Thursday, May 15, 2014

Trust in government? Are you kidding?


You know, if I were even as little as 33% sure that all those routers were destined for overseas clients, I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep.

And I don't even necessarily mean Moscow or Tehran. Spying on foreign countries is what the NSA's there for, and there are two kinds of countries in this world: Those who spy on putative allies, and those who haven't gotten caught yet.

But given how the intelligence services' watch lists for domestic hanky-panky are proven over and over to be just another tool of hardball partisan politics, anybody trusting those pictures above to be acting in the national interest with respect for the rights of American citizens is so naive they shouldn't be allowed out in public without a minder.

Watergate wouldn't make page three today.
.

23 comments:

mikee said...

Watergate wouldn't make page three today, but as soon as a Republican gets in the Oval Office, just wait for the clamor about his failure to stop what is going on now!

AndyN said...

Watergate would still be front page news for two reasons. Our betters still don't think they should be subjected to the same treatment that they approve of for their subjects. And the people who control the front pages would still be outraged about which party was doing the spying for political gain.

Sigivald said...

Spying on foreign countries is what the NSA's there for, and there are two kinds of countries in this world: Those who spy on putative allies, and those who haven't gotten caught yet.

Yup.

As Palmerston said, "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow."

And that means knowing what our "allies" are really thinking, just as it means they're going to try to find out exactly that about us.

Grown-ups know that's how international relations work, and restrict "friendly spying" furors to a light "tut tut" and an implied "please don't get caught again, kthxbai".

Anonymous said...

Try and bring a laptop, router or thumb drive into NSA. They will not be happy with you.

There is no fourth estate in this country anymore because the bright, cool and correct kids are in charge now.

Gerry

Jay G said...

Now, now, Tam. You forget one thing:

The president during Watergate was a Republican.

Keith_Indy said...

Yes, if a Republican does it, it's a scandal.

If a Democrat does it, because, well, the ends justify the means to them. And we are the ENEMY, not just fellow citizens with opposing points of view.

We are in a war, and most of us don't know it.

Windy Wilson said...

Unless, of course, Watergate occurred during a Republican watch. Republicans, as you have alluded to elsewhere, are like Caesar's wife. They must be above reproach. Democrats, on the other hand, can be Messalina, and no one will speak ill.

staghounds said...

Speaking as a faceless bureaucrat, I'm sure there were proper warrants too. That's why it's in the press release, which it is incredibly stupid to put out.


We tend to forget that the internet was developed for the purpose of improving the security and military capacity of the United States.

It BELONGS to the U. S. Government.

Brad said...

And how many of those devices didn't get "cleaned" when sent back to Cisco for an RMA, to be picked up by a non-targetd company?

Sebastian said...

Watergate wouldn't make page three today.

Sad, isn't it? And the worst part is that it's because no one seems to give a shit too.

Paul said...

Watergate would still be page one as it was done to democrats. It would be page one for no other reason than to say, Squirrel.

Unknown said...

Unauthorized access to a computer system is a federal felony. Now we need a crusading prosecuting attorney

ChuckAtPodunkOutpost said...

[[[
We tend to forget that the internet was developed for the purpose of improving the security and military capacity of the United States.

It BELONGS to the U. S. Government.
]]]

That may have been true for Arpanet, but not what we call the Internet today.

ChuckAtPodunkOutpost said...

[[[
And how many of those devices didn't get "cleaned" when sent back to Cisco for an RMA, to be picked up by a non-targetd company?
]]]

Or, how many wind up as gray-market devices for sale on eBay...?

Old NFO said...

Concur with all... And the 'fixes' cannot be found in a normal bit check either...

Anonymous said...

TAO. How apropos.
Some wag at NSA probably picked the TLA first and then came up with the meaning.

Windy Wilson said...

I remember about 10 years ago how upset people were to discover that hardware from China had hardwired spyware in it.
Now, {yawn}.
It's scandal fatigue.

Anonymous said...

Messalina puts out, though.

perlhaqr said...

It BELONGS to the U. S. Government.

No.

ARPANet does, but the FedGov does not own the fiber that Level 3 puts down, or the routers that Cisco makes.

Borepatch said...

This situation is almost certainly going to turn out to be very damaging to Silicon Valley. I'm the Security Guy at a tech company, and my phone has started ringing with customers asking if the NSA did this to our product shipments, too.

I don't know all the ripple effects that are going to play out, but it feels like the butterfly has flapped its wings and something wicked this way comes as a result.

Good times, good times.

P.S. I don't think that there's an inch of space between the Democrats and the Republicans on this.

The Dark Lord said...

are you really so sure ? the same people who control the front pages are not outraged about which party is using the IRS for political gain ...?

The Dark Lord said...

maybe you missed the memo but You didn't build that ...

Unknown said...

Watergate would only be from page today if a repub were president. But if its a dem, the MSM will let them get away with anything.