NSA chief on spying programs: 'There is no other way to connect the dots'

[rhett o rick]

Keith Alexander insists bulk data collection stops terror attacks and says he would be 'failing' America if the practice stopped

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/nsa-chiefs-keith-alexander-senate-surveillance

National Security Agency director Keith Alexander, in an indication of the political crisis roiling his agency, compared the bulk collection on Wednesday to "holding a hornet's nest," but said he did not know how to detect future domestic terrorist attacks without swooping up the phone records of every American.

"There is no other way we know of to connect the dots," Alexander told a nearly empty Senate judiciary committee hearing that was at turns heated, probing and humorous.

Remember when a number of DU posters vehemently espoused that the NSA wasnt spying on Americans. They desparately tried to bully discussions in attempts to shut down discussions. Even today those same posters openly disparage Snowden.

This was cross posted in the Progressive Group: www.democraticunderground.com/126917

[cantbeserious]

1. Yes - I Remember - People Can't Handle The Truth - The Truth Hurts

eom

[Heather MC]

3. It must require a lot of man power err woman power to spy on everyone, I wonder

if they have any Job openings. Not for me, for a friend, really!

[Heather MC]

2. Welp they sure dropped the ball on

Sandy Hook
Boston Bombings
Shooting at Mall of America
The shooting at the Shiek (sp) Temple

Oh never mind those were not terrorist attacks
I keep forgetting

[rhett o rick]

4. They had enough information to stop the attacks on the World Trade Center.

We must consider that stopping attacks may not be their number one goal. A terrorist attack every now and then helps keep Americans scared into believing that the NSA budget is more important than health care for our children or Social Security.

[Heather MC]

10. I think 9/11 instilled enough fear for a lifetime

But we are all merely Collateral Damage, if it helps control the masses

[rhett o rick]

11. I think small reminders might help their cause. nm

[grasswire]

5. yes, that is the obvious logical response to his statements

The ROI -- Return On Investment stinks. God only knows how many billions (or trillions?) of dollars have been spent on surveillance state since, say, 2000. The return on that investment is very poor.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. "The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants,

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.”

-Albert Camus (1913-1960)

[cantbeserious]

7. Google Cookies Help NSA Identify Targets for Hacking and Spying

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/nsa-spy-cookies/

It isn’t just online advertisers that benefit from user-tracking cookies. The National Security Agency has been taking advantage of the cookies that companies force on users to pinpoint targets they want to hack, according to newly released Edward Snowden documents.

The NSA and the British spy agency GCHQ look for ad tracking cookies in their wiretapped internet packets to identify specific people browsing the Internet. They especially focus on Google’s ubiquitous “PREF” cookie, which doesn’t identify the user’s name or e-mail address, but does include unique numeric codes that identify the user’s browser to websites.

These codes help the spy agencies hone in on specific machines they want to attack, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post. The documents say the NSA uses the cookies to “enable remote exploitation.” CNE, or computer network exploitation, is the military’s term for hacking conducted to obtain intelligence.

Snip ....

[BelgianMadCow]

8. There Is No Alternative. Here's RT's take

this bit jumped out at me:

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were evoked no fewer than three times during the first 15 minutes of the hearing — including by Alexander, who said that the abilities afforded to the NSA in the years since have allowed the agency to conduct surveillance that could have very well stopped 9/11 had they been in place then.

Before then, Alexander said, “We couldn’t connect the dots because we didn’t have this capability to say someone outside the United States is trying to talk to somebody inside the United States.”

...

“There is no other way that we know of to connect the dots,” he said, adding that the threat against America is growing and abandoning those programs would be “an unacceptable risk to this country.”

Terraaaah!

But, rest assuredly:

According to the NSA chief, his agency is in the midst of announcing 41 different actions being rolled-out by the office’s director of technology that employs best industry practices to prevent another leak on par with the one attributed to Snowden. Meanwhile, new classified documents released to the media by Snowden and reported on this week show that the NSA have infiltrated computer games to gather intelligence, and relied on computer cookies to track targets to be hacked by the US government.

Full article here.

[KoKo]

9. Recommend!

:kick:

[Octafish]

12. Congress approves NSA budget, no questions asked.

I'll say.

[randome]

13. "...desperately tried to bully discussions..." Please.

He is still talking about the phone record metadata and you want this to mean the NSA is spying on Americans.

It's a fair point to be made but, again, acquisition of third party business records have long been ruled to not violate the Constitution.

And 'openly disparage Snowden'? How would you prefer he be disparaged? By sign language?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[rhett o rick]

15. I find it interesting that some fear the truth so much that they will lash out

at anyone that dares seek such. Better I guess to live in a cloud of delusion. They trusting the authoritarian leaders without oversight, without skepticism. One might think these defenders of the authoritarian leadership are blissful, but they give themselves away when they lash out at those that do seek the truth. It isnt enough to avoid looking behind the curtain, they try to bully those that would look, and strongly disparage those that do look.

We are in a serious class struggle. Those in power, most likely arent looking out for the best interest of us peons. Some think that if they defend the authoritarian leaders they will be rewarded somehow. And they will. They get their choice of kool-aid flavors.

[randome]

16. Ridiculous. Everyone knows cherry flavor is ALWAYS the way to go!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[jsr]

14. NSA Guide to Connect The Dots:

[gollygee]

17. I think this is highly unlikely

I'm sure there are ways to do intelligence work without spying on innocent people, and in fact the 4th amendment requires it.