WaPo - Inside NSA's World

[AnnieBW]

OpEd in WashPost today that some may have missed.

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/12/inside_nsas_wor.html

William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security
Inside NSA's World

Every day, the National Security Agency intercepts and records more that 650 million "events" worldwide: radar signals, radio and data transmissions, satellite, cell and land-line telephone calls, faxes and e-mail and text messages and chats over the Internet.

--- snip ---

Every day, NSA issues some 10,000 thematic and geographic "product reports" from its 650 million intercepts. Some are "finished" intelligence reports analyzing days, weeks, or months of intercepts fused with other intelligence material. Some are one or two sentence alerts triggered by reporting criteria for certain persons, countries, or events.

The volume of material flowing into NSA from satellites, ground stations, aircraft, ships, and submarines is staggering. Add to that that most of the material is in a foreign language and much of it is encrypted, and you begin to understand the agency's task, particularly as it abruptly changed focus after 9/11 from its traditional monitoring of the former Soviet Union, China, and rogue states to stateless individuals utilizing a far more complex suite of communications technologies.

--- snip ---

It is understandable in the days and weeks after 9/11 that the administration would have wanted to move quickly to close the gaps and focus on potential terrorists in the United States. But in four years, we've only got the Joint Inquiry to understand the NSA's challenges. More openness and greater Congressional oversight and scrutiny would have helped the agency and the United States to move forward in a better (and legal) way.

And more media reporting. A greater understanding of NSA would have opened the door and thereby contribute to limiting its potential for abuse

[caligirl]

1. Listening to Malloy this afternoon heard some guy talk about how p'ssd off

NSA insiders are, like the CIA who would like chucklesidiot and his crooks run out on a rail.