NSA Internet Spying : Are we paranoid enough?

[iconoclastNYC]

The power elite rightly fear the internet. They are building the infastructure to censor it right NOW.



http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0604/S00136.htm

The Patriot act gives the feds the right to basically march up to every ISP in the country and install special 'black boxes' God only knows what and the ISP's cannot even mention this fact publically let alone not comply...

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Now we have confirmation from a whistleblower that this is exactly what they've been doing.

"I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room," Klein wrote. "The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room."

.. he learned from a co-worker that similar cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego."While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T's internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal," Klein wrote.The split circuits included traffic from peering links connecting to other internet backbone providers, meaning that AT&T was also diverting traffic routed from its network to or from other domestic and international providers, according to Klein's statement.The secret room also included data-mining equipment called a Narus STA 6400...

I guess this casts the Google action in preventing DOJ into their data centers in a quite different light. As I said previously, this isn't about reading the query log - this was always about the right to install a room of 'black servers' right in the middle of the google data center. Google's actions in standing up to that are all the more laudable.

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Just to be crystal clear on this; at this time what we now have is clear evidence of (sophisticated) *monitoring and analysis* of internet and phone traffic - something we pretty much knew for a long time.

Thats very scary (and illegal, in my opinion), but its certainly better than actual direct government censorship of content on the internet ('chilling effects' on free speech aside).

On the pessimistic side, however, direct (but covert) censorship is probably the next obvious step once you have the right hardware installed in the key data centers.

It may be that if you want to actually directly censor and block information all you need to do is control the choke points - which means ISP's (like AT&T) and not the search engines (like Google). However, it could well be that a more sophisticated (and probably more practical) form of censorship is to control the search engines. Certainly the Chinese found that controlling the search engine content was more effective (and subtle) form of censorship than outright blocks on entire search engines or particular websites.

My suspicion (OK, its a total guess) is that, in the States at least, the NSA and other parts of the state/non-state military-technological apparatus are probably experimenting with the censorship of certain specifc pieces of information even right now. A good place for them to start might be, for instance, information about themselves, their methods and what they plan to do next.

At this time I'm pretty sure that direct censorship or control of political discourse on the internet is something that organisations such as the NSA wouldn't consider themselves able to do. Despite all their technology and hardware, the number of bits to flip and the sheer volume of content to mechanically 'understand' and filter makes that effectively impossible. It can be argued that have achieved a high degree of success in the mass media - ask someone who's actually lived in the states for a few years and I'm sure you'll see what i mean - but its still too hard for them to control the discourse of 'blogosphere' directly at this stage - but you just wait and see.. as soon as they believe they can do this - they will. Furthermore, if 'they' are smart they won't give any indication that this is their next step until they are ready to go.

"The internet" may be the last truly free bastion of political free speech in the States at ths time.. and if that were to be closed down via a more sophisticated version of 'the chinese firewall" .. well God help us all.

[havocmom]

1. The old Nixon Cabal learned from their mistakes before launching the coup

of 2000, but they didn't fully appreciate the power of the internet. They do now and you are right- we are not paranoid enough.

[Danieljay]

2. when they police and filter the internet in the near future, college

campuses will again be the recruiting center and hub for protests ..just like in the 60's and 70's.

I really think this administration and their fellow Republican ilk would like nothing more than to break down the means of communication of their political enemies. This fight is like war to them, cut off communications, destroy infrastructure, use propaganda in the media, and promote fear.

The only difference, as of now, between the war in Iraq and the war within our own borders is that people aren't dying as the result of bombs. They are killing off our creativity and suppressing our rights.

[Maat]

3. All I can say is, "Shame on NSA-Agent Mike!"

Or "NSA-Agent Frank" or whomever.

I'm be filled with guilt if I were illegally spying on people. AND, I'd need to re-read the Bill of Rights and the related caselaw. The Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves.

I'm glad I'm not participating in a plot to repress the rights of the American people, destroying the spirit of those precious documents, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights (very special, unique documents in the history of mankind). I couldn't look myself in the mirror after that.

For shame!