{"id":37666,"date":"2013-06-07T15:36:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T21:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/07\/les-nails-the-national-security-brouhaha-on-the-head.html"},"modified":"2013-06-10T06:25:48","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T12:25:48","slug":"les-nails-the-national-security-brouhaha-on-the-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/07\/les-nails-the-national-security-brouhaha-on-the-head.html","title":{"rendered":"Les nails the National Security brouhaha\u00a0on the head"},"content":{"rendered":"
Was the mass vacuuming of phone records by the NSA legitimate? Was it illegal? Was it useful? Was it overreaching? Was it properly administered? \u00a0Was it a wanton violation of our rights?<\/p>\n

And that whole PRISM thing, pulling in data (somehow, under some circumstances, through some mechanism) from various only providers, from Microsoft to Google to Apple to Facebook … same questions. \u00a0Was it a massive fishing expedition? A grotesque violation of rights? A tightly monitored and necessary weapon against terrorists?<\/p>\n

The problem is, we don't know. Despite hints and tips, and some broad and not-well-defined powers granted by some federal laws, along with\u00a0some cynical judgments of human behavior — desite all that, We, the People, didn't know<\/i> about these programs. \u00a0Heck, we still don't, beyond what's been leaked. \u00a0For the pols on both sides of the aisle (and in the White House) to get huffy about why we would mistrust the government and its motivations in what it's doing, the fact that we were kept in the dark demonstrates why we have that mistrust.<\/i> \u00a0(Cases of government abuse of domestic surveillance in the past doesn't hurt, either).<\/p>\n

These may be critically necessary programs, and they may be operated by paragons of lawfulness, overseen by legislators and judges of the highest moral rectitude. \u00a0But that's all hush-hush, mustn't bother the hoi-polloi<\/i> with all that because, well, they just wouldn't understand.<\/p>\n

Make us understand. \u00a0And, yeah, let's avoid ruining our super-seekrit strategies against the Bad Guys, but, really, if I were a terrorist plotter, I'd already be assuming all of this were true, so knowing that these programs are occurring is not, per se,<\/i> a security threat, no matter how much that dude at the Pentagon fulminates about it.<\/p>\n

Secrecy is rarely if ever permanent. \u00a0And it's the biggest way to lose trust, whether in a personal relationship, a professional one, or in how a government serves its citizenry.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Les Jenkins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In defending these programs President Obama said: \u201cIn the abstract you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a program run amok, but when you actually look at the details, I think we've struck the right balance,\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

And in that statement lay the problem: We can't<\/i> actually look at the details because they're top secret. I'm willing to be persuaded that this is the best possible way to do things, but you can't persuade me with cries of "just trust us!" Because even if I trust you<\/i>, you won't always be in power and I may trust the next Administration even less than I'm trusting you now.<\/p>\n

So, please, share with us the details. Explain to us what is involved and why and what oversights are in place and perhaps we won't spaz about it. Sure, there'll always be some folks who won't like the government ever looking at anything ever, but it won't be the majority of us if we know what's going on and why.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Obama defends digital spying: \u201cI think we\u2019ve struck the right balance\u201d<\/a>
\n “You can’t have 100% security” and “100% privacy, and also zero inconvenience.”\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Was the mass vacuuming of phone records by the NSA legitimate? Was it illegal? Was it useful? Was it overreaching? Was it properly administered? \u00a0Was it a wanton violation of our rights? And that whole PRISM thing, pulling in data (somehow, under some circumstances, through some mechanism) from various only providers, from Microsoft to Google … Continue reading “Les nails the National Security brouhaha\u00a0on the head”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,17,358,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-homeland-security","category-poor-citizenship","category-privacy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25653,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/23\/eye-in-the-sky.html","url_meta":{"origin":37666,"position":0},"title":"Eye in the Sky","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Jan-12 11:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Supreme Court just zapped everyone's favorite spy\/espionage\/\"Mission: Impossible\" meme -- the GPS stuck on the Bad Guy's car to track him while he's traveling someplace.Of course, the basic problem here was that it was done without a warrant which, fortunately, SCOTUS said was the big problem here. Interestingly, though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13144,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/10\/continuing_the_fight.html","url_meta":{"origin":37666,"position":1},"title":"Continuing the fight","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Jul-08 9:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"While the approval of the FISA bill is a significant blow, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who have been at the forefront of law suits against the telcos just...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9812,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/30\/because_im_an_equal_oppor.html","url_meta":{"origin":37666,"position":2},"title":"Because I’m an equal opportunity bigot","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Oct-06 7:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"A while back, I railed against a Muslim woman objecting to having to have her Florida drivers license include an unveiled photo of her face. 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It was landmark legislation, protecting the rights of people with disabilities in a way that reshaped businesses and communities. \"Is this accessible?\" became a key question asked around all design efforts, to make sure that all people can get to the places\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5484,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/04\/all_your_facts.html","url_meta":{"origin":37666,"position":5},"title":"All your facts are belong to us!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Mar-04 6:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"What a remarkably bad idea: providing super-copyright protection to databases of facts. 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