I am going to assume that as human beings born free, you take freedom and privacy very seriously, if not the most serious of all matters. I am going to assume that you believe that no Gov or arm of Gov should ever be above the law and unaccountable to you - the people who pay for them to even exist at all! So. With both of those things in mind, what measures(however controversial or sweeping), would you propose be ideally used to deal with the clear facts emerging that the NSA (among others), have fundamentally walked all over the very things you hold most precious - freedom and privacy? *** Declassified files detail blatant violations, abuse of NSA domestic spying program For years the National Security Agency has been violating restrictions and misusing the US domestic spying program that collected private data from US citizens, newly released declassified documents show. The documents show that between 2006 and 2009 the NSA violated the court restrictions by spying on telephone calls and lying to judges about how the data was deployed. The NSA gathered the bulk phone records under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which requires private companies to turn over evidence that is relevant to a terrorism investigation. However, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled that the NSA must have reasonable, articulable suspicion to run that number against a larger database. Only about 2,000 numbers on the list in 2009 met that legal condition, according to sources. According to the documents, the US District Judge Reggie Walton who oversaw a secret US spy court wrote he was "deeply troubled" in March 2009 after discovering government officials had been accessing domestic phone records without articulable suspicion. http://rt.com/usa/nsa-domestic-surveillance-abuse-684/
When the Patriot Act was passed people acted as if it were no big deal. It was obvious they were spying, so not a huge surprise. The only problem is what is there to do about it? How do you stop it and once you've figured that out how do you make sure it has been stopped? It seems impossible...they're even using drones now....
Interesting question. AS Kyim states, its almost impossible to put the genie back in the lamp. In this case how does the "system" proscribe such wonton spying? Seems like you'd have to have watchers watching the watchers watching the watchers ad infinitum to ensure that everyone is playing by whatever the new laws and rules should be. Perhaps our notions of privacy have to evolve to keep up with times. the digital age presents challenges to traditional concepts while providing unimagined technological capabilities to spy. then again, government intrusion into both the hardware, software and services of the internet and mobile telecom is outrageous and should immediately be banned. OTOH, given the power of instantaneous communication amongst criminals, perverts, terrorists et.al. there is a requirement for policiing and access to individual communications (with cause of course). What is a bit of a conundrum and lost in all this NSA stuff is that fact that corporations are compiling data on consumers at an alarming rate with absolutely not restrictions and plenty of abuses. While many consumers might explicitly or tacitly agree to this consumer "research", many more have no clue about how much these for profit corporations know about them. And these corporations have no restrictions on how they use the data. they don't even have security clearances for the people with access to such data. A most interesting contemporary dilemma.
When you start digging around in this stuff, it is actually beyond disturbing. I take it you recall the MKUltra project and that the then head of the CIA ordered most of the documents destroyed in '73. They managed to gather some information about what was going on, but much of it is lost for good. I read through that, found it deeply sinister.
The best solution I could come up with is to get rid of the FISA court, stop all civilian surveillance by the NSA, and release all documentation on what has happened regarding civilian surveillance within 10 years, 95% of which would have to be released within a year. The NSA could continue its mission of getting signal information from foreign nations, but that would be it. Take it entirely off the GWOT. As far as I'm concerned that is a CIA/FBI issue, not a military one. We're not dealing with foreign nations, we're dealing with international criminal groups.
The NSA has been doing this for a LONG time and it started decades ago with the use of an IBM programming system known as Echelon. It has now evolved into a much more complex system. It is not like the NSA cares about the average citizen. We do have many foreign operatives living in the states at these programs are designed to keep tabs on them. AboveAlpha
Plausible? [video=youtube;iy1hP6F5i98]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpag e&v=iy1hP6F5i98[/video]
