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December 25, 2005
Echelon - A Clinton-era NSA Spy Program
For those out that that want to point the finger at Bush as doing something extraordinary by granting the NSA Carte Blanch to eavesdrop as it sees fit on domestic conversations, I'd like to wake you up to the reality of the Clinton-era Echelon surveillance program.
KROFT: (Voiceover) We can't see them, but the air around us is filled with invisible electronic signals, everything from cell phone conversations to fax transmissions to ATM transfers. What most people don't realize is that virtually every signal radiated across the electromagnetic spectrum is being collected and analyzed.
How much of the world is covered by them?
Mr. MIKE FROST (Former Spy): The entire world, the whole planet--covers everything. Echelon covers everything that's radiated worldwide at any given instant.
KROFT: Every square inch is covered.
Mr. FROST: Every square inch is covered.
I know. I know. But they're looking for terrorists, right? So we have nothing to fear, right? Wrong. They're eavesdropping on baby monitors and putting innocent housewives on lists of suspected terrorists.
Is it possible for people like you and I, innocent civilians, to be targeted by Echelon?
Mr. FROST: Not only possible, not only probable, but factual. While I was at CSE, a classic example: A lady had been to a school play the night before, and her son was in the school play and she thought he did a--a lousy job. Next morning, she was talking on the telephone to her friend, and she said to her friend something like this, 'Oh, Danny really bombed last night,' just like that. The computer spit that conversation out. The analyst that was looking at it was not too sure about what the conversation w--was referring to, so erring on the side of caution, he listed that lady and her phone number in the database as a possible terrorist.
KROFT: This is not urban legend you're talking about. This actually happened?
Mr. FROST: Factual. Absolutely fact. No legend here.
Read the whole story about the Clinton-era Echelon surveillance program. I'm glad that some of the leftosphere is starting to wake up to the dangers of the stifling surveillance system that we've tolerated for too long. I just think it's disingenuous to try to blame Bush. Bush is just one person in a long line of people perpetuating the myth of security at the hands of a nanny state.
Technorati tags: Securocrats, NSA, Echelon
Posted by Peenie Wallie on December 25, 2005 at 7:51 PM
Comments
I'm not a fan of Bush, and I probably wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire. But it's amazing how many cultists think that Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzales are evil, but Clinton/Reno were A-OK.
I'm not even sure why I'm supposed to be outraged by the USA PATRIOT Act, or the latest spying scandal, except that the talking heads on NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, etc. tell me I'm supposed to be. What's new in it that wasn't going on before? As others have also pointed out, the crap going on now is just a continuation of what was going on before (1994 Crime Bill, 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act, etc.), not a new Bush plot to enslave us after some mythical Golden Era of Clinton, when All Was Good.
I don't believe that anything Clinton did excuses what Bush is doing. But pointing it out does expose many of Bush's critics for the hypocrites (and worse) that they are. And it serves as a warning. Much of the current outrage is not about freedom, liberty, privacy, etc., but simply a cheap attempt to score political points. After all, Liberals/Leftists/Democrats are also for oppression, as long as it's their guy doing it.
Posted by: Robert Racansky on December 26, 2005 at 7:56 AM
A hypothetical example of how legitimae surveillance can be abused, from Slashdot:
How is the data used? (Score:4, Interesting)
by wasted (94866) on Saturday December 24, @11:04PM (#14334586)
The real privacy concerns to me are whether the NSA is sharing this information to be used by others for purposes other than those used to justify the monitoring. For instance, if they hear that I have a real big order of yeast and barley malt enroute from one company, and a lot of lab equipment on order from another company, will they alert the ATF that I have just ordered the necessary ingredients and supplies to start distillng alcohol? Although illegal where I reside, a still is not a security risk, and passing on that type of information seems to me to be the greater privacy risk, and goes against the whole reason for the monitoring in the first place. Of course, others may disagree, and no, I don't have a still.
Posted by: Robert on December 26, 2005 at 8:01 AM