As I mentioned several times here on MT.Net, I have admired the work the NSA has done in keeping our nation’s secrets while searching for those of other nations.
The key phrase in that last sentence is, of course, other nations. The NSA of which I was a part didn’t spy on Americans. In the acronym-happy military vernacular, that would be a CEM: a Career-Ending Move. We were proud to respect our nation’s cherished Fourth Amendment while providing early warning of threats to our country.
I used to respect Gen. Michael Hayden, DIRNSA, too. He had a tough job retooling the NSA to match the dramatically changing communications landscape caused by the explosive rise of the Internet. Overall he was successful, too. But I no longer respect Gen. Hayden, as he was far too willing to take the Fourth Amendment and USSID 18 – the laws which govern unreasonable search and seizures – and feed them to the shredders. Hayden has dodged questions on domestic spying before (full transcript here), which doesn’t instill confidence that he’ll keep the NSA focused on the real, external threats.
Imagine my dismay to read USA Today’s story that major phone companies willingly forked over calling records to NSA without a warrant. This is clearly a violation of the Fourth Amendment, USSID 18, and the spirit of NSA’s charter.
I expected this kind of behavior from the communist countries I used to oppose when I wore a uniform. I didn’t expect it from my own country
You remember the one, right? The “land of the free?”
Anger grows over NSA surveillance report
http://news.com.com/Anger+grows+over+NSA+surveillance+report/2100-1028_3-6071525.html
“We’ve got a new slogan for the AT&T and NSA: Reach out and tap someone.”
— Rep. Edward Markey, Massachusetts
I see a market for pre-configured home Asterisk boxes with some kind of IM’ish front end. Give one to each member of your family who has high-speed and make phone calls between them over the Internet – and encrypted no less. I don’t care if you are supposed to encrypt phone conversations or not, they aren’t supposed to be collecting records but they are.
I’m picturing something about the size of a WRT54G.. but a phone gateway with a standard RJ11 connection on the end.. Kind of like the Packet8 DTA but it would connect to a mesh network and the device would have a simple web front end that would handle the automatic dyndns stuff.
There is a million ways to work this. If this crap isn’t a reason to go to VoIP I don’t know what is. I’ll even give up my cell for everyhing except work-related calls.
I’m kind of ticked off about this whole thing, can you tell?
Stumbling Into a Spy Scandal
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70910-0.html