Do you trust the NSA (poll, controversial, weapon, Clinton)

[Frank DeForrest]

And by extension do we trust the israelis? Since the NSA is sending them all the data it collects

[texdav]

Not nay more than our forefathers did. Americans have never liked the ole trust me its for your own good thing.

[bluesjuke]

Originally Posted by ctk0p7

The NSA became the monster it is today from the policies put in place by President Bush, and it has gone unchecked since then.

Along with the much deepened policies put in place by Obama.
That leads us to today.

[kidkaos2]

Originally Posted by LS Jaun

Simple question.


Edited:

Any worse than the FBI under J Edgar Hoover?
Or the Dept of Homeland Security?

I believe the Dept of Homeland Security and the TSA should be abolished. Violation of liberty and huge expenditure of taxpayer money for too little in return.

[gmagoo]

A couple of questions.

1... Do you folks think that there are people in this world that would like to fly another airplane into a skyscraper or some similar act?

2....If you answer yes, what would be the proper way to deal with this?

[residinghere2007]

Honestly, I don't trust the NSA but I don't trust it any less than I do other government agencies like the FBI and the CIA amongst others.

I find it odd really that so many people are "shocked" about the goings on of the NSA. Spying on us is really an American way. I don't like it, but it is something that has always transpired in our country in regards to the last 100 years or so especially.

So I see them as no different than "the government" in general.

I don't get the outrage about them and I feel people are only outraged because they must have trusted the government before Snowden's release of information was given to the media. I know they are out there spying and I know that they are violating my rights as a citizen along with fellow citizens. But I admit I am lazy and complacent about it as I don't file lawsuits or make a case against them like I probably should, mostly because I'm not really concerned with the government collecting my phone records and I admit, that is a scary idea - that I am not concerned by it and I don't agree with what they do, but really, in this day and age in regards to technology, I doubt that they are the only ones collecting information about me or any of us on this forum. So I don't see them as an evil agency. I see them performing a job that the government is telling them to perform and industries making money off of what the government wants to do.

[Grizzmeister]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

I don't get the outrage about them and I feel people are only outraged because they must have trusted the government before Snowden's release of information was given to the media.

People are outraged because it's become obvious that the US Intelligence Agencies are abusing the extra powers they were granted after 9/11 under the USA PATRIOT Act. Also, now that we live in the Digital Age the NSA has Orwellian powers that far exceed even the wildest fears of Senator Frank Church when he made this comment back in the 1970's, “I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge... I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”

[LordSquidworth]

We have too many of these organizations these days. Time to thin the herd.

[BentBow]

Originally Posted by gmagoo

A couple of questions.

1... Do you folks think that there are people in this world that would like to fly another airplane into a skyscraper or some similar act?

2....If you answer yes, what would be the proper way to deal with this?

Why are we at war?

We stuck our noses into a Holy War.
It is the 21st century Crusades.
A religion of tolerance, vs, A religion of intolerance.

[Grizzmeister]

To reform the NSA, fire officials who lie | James Goodale | Comment is free | theguardian.com

The NSA has lied to the Congress, the courts, and perhaps even to the president himself, but no one seems to care.

The Director of National Intelligence James R Clapper admitted he lied to Congress about the NSA metadata collection program. He said the NSA had no such program – and then added that that was the least "untruthful" remark he could make. General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, lied in 2012 that the NSA does not hold data on US citizens, and repeated similar misstatements, under oath, to Congress about the program:

"We're not authorized to do it [data collection on US citizens], nor do we do it."

NSA lawyers lied to secret Fisa court Judges John D Bates and Reggie B Walton. In recently released opinions, Bates said he had been lied to on three separate occasions and Walton said he had been lied to several times also.

But Clapper and Alexander have not been held in contempt of Congress. Nor have the Justice Department attorneys, who lied to Judges Walton and Bates, been disciplined. Part of the answer as to why this is so came out last week.