NSA Releases Heavily Redacted Talking Points: Say It's Hard To Watch Public Debate On Its Efforts
from the oh-really? dept
After receiving a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Jason Smathers, via Muckrock, the NSA has released a series of "talking points." What's incredible is that the talking points themselves are heavily redacted. Considering they're all about what to tell the press, you have to wonder how they could possibly include anything that should be redacted. It seems that, by definition, the info included in the talking points should be public. The only reason to redact is embarrassment. The snippets you can read are sort of random boosterism about how awesome the NSA is... if only they could tell us.These are sobering findings.Indeed.
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Filed Under: nsa, talking points
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Ahem..
These are sobering findings.Subscribe: RSS
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My own contribution...
In the past year I've done some incredibly wild and brave things that have not only kept you safe, but saved you money as well.
It would be irresponsible of me to give you the details, because it might give the trolls that comment here an advantage.
However, you owe me a great debt of gratitude, and also, I think, a financial reward for ensuring your continued freedom. I don't think it's asking too much considering all I've done.
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"The terrorist threat to this country is real."
Support Mike "Streisand Effect" Masnick's proprietary interest!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
He innovated the term all by himself! He alone! It's HIS!
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Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
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Re: Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
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Re: Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
It's not just the words used, but the context under which they were used, and when you look at the statement he's quoting:
"The terrorism threat to this country is real. We need to do everything possible to make our nation safe, and we need to do it in a way that protects our civil liberties."
However, when you look at the rest of the text, and the mindset that accompanies it, that statement could very easily be revised to read:
"Remember people, according to the way we view the world, the people who started the American Revolution would be branded traitors and terrorist by our definition. therefor, we need to do everything possible to keep the American people placated and passive, and to do so in such a way that preserves the status quo as much as possible without serious disruption to those in legislative or corporate power."
Now whether that's what they really mean or not, without clearly being being able to mindread, is entirely debatable, but also a distinct possibility. The fact that someone is simple willing to read "OMG Terrorism" and mutely/blindly accept whatever talking points may follow, without thinking about the intentions or consequences of said actions, is deserving of being flagged in my opinion.
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Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
You sig line still sucks though.
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Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
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Ahem..
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Re: Ahem..
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Re: Re: Ahem..
...Anyone want to take a guess as to what that was? "Whoa, dude... I HAVE HANDS!"
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NSA
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Re: NSA
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Performance Art
Performance Art.
The subtext is that some of the secret talking points will be leaked to friendly media.
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Page 3
And that is all you need to know. At least when they are finally caught breaking the law, they can say they were transparent about what they are doing.
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Re: Page 3
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A meme is born
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Re: A meme is born
I am glad they redacted that page, I would have had to get drunk all over again.
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That one page, wow. Truly hilarious
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Re:
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Executive Summary of NSA-provided talking points
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And now we know why Amazon had to pull 1984.
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So You Can't Read the Script, Obviously
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Runs On The Board
If there was real security going on, then there would be bad guys, either in custody or dead, in the USA. The activities of said bad guys would be available for public inspection. That has not happened, therefore the NSA has no runs on the board, in the USA.
There are certainly dead guys in foreign countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.). The real question is: were they bad? Were they plotting to harm the innocent USA or were they just trying to get the USA out of their own countries? That question is unresolved, so the NSA cannot reliably claim any runs on the board in foreign countries, either.
Therefore the NSA has no runs on the board, worldwide. Therefore they produce no benefit. Meanwhile, their cost is enormous. Therefore, their cost greatly exceeds their benefit. Therefore, stop funding them. You Americans do know that you have a federal deficit problem, don't you?
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Needs to be a meme.
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...and FISA judges' arms are getting tired from repeatedly using the rubber stamp
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