Put On a Smiley Face

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Nidal Hasan — the Fort Hood mass murderer now on trial — began his court martial defense with the statement that the evidence will show he is guilty. What the evidence will also show, by omission, is how our government institutions ignored the sort of evidence the NSA is supposedly looking for in its global search of telephone data, emails, and other electronic communication.

In his Friday press conference, President Obama didn’t address that problem. Instead, he promised to have an independent panel of experts report on how to fix our intelligence gathering mechanisms. He began, as he always does, by disclaiming responsibility for any problems. He expressed a “healthy skepticism” about the NSA programs when he was a senator, dontcha know. He thus invoked, for the umpteenth time, the “I wasn’t there, I didn’t do it, it was those other guys” defense Eric Holder invented in the Marc Rich pardon mess.

Obama then went on to propose that somebody, someday, “reform” Section 215 of the Patriot Act to limit NSA’s reach into telephone records. (It isn’t Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, of course. It’s Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Section 215 rewrote.) Obama didn’t say what those reforms should be or even outline a general proposal. Just “reform,” whatever that means.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

Obama then went on to propose that somebody, someday, reform Section 215 of the Patriot Act to limit NSAs reach into telephone records. (It isnt Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, of course. Its Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Section 215 rewrote.) Obama didnt say what those reforms should be or even outline a general proposal. Just reform, whatever that means.

In other words... a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

 

 

Some of us, including myself, believe that 99.9% of our antiterrorist intelligence gathering should be aimed at those Islamists in foreign nations who pose the proximate danger of terrorist acts against us. And we believe that it already is. But that position is harder and harder to defend when all we have is Gen. Alexanders word that NSA has stopped dozens of possible attacks. We dont disbelieve him, but we lack the information to support him if, as we expect, his statements are true. He cant make the specifics public, we expect, because to do so would probably reveal too much of our methods and sources of intelligence gathering.

Yes? And?

 

 

Lets start at the end and work our way back to the beginning. As Ive written, not only do we need better oversight of NSA and the other intel agencies, but we need the Senate and House intelligence committees to take it upon themselves to tell us a lot more about what their oversight efforts are accomplishing. If theyre satisfied that NSA isnt abusing its authority, why are they? What have they concluded that we can gain understanding from and, from that understanding, achieve some confidence in the intelligence agencies work?

The problem is when they do this....guess who else is listening in?

 

The whole intelligence community is still divided into individual fiefdoms that sometimes cooperate and too often dont. Enacting a Goldwater-Nichols reform of the intel community (and doing away with the DNI in favor of a Director of Central Intelligence who would actually direct a centralized intelligence agency) is the answer.

Not that I disagree with this, but something of a separate issue. Goldwater-Nichols Act might work, it has had some effect on how the DoD does business. Budgets might be the answer, making the budget of one agency be tied to the success of other agencies. The problem is a haystack problem...the haystack is so big and the needles are so few that sometimes the needle slips through.

 

The thing that amazes me is not that (Say) The Boston Bombing happens, but that more terrorists don't slip through the cracks. Let us hope the terrorists don't learn to keep their mouths shut, because if they do......?

 

 

Once again I ask my question....What do You Want To Do?

[SrWoodchuck]

[SrWoodchuck]

 

Via Wirecutter