The "War of Ideas" is over and guess who won

[Jeffersons Ghost]

A “Memorandum of Agreement” http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/20101013-dod-dhs-cyber-moa.pdf struck last month between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Defense (DoD) promises to increase government control over America’s telecommunications and electronic infrastructure.

It’s all in the interest of “cyber-security” of course: And President Obama is perpetuating the Bush legacy. http://www.whitehouse.gov/cybersecurity/comprehensive-national-cybersecurity-initiative But much of the Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative (CNCI) driving administration policy is a closely-held state secret.

Authority granted by the Bush administration was handed to NSA by the classified National Security Presidential Directive 54 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23.

The Agreement follows on the heels of reports by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that DHS has a new toy. The agency established a “Social Networking Monitoring Center” to track people online. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/10/new-foia-documents-reveal-dhs-social-media

Do you have any "ideas" to add? Before you post, remember Big Brother is watching.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. Soo come and get us all. BRING IT ON !

[Jeffersons Ghost]

8. "Bring it on," is that you, Bush?

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

10. Just a old fart on the Southern Oregon Coast thats never stopped

being on the fringe.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

19. hang in there. it's more fun on the fringe than it is cowering in the masses

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

20. Funny thing happening here, folks are starting to pick up

the same tune.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

21. that's because people that post here know they're being watched and don't give a crap

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I've assumed they are watching FOR YEARS, over two decades

in fact.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

3. most of us are low-interest targets. But I bet I've built a pretty thick file right here at DU

[gateley]

6. But you hear about inane arrests and targeting people who are NOT

a threat. They seem to be missing the boat.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Mine started when we applied to immigrate

and between posting habits, and the fact that I did apply to citizenship and they had to do a low level security check due to my husband's clearance... at times I toyed with the idea of asking it under FOIA... It should be LONG readying]

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

18. Congratulations ! Two years shy of five decades here.

And proud of it.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

4. I know they were watching me in the sixties,

when I looked directly into their eyes. I don't know their real names, but I remember their faces.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. During the Bush years I discovered through my anti-virus program that my browser was directed by NSA

They also jammed and scrambled my email; but I brought it on myself.

I was working on a movie titled What if We Wrote Our own Declaration of Independence and going to web-sites written in foreign languages that featured pictures like this:

[xchrom]

5. Recommend

[spin]

9. The terrorists won ...

Our country will be no soon better or different than any other country. The freedoms and the rights that made us unique have been taken away.

We will all tremble in fear of an omnipotent and intrusive government in our email, our mail, our computers, our cell phones and even in our pants if we refuse to allow officials to look at nude pictures of our body when we wish to fly.

The Bill of Rights is being shredded in front of us. We comply because of fears of people who hide in caves and plot terror attacks and laugh at us for allowing our government to reduce us to slaves without rights.

And the sad part is that many will be afraid to post your opposition to the new regulations by Homeland Security on DU. You know that they are watching over your shoulder with disapproval written on their stern faces.

November 12, 2010
Line Up to Give Up Your Rights
By Wesley Clark, MD

Airline travelers are now standing in security lines around the country for the opportunity to pose nude for the Department of Homeland Security. "Naked body scanners" are just the latest development in the field of Man-Caused Disaster prevention, a part of the Overseas Contingency Operations (War on Terror) in which the actions of a handful of suicidal terrorists, almost exclusively of a certain religious persuasion, have led to a massive government assault on the freedoms of all Americans. Since 9/11, the declared objective of al-Qaeda to destroy our society and our way of life has been implemented mainly by our own ruling class.

Stupefying amounts of our money -- hundreds of billions of dollars of our collective wealth -- continue to pour into the ever-expanding bureaucracy and government-run programs to listen to our phone calls, read our mail, collect our personal data, and particularly to intrusively inconvenience every citizen who travels by air. With each new, inexpensive, and creative exploit by al-Qaeda, the depth and breadth of invasive searches has progressively increased -- from emptying our pockets at first, confiscating nail files, then removing our shoes, our belts, wallets, jewelry, watches, confiscating toiletries, followed by random searches and pat-downs, and now nude body scans.

The Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution states:

The right of the people to be secure...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.


Under the Patriot Act, our private communications may be eavesdropped on, and personal transactions can be secretly scrutinized with self-written warrants (National Security Letters written by a federal agent) that prohibit your banker, librarian, or others served from notifying you of the search (you can't even legally contest the warrant if you find out about it yourself, because if you complain to your lawyer or a court about it, you commit a felony by divulging that it exists). This act was originally justified by the War on Terror, but it has since been employed hundreds of thousands of times, often against innocent citizens swept up by innocent associations with alleged intelligence targets. The Obama administration is seeking to broaden the act still more.

TSA searches are now gutting the few remaining Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure. Essentially, our government, supported by the courts, has defined a "Constitution-Free Zone" incorporating all airports and the area of the United States within one hundred miles of a border or the coast (termed the "functional equivalent of the
border, or extended border"), in which constitutional protections under the Fourth Amendment are deemed not applicable, and are routinely flouted by the Department of Homeland Security.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/line_up_to_give_up_your_rights.html

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

16. So was I a sucker to believe in the personal freedoms that made

this country great? To think that I actually had them?

[spin]

22. We can all tell our grandchildren or great grandchildren ...

of how we lived in a free country.

They'll view it as we do King Arthur's Court or Camelot. A dream a long way in the past.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

25. we can tell them that if we survive the work-houses and concentration camps...

that the aristocracy has planned for dissenters without enough funds to pay their tribute.

[spin]

29. I don't believe that it will go that far ...

the people in power are too smart to try concentration camps. That might work if we didn't have 300 million firearms in this country.

They will be more subtle and more effective. We will believe that they care for us and have our best wishes in their hearts.

They will try to convince us to be happy serfs. Happy serfs are more productive but still serfs.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

38. yes, gun-control will finally get approved.

Logically, it's the next step toward total tyranny.

[spin]

39. In order to do that we will have to have an event such as an attack ...

or rebellion or an assassination by a home grown militia

The scale would have to be on the order of 9/11. Even that might not work, as people would insist that they had to own firearms to defend their homes against the terrorist militias.

I was talking to a man visiting from England recently and he was amazed by the amount of crap we take from our government. He said, "If we were treated like this in England, we would take to the streets."

Perhaps the fact that our government trusts us enough to own firearms makes us too complacent.

[spin]

33. No!

We all need to roar against the system, WHEN CRABS ROAR.

If enough people protest the new rules and refuse to fly or don't go to Disney Land, the rules will be relaxed.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

26. you are exactly right. why don't you use this as an OP? it would hit greatest page

[spin]

30. I'm watching the Steelers, Patriots game like a good serf ...

You have my permission to give it a go.

I've had four beers and it's only halftime. Fortunately I am home and don't have any reason to drive anywhere and there are sober drivers in the house if necessary.

[Recursion]

11. Encryption is cheap and easy to use

Truth be told I kind of run low on sympathy for people who won't secure their own privacy online.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

12. you're kidding right? Encryption won't defeat NSA or DHS equipment

[Recursion]

13. Umm... no

It takes an advanced supercomputer months to crack 3-round blowfish in OFB or CFB mode.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

14. LOL! remember that you posted this...

If your email gets weird and your computer starts acting odd, don't blame me.

[Recursion]

15. Nonsen^H^H^H CARRIER DROPPED *&#*$#$&

[Jeffersons Ghost]

17. You're fun! don't talk in code to attract online spooks. use words like these:

bomb; assassinate; nuclear, biological or chemical threat; anthrax; hacking; "Death to the infidels;" jihad; or Democratic Party

[spin]

23. At least the online spooks ...

don't get cheap thrills feeling you up or looking at nude pictures of you.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

24. good point. they're too high-brow for cheap thrills, unless you post nude pics of yourself online...

did you know that the NSA employs more mathematicians than any other organization on Earth?

[spin]

28. No I didn't know that, but it makes sense. (n/t)

[Jeffersons Ghost]

31. The NSA has been an old adversary of mine over the years since they revealed themselves...

I didn't "catch" them eavesdropping during the Bush regime. They signed their work, using my advanced security measures. It was supposed to frighten me. But it just pissed me off, so I sent an email to myself using all the terrorist words that would trigger the old FBI Carnivore detection software. I called them a bunch of goose-stepping Nazis. Just in case they missed the email, I posted it at DU: And it got lots of recs.

I've learned to respect my old nemesis for their technical skills and their ability to forgive a citizen that believes in what is left of the US Constitution.

They have shown me online magic that would astound the average blogger. It's not some BIG secret: But if I told you half of what they've shown me they can do with your computer, you'd think I was insane. They always made it clear that it was them.

They are as honorable as ANY troops serving in Iraq or Afghanistan: But they're serving in the same futile cause.

[spin]

32. Little that the NSA can do would surprise me ...

I held a government clearance for most of my life. I now am retired.

I can only hope that you are right when you say,

"I've learned to respect my old nemesis for their technical skills and their ability to forgive a citizen that believes in what is left of the US Constitution."

because I intend to continue to support the freedoms we were granted in our Constitution.

I also view the average individual working for agencies such as NSA as honorable. I view their leadership as misguided.

As Ben Franklin said,

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

[Octafish]

34. You who monitor U.S. citizens' communications without legal and just cause are traitors.

Read the Constitution and turn yourselves in.

And fuck you! too.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

36. Are you talking about the old Constitution with the 4th Amendment...

or the newer version with FICA warrants and the USA PATRIOT act?

[Octafish]

37. The one before the National Security Act of 1947 established the Secret Government.

The updates have sealed the deal. Here's what President Truman wrote a month after the assassination of President Kennedy about one agency that became secret even onto its creators and supposed masters:

Limit CIA Role
To Intelligence

By Harry S Truman
Copyright, 1963, by Harry S Truman
The Washington Post
December 22, 1963 - page A11


INDEPENDENCE, MO., Dec. 21 — I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency—CIA. At least, I would like to submit here the original reason why I thought it necessary to organize this Agency during my Administration, what I expected it to do and how it was to operate as an arm of the President.

I think it is fairly obvious that by and large a President’s performance in office is as effective as the information he has and the information he gets. That is to say, that assuming the President himself possesses a knowledge of our history, a sensitive understanding of our institutions, and an insight into the needs and aspirations of the people, he needs to have available to him the most accurate and up-to-the-minute information on what is going on everywhere in the world, and particularly of the trends and developments in all the danger spots in the contest between East and West. This is an immense task and requires a special kind of an intelligence facility.

Of course, every President has available to him all the information gathered by the many intelligence agencies already in existence. The Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, Interior and others are constantly engaged in extensive information gathering and have done excellent work.

But their collective information reached the President all too frequently in conflicting conclusions. At times, the intelligence reports tended to be slanted to conform to established positions of a given department. This becomes confusing and what’s worse, such intelligence is of little use to a President in reaching the right decisions.

Therefore, I decided to set up a special organization charged with the collection of all intelligence reports from every available source, and to have those reports reach me as President without department “treatment” or interpretations.

I wanted and needed the information in its “natural raw” state and in as comprehensive a volume as it was practical for me to make full use of it. But the most important thing about this move was to guard against the chance of intelligence being used to influence or to lead the President into unwise decisions—and I thought it was necessary that the President do his own thinking and evaluating.

Since the responsibility for decision making was his—then he had to be sure that no information is kept from him for whatever reason at the discretion of any one department or agency, or that unpleasant facts be kept from him. There are always those who would want to shield a President from bad news or misjudgments to spare him from being “upset.”

For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas.

I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations. Some of the complications and embarrassment I think we have experienced are in part attributable to the fact that this quiet intelligence arm of the President has been so removed from its intended role that it is being interpreted as a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue—and a subject for cold war enemy propaganda.

With all the nonsense put out by Communist propaganda about “Yankee imperialism,” “exploitive capitalism,” “war-mongering,” “monopolists,” in their name-calling assault on the West, the last thing we needed was for the CIA to be seized upon as something akin to a subverting influence in the affairs of other people.

I well knew the first temporary director of the CIA, Adm. Souers, and the later permanent directors of the CIA, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg and Allen Dulles. These were men of the highest character, patriotism and integrity—and I assume this is true of all those who continue in charge.

But there are now some searching questions that need to be answered. I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President, and that whatever else it can properly perform in that special field—and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere.

We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.

SOURCE:

http://www.maebrussell.com/Prouty/Harry%20Truman’s%20CIA%20article.html

There's a big jump going from intelligence to action.

[dkf]

35. Does it know all of us at DU?