In an effort to create the appearance of transparency, the NSA has released a series of its quarterly reports to the White House oversight officials on its many, many violations of American privacy.
As part of their usual tactic of combining “transparency” with an almost ridiculous amount of effort to avoid providing actually information, the reports were heavily redacted, and released late on Christmas Eve.
The fact that every single detail about the scope of individual violations was taken out of the reports makes them all but useless in determining just how many Americans were wrongly surveilled.
Still and all, the fact that there were scores of reports every single quarter for well over a decade, and that the language of what wasn’t redacted was remarkably similar for many of the reports, it shows abuse was far from isolated, and that there were no serious efforts to prevent situations from recurring.
The reports were a response to Freedom of Information Act requests from the ACLU, and even if it isn’t particularly helpful in learning the scope of the abuses, it is noteworthy.
It may also add pressure to calls to actually reform the NSA and prevent the wholesale surveillance that leads to such abuses, though so far there seems to be very little Congressional support for anything more than token legal changes designed to provide the appearance of reform.
The enemies of the human race. The US federal government.
Dissident — One in a million who differs openly against the rich and powerful
And all of this massive surveillance, all to comb every nook and cranny to uncover each and every dissident who may lead a rebellion. All to destroy your career within any corporation, destroy your family with divorce court, “the judicial sledgehammer of separation.” And all to so waste you, like Michael Hastings bu an FBI bomb squad if need be, so that you are sure to die without a following.
But how silly, for all they need do is look at a few cookies in your computer to know exactly where your coming from. So, it’s all done to nip a rebellion in the bud, to so terrorize the vast majority that shivers run up and down their spine anytime they even think about clicking on AntiWar. com to see how bad things are really getting to be.
"…token legal changes designed to provide the appearance of reform."
Wouldn't want to be labeled by the opposition as "soft on the terrorists," you know. Might make getting re-elected more expensive.
Until the Bluffdale, Utah facility is razed; and all hardware and software destroyed, and all record storage in any form is destroyed, there can be no reform.
NSA has many other facilties in the US and around the world, but the Bluffdale facility is the core of domestic surveillance, and as long as it exists, NSA can put out all the reports it wants, but they will have no effect, since nearly every member of congress votes their budget year after year.