by Ugh
It seems the NSA has another leaky contractor on its hands, as the WaPo reports. This may be the person responsible for the hacking tools that appeared online in August getting there. Like Snowden, this person works for contractor Booz Allen, Hamilton, which one would think might cause the NSA to ask who these government contractors are actually working for, or not. Gotta keep open the possibility of a nice payday in the private sector doing the same thing you were doing for the government, only without the restrictive pay scale.
There is also the report that Yahoo! adapted its spam filter to scan for a specific "signature" (whatever that is) and " involved the systematic scanning of all Yahoo users’ emails rather than individual accounts." Gee, nothing could go wrong there. It's time to overrule Smith v. Maryland and require the government to get these orders from a regular court and not the FISC monstrosity. And, you know, to let people sue if their rights are violated instead of invoking the state secrets privilege. The fncking gag orders alone are an affront to Democracy and the rule of law. But hey, terrorism.
Speaking of rights violations, the Bush Administration's state sponsored torture program is the gift that keeps on giving. "Jose Rodriguez, who was the head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and John Rizzo, the agency’s former acting general counsel, [must] submit to depositions about a program that used methods widely condemned as torture." Jose Rodriguez, Jose Rodriguez, that name rings a bell for some reason..... Oh. This legacy is a sufficient reason to reject the GOP's occupation of the Executive Branch for the foreseeable future - it's all but written into the party platform and of course enthusiastically supported by their current Presidential nominee. And don't forget Mitt "Double Guantanamo" Romney.
while i don't think Clinton is going to be a civil liberties champion, can you imagine the kinds of shenanigans the spooks would get into with an authoritarian dummy like Trump in charge?
/shudder
Posted by: cleek | October 06, 2016 at 12:46 PM
100% agree, cleek.
But one point I'd like to make, regarding the "state secrets privilege" (SSP).
It's not in the Constitution. It's not in federal law. It's completely a creation of activist judges.
And, in those few cases where the SSP was used, but the 'secret' was later revealed (including the very first case, that caused the creation of the SSP), it has ALWAYS turned out that the 'secret' was bogus, and it was a matter of butt-covering and avoiding embarrassment.
Given that clear record, the appropriate response to a party trying to invoke the SSP is that they automatically lose their case, with some bonus free kicks in the 'nads from the opposing side.
Posted by: Snarki, child of Loki | October 06, 2016 at 01:15 PM
Given that clear record, the appropriate response to a party trying to invoke the SSP is that they automatically lose their case, with some bonus free kicks in the 'nads from the opposing side.
The first part was my potential solution, but I like the free 'nads kicks too.
Posted by: Ugh | October 06, 2016 at 01:19 PM
I do wonder at one point the NSA is just going to turn on everyone's phone/laptop camera/microphone all the time and record everything "just in case."
Posted by: Ugh | October 06, 2016 at 01:20 PM
i just assume it's always on.
keeps me from singing in the car and looking like a jerk.
Posted by: cleek | October 06, 2016 at 01:30 PM
I'm going to start carrying it around in a lead box like it's kryptonite.
Posted by: Ugh | October 06, 2016 at 01:31 PM
If the NSA provided "data-recovery services", then perhaps we should let them survive. Sadly, no.
Posted by: Snarki, child of Loki | October 06, 2016 at 03:03 PM
A 'signature' is a pattern unique to whatever it is you are looking for. Take virus detection, every virus has its own pattern of bits and anti-virus programs have a database of these patterns when they see that signature they alert.
Posted by: Frank Lee | October 06, 2016 at 08:08 PM
The Times picks up on the "who does these Booz Allen guys work for anyway" thread and runs with it.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/us/booz-allen-hamilton-nsa.html
Posted by: Ugh | October 07, 2016 at 10:47 PM
On torture:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/world/cia-torture-guantanamo-bay.html
Posted by: Ugh | October 08, 2016 at 05:24 PM