Post by Ralph on Sept 3, 2011 2:09:01 GMT -5
The people watching the watchers are the ones watching those being watched while looking over the shoulders watching you not seeing them watch everyone.
Everyone is watching everyone, and everyone knows that they are all watching everyone, though they all try not to step on each others toes. The only boundaries are the baskets that the paperwork (that may or may not get done) falls into. In the very end it still winds up in a few big mainframes scattered across the countryside that are accessible to all of them. The only boundaries there are are deemed by what your pay grade is as to how far you can dig into them.
It’s called intelligence, and everyone loves to hear that we are gathering intelligence……that is until they find out how we acquire some of it. The CIA would never spy on folks inside our own borders, but they “consult” with many other “agencies” whose job it is to spy on folks inside our own borders. But “spying” is a bad word……..which is why they call it gathering intelligence.
I don’t like the Patriot Act, and unbridled wiretapping is taboo…but there are tons of much more mundane ways to gather intelligence, and sometimes much more productive. Watching and listening to those in question is one of the best ways TO gather intelligence, and if you think that they are not watching the nutjob clubs, neo-whoevers, and every supremacist group out there……they are. Their little LCD’s light up every time someone mentions keywords on the internet, and then they track the amount of times it comes up, cross reference IP addy’s, dates, other key words, numbers, phrases and every anarchist type site that IP visits. Which is why sometimes Aunt Mae and cousin Sally may get poked at….just because they may be curious.
Profiling? Hell, no one wants it done, but everyone does it.
Why? Because it is the most effective tool in the box.
Will anyone admit it? Hell no! Because every time a tool this good comes along some ACLU do gooder or zealot with PETA takes it away faster than trans-fat from a McNugget. But this is one that can’t be held, felt, seen, or in most respects proven.
Personally……I feel the good of the many outweigh the good of the few. If we piss off a couple hundred thousand folks while saving a couple million, I think we got a bargain.
Everyone is watching everyone, and everyone knows that they are all watching everyone, though they all try not to step on each others toes. The only boundaries are the baskets that the paperwork (that may or may not get done) falls into. In the very end it still winds up in a few big mainframes scattered across the countryside that are accessible to all of them. The only boundaries there are are deemed by what your pay grade is as to how far you can dig into them.
It’s called intelligence, and everyone loves to hear that we are gathering intelligence……that is until they find out how we acquire some of it. The CIA would never spy on folks inside our own borders, but they “consult” with many other “agencies” whose job it is to spy on folks inside our own borders. But “spying” is a bad word……..which is why they call it gathering intelligence.
I don’t like the Patriot Act, and unbridled wiretapping is taboo…but there are tons of much more mundane ways to gather intelligence, and sometimes much more productive. Watching and listening to those in question is one of the best ways TO gather intelligence, and if you think that they are not watching the nutjob clubs, neo-whoevers, and every supremacist group out there……they are. Their little LCD’s light up every time someone mentions keywords on the internet, and then they track the amount of times it comes up, cross reference IP addy’s, dates, other key words, numbers, phrases and every anarchist type site that IP visits. Which is why sometimes Aunt Mae and cousin Sally may get poked at….just because they may be curious.
Profiling? Hell, no one wants it done, but everyone does it.
Why? Because it is the most effective tool in the box.
Will anyone admit it? Hell no! Because every time a tool this good comes along some ACLU do gooder or zealot with PETA takes it away faster than trans-fat from a McNugget. But this is one that can’t be held, felt, seen, or in most respects proven.
Personally……I feel the good of the many outweigh the good of the few. If we piss off a couple hundred thousand folks while saving a couple million, I think we got a bargain.