NSA Chief: 'Yes' - Our Desire Is To Collect All US Communications

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/27-1



NSA director General Keith Alexander at Senate Intelligence hearing, Thursday September 26, 2013

NSA Chief: 'Yes' - Our Desire Is To Collect All US Communications
- Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer
Published on Friday, September 27, 2013 by Common Dreams

Asked whether the National Security Agency should collect all communications of U.S. residents at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, NSA Director General Keith Alexander replied, "I believe it is in the nation's best interest to put all the phone records into a lockbox – yes."

Alexander, who was joined by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Deputy Attorney General James Cole, went on to maintain the the NSA's collect-it-all approach to communications surveillance in the U.S. and around the world is necessary—urging Senators not to be moved by the rising tide of public discontent that has surged since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed a trove of incriminating evidence through several newspapers, exposing the agency's unconstitutional surveillance practices.

Alexander blamed "sensational headlines," not the actual dragnet surveillance practices revealed in the media, for public anger—a notion that seemed to be shared by most of the Senators at the hearing, who are supposed to be in charge of NSA congressional oversight.

~snip~

And as Kevin Gosztola at FireDogLake reports, "Multiple senators used their time to express the opinion that the media was to blame for sensationalizing what Snowden had exposed when there was nothing corrupt going on at the NSA and oversight was occurring properly." He adds, "It was a sham of a hearing."

[Autumn]

1. A lockbox ?

Let's put SS in a lockbox and put these fuckers in a locked cell.

[ehcross]

4. Let's put SS in a lockbox and put these fuckers in a locked cell.

I really do not understand why so many in America have jumped at the revelations that the NSA is reading their emails. Unless all Americans are in some way involved in private dealings which could land them in jail somewhere.

I personally don't like to know that some government agency is listening to my calls. Having said that, I feel that I should not worry about such a possibility since I am not breaking the law in any way.

Now, we all have been through the experience of 9/11, and we would all want to avoid another such experience. But somehow a bunch of people don't trust authorities,and are not willing to cooperate with them, and feel rather uncomfortable with them.
I don't feel threatened by the fact that the NSA is listening to my calls, and everybody else's, for that matter.

I feel it is unfortunate that Edward Snowden did what he did, because he exposed a briliant and costly operation designed to catch
communications worldwide that could reveal a threat to the U.S. and its allies, and save people.

[Autumn]

5. Whatever.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. "It was a sham of a hearing."

As are most, if not all, Congressional hearings.rarely does anything of substance come from them.

Sometimes good entertainment, tho .

[JDPriestly]

3. The fact remains that your speech is not really "free" if some third person reads what you write

or listens to what you say. To be free you alone should be able to decide to whom you are speaking, with whom you are communicating. It isn't just a matter of being free to say what you want. It is also a matter of being able to exclude from your conversation or your writings anyone you want.

Same with freedom of association. You are not free to associate if you have no ability to exclude the NSA from the people with whom you associate.

Same for freedom of the press. You do not enjoy freedom of the press if the NSA tracks all the websites and newspapers you read.

Freedom is usually viewed as freedom of expression, but in fact, it has never been necessary to expect the freedom to exclude others from your freedom of expression. That's because in most circumstances, we have been able to assume that others, at least no government agency, would have the ability to try to observe or become a part of our communications.

The excuse that they are just collecting metadata makes it no better. I want the right to be able to exclude the government from knowing with whom I communicate, what media I read, etc. That is, for me, what freedom is about.

Ownership of property includes the right to exclude. Ownership of the right to free speech, etc. includes the right to exclude.