General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe NSA was created in secret … and Congress wasn’t even notified.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/03/intelligence-agencies-have-gone-rogue-with-no-oversight/In 2007, reporter Charles Davis asked then-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee Jay Rockefeller about clandestine U.S. operations against a foreign government:
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ROCKEFELLER: [font color=red]Dont you understand the way Intelligence works? Do you think that because Im Chairman of the Intelligence Committee that I just say I want it, and they give it to me? They control it. All of it. ALL of it. ALL THE TIME. I only get - and my committee only gets - what they WANT to give me.[/font]
This is shocking but not new.
The NSA was created in secret and Congress wasnt even notified.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/02/nsa-federal-agency-created-secret-memo-rather-congressional-legislation.html
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More, plus links:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/03/intelligence-agencies-have-gone-rogue-with-no-oversight/
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)says everything I need to know.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)I think the Rockefellers are a diverse, hard working, and, believe it or not, variously well-meaning group.
But there's these pesky two things:
Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
and
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions.
As a culture, our Achilles' Heel is self-deception, so, of course, we base our National Defense in the Nuclear Age on secrecy and deception. And how is THAT going?
alc
(1,151 posts)Ever since they became an open secret then a non-secret agency I've guessed our government has created a new secret agency. They have more than enough money in the budget that isn't accounted for (other than "national security" not to mention the hidden bank accounts they could create pretty easily over the years (maybe that missing Iraq cash didn't go to "bad guys"
Given what the "leaders" say, I'd call them irresponsible if they feel that way and have not created a new agency that's beyond any oversight and not on anyone's radar.
2banon
(7,321 posts)Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)When I did use libraries, one of my favorite things to do was to read how the popular media covered The Bomb between 1945 and say, 1950. The hubris, the suggestions that we use the bomb to move mountains and reroute rivers, the sense that God gave US the bomb, so obviously God wanted US to rule the World. And the absolute HORROR when the USSR exploded its first bomb. Thus the setup for McCarthyism.
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022869035
Guess one of the new CIA's biggest early failures? Missed the USSR A-Bomb thing completely.
Wrong turns were made. Toward the end of his life, Robert Byrd kept going on and on about that....
librechik
(30,676 posts)but it's not like we didn't have every opportunity to know this. Stupid stupid venal people in charge.