Posted on 10/27/2013 4:41:38 AM PDT by JerseyHighlander
Apparently not satisfied with just setting fire to the 4th Amendment, NSA boss Keith Alexander's next target is the 1st Amendment. In an interview with the Defense Department's "Armed With Science" blog , it appears that Alexander felt he'd have a friendly audience, so he let loose with some insane claims, including suggesting that the government needs to find a way to "stop" journalists from reporting on the Snowden leaks .
As noted by Politco, General Alexander isn't a fan of journalists doing anything about these documents:
"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," Alexander said in an interview with the Defense Department's "Armed With Science" blog.
"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 policymakers but, from my perspective, it’s wrong to allow this to go on," the NSA director declared.
It's not the policymakers and the courts. It's the Constitution, and it says there's freedom of the press.
Other parts of the interview continue to show Alexander spewing things that have already been debunked:
“When you look at the 9/11 commission, it faulted the intelligence community for not connecting the dots. We didn’t have the tools . These [programs we have now] are tools that help us connect the dots. We have learned that lesson once. We all vowed this would never happen again. We should commit to that course of action.”
That's not true . The 9/11 commission argued, indeed, that the intelligence service failed to connect the dots, but it wasn't because they lacked the information . It's just that it wasn't properly shared. The way to fix that is not to collect more information and make it even harder to connect the dots. And yet that's been General Alexander's strategy all along.
Elsewhere in the interview, Alexander laughably tries to pretend that US Cyber Command, which he also controls, is focused on protecting "intellectual property." But that's also not true. As has been clearly stated and confirmed, it's focused on offensive attacks , which it does more than any other country (even as the US government tries to scold countries like China and Iran for their online attacks).
And then, I guess he figures that if he's going to lie about, well, everything, why not go all in, and just claim that these programs aren't "spying."
“They aren’t spying programs,” he says directly. “One is called the Business Records FISA Program, or Section 215, and the other is called the FISA Amendment Act 702 or PRISM.”
The business records program, or Section 215, is probably the most misunderstood of the two programs. The metadata program takes information and puts it in a data repository. Metadata is the phone number, the date, time, group, and duration of the call.
“That’s all we have,” Gen. Alexander explains. “We don’t have any names or any content.”
Except that having that metadata is incredibly revealing and absolutely is a form of spying. If it's not, why won't General Alexander release his phone numbers, date, time, group and duration of all of his calls from the past year? Why not? Because he thinks that's private information. Because it is. And because General Alexander is a hypocrite.
“The oversight and compliance on these programs is greater than any other program in our government.”
Hahahahah. No. This is also a lie. It's been shown that the courts and Congress have admitted they're limited by what the NSA tells them -- and the NSA goes out of its way to avoid telling Congress very much.
Alexander also mocks the recent claims about spying on French phone calls, using the exact same dodge as his boss , James Clapper. Both pretend that the news reports said that 70 million calls were recorded . Alexander mocks this by pointing out it would be impossible to have so many calls listened to, and to find enough translators to understand them. But the reports were about mostly metadata, and just some recordings. Pretending that the press said something that it didn't doesn't make Alexander look trustworthy. It makes it look like he's lying.
Not surprisingly, though hilariously, the blogger for the Defense Department's "Armed With Science," Jessica Tozer doesn't appear to challenge any of Alexander's claims. Instead, she repeats all the statements and mocks anyone who might challenge them:
Some people would rather believe a dramatic, convenient lie than a real, uncomplicated truth. Don’t be that person.
I'd argue that right back at Tozer and Alexander, because Alexander is flat out lying in the interview, based on confirmed facts.
Don’t give credence to speculation, rumor, or hyperbole. Simply put, don’t give into the hype. When it comes down it, a nation without the NSA would be a nation left undefended.
And that, dear readers, is no lie.
Um. It's absolutely a challengeable statement, but the Defense Department, obviously, isn't here for reasoned discussion on this issues.
Hacked reporter’s computer
Blew up reporter’s LAX Mercedes
BATF raided reporter’s house, stole Air Marshall informant list
Bingo. Prior to the Boston Bombing, the Russians tried to warn our government about the Tsarnaev brothers, but I guess the NSA was busy eavesdropping on Aunt Edna as she gave out her secret banana bread recipe to her niece.
Tell me again how they wont turn guns against American citizens. Tell it to 80 men women and children at Waco!
What if those classified documents show the government has been violating fundamental rights; which is exactly the case with the NSA disclosures? Tyrannical governments use "secret" classifications to hide their actions and then bludgeon anyone who discloses those illegal actions as an enemy of the State.
Allowing this sort of government behavior to continue unchecked is what leads to neighbors being "disappeared" in the middle of the night.
Too late. Cat’s out of the bag. Suck it, NSA.
Exactly. And luckily, the cat is out of the bag. It's too damned late. It's as if this is 1941 and the Hitler Death Camps were exposed. Too bad, so sad.
You are confusing whether certain actions are desirble with whether they should be legal.
There is no doubt that much information that it would be desirable for the public to have is secured in computers or desk drawers somewhere on public or private property. That doesn't mean reporters have a right to burgle these properties in order to gather the information, or to conspire with others to do the same.
My point is that employment as a journalist does not give a person the right to break laws in order to get a story. They have no right to use force, fraud or any other illegal means, any more than any other citizen.
There is also the fairly obvious fact that people will differ on what information the public "should know."
Many leftists, given the opportunity, would publish the names, addresses and pictures of every American agent around the world. They consider anyone working for our intelligence agencies to by definition be criminals. I believe most conservatives would disagree.
When we reach the tipping point and this nation decends into chaos and if (a big if) we come out on the other side at a better place, these types of evil sub humans will be convicted in Nuremburg style court trails.
No self respecting person can accept the argument that the NSA is protecting the individual for his own good.
The Federal government is the greatest threat the American people have ever faced.
“They consider anyone working for our intelligence agencies to by definition be criminals. I believe most conservatives would disagree.”
I am conservative, and I strenuously, but respectfully, disagree with your statement. It is not that I believe that intelligence agencies or officers are inherently evil, it is that the Federal government itself is, on balance, an evil organization. And at this point, if you work for the Federal government in such a capacity that further the primary goals of this Federal government, that is in its current form, yes, you are working for evil.
That’s not to say that if you work for the post office, you are working for evil anymore than a postal worker working for the Nazi government. I’m referring to those that work to actually increase the power and execute the immoral, unethical, and unconstitutional actions of the evil organization.
Sad to say, but now, the good people in this Federal government are ones working against the Federal government, and thankfully, there still are some brave souls willing to tell the truth no matter what the cost.
The battle is not overseas, the central battle is not even against Muslim extremists (the US gives arms to Al Queda in Libya and Syria), the battle is here in the homeland (I hate that Nazi term); there is a ‘cold war’ between those Americans that love liberty and those running the Federal government that seek to enslave Americans.
The question you must ask yourself is are you with the Federal government in its current form or are you against it? This is a time for choosing, we have crossed the Rubicon and the die is cast. This is not a time for tinkering around the edges, and unfortunately you can’t have it both ways anymore.
So if an American, or someone working for America, has infiltrated the inner circle of alQuaeda and is just about to discover the whereabouts of a nuke being smuggled into the homeland in order to take out NYC, you'd out him and ensure his death by torture and the loss of a major US city because you disagree politically with the current administration
Good for you! I hope those who die and their survivors will appreciate your pov.
I’m referring to those that work to actually increase the power and execute the immoral, unethical, and unconstitutional actions of the evil organization.
And exactly how do you intend to separate the millions of Americans working for the government into these groups?
I strongly disagree with the present government, but I don't think we're (yet) to the point where patriotism requires betrayal of the country, as opposed to the government.
IMO, patriotic Germans during WWII could indeed logically have reached that conclusion. But we ain't there yet. If you think we are, you really ought to be organizing for guerrilla warfare. And possibly you are.
But IMO ratting out those who in good (or for that matter bad) faith come to our defense in the war against Islam and our other enemies because you disagree with those they report to is pretty despicable
“IMO, patriotic Germans during WWII could indeed logically have reached that conclusion.”
If only patriotic Germans had come to that conclusion BEFORE there was a war.
Dear Leader has been campaigning against the First Amendment since he was elected. He views journalists as either his personal minion or a public enemy, and freely admits it.
thus has it ever been
Big Gov is trying to shut down bloggers and folks like Drudge and other ‘non-traditional’ news reporters. This is a freakin take over like Hugo Chavez and I am not sure we can stop it
You do know that the US government is sending arms to Al Qaeda? You do know that in Syria, Al Qaeda is eating out hearts and killing Christians? Assad and Quadaffi are and were no angels, but these tyrants did not pose a direct threat to US security. You are probably aware that the Syrian conflict nearly spun out of control, largely because of the actions of the administration.
This means that the US government itself, especially at its head, is compromised; by giving arms, US government is effectively in the inner circle of Al Qaeda. By agitating for action in Syria and risking a nuclear war, the US government is not only incompetent, but complicit in creating instability.
I know that this is jarring, and it creates cognitive dissonance, but its true.
We talk about the NSA but another real threat that is used to gather this information is also the NRO, the National Reconnaissance Office. They operate the satellites used to gather electronic communications, space based imagery, and other space based sensor systems used to spy on Americans.
Yep.
From the thread titled "Poison Photo-Drop (Releasing photos endangers US lives)"
To: Bobkk47Before he is done I fully expect him [obama] to release the names addresses and phone numbers of anyone anywhere in the world who has ever provided any information to agency workers.
The damage to US intel will last multiple generations.
7 posted on 05/12/2009 9:32:33 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 113 of our national holiday from reality.)
Under this corrupt, criminal regime, which has 3+ years to go, his ranks are growing.
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