James Clapper Says 'Peace Of Mind' Trumps Effectiveness In Evaluating NSA Surveillance
from the do-these-guys-listen-to-themselves? dept
In yet another Congressional hearing concerning the intelligence community last week, Senator Patrick Leahy finally got the heads of the intelligence community to admit what many of us had been pointing out for a while: that there's no evidence that the key NSA programs up for debate have ever actually been necessary in stopping terrorist attacks. While NSA supporters like Congressional Rep. Joe Heck have flat out lied, in claiming that Section 215 of the Patriot Act had thwarted "54 terrorist plots," during this particular testimony, Leahy got James Clapper and Keith Alexander to admit that, at best, the program had really only been involved in stopping one "terrorist event" in the US, and that "event" wasn't a plot, but rather a cab driver in San Diego sending some money to a terrorist group in Somalia.But the really incredible part was that confessed liar to Congress, Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, tried to defend all this, arguing that figuring out whether or not these surveillance programs were actually necessary or useful in stopping terrorist plots was the wrong metric. Instead, he made up his own metric. The "peace of mind" metric:
There's another metric I would use; let's call it the "peace of mind metric". In the case of the Boston Marathon bomber, we were able to use these tools to determine whether there was, or was not, a subsequent plot in NYC.Of course, we've already discussed how utterly ridiculous this argument is when President Obama himself used the "post-Boston" lack of other plots as support for NSA surveillance. It's quite incredible when you argue that the absence of additional attacks that never existed in the first place is somehow a "victory" for surveillance efforts.
But, really, this "peace of mind" metric is worth exploring, because it's basically the same thing as "the dictator's creed." Clapper's argument is that he can ignore the Constitution, because it might make you feel safer. As Julian Sanchez argued when Clapper made this statement, under the "peace of mind metric" because of the lack of additional threats, it automatically means that every innocent person's records are "relevant," since they help prove the lack of an additional threat. Just think for a second how insane that is. Sanchez takes the analogy further:
Let's try it for warrants: There's always probable cause to believe a search will produce evidence of guilt OR reassure us of innocence.The more you think about the insidious nature of such a metric, the worse and worse you realize it is. If the government considers evidence of innocence to be relevant and necessary for "peace of mind" then there is no 4th Amendment any more and there is no privacy. At all. The government, using this made up metric, can argue that any search is warranted because it's "just making sure you're not a threat."
That's not the standard. That's not the metric. It's completely unconstitutional.
So, again, we have to ask: how the hell is James Clapper still employed as the Director of National Intelligence?
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Filed Under: james clapper, keith alexander, nsa, nsa surveillance, peace of mind, relevance
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*Raises hand*
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Not an American. Does my privacy and peace of mind not matter?
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Re: Re: Non-Americans Too!
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/putting-words-in-my-government's-mouth
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I suspect that none of this stops until the lead flies.
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Personally, my "peace of mind" would NOT be decreased in the slightest should these programs (and the politicians and lackeys supporting them) go away tomorrow, given that the odds of me being directly, or even indirectly, by some nebulous terrorist threat is remote enough to be essentially insignificant.
However, my "peace of mind" would actually be greatly increased if a bunch of government officials would breaking the law, redefining the law in violation of principles this country was founding on, and otherwise snooping on everyone instead of doing the jobs the were given.
Here's an idea, instead of sticking their noses in everyone's business, why don't try try fixing the economy, providing real healthcare, quality jobs, and most of all actually making a real fucking budget.
Now THAT would give me "peace of mind".
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I want to know from our politicians why that lying sack of crap still has a job!
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how the hell is James Clapper still employed as the Director of National Intelligence?
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Doubly dubious
Yeah, that's a great justification... basically, "It doesn't matter whether any of this stuff really does anything as long as we think we can convince people they are safe and we're doing something with the enormous amounts of money we spend."
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Proving innocence is NP-hard
er. I would rather say "or require more searches".
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Re: Proving innocence is NP-hard
That's what he said. Think about it, the search that reassured us of innocence used information that is weeks or months old at that point. Another search has to be performed to keep our reassurance of innocence up.
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Peace of mind
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Re: Peace of mind
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Peace of mind.
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how the hell is James Clapper still employed as the Director of National Intelligence?
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Re: how the hell is James Clapper still employed as the Director of National Intelligence?
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So why didn't all those tools determine there was a threat of the Boston Marathon being bombed? Isn't that what those "tools" are meant to do?
I agree that is legitimatizes any law enforcement agency to do whatever it wants, including using drones for surveillance.
It makes me wonder if these arguements weren't developed by the private prison industry to reassure their investors that business is booming even if a few illegals escape imprisonment due to reform.
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End Days
More disturbing is the possibility that a sociopathic meme has infected our leaders to where they feel the justification of what they are doing really is the right answer to the problem, in the same way that someone would burn down their house in order to protect it from thieves.
And then there is the belief meme, Michele Bachmann anyone? If Jesus or God intends for there to be an apocalypse, "End Times" and Judgment Day perhaps it our destiny to make sure it happens...
Any way you look at it it's bad news. We are truly our own worst enemy.
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Re: End Days
Terrorists can kill people, but then again so can peanuts. The proper response to both is take reasonable safety precautions and get on with your life, as living in fear of them is exactly what they are trying to achieve.
The government on the other hand can, will and has destroyed basic human rights, such as privacy, fair treatment under the law (including the right to a court case before punishment), and justifies their actions by constantly trying to keep people in a state of fear, so that they are willing to accept any encroachment of their rights if only they get to 'feel' safer.
At this point, if you define terrorism as 'actions designed to bring a state of fear and panic in your target', the government are the terrorists, the others are just amateurs.
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The government's policy is FUMU. F Up to Move Up. The more you F Up, the more you Move Up.
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10 year old son: HELP! TERRORIST!
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But....
BUT...you fail to mention how all this surveillance FAILED TO STOP THE BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING ITSELF!
So nice try, asshole, but it's still a FAILURE!
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Peace of Mind = False Sense of Security
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Well, the illusion of freedom usually is.
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Yes, I got the reference, which was the entire point of my comment. Freedom in such a world is a manufactured illusion.
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'Peace Of Mind'
1. isn't happy that their government is spying on them
2. does something that they could patent wont because you can tell your friends in the military industrial complex corporations
3. are the NSA's political enemies
4. have dirty little secrets that can be used against them
5. is born in the USA is a criminal from birth and you have secret laws and secret courts that make them so
6. isn't in law enforcement thus exempt from the law and secret laws
7. you don't like can and will be destroyed
8. can be water-boarded and thrown into a secret prison
9. can be assassinated if they refuse to do what you say
10. is part of the good ol boys in the NSA will be protected by the DOJ even when they lie to congress of the soon to be dictatorship of NAZI United Police State of America
The peace of mind of the dictatorship run by the NSA
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New World Order
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FTPOS Clapper
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