Holy cr@p, Revdisk.
I know, I understated the case. I'm kinda busy this week. I skipped over a lot of material.
In seriousness, anyone in the know knows not to cross the NSA. The CEO of Qwest learned that the hard way. He refused to play ball with illegal wiretapping, coincidentally went to jail for alleged insider trading and the US govt doesn't allow any of the NSA blackmail into evidence as it's classified. So did anyone foolish enough to work within the system as a whistleblower.
With respect, I don't think you or most people here understand. This isn't bad, it's just a lack of first hand experience. During my time in the military and government, I have worked with the NSA on a couple of occasions. Hell, when I was about 15 or so, I called them up, asked them to send me some books and they did. They sent me two meters of books, which took up an entire bookshelf of my youth. Even threw in some photocopies of some interesting open papers and whatnot. I joined the Army, went into Signal, and dealt with them on a regular basis because they handle the military's crypto.
Each and every single NSA employee I have ever met has been intelligent, thoughtful, competent, decent human being with a sense of humor. You have no idea how terrifying that was and is. Everyone on this board that worked for or with any part of the US government would find this as unnerving as I did. The NSA is more dangerous than any other part of the US government, including the military. For one simple reason. They're competent. Period, end of sentence. That should chill anyone to their very bones. Competency is bred out of any US government organization, in the long term. People that are intelligent, innovative, competent and generally decent human beings don't rise up the ranks and rarely end up as government lifers.
Historically, the NSA stuck to its knitting. Yes, they crossed the line here and there. But rarely and virtually never got caught. For decades, they were "No Such Agency" and black as a coal mine. The fact that they're making the news on a near daily basis is a complete 180 from their roots.
I suspect the decent individuals will start leaving. Any that stay will be less moral and decent. Competence will slip, because the less moral kind tend to be less intelligent, dynamic and innovative. But they'll still have a treasure trove of blackmail material that will put J. Edgar Hoover to shame. The NSA has been collecting dirt on politicians for a very long time. Decades of records. Ask Michael D. Barnes.
It's one reason why they hoover up so much US related material. Today's kid on FB may become tomorrow's Senator, billionaire tech CEO or maybe just a janitor that cleans the toilets at Realtek in Taiwan when the NSA wants to steal their signing certificate to assist the development a virus to slow down Iran's nuclear development. Yes, that would be Stuxnet. The NSA was wiretapping President Obama long before ANYONE thought he would ever become POTUS.
Funny part. I'm not sure how much I helped the NSA do all of these things. At DISA, I maintained infrastructure for the DoD and intel community. You're never supposed to know the contents of the stuff you handle, and 99% of the time, I never did. Well, except for the zOS IBM mainframe that processed their budget. That was a "fun" day.
Kinda 1984. I helped them build the platforms they used to spy on me and everyone I know. Oh, nothing complex or Jason Bourne. Swapping hard drives, rebooting routers, etc. Very mundane tasks.
I don't want to "define" associating so loosely that "anyone" qualifies as a target. And I wasn't trying to say it was "right" to blow up an innocent wedding party, I was saying it was a bad mistake but ought not hamper our efforts against AQ.
*shrug*
Couple points, sir.
1. You may not even know you're associated with real or perceived terrorists.
2. You don't have to be associated with terrorists to be a target.
3. You're assuming folks don't make mistakes. See children and US senators ending up on the No Fly list.
I'm not against intelligence, drone strikes or other such activities. I believe they need to handled better, and that US citizens should not be the targets. The US military and intel community should be our watch dogs, not our masters. This is not an insult, but an honor. If they bite their owner however, there's no choice but to replace them.
At the moment, there is no oversight or accountability. None, zero. There are some ceremonial rubber stamps, that is all. Unlimited reach with no limits makes one sloppy, and lose focus. It shows, badly.
Btw, I apologize in advance if I sound patronizing or if I seem to be raking you over the coals, TommyGunn. Just that this sort of thing used to be more of my life than most and I kinda take it personal. Well, more accurately, this sort of thing *expletive deleted*ed my life.