NSA Staffer: Snowden Didn't Dupe Coworkers Out of Passwords

[JDPriestly]

120. Did you ever work for a phone company back in the old days when the lines were physically

hooked into the system?

If you had you would understand that the NSA has to have direct access. They are not just asking the electronic communications companies to hand them printed or even electronic phone bills.

The internet works very much like the old "central" telephone offices that my great-aunt worked at and like the telephone company I used to work for except that the systems are huge in comparison and the wiring is electronic and not physically wired up.

Did you ever talk on a party line?

The German government commentators apparently suggested that the NSA intercepts communications in the international cables. Certainly our satellites can probably intercept things. The capacity of our satellites is incredible. These facts are commonly known and within the personal experience of many Americans. The technical aspects that make electronic communications unique don't change the fundamental organization of the kind of system that links one party, one household, to a larger system and then individually to other parties or households on the system.

Good grief! Charlie Brown! Nothing new under the sun.