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Honestly, I think its a bit far fetched the US would meddle in the foreign affairs of an ally. We have a long documented history of staying out of civil wars, g

Honestly, I think its a bit far fetched the US would meddle in the foreign affairs of an ally. We have a long documented history of staying out of civil wars, guerrilla warfare, and aiding the "right" people to come to leadership as it suits us.

maze-le 10y ago
You'l have to show the sarcasm tag, I almost fell for it...
audeyisaacs 10y ago
Right now though the average person can still say "Where's your tinfoil hat, stop being ridiculous". If it were confirmed, they'd have to switch to "Well if they weren't doing anything wrong they wouldn't have to worry about being interfered with, stop being ridiculous". -- FWIW, I personally would be relatively shocked if that(election tampering) did turn out to be legit. I suppose there's motive and means, but it just seems a little too far for the NSA. On the other hand, I can't understand why Snowden would put that in a tweet if he didn't want people to consider the possibility. So either, 1) He's a careless writer(I think this one is the least likely) 2) The NSA interferes with US ally's elections 3) Snowden is a Russian agent or has been coerced into that messaging
- zghst 10y ago
  I can't believe the tinfoil argument is still strong even after the NSA revelations. At this point it's deep denial, which seems to run strong.
- jimmersim 10y ago
  The CIA has used torture and overthrown governments. Since the NSA is another secretive US government agency, I have no reason to believe that there is such a thing as going too far for them in an ethical sense, although of course there are practical limits on what they can accomplish. Also, like any organization, the NSA is not monolithic. It must have various strata, various different groups making it up. It is possible, for example, that 95% of the NSA operates in ways that are relatively ethical, but that there is also a more-or-less secret pipeline of information and control built into the organization's architecture that enables important figures both inside and outside of the organization to use its databases and tools and to coordinate its operations without the knowledge of most of its employees.
r00fus 10y ago
"America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests." -Henry Kissinger

maze-le 10y ago

You'l have to show the sarcasm tag, I almost fell for it...

audeyisaacs 10y ago

Right now though the average person can still say "Where's your tinfoil hat, stop being ridiculous". If it were confirmed, they'd have to switch to "Well if they weren't doing anything wrong they wouldn't have to worry about being interfered with, stop being ridiculous". -- FWIW, I personally would be relatively shocked if that(election tampering) did turn out to be legit. I suppose there's motive and means, but it just seems a little too far for the NSA. On the other hand, I can't understand why Snowden would put that in a tweet if he didn't want people to consider the possibility. So either, 1) He's a careless writer(I think this one is the least likely) 2) The NSA interferes with US ally's elections 3) Snowden is a Russian agent or has been coerced into that messaging

zghst 10y ago
I can't believe the tinfoil argument is still strong even after the NSA revelations. At this point it's deep denial, which seems to run strong.
jimmersim 10y ago
The CIA has used torture and overthrown governments. Since the NSA is another secretive US government agency, I have no reason to believe that there is such a thing as going too far for them in an ethical sense, although of course there are practical limits on what they can accomplish. Also, like any organization, the NSA is not monolithic. It must have various strata, various different groups making it up. It is possible, for example, that 95% of the NSA operates in ways that are relatively ethical, but that there is also a more-or-less secret pipeline of information and control built into the organization's architecture that enables important figures both inside and outside of the organization to use its databases and tools and to coordinate its operations without the knowledge of most of its employees.

r00fus 10y ago

"America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests." -Henry Kissinger