NSA Releases Heavily Redacted Talking Points: Say It's Hard To Watch Public Debate On Its Efforts

from the oh-really? dept

Fri, Nov 30th 2012 3:40am — Mike Masnick

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.

Amusingly one entire page of the document is redacted... except for one single line reading:

These are sobering findings.

Indeed.

The document also shows that the NSA has written out talking points for members of Congress and the President for when they have to talk about NSA programs. Yes, when you hear a Congressional Rep. defending the NSA, it's likely based on the following talking points:

In looking around to see who has actually made these claims, it turns out that the NSA actually released these publicly back in 2006, and they were even entered into the Congressional record at the time. Either way, it's an odd little glimpse into the NSA's world.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: nsa, talking points

36 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

The First Word

“

Ahem..

These are sobering findings.

—The Infamous Joe

”

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

nospacesorspecialcharacters (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:01am

My own contribution...
Mike,

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:02am

Surely having the people you are over watching writing you public statements is not smart move, as it so you not providing oversight but working with/for then.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

out_of_the_blue, 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:22am

"The terrorist threat to this country is real."
That's far as you need to read. When gov't has to remind its highest minions of what should be on top level of the mind, the rest is just more lies.

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!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Infamous Joe (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:25am

Ahem..
These are sobering findings.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael, 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:26am

NSA
The first rule of the NSA is: You do not talk about the NSA.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:30am

doublespeak coverstory
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:38am

Re: NSA
The second rule of the NSA is: You do not talk about the NSA.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:42am

Performance Art
What's incredible is that the talking points themselves are heavily redacted.

Performance Art.

The subtext is that some of the secret talking points will be leaked to friendly media.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Josef Anvil (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 4:58am

Page 3
"At NSA, we are pushing ahead on several fronts"

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 5:04am

Re: Re: NSA
The third rule of the NSA is: [redacted]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 6:15am

Re: Ahem..
So, they are admitting they were drunk when they started.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dennis deems, 30 Nov 2012 @ 7:00am

A meme is born
These are sobering findings.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Aaron Wolf (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 7:29am

LOL HAHAHAHA wow

That one page, wow. Truly hilarious
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 7:39am

"I want to the extraordinary work..."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 7:42am

Executive Summary of NSA-provided talking points
1. The NSA is doubleplusgood, and we can trust them. I can't talk about their activities, for security reasons; you'll just have to trust me.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 7:43am

Re:
Probably figured they were going to redact that word and forgot to put it in.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 7:45am

Re: A meme is born
"These are sobering findings."

I am glad they redacted that page, I would have had to get drunk all over again.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Skeptical Cynic (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 9:48am

And now we know why Amazon had to pull 1984.
Amazon is in the employ of the NSA and the NSA did not want them selling classified information about their methods of dealing with the public.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 10:18am

Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
I don't like ootb any more than anyone else here. But why was this flagged?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Infamous Joe (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 10:31am

Re: Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
I didn't report him, but that ridiculous signature is reason enough to do so.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dirkmaster (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 11:20am

Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
Congratulations OOTB, this is the very first thing you've ever posted here that I agree with.

You sig line still sucks though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
btrussell (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 11:26am

Re: Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
Ditto
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Loki, 30 Nov 2012 @ 11:36am

Re: Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
Because he is a simpleton. If he thinks one simple line is as far as anyone reading needs to go he deserves to be flagged.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Fenderson (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 12:44pm

Re: Page 3
When they are caught breaking the law, the law is simply changed so they aren't breaking it anymore.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 2:13pm

So You Can't Read the Script, Obviously
Obviously, they had to censor the talking points so we wouldn't be able to tell when (person X) was reading from the script instead of actually describing a logically reached conclusion. I'd bet that >90% of all opinions in sound-bytes related to the NSA come from those documents, instead of actual opinions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 3:13pm

Runs On The Board
Real security is finding the bad guys, then catching or killing them. Security theatre is the endless harassment of ordinary citizens over trivia.

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?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alana (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 3:48pm

http://imgur.com/ai3ME

Needs to be a meme.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alana (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 3:51pm

Re: Re: Ahem..
And then they found something that sobered them.

...Anyone want to take a guess as to what that was? "Whoa, dude... I HAVE HANDS!"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 5:50pm

Re: Re: Re: NSA
[redacted] [redacted]rule [redacted] [redacted]NSA [redacted]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2012 @ 5:06pm

"[redacted] so the NSA agents aren't exposed as the foolish [redacted]holes that they are." Way to hide behind the 'National Security' blanket, NSA. You should have no problem releasing these documents, because the NSA has nothing to hide, right? Apparently, the NSA has a lot to hide from, not only from the American People who pay their paychecks, but from the rest of the world as well. I don't feel safe or secure.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous, 1 Dec 2012 @ 5:29pm

The NSA can SUCK IT!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2012 @ 2:39am

Now that we [redacted] and that is why elephants need jetpacks to hunt terrorists.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 5:15pm

"This clogs the FISA process with applications for court orders..."

...and FISA judges' arms are getting tired from repeatedly using the rubber stamp
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Arioch (profile), 15 Jun 2013 @ 7:14pm

The phrase that seems to be the mantra of the NSA seems to be "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear". Boil it down and it comes out as "We hide, you fear"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DP, 16 Jun 2013 @ 3:54am

Re: "The terrorist threat to this country is real."
Sounds like OOTB would be a good candidate for employment in the NSA. He/she/it is certainly more than paranoid enough.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
totalz (profile), 17 Jun 2013 @ 1:30am

These are embarrassing findings.
[ link to this | view in thread ]