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> Clandestine intelligence service spying on non-US citizens == literally the entire point of the Agency The problem I have with this is, it sounds like "Yes,
by b6 10y ago
> Clandestine intelligence service spying on non-US citizens == literally the entire point of the Agency
The problem I have with this is, it sounds like "Yes, of course the zombies are eating your brains -- that's exactly what zombies are supposed to do. What's the problem?"
- Cuuugi 10y agoUnfortunately Intelligence services are a necessary evil imo.
- mmjaa 10y agoI don't agree. I think they are self-serving and thus create the 'necessity' just by stint of existence. We wouldn't need the CIA if the CIA hadn't convinced us, using lies and subterfuge, that we need it.
- Cuuugi 10y agoThey are absolutely self serving. There's many stories of the CIA (self funding) via drug trade. My thoughts are that they are only necessary in the sense that without them, other countries would take advantage of your lack of intelligence services. They aren't good people, but there's "not good" people in every country.
- pc86 10y agoThat's a pretty broad brush. I'm sure there are good people working for the CIA, and the NSA, just as I'm sure there are good people (and bad people) in every organization. The minute you say "anyone associated with _____ is automatically a bad person" it becomes us v. them and all discourse and nuance is lost. Both sides just get entrenched and yell at each other and before you know it we have, well... last Friday.
- strictnein 10y agoSpying predates the CIA by millennia.
- mmjaa 10y agoYeah but that is not the only thing the CIA does.
- pc86 10y agoI'm not saying that the CIA/NSA should track every non-American in the world even if they had the ability. But I am saying that is their codified mission and the reason they exist. We can debate who they should be spying on and the most efficient use of their limited resources, but at the end of the day they are going to be spying on people. Most Americans have a big problem with them spying on Americans (at least of those I've spoken to, and I am not living in a Democratic area like SF or NYC) but no problem whatsoever with them spying on anything else inside or outside of the US.