Former NSA Boss Says NSA Should Just Reveal Everything Itself And Move On
from the rip-off-that-bandaid dept
While former NSA boss Michael Hayden has been out there defending everything the NSA has been doing, another former NSA boss, Bobby Ray Inman, is taking a different approach. A couple months ago, he argued that the NSA's lies were a big mistake, and now he's gone a step further. The NY Times had a big article this weekend revealing a bunch of things about how the NSA acts based on going through a bunch of Snowden documents. There's a lot of new stuff in there, but mostly minor, targeted issues, rather than the big bombshells that have been coming out every few days.But all the way at the very, very end, they get to a quote from Inman, suggesting a more radical way for the NSA to get ahead of these leaks: just reveal everything and move on:
Bobby R. Inman, who weathered his own turbulent period as N.S.A. director from 1977 to 1981, offers his hyper-secret former agency a radical suggestion for right now. "My advice would be to take everything you think Snowden has and get it out yourself," he said. "It would certainly be a shock to the agency. But bad news doesn't get better with age. The sooner they get it out and put it behind them, the faster they can begin to rebuild."That's surprisingly similar to the suggestion made by Bruce Schneier a few months ago. As it stands now, the info keeps coming out anyway, and, each time, it makes the NSA look bad -- and their weak reactions and claims that people just don't understand ring very hollow. If the NSA actually got all this stuff out then there could be a real discussion. Somehow, I just don't see it happening, though.
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Filed Under: bobby ray inman, nsa, nsa surveillance
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Just arguing limited hangout: they're not going to reveal ALL.
The only positive sign of reform is people are in jail for known crimes.
This is more distraction, courtesy of Mimeograph, Me-too, Mike.
Google. Making your life better by spying right up to the creepy limit. (tm) -- And soon as you're used to it, we get creepier!
03:41:22[d-682-4]
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Re: Just arguing limited hangout: they're not going to reveal ALL.
So it means you are gonna personally jail them? Enlighten us oh wise god among gods! How are you planning to do it without raising awareness and gathering support from the population? Got a Mjölnir to smash some justice on them?
We are waiting OH enlightened one.
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Re: Just arguing limited hangout: they're not going to reveal ALL.
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Considering the excellent oversight and tidy internal procedures and access tracking I think they'll need to release every single document.
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Not gonna happen
No, the Snowden releases are going extremely well. Just one drip after another. I can't imagine playing this better. The NSA should take a different approach, but nobody wants to volunteer responsibility for doing something different, so they are frozen in fear, waiting for the opportunity to lie, then being made fools of. No one can stop it.
I, for one, don't have enough popcorn for this show.
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Re: Not gonna happen
"but what if Snowden didn't get [fill in the blank]..."
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Wait, you actually think this proposal has anything to do with opening up a debate?
His proposal is just for the NSA to engage in a radical form of damage control: leak everything and suffer the full impact of the leaks now and in one go, rather than go through the slow and excruciating process we have now.
This will let the story die out a lot sooner than it would if you allow Snowden and co. to slowly bleed this stuff out and keep it in the public eye. And even if they don't leak absolutely everything, the scale of future leaks will seem minor in comparison, so future damage is also mitigated.
But I think it is far too late for this strategy to work. This should have been done right near the beginning.
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Exactly what I was thinking
Inman believes, as Hayden and Alexander clearly do, that the political controversy is temporary, and whatever law is passed to constrain the NSA will be ineffective, either by its own wording or the NSA's capability to secretly flout it, and there will be no real consequences for NSA officials. Having seen and experienced the results of the Church committee (creation of the secret rubber-stamping FISA court) they may well be right.
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Exactly. The proposal is not so that we can have a discussion, it's so they can take their lumps real quick, then everyone can forget about the whole thing.
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"Training" societies in tolerating interceptions
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I read that in an article this morning. More unsubstantiated claims by Rogers.
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We need thousands of Arrests, trials, convictions & jail sentences to bring this to a personal level where we can flush the garbage. Personal accountability for corrupt activities is a great way to deter the illegal actions. Why are officials like Clapper still in office rather than a holding cell awaiting their fate for their crimes against "We the People" and The American Constitution??
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Schmidty is shocked, shocked I tell you: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-04/google-ceo-blasts-outrageous-illegal-domestic-nsa-spying
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"Ring Hollow"?
They are epic huge Liars, they lied to the public, they lie to congress they lie to oversight they lie to everyone. They are standing there with their pants on fire, I'm not sure if their words ringing hollow covers it.
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The new Hollywood
Hollywood, are you listening? You can't write this well!
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The big dump
Want to annoy Snowden? Dump everything at once…
Of course, shutting it all down would be a fun response, too.
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alexander cant put the country first, he has to put his carreer first. how did a cove like that ever get promoted general.
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A good idea
They cannot just "publish the lot" though. First, I'd be surprised if they do really know everything that Mr Snowden took. Their claim to do so implies some sort of auditability that they have so far shown a total lack of.
Publishing everything brings another problem. If Edward Snowden is a traitor for leaking NSA records, then surely the agency would likewise be treacherous if it released/declassified what he has. Worse (from the NSA's perspective) - doing so may carry the implication that Snowden was right in releasing information, and destroy any criminal case against him.
So yes, revealing everything would be sensible as it would take control of the situation back. However, it carries with it significant pain and the NSA just won't accept that responsibility.
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