2 ms·

>The reason we use secrecy is not to hide it from the American people. But, to hide it from those who walk among you who want to kill you. Fear-monger much? Wh

>The reason we use secrecy is not to hide it from the American people. But, to hide it from those who walk among you who want to kill you. Fear-monger much? What can you not justify with this line of reasoning? "Well, we're not herding you all up into concentration camps because of anything you've done innocent Americans. We're putting you all there because of the evil Americans who walk among you." If we buy the mindset that the "evil-doers" are indistinguishable from innocent Americans, then we will allow virtually anything. And, is this overt paranoia inducement even remotely justified? I mean, really, what percentage of the so-called terrorists are "other Americans that walk among us"? For that matter, how many "terrorists" are really out there? But, this is a subtle, insidious, and very purposeful shift. It's an example of how they've moved the goalposts and are increasingly morphing these "terrorist-tools" into a hyper-surveillance program to keep tabs on all Americans. There was a time when they'd have to justify their actions and abide by Constitutional protections by pointing to foreign involvement in monitored communications. The line was that they are not monitoring us, as much as they are monitoring those foreigners who happened to be talking to us. Now, he's allowing that Americans are specifically being targeted domestically, but that it must be done because the terrorists "walk among us". Also love the way the story frames the NSA activity as more benign and highly targeted: "[a program that] gathers data on numbers dialed and length of calls, though not call content, and another that allows the NSA to monitor overseas e-mails and Internet sites used by suspected terrorists." Makes it sound highly targeted and less invasive to innocent Americans. But, we've already learned how they get call content, that the distinction between foreign and domestic communication is less meaningful than we originally thought, and other details that go beyond the benign characterization of the story. This story seems to be stuck in the days before so many more revelations came out. They left out all but the "This message brought to you by the NSA."

swalkergibson 13y ago
> How many "terrorists" are really out there? I was intrigued by this question and wondered the same. I created this Google spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhTjVTjz9GpldFJoYUVEMjJ1bHI2NFh5V3YxWUwzR3c#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhTjVTjz9GpldFJ...) with the estimated strength of all groups listed here: http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195553.htm#ano http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195553.htm#ano. As of 2011, it would appear that the US government has calculated there are approximately 50,000-100,000 terrorists worldwide. I did not include the names of the groups in the spreadsheet, but I went top-to-bottom through the list and recorded the "Strength" of each group and put it into a cell. Unfortunately, the estimates are almost entirely vague and nebulous (probably intentionally), so I was very generous in my calculations. The spreadsheet is world editable, so I invite any contributions. For scale, according to Wikipedia and this site: http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-California.html http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-California.html, all terrorists in the world identified by the US government would fit in a city between the size of Novato, CA (50K population) and Boulder, CO (100K population). According to the DoD budget here (http://comptroller.defense.gov/defbudget/fy2014/FY2014_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf http://comptroller.defense.gov/defbudget/fy2014/FY2014_Budge...) we have spent $1.5 trillion dollars on "Overseas Contingency Operations" since FY2001. Taking that data into account, we have spent $17 million for every single known terrorist in the world since 2001, at a rate of $1.2 million per year (14 years). According to this: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 we spend $10,694 per year on pupils in the US public education system. Are there any people out there who happen to know off-hand how much money the French government spends per person on healthcare?

swalkergibson 13y ago

> How many "terrorists" are really out there? I was intrigued by this question and wondered the same. I created this Google spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhTjVTjz9GpldFJoYUVEMjJ1bHI2NFh5V3YxWUwzR3c#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhTjVTjz9GpldFJ...) with the estimated strength of all groups listed here: http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195553.htm#ano http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195553.htm#ano. As of 2011, it would appear that the US government has calculated there are approximately 50,000-100,000 terrorists worldwide. I did not include the names of the groups in the spreadsheet, but I went top-to-bottom through the list and recorded the "Strength" of each group and put it into a cell. Unfortunately, the estimates are almost entirely vague and nebulous (probably intentionally), so I was very generous in my calculations. The spreadsheet is world editable, so I invite any contributions. For scale, according to Wikipedia and this site: http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-California.html http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-California.html, all terrorists in the world identified by the US government would fit in a city between the size of Novato, CA (50K population) and Boulder, CO (100K population). According to the DoD budget here (http://comptroller.defense.gov/defbudget/fy2014/FY2014_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf http://comptroller.defense.gov/defbudget/fy2014/FY2014_Budge...) we have spent $1.5 trillion dollars on "Overseas Contingency Operations" since FY2001. Taking that data into account, we have spent $17 million for every single known terrorist in the world since 2001, at a rate of $1.2 million per year (14 years). According to this: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 we spend $10,694 per year on pupils in the US public education system. Are there any people out there who happen to know off-hand how much money the French government spends per person on healthcare?