hootinholler
hootinholler's JournalThe root issue Snowden exposed: Clapper's Library
Something that was said in an interview of James Clapper which has really stuck in my craw. This has bothered me for a month now and I for one want to know exactly what he means with his library metaphor and who are the librarians?
As an aside, given my understanding of librarians' support of privacy, this is some high order irony in metaphor selection.
In any event, this is the metaphor:
I understand that. But first let me say that I and everyone in the intelligence community all-- who are also citizens, who also care very deeply about our-- our privacy and civil liberties, I certainly do. So let me say that at the outset. I think a lot of what people are-- are reading and seeing in the media is a lot of hyper-- hyperbole.
A metaphor I think might be helpful for people to understand this is to think of a huge library with literally millions of volumes of books in it, an electronic library. Seventy percent of those books are on bookcases in the United States, meaning that the bulk of the of the world's infrastructure, communications infrastructure is in the United States.
There are no limitations on the customers who can use this library. Many and millions of innocent people doing min-- millions of innocent things use this library, but there are also nefarious people who use it. Terrorists, drug cartels, human traffickers, criminals also take advantage of the same technology. So the task for us in the interest of preserving security and preserving civil liberties and privacy is to be as precise as we possibly can be when we go in that library and look for the books that we need to open up and actually read.
You think of the li-- and by the way, all these books are arranged randomly. They're not arranged by subject or topic matter. And they're constantly changing. And so when we go into this library, first we have to have a library card, the people that actually do this work.
Which connotes their training and certification and recertification. So when we pull out a book, based on its essentially is-- electronic Dewey Decimal System, which is zeroes and ones, we have to be very precise about which book we're picking out. And if it's one that belongs to the-- was put in there by an American citizen or a U.S. person.
We ha-- we are under strict court supervision and have to get stricter-- and have to get permission to actually-- actually look at that. So the notion that we're trolling through everyone's emails and voyeuristically reading them, or listening to everyone's phone calls is on its face absurd. We couldn't do it even if we wanted to. And I assure you, we don't want to.
First let's ignore he has a fundamental misunderstanding who a customer of a library is, and rather focus on the notion that the NSA or other agency has a library containing all of the communications that pass through US infrastructure.
In the final bolded sentence, he almost said it the right way around, and then amazingly states that we put these 'books' in his 'library' rather than his first instinct that the books are filled by taking our private correspondence and storing it.
Senator Wyden made quite a lot out of your exchange with him last March during the hearings. Can you explain what you meant when you said that there was not data collection on millions of Americans?
JAMES CLAPPER:
First-- as I said, I have great respect for Senator Wyden. I thought, though in retrospect, I was asked-- "When are you going to start-- stop beating your wife" kind of question, which is meaning not-- answerable necessarily by a simple yes or no. So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying no.
And again, to go back to my metaphor. What I was thinking of is looking at the Dewey Decimal numbers-- of those books in that metaphorical library-- to me, collection of U.S. persons' data would mean taking the book off the shelf and opening it up and reading it.
Everyone got wrapped around the axle over the least untruthful comment when the real shocker to me at least is in bold.
The notion of "I didn't collect it if I didn't read it" is classic ministry of truth doublespeak.
col·lect
/kəˈlekt/
Verb
Bring or gather together (things, typically when scattered or widespread).
Synonyms
verb. gather - assemble - accumulate - amass - muster - pick
col·lec·tion
/kəˈlekSHən/
Noun
The action or process of collecting someone or something.
Synonyms
gathering - assemblage - accumulation
This must be dismantled. The question is how do we accomplish that?
Holy. Fucking. Shit. The candle flickers... (NSA)
The odd bit of information about how the NSA is Storing all encrypted traffic that it encounters has been rattling around between what passes for synapses in my noggin.
Today, whilst working from my house, I log in to my corporate Virtual Private Network (using Cisco's VPN) and it hits me. This session is likely being logged. I will bet dollars to donuts that the NSA has a Cisco back door. That would mean that anyone with access to that NSA DB will have access to all the VPN traffic in the US.
ALL the VPN traffic. That's all the financials being sent back to the home offices, orders taken, emails, for virtually any corporation.
Are you groking this? ALL the VPN traffic for GE, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Monsanto, ... Name one that doesn't use VPN to protect their IT internals.
Merger proposals, buy lists, big orders, expansion plans, outsourcing plans, etc. Just the ticket if some venture capitalist wanted to know which way the market was blowing, eh? Good thing no one with access would ever notice that is at their fingertips. Good thing no one at a big firm would try to buy in to that DB.
Even if the NSA doesn't exploit it, I bet there are more than 1 or 2 one percenters trying to.
I'm beginning to think the NSA, CIA, et. al. are bad ideas. Talk me down.
I've been wondering, what if Intelligence were to be crowd sourced instead of opaque?
It seems to me the problem with these agencies is that whomever has the reins of these organizations has tremendous effective power to shape the world as they see fit. The authoritarian's wet dream.
The way classified material is organized yields an organizational structure that can be visualized as a man of war jellyfish. The tentacles each with their own targets and purpose, but unlike the jellyfish these tentacles are steerable from on high.
The situation we have now is very troubling to me. My suspicion is that the NSA is operating a "Slurp-N-Burp" (tm) where communications are slurped up and stored, and then once a target is identified the entire stream of their past communications is available in its full glory. We have confirmation that this is done for a segment of the US population. We don't have it fully divulged as far as I know.
That even this small (relatively, it's still quite impressive, I'm sure) corpus exists in secret, anyone smart enough to gain access to it has to realize the potential of the system. The information is there for any company's executive who deals overseas. Congressional Staffers? Most likely. Journalists? You betcha, complete with that infamous airhead wink. All of that and most likely more ready to be tapped in service to shape the world.
From behind a veil. It seems every time a Toto comes along, they are smacked hard. Journalists dieing, whistle blowers jailed and politicians mysteriously change positions or fail to ask the crucial follow up in hearings. Is that what is actually happening? Fuck if I know, but God Damn it smells to high heaven.
So now, I'm pondering the notion that we need to burn the curtain this time. I have several problems with that notion because the world is truly a dangerous place. I will concede the idea that these opaque agencies had made it more so. Yet, still it remains that we do need intelligence.
That brings me to the subject, which is the question: Could we satisfy the intelligence needs of a free society with croud sourcing?
What else might work?
Should the NSA stuffs result in empanneling a commission like Church or Pike?
This poll is all about SHOULD it happen.
The question is should a Commission be empaneled?
I have another poll asking the will question.
Who do you think Should head such a commission? (Not will, that's for the other thread.)
Please kick so we get a decent sample 
Will the NSA stuffs result in empanneling a commission like Church or Pike?
This poll is all about WILL it happen.
The question is will a Commission be empaneled?
I have another poll asking the should question.
Who do you think will head such a commission? (not should, that's for the other thread.
Please kick for a good sample.
So this is proof that the government can order crimes to be committed with impunity
How is it that "The CIA made me do it" gets dropped?
WTF? Ok if you want it that way then the fact remains crimes were committed and someone should be held responsible for them. Where is the prosecution against the person who ordered this shit?
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