CNN: Bush plans visit to super-secret spies

[txindy]

Okay, this has to be the stupidest headline ever. Seriously. It's like a fan club. Or a tabloid. Oh, yeah, it's CNN. Same thing. :evilgrin:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/25/bush.nsa.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- While pressing his campaign to explain stepped-up domestic spying in the terrorism era, President Bush is taking time out to boost the morale of people carrying out this work at the National Security Agency.

Bush was traveling to the heavily secured site of the super-secret spy agency in suburban Maryland Wednesday to give a speech behind closed doors and meet with employees in advance of Senate hearings on the much-criticized domestic surveillance.

Responding to an outcry from many congressional Democrats, human rights and civil liberties groups about warrantless eavesdropping of calls and other communications made overseas from the United States, Bush has recently stepped up a series of public appearances.

In Manhattan, Kansas, on Monday, he brushed aside arguments by critics that he broke the law by authorizing domestic eavesdropping without a warrant, saying he was doing what Congress authorized him to do to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. His attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, repeated that argument in a speech Tuesday.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. If he wants to lift their morale

Maybe he shouldn't out CIA agents?

[txindy]

2. It does make me wonder what will be going through their minds.

Will they be all gung-ho or just happy to be on that side of the spying? I suppose some will be pleased - the few who don't yet realize that the more secrets they gather, the bigger the liability they are to the Cabal. One example of that would be all of those who 'worked' for Brewster Jennings.

[htuttle]

6. "just happy to be on that side of the spying"

Some years ago, a copy of the NSA employee handbook, a 'restricted' but not 'classified' publication, made it's way into the proto-hacker publication, 'Phrack'. It was subsequently discussed in several online media at the time (circa 1993 or so -- the 'early web' period).

It was an interesting read, and pointed out just how paranoid you have to be to work at NSA. There are regulations describing who you're allowed to talk to off the job (no chatting with the Pakistani 7/11 owner down the street from your house, for example), who you're allowed to live next to, who you're allowed to marry or date off the job (you need to ask permission first), etc...

All in all, they live in a miniature total security state, and they just KNOW they are probably being watched by some other group of watchers. And when it's all over and done with, they can't even use the NSA on their resume, so they are basically stuck there, career advancement-wise.

No, I think that NSA employees are probably even more paranoid than you or I. After all, they KNOW how the spying is done. It's not theoretical with them. I think it ultimately makes them bat-shit crazy, if you ask me. It also probably makes them a bit less sensitive to the privacy concerns of their fellow citizens, since they enjoy absolutely no privacy themselves.

[txindy]

8. Whoa.

Just... whoa. That's all I could say over and over while reading your post above.

Yeah, I'd say they'd have to be more paranoid than you or I. How can they even continue to get out of bed every morning? It sounds like they're pretty much stuck for life. Even if they somehow managed to get out of the NSA, they'd be so messed up they'd never fit in anywhere else. They'd be afraid to talk to anyone, even (or maybe especially) socially.

That is truly horrible.

[htuttle]

9. If you google 'Secret Dress Codes of the NSA'

...you should find an article written by an, um, let's say 'very close friend of mine' from 1993/94 about it.

I just googled it, and amazingly still found a few dozen copies of the article and other links to it. Several of them included the entire contents of the handbook that had been published in Phrack.

[seemunkee]

3. Is he taking his bicycle

I thought that was the only reason he went out there. To ride around in the open fields surrounding NSA.

[Vidar]

4. Hope he has his decoder ring and x ray specs.

[BushOut06]

7. Yup - be sure to drink your Ovaltine

Do you think the CIA gave bushie one of those Little Orphan Annie decoder rings and told him it was a highly classified program?

[spanone]

5. Another staged photo-op. Good luck George, it ain't workin'.

Another feeble attempt to 'educate' Americans on why they are destroying the Constitution.