So it was Signals Intelligence (NSA???) that forms the basis of US certainty of Assad's guilt?

[Junkdrawer]

Very interesting....

[Jackpine Radical]

1. How DARE anyone say bad things about the NSA

after all they've done to help the administration Get it On with Syria?

Have you people no gratitude?

[Junkdrawer]

2. A good bit of dust just settled.....

Last Saturday, before we met Ed Snowden, I asked this:

What good is building the perfect Big Brother if only the hipsters know it exists?

No matter how good the NSA is, no matter how many people they have using the new "Google for Tyrants&quot tm), you can't keep tabs on everyone and all their doings.

--- BUT ----

If everyone "knows" that Big Brother is watching....

Think about the normal trajectory for a story like this. DemocracyNow, Truthout, DU maybe Kos....

Now, what was this story's trajectory?

Something to ponder.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022973483

As usual, I found the same questions, sort of, were asked better and earlier. Think Progress this Friday:

Why The NSA’s Secret Online Surveillance Should Scare You



The reaction to the National Security Agency (NSA)’s secret online spying program, PRISM, has been polarized between seething outrage and some variant on “what did you expect?” Some have gone so far as to say this program helps open the door to fascism, while others have downplayed it as in line with the way that we already let corporations get ahold of our personal data.

That second reaction illustrates precisely why this program is so troubling. The more we accept perpetual government and corporate surveillance as the norm, the more we change our actions and behavior to fit that expectation — subtly but inexorably corrupting the liberal ideal that each person should be free to live life as they choose without fear of anyone else interfering with it.

Put differently, George Orwell isn’t who you should be reading to understand the dangers inherent to the NSA’s dragnet. You’d be better off turning to famous French social theorist Michel Foucault.

...

A citizenry that’s constantly on guard for secret, unaccountable surveillance is one that’s constantly being remade along the lines the state would prefer. Foucault illustrated this point by reference to a hypothetical prison called the Panopticon. Designed by utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the Panopticon is a prison where all cells can be seen from a central tower shielded such that the guards can see out but the prisoners can’t see in. The prisoners in the Panopticon could thus never know whether they were being surveilled, meaning that they have to, if they want to avoid running the risk of severe punishment, assume that they were being watched at all times. Thus, the Panopticon functioned as an effective tool of social control even when it wasn’t being staffed by a single guard.

....

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/07/2120141/why-the-nsas-secret-online-surveillance-should-scare-you/

So, this morning, I was listening to DemocracyNow and heard this:

....

AMY GOODMAN: What’s wrong with that?

TIM SHORROCK: What’s wrong with that is that it’s a for-profit operation. Many times, you have—inside these agencies, you have contractors overseeing other contractors, contractors, you know, giving advice to the agency about how to set its policies, what kind of technology to buy. And, of course, they have relationships with all the companies that they work with or that they suggest to the leaders of U.S. intelligence.

And I think, you know, a terrible example of this is, you know, a few months ago, I wrote a cover story for The Nation magazine about the NSA whistleblowers that you’ve had on this show a few times—Tom Drake, Bill Binney and the other two—and, you know, they blew the whistle on a huge project called Trailblazer that was contracted out to SAIC that was a complete failure. And this project was designed, from the beginning, by Booz Allen, Northrop Grumman and a couple other corporations who advised the NSA about how to acquire this project, and then decided amongst themselves to give it to SAIC, and then SAIC promised the skies and never produced anything, and the project was finally canceled in 2005.
....

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/11/digital_blackwater_how_the_nsa_gives

So those NSA whistleblowers were prosecuted because they let out a terrible secret: Trailblazer (which sounds to me like PRISM's predecessor) DIDN'T WORK.

Just remember: before the dust settles, all is not always what it seems.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2994688

[Downwinder]

3. Redirecting the heat?

in a warming climate that might not work.