Wall Street Journal Calls Snowden A Sociopath; Argues For Even Less NSA Oversight
from the the-nsa-journal dept
It's no surprise that the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal would be apologists for the surveillance state, but even they have reached new depths in discussing the recommendations to President Obama from his NSA review panel/task force. As we had already pointed out, the actual recommended changes appear to be entirely cosmetic, and yet the WSJ seems to think that the NSA should have free rein to spy on anyone and everything. It's as if the WSJ editorial board has never heard of the 4th Amendment, and has simply no clue how much damage the NSA has done to the US economy. You would think, given the WSJ's reputation as being pro-big business, that it would concern them that businesses appear to be losing a ton of money overseas as people don't want to do business with American companies any more over the NSA revelations.But, no, the editorial is so full of ignorance and wrongness that it almost feels like a parody. It refers to Ed Snowden as a "sociopath with stolen documents" for example:
The report lands at a bad political moment, with tea party Republicans and anti-antiterror Democrats smelling opportunity and sociopaths with stolen documents campaigning to harm U.S. national security.I'm curious how they judge him to be a sociopath. Considering the ruling yesterday by Judge Leon, which the WSJ acknowledges in the very next sentence, it certainly looks like Snowden revealed to the public an unconstitutional effort by the US government to violate our privacy.
The editorial goes on to insist that any rollback of the bulk metadata program would have horrendous consequences... based on nothing. The editorial claims that a moderate change to the bulk metadata collection (requiring telcos to hold onto the data, rather than letting the NSA get it up front) would "effectively cripple" the NSA's ability to analyze these records.
The problem is that metadata is only useful if it is pooled, formatted and organized so it can be searched quickly and accurately. Intelligence is not an on-demand technology but an ongoing, painstaking process in preparation for questions that no one can know until U.S. spooks need immediate answers.But that's both wrong and bullshit at the same time. First, that paragraph could be used to argue against any limit on surveillance. It goes completely against the very concept of the 4th Amendment. Hell, attaching recording devices and cameras to every single human being, and piping that info directly into the NSA (and no, we're not quite at that stage yet) would also help the NSA search for info quickly -- but it's also insane. Why would the WSJ support an insane concept?
More importantly, despite having many opportunities to do so, the NSA has yet to show any evidence that the bulk metadata collection was necessary to stop any terror attacks. Multiple Senators have already said that there is no such evidence, and in Judge Leon's ruling he explicitly notes that, despite the opportunity to do so, the US government did not present a single shred of evidence that this program has been necessary. Furthermore, the claims that it's necessary to have the data in hand (as opposed to held by the telcos, as this proposal would allow) is again not supported by the actual evidence. Judge Leon clearly pointed out that in the examples given of where the metadata was used, there was no necessary "urgency" that would have prevented reviewing that information were it held elsewhere.
The editorial board also apparently has a serious problem with the idea that there should be an adversarial process within the FISA court. In fact, it goes even further in arguing that the FISA court itself is a problem, and that the NSA shouldn't even be accountable to the judicial branch, but to the executive branch alone. And then it mocks the idea of an adversarial process by calling it a "roving ACLU corps", because protecting civil liberties is apparently not a good thing according to the WSJ.
The FISC judges are not now operating as a judiciary but instead fill a quasi-legal management role over NSA. This dilutes accountability for the political branches, but the Obama panel wants to go further and appoint a public advocate whose job is to argue against the NSA as in a public lawsuit.Even by the ridiculously low standards of the WSJ, this editorial is simply ludicrous. It bows down before the surveillance state, wishing for even fewer protections for our civil liberties, and pretends that if only the government could spy on us even more, the world would be a much better place. And it throws in that gratuitous attack on Snowden's mental faculties just as a bonus. Because, when defending the surveillance state, apparently if you can't argue with logic, ad hominems are the way to go.
This roving ACLU corps would second-guess the agency and presumably urge the judges to reject or limit NSA requests.
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Filed Under: bulk metadata collection, ed snowden, editorial board, nsa, surveillance, wall street journal
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Ohhhhhh
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
You can not ask why,
Santa Claus is pwning your town.
He knows when you are sleeping,
He knows when you're away,
He knows when you've bad or good,
He works for the NSA.
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Re: Ohhhhhh
you mention about various schemes being *obviously* 'insane', etc...
...except...
...except...
...except, there's ALREADY BEEN so MUCH insanity, i don't wonder that the most paranoid delusions might come to pass...
barcoded citizens ?
i don't rule it out...
a chip implanted in our brains ?
i won't bet against it...
orwellian surveillance ?
oops, too late...
shit, i'm not too far from joining my brothers and sisters who insist The They(tm) are shape-shifting reptilian overlords...
*THAT* would almost make a certain amount of sense...
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Re:
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And which publication not to ever read for accurate government news.
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Dec 17th, 2013 @ 2:24pm
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Re:
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FISA court should be abolished but not for the reasons given. There is no place for a secret court, ruling in secret, over secret cases, making secret laws. Being ignorant of the law has a whole nother excuse now; one that is valid.
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Re:
Unfortunately, not. Ignorance of the law, secret or not, is never an excuse for the little people. Of course, for those up high enough the law the doesn't apply anyway so it doesn't matter.
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Journalism is dead
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Re:
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Re: They don't have any reporters
They haven't written a story in decades.
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Seriously, Is there any lamestream media that can be trusted to report the news?
FOX, CNN, WSJ, CBS...
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Re: Seriously, Is there any lamestream media that can be trusted to report the news?
Just continuing the list for you. Nothing to trust here. Move along.
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WSJ????
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Put-up or shut-up
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Sociopath
The WSJ is a 'pawn' for the real psychopath. The government is not your frien, out for your best interests. Why is that such a difficult concept?
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A Constitutional LHC
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No, Mike, given this, I'd think fascists for all-out surveillance state:
Just try to be objective, college boy, and FORGET what you were indoctrinated with in college that "big business" is good. You manifestly never studied actual history of the 1930s, or you couldn't have that view.
The Rich are not ideologues: any "-ism" is fine by entrenched elites (especially American "conservatives" who favor fascism) so long as THEY are entitled to live off laborers in practical feudal-ism.
11:59:39[m-482-3]
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Re: No, Mike, given this, I'd think fascists for all-out surveillance state:
And since when is being a "collage boy" an insult for anybody other than a back woods ignorant hick?
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Re: Re: No, Mike, given this, I'd think fascists for all-out surveillance state:
You answered your own question there. Anyone who thinks being educated is something to be ashamed or, something you can use to insult someone with, is almost certain to have very little education themselves.
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When the Master speaks
Using cell phones.
So I would not read anything beyond just plain insane into the Wall St. Journals' madness-just a spokeperson for conservative corporations who make millions from spying on others through various means: credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards. You name it, no corporation in this country misses a clue when it comes to spying on their customers and each other.
Of course the WSJ is in favor of it! They'd like to make sure that their interests are served first. If the NSA is allowed to do it, so should they.
Because they don't want to be next in line for a debate about spying, do they?
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So if you're anti-surveillance state you're pro-terror? Cause "you're either with us, or against us" worked so well, right?
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Re:
I'm surprised the sheer mass of cognitive dissonance in having rabid anti-commies using Pravda as 'gospel truth' hasn't collapsed the US into a black hole.
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Re: Re:
Holy shit! Do they really? Well, wonders will never cease. Dang, I thought they couldn't shock me any more but they've gone and done it...
So much for hating communism.
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WSJ Snowden Editorial
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Hell I wouldn't be too shocked if in the very near future it turns out News Corp was helping the NSA with its spying...
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So why are they picking on the Republican group that put them front and center? Or... are Murdoch's libertarian sentiments just a front for a corporate agenda? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
And what's an anti-antiterror Democrat? Apart from "an example of bad grammar" they're accusing some (unnamed) Dems of being PRO terror but haven't got the stones to say so outright. THEN they have the nerve to call Snowden a sociopath? At least Ed has the nerve to speak as he finds.
For the record, I tend to agree with Libertarians on surveillance and work with them to campaign against it. I just don't like extremists, hypocrites, or liars. Of any stripe.
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Re:
Rupe will change his opinion (and his medias reporting) at a whim and use it to play the power game. He makes and breaks governments. that means what rupe wants law wise rupe gets. if he doesnt he gets you voted out. Pure and simple.
The sheeple believe what the media tells them still.
Oh and if it looks like even he cant swing the election he comes out for the side thats sure to win and basically tells them they owe him.
On behalf of all thinking Australians i apologise for letting this sociopath on the world.
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I've read about Murdoch's shady dealings with the CIA before
Reagan's covert domestic propaganda operations included Rupert Murdoch
http://www.truedemocracy.net/hj37/37.html
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Not quite there ?
They're called cellphones. I guess we're "not quite there" in that they're not "attached", but we're extremely close to there (at least for people who are 51% likely to not be US citizens).
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