U.S. Spy Panel Is Loaded With Insiders 330
schwit1 writes "After a public backlash to government spying, President Barack Obama called for an independent group to review the vast surveillance programs that allow the collections of phone and email records.
The members of the review group are:
Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council for Clinton who later worked for Republican President George W. Bush
Michael Morell, Obama's former deputy CIA director
Geoffrey Stone, law professor who has raised money for Obama and spearheads a committee hoping to build Obama's presidential library in Chicago
Cass Sunstein, law professor and administrator of information and regulatory affairs for Obama
Peter Swire, a former Office of Management and Budget privacy director for Clinton
'At the end of the day, a task force led by Gen. Clapper full of insiders – and not directed to look at the extensive abuse – will never get at the bottom of the unconstitutional spying,' said Mark Jaycox, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group. The panel's meetings are closed after Clapper exempted it from the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee Act, which would have required it to keep the public informed and hold open meetings, for 'reasons of national security,' according to a statement from the group sent from Clapper's office. 'While we are exempt from the FACA, we are conducting this review as openly and transparently as possible.'"
Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council for Clinton who later worked for Republican President George W. Bush
Michael Morell, Obama's former deputy CIA director
Geoffrey Stone, law professor who has raised money for Obama and spearheads a committee hoping to build Obama's presidential library in Chicago
Cass Sunstein, law professor and administrator of information and regulatory affairs for Obama
Peter Swire, a former Office of Management and Budget privacy director for Clinton
'At the end of the day, a task force led by Gen. Clapper full of insiders – and not directed to look at the extensive abuse – will never get at the bottom of the unconstitutional spying,' said Mark Jaycox, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group. The panel's meetings are closed after Clapper exempted it from the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee Act, which would have required it to keep the public informed and hold open meetings, for 'reasons of national security,' according to a statement from the group sent from Clapper's office. 'While we are exempt from the FACA, we are conducting this review as openly and transparently as possible.'"
Wait a second... (Score:5, Informative)
Now that the government is shut down, does that mean the domestic spying program is also?
And while I'm at it, would it be unpatriotic of me to suggest that the government shutdown may be a tactful diversion from the domestic spying program? Snowden's Sunday leak [rt.com] was largely ignored Sunday by the major news networks in favor of the impeding shutdown.
Re: Predictable (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/sunstein_2/ [salon.com]
Bans, taxes, cognitively infiltrate, gov funded counter speech....
Re:along with 75% of federal employees (Score:3, Informative)
It's taking a bigger bite than just the customer service type jobs. Of course in any budget dispute the more visible jobs and services are cut first. But even the Defense Department and intelligence agencies are taking a hit.
NSA, intelligence workers 'stretched to limit' by shutdown, official says [cnet.com]
400,000 DOD Civilians to Get Shutdown Furloughs [defenseone.com]
US shutdown: Bad for Pentagon workers, not so much for defense firms [cnbc.com]
Re:You can never get the BIG BROTHER to change its (Score:3, Informative)
The winners make the rules, so any party that doesn't have a chance of winning is a waste of time and effort.
Re:Hope and change (Score:5, Informative)
the problem is that not everyone can afford health care
You do realise that in Australia a 1.5% levy on income tax covers the cost of a "free" health system for all Australians (taxpayer or otherwise), our system also has significantly better medical outcomes than the US system. For a family of four that works out to close to 1/10th of what an American pays for similar cover. In fact you guys already pay a similar per-capita amount on health through your taxes. With the better economies of scale you have in the US that should easily be enough to ensure nobody goes bankrupt due to medical expenses (which is the real point of any health insurance scheme). Why the hell do you (or your employer) then need to go and pay another 9X that amount to a private middle man?
Oh, and lets not blame it on the doctor's hourly rates, our home grown doctors still drive around in nice cars and live in the "leafy avenue" part of town.
Re:You can never get the BIG BROTHER to change its (Score:2, Informative)
I work for the government of the USA. No truer words were ever spoken than the previous post. The only way to fix this mess is to execute the departments. This monster arose because we "fixed" Admiral Poindexters "Total Information Awareness" program. So we fixed it. It got even more intrusive and more completely out of hand and we went deeper into that abyss where freedom dies.
Just for the record. The spying extend is this far and make no excuses for it it is total.
(1) It includes 100% recording transcription and were appropriate translation of nearly every language for scanning by automated "Bots" which is done of all Phone Calls by all means. All scanned in real time.
(2) It includes 100% of all financial activities such as banking, purchaces and even down to the line items on the charges you make at the store. All Scanned and correlated by bots in real time.
(3) It includes every public records transation you make as well. All scanned and correlated by bots in real time
(4) It now includes all US and probably all foreign computer generated Medical Records all scanned and correlated by bots in real time.
The NSA has been responsible for placing Micro-Code back door technology in all the major CPU devices that operates below the bios level causing them to have access to all computers beyond password lockouts. This allows, as it becomes known and it is published now, access to all
(3) It includes all patterns of transactions you make including sending of photos, emails, SMS, and MMS. All Scanned and correlated by Bots
The NSA is responsible for generating:
(1) Micro-code access below bios level into all the major CPU chips giving them access without password to your computer and giving them the ability to impersonate you and giving this capacity to any party who knows about it as well. This is now published publically and as a result the NSA is responsible for holing the security of every computer on earth. This makes them cause and accomplace to identity theft.
(2) Micro-code access to the random number generator of your CPU giving them access to your PGP and other code in a deterministic way rendering all of your banking and other identity based transactions insecure and making the NSA the causal agent of all Identity Theft. Others are mere opportunists who happen by and use their entry "holes" or "back doors".
This makes the NSA the biggest criminal agency in the world. Make no mistake the US Constitution is very clear about the rights of people to be secure in their person place and effects. Do your effects stop being yours because they are managed or housed in other locations outside your house? Does your car become property of your employer when you park it in his parking lot? Does your money become property of the bank when you deposit it? Then throw out the legaleze bull crap and get with the understanding that the NSA is a Criminal Organization and it should be prosecuted for its crimes. It is responsible for us having no security. It forced this condition on us so it could do unlimited spying easily.