Obama reveals tiny NSA reforms ... aka reforming your view of the NSA President Obama has today outlined his plans to tweak the rules under which US intelligence services monitor their own population and citizens of countries around the world. Obama outlines NSA reforms Trust us, we're Americans "As the nation that developed the Internet, the world expects us to ensure that the digital …
If it weren't for the involvement of the US in WW II, most of Europe might be speaking German today, so fair to see the US helped face down fascism in the form of Nazi Germany.
The US also faced down communism to the point where there's no longer a USSR. Well, if you overlook the fact that highly ranked KGB spy is now Russia's defacto dictator....does converting the most powerful communist country into the most powerful fascist country count as a win, a loss or a tie?
> If it weren't for the involvement of the US in WW II, most of Europe might be speaking German today
Good Lord. I don't wish to downplay the significant role that the US had in both Europe and Pacific both directly and indirectly, but you do owe it to yourself to actually read something on the matter rather than assuming saving Ryan's privates is all there was.
The eastern front and particularly Stalingrad was much more strategically significant than DDay and the allies were helped by Hitler's military stupidity going for the symbolic battles against Moscow and Stalingrad rather than locking up the oilfields and building massive battleships rather than the uboats that were crippling British supply lines.
Not to mention the Italians cocking up in Greece and Africa and needing to be rescued by Germany.
The US did help prevent western Europe having a new language but that language was Russian.
@AC 18th 7:57 That and invading Russia.
If the US hadn't been attacked by Japan and thus been forced into the war then the Russians would have finished the Germans off and may well have invaded the rest of Europe and as a result communism would have collapsed at lot sooner than it did.
There's a lot to be said for not giving stupidity something to unite and fight against - we've got two political parties in the UK arguing over who's best to fight those 12 Romanians that have legally come in and destroyed the economy since the start of the year.
What an F'ing obvious clown actor agent of the TPTB; I'm already bored of its deceptions; its mannerism are fake, they were apparently copied from the real mannerisms of a professional entertainment actor, who is not at all happy about this.
What happened is the TPTB realised that a full frontal approach had become boring, so covertly merged the Facists and Communists into the system, to cause less visible internal havoc.
You do realise that the Facists and Communists were the invention of factions of the TPTB, to put up the facade of opposing ideologies, to distract people from the far worse creeping Fabian evil going on; as far as I can tell, both the Jesuits and Illuminati (opponents) were/are inventions of factions of the TPTB. This Onion has many layers and is really just about money and power for the thousands of years old Usury scam by the evil 'money' lenders.
What are you smoking? Remind me to avoid it.
At any given time the 'communists' of the USSR had some 11 million people in Siberian penal labour battalions. That's how Stalin financed his 'revolution' and kept the rest of the proletariat in check. As for the Fascists - do note the correct spelling, please - if you are ignorant of those facts, well heaven help us. Perhaps, as someone else snarkily observed, it's to do with the age of the average age of readers of The Register. Fascism and Nazism were spread like a rash across the European continent, even the Hispanic peninsula, and threatened to take over the world. They were every bit as bad as the 'Communists', and every bit as real.
Otherwise what a cliché ridden post.
" I don't think that modern day Portugese would be overly happy being called Hispanic"
Not because we would feel insulted but because it would be a sign of ignorance from the person who was saying it, and we love(not) ignorants :)
But we do feel insulted when foreigners insist talking in spanish with us (especially the spanish people, the fact that we kick their arses many times in history don't help I guess eheheh). At least, unlike most of the Americans who visit Europe and intoduce themselves as Canadians, we don't go abroad and say that we are spanish :-P
>WTF is he talking about?
He's talking about the bad old days, long ago in the mist, long before the average Reg reader was born, the days when massive Soviet armies were to be found on the other side of the 'iron curtain' (that's a reference to a Winston Churchill speech that your great grandfather may have heard), the days when we were frequently close to war. The Cuba missile crisis is a good example of the last point. The dangers of fascism were what preceded the days of communism, jinkies this is exciting isn't it? We could go back to the first world war and its role in the genesis of the second, and the role of that in creating the dangers of communism. As we do it we could explain our failure to return to the Arabs their land, which in turn created the dangers of Islamic totalitarianism! Golleeeeeeeee!
Why don't you pick up a history book and read about these times? They're much better for you than the pap spouted by dullards like a white haired man in Kensington spitting implausible 'autobiographical' stories.
John Smith 19, my guess is that the “us” in that sentence refers to the US in general, and that that introductory clause refers to the half century or so of various US actions in hot and cold wars beginning with Lend-Lease in March 1941.
And it's the usual "we will abide with our own narrow interpretation of the law, that enables us to keep on doing exactly what we want".
Curiously this just brings the Americans in line with the British government position that the peasants have no rights. Don't forget Magna Carta was when the barons held the king to account, not the people.
Well clearly it is now recognised by everyone that things are seriously wrong, and things are changing to some extent, the president is saying so himself. So a big thanks to the whistleblowers from Abama is due, because we all know nothing would be happening without them.
"The leaders of our close friends and allies deserve to know that if I want to know what they think about an issue, I’ll pick up the phone and call them, rather than turning to surveillance"
Did he miss the part where the phone call IS surveillance by the NSA? Does the Big-O think it's an automatic-meeting-minutes feature? BWAHAHAHA!!!
Oh. That one is easy. Terrorist and terrorism come from the word terror, about which the dictionary says the following:
1. intense, sharp, overmastering fear: to be frantic with terror.
2. an instance or cause of intense fear or anxiety; quality of causing terror: to be a terror to evildoers.
3. any period of frightful violence or bloodshed likened to the Reign of Terror in France.
4. violence or threats of violence used for intimidation or coercion; terrorism.
About National Security Letters: "Obama said that these would no longer be open-ended gagging orders and companies would be able to disclose their use after a limited time – unless there's a real government need for secrecy."
Does that last sentence imply that these letters are currently not - at least not always - used for a real need? Because that's somewhat a confirmation of current suspicions, right?
As far as the spying only being done for counter-terrorism etc. that could be/is code for anything that hurts US interests which also include the success of foreign businesses - ergo economic espionage is likely to continue... Provided it was ever going on of course, which of course it wasn't! I certainly wouldn't say something like that at least!
(I somehow feel that the black helicopter logo should be changed to some picture version of "Told ya so")
"Well folks - we gotta appease the people somehow. This oughta do it".
Hmm. Us Brits can recognise b*llsh*t when we see it and I've just seen a pile to beat them all. Cosmetic posturing only I reckon. It's obvious that nothing will really change. Abuses WILL continue and nothing will be safe on line. Just who does Obama think he's kidding?
The really important speech will come in a few years, when most of American IT companies have sunk under the waves taking along most of the American economy, but said speech will come too late.
And thumbs up++ for the article, Mr. Thomson. A nice in depth analysis as we won't find in most mass media.
...The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
This is as plain as day. It says the the NSA is nothing but one huge violation of the Constitution of the United States. Of what use is a secret court that cannot be brought to account for its decisions vis a vis the Fourth Amendment? I say that the FISA courts are merely a fig leaf to trick foolish people into thinking that what our government is doing to us. along with everyone else on the planet. is both legal and just. Barak Obama is no better than George Bush. How could anyone pretend that there is any real difference between these two turds? One is lighter colored than the other, but so what? They both stink!
It's a sad (der) day in amerika, the United Corporations of Amerika (UCA), no longer the USA. The real story is the State Dept, which pushes corporate weapons contracts around the world, needs the NSA for intel. It has nothing to do with terrorists. It's all about the money.
I'm trying to get everyone I know here to vote Independent and cut all ties to corporate money. It's the ONLY WAY we'll be free again. The gov has put the constitution into the shredder and does not care about the citizenry.
So the NSA will read this, here's some of the code words they stupidly search for:
Waihopai, INFOSEC, Information Security, Information Warfare, IW, IS, Priavacy, Information Terrorism, Terrorism Defensive Information, Defense Information Warfare, Offensive Information, Offensive Information Warfare, National Information Infrastructure, InfoSec, Reno, Compsec, Computer Terrorism, Firewalls, Secure Internet Connections, ISS, Passwords, DefCon V, Hackers, Encryption, Espionage, USDOJ, NSA, CIA, S/Key, SSL, FBI, Secert Service, USSS, Defcon, Military, White House, Undercover, NCCS, Mayfly, PGP, PEM, RSA, Perl-RSA, MSNBC, bet, AOL, AOL TOS, CIS, CBOT, AIMSX, STARLAN, 3B2, BITNET, COSMOS, DATTA, E911, FCIC, HTCIA, IACIS, UT/RUS, JANET, JICC, ReMOB, LEETAC, UTU, VNET, BRLO, BZ, CANSLO, CBNRC, CIDA, JAVA, Active X, Compsec 97, LLC, DERA, Mavricks, Meta-hackers, ^?, Steve Case, Tools, Telex, Military Intelligence, Scully, Flame, Infowar, Bubba, Freeh, Archives, Sundevil, jack, Investigation, ISACA, NCSA, spook words, Verisign, Secure, ASIO, Lebed, ICE, NRO, Lexis-Nexis, NSCT, SCIF, FLiR, Lacrosse, Flashbangs, HRT, DIA, USCOI, CID, BOP, FINCEN, FLETC, NIJ, ACC, AFSPC, BMDO, NAVWAN, NRL, RL, NAVWCWPNS, NSWC, USAFA, AHPCRC, ARPA, LABLINK, USACIL, USCG, NRC
I think that you might've misinterpreted what 'two hops' means to the big O... As I understand it, that is 'person_of_interest ->you->someone_else, plus everyone that any of those three might have called, ever... Which is still down on the present anyone->anyone->anyone->anyone plus all associated calls made by any anyone to anyone else...
However, as these databases are classified so high that the president is not authorized to see them (well, if I were the prez, I'd surely want to be able to say that I didn't know...), supervised by a secret court, how will we know that they are really doing what they are supposed to be doing? How reliable are the watchers' watchers, when they are also sworn to secrecy-or-death?
You can only set the rules and laws for your own country. The very second your Alphabet agencies start snooping on other countries, you are breaking their laws, not your own, and can be held accountable for those crimes..
For the sake of world peace, and not having any more mad moozies in planes blowing up shit you old dear, stop acting like self appointed cops and start trying to get along with the world, instead of trying to get the world to dance to your tune.
Regards,
People of Earth.
What about government agencies other than NSA? Like um, you know, DEA, FBI, DHS, IRS ... Ooh, and let's not forget the CIA.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/08/05/more-surveillance-abuse-exposed-special-dea-unit-is-spying-on-americans-and-covering-it-up/
Reminds me of an old song by Chicago:
Oh my,
Life has passed me by.
The country I was brought up in
just fell apart and died.
(or something like that)
...
Oh well, maybe in my next life.
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