God, this is a pointless conversation with a lot of opinions and not
much knowledge. There have probably been "shadow governments" and
agencies under them in operation for many, many years in almost all
civilizations. We have no way of determining the truth or falsity of
any of this. Even people who think they are on the inside most likely
don't know the depth of this and if they did they certainly wouldn't
make it public. So form your own opinions based on your ideology and
argue it with your friends over beers but let's get it out of
Photoforum. As has been said before we are generating too much heat and
not much light. And, by the way, Bob, as the news media have been
reporting, monitoring has been going on under "executive order" and not
court issued warrants and Bush has defended the practice even though the
US Constitution does not give the executive branch any powers like
that. It may not be the NSA but that's nit picking. The resources do
exist to monitor phone conversations but actually listening to and
making any use of them is highly unlikely. Key words my trigger closer
inspection but terrorists are not likely to use plain English,
unencoded, now are they? Okay, now I have unloaded by opinions and
exposed the limits of my knowledge. Let's go on to something else. It
is a shame that the political situation is overwhelming the artistic,
journalistic, scientific, whatever aspects of this list. Submit some
photos for god's sake, critique a few galleries; get us back on track.
Rant over. It's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Don Roberts
Bob Blakely wrote:
I've been in this business for a long time now. The NSA does not
monitor US phones. Period. They don't have the resources to do it.
They don't want to do it, and they don't do it. Other agencies/bureaus
have this expertise and the equipments to do it and they do it upon
court order... and they damn well should. I really don't care who or
what news agency or what supposed "authority" told you the NSA does
this, they're wrong and now they've made you wrong.
The NSA has specific missions. They do them.
They do not do other peoples missions for them.
The CIA has specific missions. They do them.
They do not do other peoples missions for them.
The FBI has specific missions. They do them.
They do not do other peoples missions for them.
The DEA has specific missions. They do them.
They do not do other peoples missions for them.
The Secret Service has specific missions. They do them.
They do not do other peoples missions for them.
Regards,
Bob...
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By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy;
if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
- Socrates
From: "David Dyer-Bennet" <dd-b@xxxxxxxx>
Bob Blakely <Bob@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
The NSA does not tap US phones.
I dunno if you're splitting hairs, or just out-of-date. Conversations
involving a US phone are now being monitored by the NSA.
And nobody out here *I* know is really confident they weren't doing it
20 years ago, either, or that they aren't monitoring some
conversations where *both* ends are in the US.
--
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On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
George Orwell
