The NSA is Commandeering the Internet
You know, I thought of another fallacy behind all this stuff.<p>We're told this is to prevent the next 9/11, but there's a problem with that. It's very unlikely -- for basic political reasons -- that this will be used to investigate the rich and powerful.<p>Huh? I thought people in caves in Afghanistan attacked us cause they hated our freedom?<p>The cave dweller thing is probably the biggest lie about 9/11. Bin Laden was rich, from an even richer family, was financed by some of the richest people on Earth, and had state support.<p>The next Osama bin Laden probably owns stock in the companies that are acting as contractors for the NSA right now. Or if he doesn't, his supporters and financiers probably do.<p>Case in point:<p>So now the DEA is using it to bust drug dealers. Why isn't the SEC using it to bust criminals on Wall St.? Think about it. Who's richer? Who's more <i>connected</i>? Who's gonna lawyer up and bust your chops hard if you come after them? Who's got friends and family members who might actually sit on committees in Washington that oversee your project?<p>Edit:<p>Given the above, I also consider it a good possibility that systems like this could be used against us. Recall 9/11 again. They were <i>our planes</i> that were flown into our buildings, not someone else's. What's the probability that a well-connected rich state-linked international terrorist will use systems like this to gather intel against the United States itself in preparation for a terrorist attack.<p>Want to smuggle in a nuke? Wouldn't it be helpful to pull <i>all</i> the personal information and movement schedules for all the people who work security at the Port of Long Beach...? to give just one example. That could be made to look like a routine investigation quite easily, and if Snowden can exfiltrate so much data so can someone else-- especially someone with a higher level of expertise and sponsorship.<p>How many NSA analysts have access to these systems? How much does that job pay?<p>And do any of <i>them</i> have dangerous personality traits or ideological affiliations? Guerilla domestic terrorism from within is also a possibility. Remember this?<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks</a>