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twoelevenProtesters march in Washington against NSA spying
meanwhile, der spiegel reports (auf deutsch) that the US has been listening to angela merkel's cell phone since 2002. obama, of course, denied knowing anything about it, just has he denied that the US was spying on its own citizens.
one of the fascinating things about herr snowden's revelations -- i mean, beyond the amusement value that the NSA can't even properly secure its own systems -- is that the US expected to get away with this vast amount of eavesdropping apparently forever. i read a commentary (which i lost the link to) which pointed out that sooner or later, most extended espionage operations are blown.¹ usually, it's because somebody gets too cocky, and the other side figures out what they're up to, but moles and turncoats are hardly unknown. and that leaves out routine counter-intelligence operations by the people being spied on. so, one way or another, the NSA should have expected to get caught sooner or later.
1: and even short-term ones get blown too, Just Because. no plan survives contact with the enemy.
maybe they expected later... much later. but i'm surprised by the apparent lack of a prepared damage-control plan, since the obvious consequences of spying on nominally friendly leaders should have been, well, obvious. if the NSA is so out of control that it's carrying out espionage operations with obvious political repercussions without informing the president, it needs a few public firings at the very least (and probably shutting down at at the very most).
(Reuters) - Protesters marched on Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday to protest the U.S. government's online surveillance programs, whose vast scope was revealed this year by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
People carried signs reading: "Stop Mass Spying," "Thank you, Edward Snowden" and "Unplug Big Brother" as they gathered at the foot of the Capitol to demonstrate against the online surveillance by the National Security Agency.
Estimates varied on the size of the march, with organizers saying more than 2,000 attended. U.S. Capitol Police said they do not typically provide estimates on the size of demonstrations.
...
meanwhile, der spiegel reports (auf deutsch) that the US has been listening to angela merkel's cell phone since 2002. obama, of course, denied knowing anything about it, just has he denied that the US was spying on its own citizens.
one of the fascinating things about herr snowden's revelations -- i mean, beyond the amusement value that the NSA can't even properly secure its own systems -- is that the US expected to get away with this vast amount of eavesdropping apparently forever. i read a commentary (which i lost the link to) which pointed out that sooner or later, most extended espionage operations are blown.¹ usually, it's because somebody gets too cocky, and the other side figures out what they're up to, but moles and turncoats are hardly unknown. and that leaves out routine counter-intelligence operations by the people being spied on. so, one way or another, the NSA should have expected to get caught sooner or later.
1: and even short-term ones get blown too, Just Because. no plan survives contact with the enemy.
maybe they expected later... much later. but i'm surprised by the apparent lack of a prepared damage-control plan, since the obvious consequences of spying on nominally friendly leaders should have been, well, obvious. if the NSA is so out of control that it's carrying out espionage operations with obvious political repercussions without informing the president, it needs a few public firings at the very least (and probably shutting down at at the very most).