their minds, deep breathing, helping needy children?.
As Block points out, the military is free to gather information on citizens with no holds barred, no accountability to anyone, and to keep the information for ninety days to use as they see fit. No wonder democrats, and even some republicans, are worried that an active military man has been appointed to run the CIA. It'll come in handy if we have to institute to martial law -- or maybe we have it already, and they just haven't announced it yet.
Oh good,news just in -- what a relief.! All that worry for nothing.
Photo note: Stuff like this is ubiquitous, how would you ever know if they're tapping you.
Posted by Dakota at May 11, 2006 09:41 AM