Domestic Spying, Chatting Up Travelers, and Compromising National Security
O.k., so I've been completely out of touch with the blogosphere for about two weeks, so ignore this if the point's already been made, but...
You gotta marvel at how rapidly the administration started pushing for an investigation to identify the domestic spying whistle-blowers...especially given its foot-dragging on more important investigations like the 9/11 commission. And especially given that the revelation of the domestic spying program did absolutely nothing to lessen the program's effectiveness.
But furthermore--get this--I'm in this hotel the other day and get a free copy of USA Today...or maybe the title is USA Today!...not sure...pushed under my door. It's sort of like a newspaper apparently, but for, like, twelve-year-olds. It contained things like op-eds by such luminaries as Cal Thomas. Jesus, is that guy like married to Peggy Noonan or what? He's utterly daft and mean as a snake.
Anyway, according to USA Today!, the TSA is going to start chatting casually with more travellers in airport security lines because this is apparently a fairly good way to catch terrorists. Terrorists, we were told, tend (for example) to be evasive, and tend to be vague about where they're coming from, where they're going, and what they're up to.
But here's the thing: here's a program that is actually made less effective by being revealed. In fact, specifics about TSA strategies were discussed, including specifics about how terrorists tend to react to the types of questioning at issue. If anyone is going to be outraged about undermining GWoT/G-SAVE/P-FUNK, they should be outraged that this information was revealed.
As for the domestic spying: as I noted before, those revelations did absolutely nothing to help terrorists. They already knew we could spy on them, and they don't give a good goddamn whether that spying is conducted with or without a warrant.
That's something that it's important for us to know, but which is absolutely irrelevant to them. The administration's assertions that national security has been compromised by the revelation of their illegal domestic spying are loathsomely cynical and patently false. It's yet another example of them playing the national security card to cover up their political shenanigans.
What a bunch of crooks.
O.k., so I've been completely out of touch with the blogosphere for about two weeks, so ignore this if the point's already been made, but...
You gotta marvel at how rapidly the administration started pushing for an investigation to identify the domestic spying whistle-blowers...especially given its foot-dragging on more important investigations like the 9/11 commission. And especially given that the revelation of the domestic spying program did absolutely nothing to lessen the program's effectiveness.
But furthermore--get this--I'm in this hotel the other day and get a free copy of USA Today...or maybe the title is USA Today!...not sure...pushed under my door. It's sort of like a newspaper apparently, but for, like, twelve-year-olds. It contained things like op-eds by such luminaries as Cal Thomas. Jesus, is that guy like married to Peggy Noonan or what? He's utterly daft and mean as a snake.
Anyway, according to USA Today!, the TSA is going to start chatting casually with more travellers in airport security lines because this is apparently a fairly good way to catch terrorists. Terrorists, we were told, tend (for example) to be evasive, and tend to be vague about where they're coming from, where they're going, and what they're up to.
But here's the thing: here's a program that is actually made less effective by being revealed. In fact, specifics about TSA strategies were discussed, including specifics about how terrorists tend to react to the types of questioning at issue. If anyone is going to be outraged about undermining GWoT/G-SAVE/P-FUNK, they should be outraged that this information was revealed.
As for the domestic spying: as I noted before, those revelations did absolutely nothing to help terrorists. They already knew we could spy on them, and they don't give a good goddamn whether that spying is conducted with or without a warrant.
That's something that it's important for us to know, but which is absolutely irrelevant to them. The administration's assertions that national security has been compromised by the revelation of their illegal domestic spying are loathsomely cynical and patently false. It's yet another example of them playing the national security card to cover up their political shenanigans.
What a bunch of crooks.
posted by Winston Smith at
12:13 AM
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