Security vs. Freedom - Poll trend

[oli700]

drinking their frappaccino mocha late venti iced blend-a-crap wondering why their a$$'s are too big

no , they wonder why yours is so small because they sure the hell never worry about what they are doing, only what other people are doing

 

[cmcdonald]

Interesting article from the UK. 1.7 billion electronic communications a day? That's a lot of eavesdropping...

On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:


BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?

CLEMENTE: "No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.

BURNETT: "So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.

CLEMENTE: "No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not."

"All of that stuff" - meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant - "is being captured as we speak".

On Thursday night, Clemente again appeared on CNN, this time with host Carol Costello, and she asked him about those remarks. He reiterated what he said the night before but added expressly that "all digital communications in the past" are recorded and stored:

Let's repeat that last part: "no digital communication is secure", by which he means not that any communication is susceptible to government interception as it happens (although that is true), but far beyond that: all digital communications - meaning telephone calls, emails, online chats and the like - are automatically recorded and stored and accessible to the government after the fact. To describe that is to define what a ubiquitous, limitless Surveillance State is.

Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... fbi-boston

I do not believe this is to make us safer but to use to gather info AFTER the fact. No way they can monitor 1.7 billion a day and actually get ahead of the game.

Archer, I heard this probably some 5 to 10 years ago. More like an urban legend at the time, that the US government had huge banks of computers intercepting all electronic communications. Guess it wasn't far from the truth after all.

In my meager understanding of technology they wouldn't be actually listening or reading every communication of course but rather computer programs pick out key words or phrases and flag certain ones for further scrutiny. I would guess that flagged communications would go through several or perhaps many automated filters before landing at the desk of an actual human being. An invasion of privacy like nobody could have possibly imagined.

However, despite whatever we think or how much we protest or even the government itself were to declare it flat out illegal to collect that info...the intelligence agencies and intelligence community at large would continue collecting data without a thought for legal right or even constitutional violation. We all know that's just a fact. Denials to the contrary, well we know that's just BS.

My Dad, an ex-telephone company employee (tech) from the 1950's - 70's always told me...never say anything over the phone (this is before cell phones kids!!) or put anything in writing that you would be afraid or ashamed to admit in public. This is long before the public ever knew about cell phones, email, digital data collection or otherwise.

They've been at this a long, long time I suspect and have no doubt nearly perfected the art.

 

[John A.]

My Dad, an ex-telephone company employee (tech) from the 1950's - 70's always told me...never say anything over the phone (this is before cell phones kids!!) or put anything in writing that you would be afraid or ashamed to admit in public.

very sound advice.