4 ms·

The Only Way to Restore Trust in the NSA

29 points by Scramblejams 13y ago

andrewcooke 13y ago
dream on, bruce. dream on.
greenlakejake 13y ago
While it seems unlikely that the NSA will come clean the documents being released may lead to a tipping point where meaningful oversight may be demanded and actually occur.
dvmmh 13y ago
Restore? Since when did they ever have it?
- hga 13y ago
  They had it in the '80s. Helped that we were fighting an in your face existential threat, the Evil Empire AKA the Soviet Union with their 45,000 (sic) nuclear warhead inventory peak in 1988 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_des...). I in fact supplied a reference for a student acquaintance applying for a job at the NSA in that year.
JonSkeptic 13y ago
I'm not sure the NSA can do a lot to restore trust, I think they just have to hope that most people forget about it.
hga 13y ago
[Insert usual rant about Bruce Schneier vs. the real world.] This is a political problem that needs a political answer. Special prosecutors are political and always have been, but I really have difficultly seeing how one could be imbued with enough power. This sure sounds to me like a job for the nation's Grant Inquisitor, AKA the Congress, as we saw the last time this happened with the Church Committee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee Given how the first and only vote on this issue, the House's Amash Amendment was both close and critically didn't break out on any particular set of conventional lines, like party or region, I say it's way to early to count it out. Not that we don't need to send a variety of Congresscritters back home to spend more time with their families, and as a part of that change the leadership, even if we can't necessarily remove Boehner and Pelosi from their seats. I.e. we need to make it politically impossible for our representatives to keep them and their ilk in the leadership.
- j_baker 13y ago
  What on earth makes you think Congress is less political than a special prosecutor would be? Congress is the very definition of politics.

29 points by Scramblejams 13y ago

dream on, bruce. dream on.

While it seems unlikely that the NSA will come clean the documents being released may lead to a tipping point where meaningful oversight may be demanded and actually occur.

dvmmh 13y ago

Restore? Since when did they ever have it?

hga 13y ago
They had it in the '80s. Helped that we were fighting an in your face existential threat, the Evil Empire AKA the Soviet Union with their 45,000 (sic) nuclear warhead inventory peak in 1988 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_des...). I in fact supplied a reference for a student acquaintance applying for a job at the NSA in that year.

JonSkeptic 13y ago

I'm not sure the NSA can do a lot to restore trust, I think they just have to hope that most people forget about it.

hga 13y ago

[Insert usual rant about Bruce Schneier vs. the real world.] This is a political problem that needs a political answer. Special prosecutors are political and always have been, but I really have difficultly seeing how one could be imbued with enough power. This sure sounds to me like a job for the nation's Grant Inquisitor, AKA the Congress, as we saw the last time this happened with the Church Committee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee Given how the first and only vote on this issue, the House's Amash Amendment was both close and critically didn't break out on any particular set of conventional lines, like party or region, I say it's way to early to count it out. Not that we don't need to send a variety of Congresscritters back home to spend more time with their families, and as a part of that change the leadership, even if we can't necessarily remove Boehner and Pelosi from their seats. I.e. we need to make it politically impossible for our representatives to keep them and their ilk in the leadership.

j_baker 13y ago
What on earth makes you think Congress is less political than a special prosecutor would be? Congress is the very definition of politics.