(Director of Intel) McConnell: Wiretapping Not Just About Terrorists - It's About Iran

[sabra]

Source: WTOP Radio

<snip>

That argument usually centers around al-Qaida, but this time, McConnell's focus is slightly different. The FISA Amendments Act is needed to contend with hostile countries, McConnell says.

He says the need now involves monitoring nation-states that disagree with U.S. policies and may want to harm the U.S., including "North Korea, potentially Iran, potentially Syria."

"Weapons of mass destruction proliferation could be nuclear, could be biological, could be chemical and so on. There are weapons development activities, nuclear research activities and so on going on around the globe. Our ability to understand, know about, be able to do something about that kind of activity frequently is driven by our collection capability, which of course includes electronic surveillance," McConnell says.

...

"The fact is, if we lose cooperation from these or other private companies, our national security will suffer," he says. "Given the uncertainty, given the fact we can no longer compel, given the fact that public-sector companies are being sued and they're disincentivized - and as a matter of fact, the boards are fiscally responsible for these companies - our capability is atrophying today as a result of the expiration of the Protect America Act, and it will increase in its atrophy - the effect of the atrophy will increase as we go forward."

Read more: http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=251&sid=1351831

[Preston120]

1. FISA

Is cooperation from private companies more important to the
American People than The Constitution?

[LynnTheDem]

2. Apparently.

Or not.

But then the will of We the People has been insignificant for years.

[sattahipdeep]

8. About the American.

ROCKEFELLER: And I understand that. What I'd like to get you to focus on
for a minute or so is that which is carried on by people who have become
disaffected, either through unemployment, which now presumably will grow,
through the example of a cause, the attraction to a cause, and it may not be
that they actually go to al Qaeda or they get their training in Afghanistan,
but they simply decide to create malevolent actions within the United States
for purposes which can either be twisted or which reflect their fundamental
unhappiness within the American society as it's held before them in many
ways.
MR. MUELLER: I think that is a possible explanation for certain
actors who would take the dissatisfaction, the disenfranchisement in the
United States, and couple it with the radical Islamic ideology, and the two
would reinforce each other.
What you also see in a number of these instances around the globe,
well-educated, relatively well-off individuals who also have subscribed to
this ideology, who undertake such attacks. The most recent one that comes to
mind is the doctors in the UK who, not last summer -- I think it was the
summer before -- attempted to bomb a nightclub in London. That did not work,
but then drove a car into the airport at Glasgow.
These were doctors. These were not persons who were unemployed.
They are not persons who lack skills. And consequently, while you can look
at some individuals who may have motivation, given their current financial
circumstances, you cannot rule out others who would undertake attacks for
other reasons but do not suffer from the same disadvantages.

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: In 30 seconds if you can, do you see the trend
within the United States -- let me say this. Are we not paying enough
attention to this, not referring to the FBI, but referring to the American
people, to the American news media, to the discussion? The discussion is
always attracted, you know, to fire bombs and destruction overseas and loss
of life.
And yet the Robert Reid situation indicated that things can happen
in other ways also. And I think there are -- and that was very early,
therefore maybe not less relevant. But people become attracted to a cause.
People have to have some meaning in their life. They're disenfranchised
economically or in their own minds, and they want a cause to give their life
meaning, even though it's malevolent meaning. It's a very powerful factor.
And I would think that America is no less immune to that than, let's
say, parts of Africa, although it may not be as developed. And I want to
hear you talk about that, unless you find my question inappropriate.
MR. MUELLER: No, I would agree with the premise of the question in
terms of persons who fall prey to that malevolent ideology as being
something that we are tremendously concerned about. There can be any number
of causes. Do we pay enough attention to that?

My concern is that we're several years away from September 11th, and
inevitably there is a complacency that begins to take hold when there is
nothing immediately happening. And I do worry about complacency. I do worry
about early intervention, early identification of individuals who fall prey
to the ideology.
I can tell you, we, our counterparts, DHS and state and local law
enforcement through our joint terrorism task forces, are alert to this. But
it also takes representatives of the communities in which this can occur to
be alert to it and not turn a blind eye towards it and to alert us when there
are the signs that somebody is becoming radicalized and getting to the point
where it is beyond the discussion stage and to the point where they take an
overt act pursuant of a particular plot or conspiracy.
SEN. ROCKEFELLER: So to sum up, then, you do not have to be
Russian, Chinese or somebody else in order to do cyber terrorism. You can do
that as an individual, untrained in Afghanistan or Pakistan, from within the
United States if you're angry enough about something that you think that by
doing that you will bring meaning to your life simply because you feel
disenfranchised.
MR. MUELLER: Yes, meaning to your life. You know, even if you were
not disenfranchised, it brings additional meaning to your life. You can be a
college student in Atlanta or elsewhere.
SEN. ROCKEFELLER: Correct -- or a doctor. You're correct.
MR. MUELLER: And we've had instances along those lines.

[Zorra]

3. Get a warrant. Problem solved. n/t

[Roland99]

10. *ding* *ding* *ding* *ding* ... The Winner!

[yurbud]

4. wow. So they need warrantless wiretaps of Americans in case two people in Peoria are

talking about selling nuclear weapons to Iran?

If the worry is really nukes to Iran, couldn't you get warrants for the relatively limited number of people who would have access to nuclear material or a history of illegal arms deals?

Oh wait, that would be everyone in the Bush administration.

[kineneb]

13. will I be suspect...

if I e-mail my aunts or uncles in Iran?

Nah, the asshats already know about me, and I know that they know. Heh. Oh, what mind games I could play...
:evilgrin:

[fascisthunter]

5. Worried about Nuclear Proliferation? Then why the gag on Sibel Edmonds?

McConnel.... know ck off the over-hyped fearmongering BS.

[sattahipdeep]

9. Resentful and rebellious, especially against authority....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3204944&mesg_id=3204944

[yurbud]

6. When will Democrats call bullshit and just say ''they are lying'' they got 72 to go warrantless

in the ''ticking bomb'' scenario they have such a hard on for. If they can't justify what they are doing after that to an essentially rubberstamping court, they are probably up to no good.

[sattahipdeep]

7. It's About We the People....

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: And secondly,
Director Mueller -- and I would ask Director McConnell to also comment on
this -- this country has changed enormously in recent years.
The whole problem of income disparity, the problem of
joblessness, the problem of the degradation of our culture -- primarily
through television and sexually explicit violence, which is I think a shame
upon our nation and a shame upon Hollywood -- this nation has changed.

And when I mentioned disaffected youth or people -- whether they're
doctors or whether they're young people -- it strikes me that the climate for
people doing things that they did -- they never would have considered doing
before, simply out of frustration. And because new tools are available to
them -- and you Director Mueller, discussed extensively the Internet, the
whole question of cyber security and all the rest of it -- that you don't
have to go to Pakistan to train. You can just go on the Internet to find out
how to do a suitcase bomb. You don't have to climb poles and jump over
trenches.
So I really worry that the American people don't worry. I really
worry that because there's been no attack since 9/11 that the American people
have let down their guard. I really worry that the Department of Homeland
Security is treated as a stepchild in government and is funded often as a
stepchild in government. And that all of this bodes for our not being able
to protect ourselves and to have the sort of day-to-day vigilance which is
required psychologically and actually to be on a strong state of alert -- as
we are in other parts of the world.
Now, those are two questions and I'm already way over my time. But
I'd like to have answers.

MR. MCCONNELL: With regard to your question on extremists in this country, I would
highlight we've always had extremists in this country -- always. The
difference, in my view, are the tools that they have access to can have
disproportionate harm or damage in relation to one or two or three, because
of things like the Internet, because of things like explosives or flying
airplanes into buildings -- all the things that one could dream up could have
a broadly disproportionate impact on our society, because of the tools and
the technology available to them.

Director Mueller.
MR. MUELLER: Yeah, I agree with the admiral.
We've always had extremists, disaffected. McVeigh being an example
-- responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. But those who are disaffected
now have a greater access to information, greater access to instruction on
how to manufacture devices, greater capabilities of intersection with others
through the Internet or through other communications. And the damage is
disproportionate, given the capabilities that one has today. As to
complacency, yes. I mentioned it before. If we become complacent over a
period of time -- and we have to resist that complacency. Understand that
there are people out there who wish to do us harm in our communities, and
continue to work with state and local law enforcement ourselves, but also
work with other members of the community to identify those who seek to do us
harm before they can undertake such attacks.
SEN. ROCKEFELLER: All right.

Transcript Senate Select Cmte. on Intelligence Hearing.

http://www.dni.gov/testimonies/20080205_transcript.pdf

[boilinmad]

11. And so,....

....the list of BOOGEYMEN continues to grow.

[HuffleClaw]

12. they will say ANYTHING to protec the true criminal in this mess, bush himself

what will they claim next? gay penguins are a growing threat?

[sattahipdeep]

14. "too much information"

FBI director Robert Mueller said that for the fourth straight year his agency
collected information on people's emails and web activity which was beyond its legal remit.

However, Mueller claimed that this was partly the fault of telecoms companies which
had provided the FBI with "too much information".

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2211460/fbi-admits-internet-spying