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Note he is not calling for Alexander to be fired for all the fun and games the NSA has been up to. He is calling for Alexander to be fired for letting it slip

Note he is not calling for Alexander to be fired for all the fun and games the NSA has been up to. He is calling for Alexander to be fired for letting it slip (specifically, for letting a contractor get that information.) He hedges his language very well when asked about NSA shenanigans.

krapp 13y ago
...which really is to be expected from John McCain. I'm surprised he hasn't demanded we start bombing the Soviets by now.
- asveikau 13y ago
  Didn't he basically say that during the South Ossetia crisis in 2008? Granted he didn't actually say "soviet", but...
- FridayWithJohn 13y ago
  Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is for McCain to retire. (Ask the NSA for proof of me being a good boy)
darkxanthos 13y ago
Yeah. When I first read the headline I was shocked. It made more sense once I read the actual article.
d23 13y ago
I'm not so sure, and just as a note, I'm pretty liberal. > Asked if the US intelligence services were out of control, McCain said: "There's not been sufficient congressional oversight, and there has been an absolutely disgraceful sharing of information that never should have taken place. For many years, we had an absolute provision that any classified information, which was going to be shared, is based on need-to-know information." It seems like he thinks the spying was egregious as well. Given his hawkish nature, I'd be surprised if he was actually that upset about it, but this article makes it seem like he's equally upset that we were doing it and that it was being run in such a poor manner.
- ewoodrich 13y ago
  Senator McCain is almost certainly referring to compartmentalized intelligence [1]. So he's not saying the spying was egregious, but instead that allowing a contractor like Snowden to have access to the classified info about the spying was egregious. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartmentalization_(information_security) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartmentalization_(informati...
  - 001sky 13y ago
    To be fair, you compartmentalize intelligence so it does not get abused. If you don't have a <need to know>, it is presumed you are going to abuse it somehow. That's the purpose of 'need to know' restrictions. Yes, it also is a policy which increases OpSec. But note His interview reference seems to be wikileaks and Manning, which was a breech of opsec, in theatre. Snowden leaking on the NSA seems to be much more grounded in a principled position, and is in a civillian context. Its hard to infer a position on the latter based upon coments from the former.
- rurounijones 13y ago
  > "Not sufficient oversight" That is an easy one because all they have to do is say "We will do oversight better; trust us. Now stop worrying about it, watch the big game and vote for us next time." The rest is all him being annoyed about how the information was shared inside (and outside) the agency, not the fact the information existed or how it was obtained.
- mpyne 13y ago
  > It seems like he thinks the spying was egregious as well. To be fair there's a lot of people who think NSA has gone overboard, even when those people otherwise consider Snowden a traitor. That would explain why Sen. McCain says that oversight was insufficient while still being upset with DIRNSA for not having proper internal controls to keep an employee (but especially a contractor) from grabbing a hold of so much TS, even across compartmentalized boundaries.
  - 001sky 13y ago
bane 13y ago
It's also a safe political statement, Alexander is on his way out soon anyway.
r0h1n 13y ago
I'd tend to agree with you. McCain seems primarily upset about Merkel being spied upon, not the wholesale vacuuming up of the rest of the world's Internet communications. He's also clearly anti-Snowden/anti-whistleblower. FYI - this is the entire Q&A on the Der Spiegel site: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-932721.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-932721.html
- JanezStupar 13y ago
  He is not upset about Merkel being spied upon. He is upset with her finding out.
  - chris_wot 13y ago
    Thank goodness he never became President!
    - dkhenry 13y ago
      Oh yeah he definitely would have been worse then the guy who was elected who did it anyway.......
Bsharp 13y ago
That was my thought as well before even opening the article. If he had won in 2008, he would be right in the middle of this too.

krapp 13y ago

...which really is to be expected from John McCain. I'm surprised he hasn't demanded we start bombing the Soviets by now.

asveikau 13y ago
Didn't he basically say that during the South Ossetia crisis in 2008? Granted he didn't actually say "soviet", but...
FridayWithJohn 13y ago
Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is for McCain to retire. (Ask the NSA for proof of me being a good boy)

darkxanthos 13y ago

Yeah. When I first read the headline I was shocked. It made more sense once I read the actual article.

d23 13y ago

I'm not so sure, and just as a note, I'm pretty liberal. > Asked if the US intelligence services were out of control, McCain said: "There's not been sufficient congressional oversight, and there has been an absolutely disgraceful sharing of information that never should have taken place. For many years, we had an absolute provision that any classified information, which was going to be shared, is based on need-to-know information." It seems like he thinks the spying was egregious as well. Given his hawkish nature, I'd be surprised if he was actually that upset about it, but this article makes it seem like he's equally upset that we were doing it and that it was being run in such a poor manner.

ewoodrich 13y ago
Senator McCain is almost certainly referring to compartmentalized intelligence [1]. So he's not saying the spying was egregious, but instead that allowing a contractor like Snowden to have access to the classified info about the spying was egregious. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartmentalization_(information_security) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartmentalization_(informati...
- 001sky 13y ago
  To be fair, you compartmentalize intelligence so it does not get abused. If you don't have a <need to know>, it is presumed you are going to abuse it somehow. That's the purpose of 'need to know' restrictions. Yes, it also is a policy which increases OpSec. But note His interview reference seems to be wikileaks and Manning, which was a breech of opsec, in theatre. Snowden leaking on the NSA seems to be much more grounded in a principled position, and is in a civillian context. Its hard to infer a position on the latter based upon coments from the former.
rurounijones 13y ago
> "Not sufficient oversight" That is an easy one because all they have to do is say "We will do oversight better; trust us. Now stop worrying about it, watch the big game and vote for us next time." The rest is all him being annoyed about how the information was shared inside (and outside) the agency, not the fact the information existed or how it was obtained.
mpyne 13y ago
> It seems like he thinks the spying was egregious as well. To be fair there's a lot of people who think NSA has gone overboard, even when those people otherwise consider Snowden a traitor. That would explain why Sen. McCain says that oversight was insufficient while still being upset with DIRNSA for not having proper internal controls to keep an employee (but especially a contractor) from grabbing a hold of so much TS, even across compartmentalized boundaries.
- 001sky 13y ago

bane 13y ago

It's also a safe political statement, Alexander is on his way out soon anyway.

r0h1n 13y ago

I'd tend to agree with you. McCain seems primarily upset about Merkel being spied upon, not the wholesale vacuuming up of the rest of the world's Internet communications. He's also clearly anti-Snowden/anti-whistleblower. FYI - this is the entire Q&A on the Der Spiegel site: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-932721.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-932721.html

JanezStupar 13y ago
He is not upset about Merkel being spied upon. He is upset with her finding out.
- chris_wot 13y ago
  Thank goodness he never became President!
  - dkhenry 13y ago
    Oh yeah he definitely would have been worse then the guy who was elected who did it anyway.......

Bsharp 13y ago

That was my thought as well before even opening the article. If he had won in 2008, he would be right in the middle of this too.