The bizarre world of espionage

[dieseltaylor]

Actually I am not sure if it is espionage or just plain inefficiency or trying to hide something unbelievable.

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2012/06/IC-IG-Letter.pdf

Essentially the NSA is unable to tell legislators how many US citizens it eavesdrops on. I think we can therefore take it a confirmation that probably all telephone calls aswell as e-mails are eavesdropped on and the spooks don't want that to be public knowledge in case citizens get up-set.

[costard]

They're either incompetent or lying. Probably both.

Assume that all electronic communication is intercepted, and that the NSA is able to decipher most of the encrypted stuff, do a search for keywords and flag the communications that register for follow up analysis. The idea that logs of the machines the messages originated from or were forwarded to aren't kept is plainly ludicrous. The idea that this information isn't available to enable the intelligence agencies to act in times of need is beyond belief. This is information that needs to be available in real time, so the state of knowledge would be fairly exact.

It could be that the wording of the demand for information was such that a loophole could be found to enable the telling of the truth without actually revealling the information.

[gunnergoz]

And all this time I thought the annoying buzz on my phone line was telemarketers...

[Bigduke6]

That is a textbook case of government officials avoiding responsibility, because it is other government officials that are supposed to be watching them.

To break it down:

1. Senators want to know how many people the NSA monitors w/in the US.

2. NSA tells senators "thanks for asking" and sends the request to its internal ombudsman/overwatch division, the NSA inspector general (NSAIG).

3. One month later NSAIG makes a classified response.

4. The upshot of that NSAIG response, which is not classified, is:

- NSAIG lacks the capacity to figure out how many people in the US the NSA eavesdrops on.

- Were the NSAIG to perform such a survey, it would "violate the privacy of US persons"

(I'll add in here, that if such a survey would violate US citizens' privacy were it conducted, it logically follows that the NSA, which is doing the eavesdropping, must already be violating US citizens' privacy. The survey would be of NSA activity. So nothing it uncovered, would not already have been done by the NSA.

That the NSA is monitoring the US citizenry is perhaps not a surprise. However, it is a little peculiar that the man in charge of the NSAIG is cool with making it clear it is happening in a letter to a pair of senators.)

5. The NSAIG therefore cannot answer the senators' question.

6. The letter closes with the NSAIG informing the senators that the NSAIG is committed to "oversight of the intelligence community."

One wonders what the NSAIG would do, if they were not committed to the oversight of the intelligence community. Frankly, declaring "commitment" and doing nothing is not exactly evidence of commitment.

I suppose we should be grateful the NSA was gracious enough not to send agents to each of the senators' homes to play recordings of embarrassing phone calls made by the senators, and then to issue the instruction: "Vote more money for the NSA or else!"

Of course, really, we don't know that either.

[Michael Emrys]

Of course, really, we don't know that either.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Michael

[Bigduke6]

Now Michael, let's not get cynical or paranoid or anything. I'm sure the people in the government have our best interests at heart. After all, that's what they tell us.

Mind you, if NSA officials were to be blackmailing elected officials to keep the NSA budget growing, it would not be so easy to prove such a crime in court. The NSA budget is classified.

You know, to protect the public interest.

*Insert Twilight Zone theme music here*

[dieseltaylor]

I am of the opinion that the way to make sure there is enough bucks in the slush fund is to use all that information collected to run a respectable income portfolio. For the ultimate benefit of the taxpayers of course.

I might be out of order and the NSA does not spy on corporations so please forget I said it. Yep definitely please forget it. I am deluded. No spook would possibly use information like that even if he were listening in on senior executives talking to friends right after a Board meeting.