NSA documents released by Edward Snowden have revealed years of false statements by the government, the capture of calls and emails from every citizen, the monitoring of tens of millions of people globally, the surveillance of world leaders including close allies, and the perjury by National Intelligence Director James Clapper. It has caused the Obama Administration — after denials of violations — to admit violations of U.S. laws and abuse of surveillance powers. Now General Keith Alexander, NSA director, says enough. We simply cannot stand any more disclosures of wrongdoing so Alexander wants to see actions taken against the media to prevent further disclosures.
The NSA surveillance has triggered the greatest diplomatic crisis in decades. The Obama Administration is promising reforms and investigations as if these were acts committed by some alien power. Alexander however has returned to the root of the problem in his view — and that of many politicians. It is the media. They are the ones who are continuing to disclose abuses. Stop the media, stop the disclosures. Stop the disclosures, stop the questions. It is so simple and Alexander cannot understand why we cannot come up with a way to shut the media up. He raised the question in an interview with one of the few remaining media sites viewed as friendly, the Defense Department’s own “Armed With Science” blog:
“I think it’s wrong that that newspaper reporters have all these documents, the 50,000 – whatever they have and are selling them and giving them out as if these – you know it just doesn’t make sense . . .We ought to come up with a way of stopping it. I don’t know how to do that. That’s more of the courts and the policy-makers but, from my perspective, it’s wrong to allow this to go on.”
Alexander’s hostility to the free press is so distortive that he actually views the press as “selling” secrets by informing the public of surveillance abuses by his agency. This would of course mean that the Pentagon Papers were “sold” by the press and should have also been stopped.
Just to be clear, the “wrong” can cannot be allowed to go on is the exercise of a free press. Just as other civil liberties have been discarded by the Obama Administration in the name of fighting terrorism, it is now time to curtail the free press — just another demonstration of loyalty demanded from citizens by their government.
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
if we had a free, unbiased press with professional integrity, this article might make sense but since the MSM are all slavish, fawning sycophants for this administration, who cares?
From the intelligence communities perspective Alexander is the perfect person for his position. From the perspective of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights he has broken his oath of office. The great Catch 22 of the intelligence business is that they are “under civilian oversight, but their secrets are such that civilians can’t be permitted to see them.” In the end the reality is that they are worried that the news of their own incompetence is going to leak, not to mention how many times they have violated the law criminally. Considering the Patriot Act it is very hard to violate the law, yet they have done it. The love of secrecy is usually a dodge for covering up mistakes. As others have noted here and elsewhere today they have become far too large and know far too much, to be able to properly make use of the data. Just more FUBAR.
Both Clapper and Alexander should have been fired months ago for their utter failure to understand the fundamentals of democracy they should have learned in grade school.
The agency will learn — not the hard way, I hope — that knowing everything unfortunately means knowing nothing at all. -Eugene Robinson
The out-of-control NSA
By Eugene Robinson, Published: October 28
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-the-out-of-control-nsa/2013/10/28/49645872-4008-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html
Excerpt:
“To me, all this is consistent with the NSA’s apparent goal of knowing, basically, everything. The agency collects information as massively and indiscriminately as possible on the theory that if you assemble a database of all the world’s communications, the few you seek — those involving terrorists — will be in there somewhere.
This is not just a massive invasion of privacy that the people of France, Spain and other countries understandably resent. It’s also a mistake.
While NSA analysts were busy sifting billions of phone records, they were unaware that one of their own contract analysts, some guy named Snowden, was about to spill all the precious beans. Big Data will prove more of an illusion than a panacea. The agency will learn — not the hard way, I hope — that knowing everything unfortunately means knowing nothing at all.”
“Alexander’s hostility to the free press is so distortive that he actually views the press as “selling” secrets by informing the public of surveillance abuses by his agency. This would of course mean that the Pentagon Papers were “sold” by the press and should have also been stopped.” – JT
The military’s contempt does not stop there.
I did a little research myself, and found out that shortly after the AFSA was created by guess who, there was trouble:
(On The Origin of Security – 4, links removed). A military mind is not concerned with what they consider to be insubordination.
Reblogged this on Dead Citizen's Rights Society.
I guess that Alexander thinks that the oath of commissioned officers that states: “will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” is just a formality.
OS,
Thanks…
Mespo,
I agree…. But isn’t this how Hitler disseminated his message? Stop the free presses….. Control the content….. This is part of what Gene and Mike S have been posting threads about…..
More on the NSA recruiter story (audio posted by OS), which got a fair bit of play back in July.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/jul/05/national-security-agency-recruitment-drive (with a transcript of the exchange)
“Attending the session was Madiha R Tahir, a journalist studying a language course at the university.” (She posted the audio to SoundCloud and a transcript on her own blog, as I understand it.)
The session begins …
Tahir: “Do you consider Germany and the countries that the NSA has been spying upon to be adversaries, or are you, right now, not speaking the truth?”
Recruiter 1: “You can define adversary as ‘enemy’ and, clearly, Germany is not our enemy. But would we have foreign national interests from an intelligence perspective on what’s going on across the globe? Yeah, we do.”
Tahir: “So by ‘adversaries’, you actually mean anybody and everybody. There is nobody, then, by your definition that is not an adversary. Is that correct?”
Recruiter 1: “That is not correct.”
Recruiter 2: “… for us, our business is apolitical, OK? We do not generate the intelligence requirements. They are levied on us … We might use the word ‘target’.”
Tahir: “I’m just surprised that for language analysts, you’re incredibly imprecise with your language. And it just doesn’t seem to be clear.”
Later …
Tahir: “… this is a recruiting session and you are telling us things that aren’t true. And we also know that the NSA took down brochures and factsheets after the Snowden revelations because those factsheets also had severe inaccuracies and untruths in them, right? So how are we supposed to believe what you’re saying?”
Even later …
Tahir: “I think the question here is do you actually think about the ramifications of the work that you do, which is deeply problematic, or do you just dress up in costumes and get drunk?” [A reference to an earlier comment the recruiter made about NSA employees working hard and going to the bar to do karaoke.]
Recruiter 2: “… reporting the info in the right context is so important because the consequences of bad political decisions by our policymakers is something we all suffer from.”
Unnamed female student: “And people suffer from the misinformation that you pass along so you should take responsibility as well.”
Later still …
Male student: “General Alexander [head of the NSA] also lied in front of Congress.”
Recruiter 1: “I don’t believe that he did.”
Male student: “Probably because access to the Guardian is restricted on the Department of Defence’s computers. I am sure they don’t encourage people like you to actually think about these things. Thank God for a man like Edward Snowden who your organisation is now part of a manhunt trying to track down, trying to put him in a little hole somewhere for the rest of his life. Thank God they exist.”
And finally …
Recruiter 2: “This job isn’t for everybody, you know …”
Tahir: “So is this job for liars? Is this what you’re saying? Because, clearly, you’re not able to give us forthright answers. I mean, given the way the NSA has behaved, given the fact that we’ve been lied to as Americans, given the fact that factsheets have been pulled down because they clearly had untruths in them, given the fact that Clapper and Alexander lied to Congress – is that a qualification for being in the NSA? Do you have to be a good liar?”
Recruiter 1: I don’t believe the NSA is telling complete lies. And I do believe that you know, I mean people can, you can read a lot of different things that are, um, portrayed as fact and that doesn’t make them fact just because they’re in newspapers.”
Unnamed female student: “Or intelligence reports.”
Recruiter 1: “That’s not really our purpose here today and I think if you’re not interested in that … there are people here who are probably interested in a language career.”
Mike, No matter your politics, this administration went SPECIFICALLY after Fox News reporter, James Rosen. A legitimate and pretty straight reporter. ALL press people understand that. So, if it’s “tempting to exclude” Fox news you should get your priorities straight.
The NSA is under real heat right now and deservedly so. These are the cries of the kid with his hand firmly under the cookie jar lid. Let him yelp!
Obama should fire this mad man but then I find it hard to believe that Obama doesn’t agree with him. Alexander took an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. It would appear he should be having himself arrested.
UW is the last place NSA recruiters should have come! It would be like KKK recruiters going to Grambling.
I’m starting to feel bad for these people. It must be really stressful to violate your oath to the Constitution, break the law, and try to cover it up every time you go to work. I think it would wear you down. If I was this stressed, for breaking all the laws he and his cronies have, I’d probably start suggesting crazy things like this too.
Make no mistake — these are criminals with fancy outfits and credentials.
It is better to have a free press than not [altho tempting to exclude Foxy news]. But that does not mean that there cannot be over reach by the press and its reporters; and it does not mean that the press is free of consequences … even if it prints the truth. E.g., sailing schedule of troop transport and supply ships and the like. But it will get determined on a case by case basis. That is why there are judges and lawyers. So lets drop the high dudgeon. It is booooring!!!
I posted this last night, but will repost here for those who missed it. Last summer, NSA recruiters came to the University of Wisconsin. You might think in a tight job market a government job would be an easy sell. That’s not exactly what the NSA recruiters found. The students grilled them unmercifully, giving them virtually no wiggle room. I know it won’t happen, but the regular TV talking heads should have been there taking notes on how an interview should be done. My favorite part is when the student tries to pin the NSA people down on how they define “adversaries.” Priceless. Somebody recorded it and it is posted on SoundCloud. Certainly worth a listen.
https://soundcloud.com/madiha-1/students-question-the-nsa-at
My comment just (was)disappeared. Second attempt:
NSA/Cybercom via Lockheed Martin contract operatives covertly e-tortures, impairs and harms thousands of supposed “dissidents” or “undesirables” with a nationwide celltower neuroweapon grid: veteran major market mainstream media journalist.
I first broke this story four years ago. Not a single government or corporate entity has issued a public challenge to my reporting. For the past nine years, I have been under relentless electromagnetic weapon attack, accompanied by police-enabled neighborhood “gangstalking” domestic terrorism and various forms of financial sabotage.
See: viclivingston(dot)blogspot(dot)com/2011/12/u.html and viclivingston(dot)blogspot(dot)com/2012/08/extra-legal-citizen-targeting-root.html
This Administration has just been shown to have knowingly lied about “You’ll be able to keep your own insurance.” They have lied on so many topics, including the NSA, they are making the Clinton’s look like honest people. Maybe that’s the plan. Hillary can run to the left of Obama and truly say she’s more honest. Brilliant!
Reblogged this on Reality Check.