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Wow, this is a whole lot of nothing. Instead of recognizing the problem of having secret Star Chamber-ish courts in the first place, he just says "yeah we're j

by acabal 13y ago

Wow, this is a whole lot of nothing. Instead of recognizing the problem of having secret Star Chamber-ish courts in the first place, he just says "yeah we're just really going to make sure the NSA goes to them first." Mass storage of phone conversations doesn't appear to be ended, just shuffled off to some private contractor instead of being NSA-internal. Phone records aren't even the biggest concern in the first place. The real scary thing is their Internet firehose taps at places like AT&T room 641A and their Utah datacenter built to store exabytes upon exabytes of data. Put two and two together--that's the worry. Not a peep about that. This is literally nothing. None of the core issues have been addressed. He's just changed the window-dressing.

Theodores 13y ago
> Mass storage of phone conversations doesn't appear to be ended, just shuffled off to some private contractor instead of being NSA-internal. Exactly. Except it is not going to be 'some private contractor', it will be dream come true for Lockheed Martin. Or, if it is not them then it will be some other military contractor because otherwise people will cotton to the fact that, for all intents and purposes, the NSA is Lockheed Martin. At least the NSA is theoretically accountable to the government, and the people by proxy. A private company is all about shareholder value. So, strip away the presentation by the cuddly President and you get yet more privatisation/outsourcing of the military-industrial complex.
latj 13y ago
No, its something. Its saying the U.S. spymasters will not spy on Germany's spymasters without getting the approval of the secret U.S. kangaroo court. I dont know about you but I'm feeling more confident in the system already.
tzs 13y ago
> Wow, this is a whole lot of nothing. Instead of recognizing the problem of having secret Star Chamber-ish courts in the first place What specific problems do you see with the FISA courts that would not also be present if these cases were heard in regular Federal district courts?

by acabal 13y ago

Theodores 13y ago

> Mass storage of phone conversations doesn't appear to be ended, just shuffled off to some private contractor instead of being NSA-internal. Exactly. Except it is not going to be 'some private contractor', it will be dream come true for Lockheed Martin. Or, if it is not them then it will be some other military contractor because otherwise people will cotton to the fact that, for all intents and purposes, the NSA is Lockheed Martin. At least the NSA is theoretically accountable to the government, and the people by proxy. A private company is all about shareholder value. So, strip away the presentation by the cuddly President and you get yet more privatisation/outsourcing of the military-industrial complex.

latj 13y ago

No, its something. Its saying the U.S. spymasters will not spy on Germany's spymasters without getting the approval of the secret U.S. kangaroo court. I dont know about you but I'm feeling more confident in the system already.

tzs 13y ago

> Wow, this is a whole lot of nothing. Instead of recognizing the problem of having secret Star Chamber-ish courts in the first place What specific problems do you see with the FISA courts that would not also be present if these cases were heard in regular Federal district courts?