The NSA Deserves a Permanent Shutdown

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/30-0



The NSA Deserves a Permanent Shutdown
Published on Monday, September 30, 2013 by Common Dreams
by Norman Solomon

To the people in control of the Executive Branch, violating our civil liberties is an essential government service. So -- to ensure total fulfillment of Big Brother’s vast responsibilities -- the National Security Agency is insulated from any fiscal disruption.

~snip~

At the top of the federal government, even a brief shutdown of “core NSA operations” is unthinkable. But at the grassroots, a permanent shutdown of the NSA should be more than thinkable; we should strive to make it achievable.

~snip~

“The U.S. government has gone further than any previous government … in setting up machinery that satisfies certain tendencies that are in the genetic code of totalitarianism,” Jonathan Schell wrote in The Nation as this fall began. “One is the ambition to invade personal privacy without check or possibility of individual protection. This was impossible in the era of mere phone wiretapping, before the recent explosion of electronic communications -- before the cellphones that disclose the whereabouts of their owners, the personal computers with their masses of personal data and easily penetrated defenses, the e-mails that flow through readily tapped cables and servers, the biometrics, the street-corner surveillance cameras.”

“But now,” Schell continued, “to borrow the name of an intelligence program from the Bush years, ‘Total Information Awareness’ is technologically within reach. The Bush and Obama administrations have taken giant strides in this direction.”

[Shivering Jemmy]

1. Someone needs to do sigint

[ehcross]

2. The NSA Deserves Permanent Recognition for effectively protecting us and our partners.

What is absolutely correct is to say that "The U.S. government has gone further than any previous government" … in setting up machinery that satisfies the requirements of a highly effective defense structure.

It is clearly evident that Americans would reject anything that even barely sounds like invading personal privacy. Yet they are more than ever concerned about their safety and security.

At the same time, Americans are blessed with their conviction that their government is investing time and treasure to guarantee their citizens' security, and that of their allies. But such prerrogative, like any other, is conditioned to accepting some degree of discomfort from the surroundings.

Finally, the NSA continues to be a watchdog of America´s neighbourhood, and for that it only receives critisism ("Stop watching us" reads a sign on a street demonstration.

[unhappycamper]

3. Yea, and that permanent recognition should include some serious jail time

Are you serious about the NSA keeping us safe? Really?

Anybody or anyone who vacuums up all electronic/digital communications saves them for future reference and then lies about it makes me suspicious.

Anybody or anyone who breaks encryption on pretty much everything makes me suspicious.

Anybody or anyone who creates systems to sift thru all this data (in secret) and lies about it makes me suspicious.

Take your NSA happy talk somewhere else.

[ehcross]

4. Yes, I am serious about NSA recognition

I can understand people feeling suspicious about anything that sounds like surveillance. Because privacy is one of the most revered personal rights. But when the concept of security is added to the equation it begins to make sense. Feeling secure implies a conviction that your privacy is rock-solid.

National Security is another matter. It deals with the whole of the United States and focuses on monitoring and detection of external threats for the purpose of neutralizing them.

The United States experienced the perfect example of a threat having become a monumental tragedy on 9/11. The attackers violated U.S. airspace by having achieved control of the planes, and faced no resistance, because there was no warning of an incoming attack. It was a "perfect attack".Very cheap and very destructive of United Sates morale.

The NSA is now in charge of continously monitoring space for the purpose of detecting threats to the United States. Once a threat is detected other agencies take charge of destroying or properly handling said threats.

There exists a troubling feeling of generalized distrust of the NSA. Perhaps because the need for privacy enhances suspicion.

The NSA has, in my view, the task selling to the American people the inmense value of having a dedicated shield to protect the United States from any attack. And at the same time, updating its capabilities to make Edward Snowden's obsolete.

[unhappycamper]

5. We have different views.

I'm not big on NSA and I'm even less big on trolls. Let's just leave it at that.

[ehcross]

7. America's biggest security problem is that Americans have lost their trust in their entire goverment

"Take your NSA happy talk somewhere else."

This statement is a perfect example of an American citizen brushing off a suggestion that the United States has been benefiting from the NSA's massive surveillance program, which has the capacity to monitor signals that would allow timely detection of threats to the United States National Security.

The flat rejection to any benefit from the NSA's surveillance program is clearly a sign that U.S. citizens have lost their faith in their government's capacity to protect them. Without doubt, this sad state of affairs has been exacerbated by the revelations of Edward Snowden around the accusations that the NSA is spying on American citizens. Having himself been an operator at the NSA, Snowden knows perfecly well that the NSA was not spying on its citizens but rather spying on those citizens whose aim is to harm the United States.

[ehcross]

6. The NSA Deserves a Permanent Upgrade to negate Snowden access and enjoy security.

While some Americans talk of shutting down the NSA, it is evident that they don't know what they are talking about.

The NSA must be kept running for the same reasons it has been running. Threats are generally not publisized in the newspapers, making it necessary that people have warning of impending attack, and proper shelter.

Having the sophisticated equipment available, and not having it in use despite existing threats is unacceptable.

Far from the claim by "unusual" people the NSA should continue to improve their capacity to monitor the skies.

[unhappycamper]

8. Give it up, Dude.

If I wanted to live in 1940 Germany, I'd get a time machine.

I live in America and I expect privacy.

[ehcross]

9. I live in America and I expect privacy.

We all expect privacy. We live in a free society where all of our rights are guaranteed .
The problem is that we are not alone. The United States is an open gate for people from every country in the world. Those people bring in their own agendas and in many cases they become pests. And so many are allowed into the country that a substantial number find fertile ground for hidden agendas that often include harming U.S. citizens.

Whe have often witnessed how sleepy neighborhoods are sometimes converted into playgrounds and later into ghettos where crime flourishes and the rule of law is slowly corroded.

Privacy is a gift for the ones who wish it and can afford the neighborhoods where they can live in peace and privacy.

Before Edward Snowden ransacked the security headquarters of the U.S., the NSA, there was a vast structure of neatly organized
centers of monitoring threats. Americans don't know how many attempts against the U.S. were carried out after 9/11. One of those could have been perpetrated in your own neighborhood, just like it happened on 9/11 to thousands of Americans like you.

[Zorro]

10. Every time you use a credit card you reveal yourself

Is that OK?