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The intelligence community never lets a terrorist attack go to waste. I'm convinced they have a wish list in wait for every tragedy. Next on the list was gett
by nostromo 11y ago
The intelligence community never lets a terrorist attack go to waste.
I'm convinced they have a wish list in wait for every tragedy. Next on the list was getting a back door on every cellphone.
- CamperBob2 11y agoI'm convinced they have a wish list in wait for every tragedy That's not even remotely debatable, unless you believe the 350+-page Patriot Act was written within a month after 9/11.
- paulddraper 11y agoThat's not unbelievable.
- nullc 11y ago> The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out. -- Richard Clarke (former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism) Often political changes are artifacts of opportunity. I don't personally think that its evil that the justice department had a laundry list of civil rights violations waiting for an opportunity to propose them. It's the responsibility of the public and earnest lawmakers to be aware of efforts to exploit sentiment and resist bad law regardless of when it's proposed.
- tunap 11y agoBiden submitted the virtually identical bill shortly after the OK City bombing 6 years prior... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_Counterterrorism_Act_of_1995 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_Counterterrorism_Act_o...
- CamperBob2 11y agoYes, it is. Can you imagine how different life would be if the rest of government worked at that pace?
- marcoperaza 11y agoAnd there'd be nothing wrong with that. From their perspective, these are powers that will help them do their job of keeping us safe. I often disagree with their proposals, but I don't question their motives. You see it as them taking advantage of fearful people. They see it as people getting a dose of realism when disaster strikes. It's no different with any perennial political issue. People forget about problems until some event reminds them. Activists use this opening of awareness to push for change.
- jMyles 11y ago> but I don't question their motives ...really? Isn't this among our foremost duties as effective, responsible, mature citizens?
- marcoperaza 11y agoBetter phrasing of what I meant: I think the authors of the Patriot Act had pure motives.
- ptaipale 11y agoIndeed. Much of the time, what we perceive as "that person proposes a bad thing because he has bad intentions and bad motives" is wrong: people have good motives and they mean well, but they should see that what they propose with good intentions will eventually have bad outcomes. See "unintended consequences".
- ptaipale 11y agoOf course different people have compiled different "wish lists" and other proposals which will then pop up when some news event (etc) gives the opportunity. It's not really any evidence of conspiracy, or such. Simply that different organisations and people have ideas that they prepare, and put forward when there is an opportunity. Similarly, the fact that e.g. Russian or American army has written a plan for how to go through Fulda Gap or capture Kiev or close the Bosphorus is not really evidence that the said army is actually about to do such thing. They are simply doing their job by preparing for scenarios.
- ionised 11y agoNo, the Patriot Act was ready to go long before 9/11.
- superuser2 11y agoIt's hard to imagine an organization or unit whose middle management doesn't have a running wish list of what it would do with a bigger budget, more staff, and more authority.
- nitrogen 11y agoMost middle managers can't get away with using the deaths of others to promote their departments.
- exw 11y agoI think you are mixing up the law enforcement and intelligence community. These request are coming from the law enforcement side of the government, not the intelligence community. Given their mission, the intelligence community has no interest in having a public discussion around backdoors, since the last thing they want is for the people they are targeting to be aware of any backdoors in their mobile devices.
- sandworm101 11y agoThe line between the two is gone today. The CIA now both collects information (spy drones) and acts on it (armed drones). The FBI both investigates crimes and acts as a go-between between federal and local agencies via fusion centers. Since 9/11 everyone is all about information sharing. That means law enforcement now give intel to the intel community and that the intel community does likewise. Even lines between military and civilian worlds are blurred as contractors bounce between the two. We really are slipping into a world where feds are feds and the letters on the hat no longer matter.
- njharman 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction Read it and weep.
- takeda 11y agoIMHO this is just an act to restore trust in companies that was lost after Snowden's leaks. NSA never needed physical access to our computers. The companies worked directly with them.
- appleflaxen 11y agoYou are exactly right about this. The same way that the two-party political system "disagrees" and "clashes" with each other while perpetuating the same essential policies, the "good guy" Apple and the "bad guy" FBI will put on a circus that makes us clap and cheer while our data is fat-piped to the NSA data center in Utah.
- draw_down 11y agoI think this is a really silly and irresponsible viewpoint. This issue matters, a lot.
- appleflaxen 11y agoYour comment is too short for me to understand your point. What do you mean? (in particular "this issue" refers to what? which viewpoint is irresponsible? and why?)
- grandalf 11y agoI think this is quite true. They are cooperating in the disinformation campaign.
- briandear 11y agoSee also: every school shooting.