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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 08:19 AM Jul 2013

The Crux of the NSA Story in One Phrase: 'Collect It All'

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/15-1


The Washington Post this morning has a long profile of Gen. Keith Alexander, director the NSA, and it highlights the crux - the heart and soul - of the NSA stories, the reason Edward Snowden sacrificed his liberty to come forward, and the obvious focal point for any responsible or half-way serious journalists covering this story. It helpfully includes that crux right in the headline, in a single phrase:




What does "collect it all" mean? Exactly what it says; the Post explains how Alexander took a "collect it all" surveillance approach originally directed at Iraqis in the middle of a war, and thereafter transferred it so that it is now directed at the US domestic population as well as the global one:

"At the time, more than 100 teams of US analysts were scouring Iraq for snippets of electronic data that might lead to the bomb-makers and their hidden factories. But the NSA director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, wanted more than mere snippets. He wanted everything: Every Iraqi text message, phone call and e-mail that could be vacuumed up by the agency's powerful computers.

"'Rather than look for a single needle in the haystack, his approach was, 'Let's collect the whole haystack,' said one former senior US intelligence official who tracked the plan's implementation. 'Collect it all, tag it, store it. .?.?. And whatever it is you want, you go searching for it. . . . .
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RC

(25,592 posts)
3. The Secret War
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 08:54 AM
Jul 2013


INFILTRATION. SABOTAGE. MAYHEM. FOR YEARS, FOUR-STAR GENERAL KEITH ALEXANDER HAS BEEN BUILDING A SECRET ARMY CAPABLE OF LAUNCHING DEVASTATING CYBERATTACKS. NOW IT’S READY TO UNLEASH HELL.

Inside Fort Meade, Maryland, a top-secret city bustles. Tens of thousands of people move through more than 50 buildings—the city has its own post office, fire department, and police force. But as if designed by Kafka, it sits among a forest of trees, surrounded by electrified fences and heavily armed guards, protected by antitank barriers, monitored by sensitive motion detectors, and watched by rotating cameras. To block any telltale electromagnetic signals from escaping, the inner walls of the buildings are wrapped in protective copper shielding and the one-way windows are embedded with a fine copper mesh.

>SNIP<

Alexander runs the nation’s cyberwar efforts, an empire he has built over the past eight years by insisting that the US’s inherent vulnerability to digital attacks requires him to amass more and more authority over the data zipping around the globe. In his telling, the threat is so mind-bogglingly huge that the nation has little option but to eventually put the entire civilian Internet under his protection, requiring tweets and emails to pass through his filters, and putting the kill switch under the government’s forefinger. “What we see is an increasing level of activity on the networks,” he said at a recent security conference in Canada. “I am concerned that this is going to break a threshold where the private sector can no longer handle it and the government is going to have to step in.”

In its tightly controlled public relations, the NSA has focused attention on the threat of cyberattack against the US—the vulnerability of critical infrastructure like power plants and water systems, the susceptibility of the military’s command and control structure, the dependence of the economy on the Internet’s smooth functioning. Defense against these threats was the paramount mission trumpeted by NSA brass at congressional hearings and hashed over at security conferences.

But there is a flip side to this equation that is rarely mentioned: The military has for years been developing offensive capabilities, giving it the power not just to defend the US but to assail its foes. Using so-called cyber-kinetic attacks, Alexander and his forces now have the capability to physically destroy an adversary’s equipment and infrastructure, and potentially even to kill. Alexander—who declined to be interviewed for this article—has concluded that such cyberweapons are as crucial to 21st-century warfare as nuclear arms were in the 20th.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/?p=58188





Driven by paranoia that the terrorist they are making, could harm us.
The obvious solution to a sane person would be to stop making terrorist, but no, where is the fun, profit and power in that?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023166576

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
11. So...will Alexander be brought up on the Hill for a grilling?
Reply to RC (Reply #3)
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 02:13 PM
Jul 2013

If he lies like Clapper...then who will hold either of the accountable.

Is there anyone with enough power to hold people accountable in our government anymore? Congress can't do it...President doesn't seem to want to..DOJ doesn't seem to feel it's their job.

 

RC

(25,592 posts)
12. These people ARE our government now.
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 02:19 PM
Jul 2013

They hold the reins of power in their hovered up data bases.

chimpymustgo

(12,774 posts)
4. It's creepy - and it's ILLEGAL. Front page of the Washington Post today.
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 08:59 AM
Jul 2013

-edit-

Aside from how obviously menacing and even creepy it is to have a state collect all forms of human communication - to have the explicit policy that literally no electronic communication can ever be free of US collection and monitoring - there's no legal authority for the NSA to do this. Therefore:

[E]ven his defenders say Alexander's aggressiveness has sometimes taken him to the outer edge of his legal authority."


"The outer edge of his legal authority": that's official-Washington-speak for "breaking the law", at least when it comes to talking about powerful DC officials (in Washington, only the powerless are said to have broken the law, which is why so many media figures so freely call Edward Snowden a criminal for having told his fellow citizens about all this, but would never dare use the same language for James Clapper for having lied to Congress about all of this, which is a felony). That the NSA's "collect it all" approach to surveillance has no legal authority is clear:

"One Democrat who confronted Alexander at a congressional hearing last month accused the NSA of crossing a line by collecting the cellphone records of millions of Americans.

'What authorization gave you the grounds for acquiring my cellphone data?' demanded Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), waving his mobile phone at the four-star general."

I know this is not as exciting to some media figures as Snowden's asylum drama or his speculated personality traits. But that the NSA is collecting all forms of electronic communications between Americans as well as people around the world - and, as I've said many times, thereby attempting by definition to destroy any remnants of privacy both in the US and globally - is as serious of a story as it gets, particularly given that it's all being done in secret.

-edit-

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/15-1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/for-nsa-chief-terrorist-threat-drives-passion-to-collect-it-all/2013/07/14/3d26ef80-ea49-11e2-a301-ea5a8116d211_story.html

 

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)
6. Where is Obama?
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 09:23 AM
Jul 2013

It seems like the guy has completely disappeared from the scene. They last time we really heard more than the occasional peep from that guy was back in January when he was telling us he would really fight for the gun legislation.

It sure seems to me that he's already moved on to lame duck status, and apparently is happy with that.

He pops up now and again to make some perfunctory statements about this plane crash or that trial verdict, but other than that, he is AWOL.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
9. He came out in favor of Clapper and the NSA
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 01:35 PM
Jul 2013

In a way that wouldn't have been out of place during the Bush administration: Fact free, trust us, this is all legal.

Big mistake, but he may not have a choice- if he signed off on this, he violated the Constitution with them.

 

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)
13. And then went back into his hole for 3 weeks
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 04:13 PM
Jul 2013

This whole thing is seeming downright creepy. This is a completely different man in his second term.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
14. Not to be snarky
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 04:19 PM
Jul 2013

But he seemed to be a whole different man the day of inauguration.

I couldn't help thinking at the time that it was less about our country electing a new administration for 4 years as it was President Obama being inducted into the Bush dynasty along with the Clintons.

It really spooked me out at the time. Where was our ship going now? Apparently, exactly the same direction as before.

woo me with science

(32,139 posts)
15. +1
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 04:24 PM
Jul 2013

Creepy, creepy, creepy.

Obama toasts Poppy Bush: 'We are surely a kinder and gentler nation because of you'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023265525

War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
The Chained CPI is Superlative.
Drone murders are "Legal, Ethical, and Wise."
Health Care is Affordable.
Edward Snowden is the Traitor.
Bushes made the world a Kinder and Gentler Place.

 

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)
16. That may be true. I didn't really think that because he was quite visible
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 04:28 PM
Jul 2013

But an objective review of the first 4 years shows mostly linear continuity with the Cheney policies. The rhetoric was more pleasant, but the substance was not much different.

Three are certainly some exceptions:

- Improved CAFE standards
- Emphasis on green developments within the stimulus package
- Some aspects of the ACA
- The SCOTUS appointments (only mildly right wing instead of hard core right wing under Bush)

But beyond those things (which I stipulate are important differences), I think it is essentially a wash. Obama has been to the right of Bush on secrecy, drone attacks, keeping people locked up in Gitmo, and the whole NSA thing. And he has been a little to the left of Bush/ Cheney on other things.

But what I am noticing is just how Obama has essentially disappeared. Really, the last time we heard much from the guy was in January when he was making the case for the gun laws and presenting the SoU speech. He is completely MIA since that time.

Is this my imagination? He has just disappeared. Does nobody else think this is a little irregular?

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
18. It's not your imagination
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 04:58 PM
Jul 2013

He popped out for the Zimmerman thing and may have gotten Holder on that.

There's no way to know what the silence means. The stuff we've learned since Snowden's reveal suggests that he's really busy overseeing this NSA spying and targeted killings. Why he thinks we need to be focusing on that when our economy is still strangling away is beyond me.

A lot of people here have talked about being in Orwellian or just plain Alice in Wonderland level of insanity, and I agree with that. Nothing seems to make logical sense about what's going on, who's doing it or the reasons given for it.

I'll go back to what I said before- this feels creepy and spooky. This is NOT what democratic gov't looks like or feels like.

 

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)
20. One explanation may be that there really is some huge calamity on the near horizon
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 05:15 PM
Jul 2013

but even in those cases, you would expect the President to be visible because he isn't going to catch all the bad guys with his bare hands.

Moreover, the things he has come out of his bunker to talk about are all coming from the far, far right:

- He came out to trash the IRS
- He came out to defend operating Gitmo on feeding tubes
- He came out to condemn Snowden

Other than those things, his only other appearances have been mostly "counselor in chief" when a plane crashes or a jury produces an unpopular decision.

I realize August is a slow time, but August i still 2 weeks away, and this has been going on since February.

I think any objective observer would have to admit this is abnormal. I don't see where there would be any debate about that. The real question is why:

a) some impending national emergency that the public doesn't know about
b) the GOP has him by the short hairs and he has agreed, basically, to maintain status quo until the 2014 elections
c) He realizes he has no prospects of moving any legislation forward his last 3.5 years, so he's moving on to an early retirement.

I can't really think of any other plausible explanations.

DirkGently

(12,151 posts)
8. One Thing
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 10:25 AM
Jul 2013


One Thing to track them all, One Thing to find them,
One Thing to bring their data, and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Utah where the Shadows lie.

SomethingFishy

(4,876 posts)
19. Just because they are collecting it does not mean they are using it.
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 05:01 PM
Jul 2013

I have nothing to worry about because I am doing nothing wrong.

Snowden is a traitor.

They are keeping us safe.

I trust the government.

Am I forgetting anything?

tavalon

(27,985 posts)
21. So much for that cute made up word Metadata, it's just plain old datamining,
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 05:17 PM
Jul 2013

with massive storage and surely Crays have gotten faster over the years. Get a good search algorithm and go fishing, you illegal NSA SPOOKS.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
22. he who owns or controls the really big computers --
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 07:10 PM
Jul 2013

well they pretty much control or will control everything.

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