Thursday, May 11, 2006
Our own Waziristan
The latest 'revelation' of a 'surprising' fact: NSA has been running traffic analysis to spot calls to enemy agents. As before, this is no surprise to anyone who pays attention to such matters. If you think for even a few seconds about the purpose of NSA, you can see that they would have to do something like this. I've assumed it for twenty years.
Unlike the previous NSA 'revelation', this one could do some actual harm.
Here's why: The article says that Qwest has refused to go along with this traffic analysis, because Qwest is afraid of legal consequences. This gives specific and useful info to the enemy.
Without any special knowledge, the Army of Allah could easily assume, as I did, that traffic analysis is a constant part of our intelligence operations. But they couldn't automatically assume that Qwest phones were immune from surveillance. Now they know it.
One more step: How would Qwest be subject to legal consequences? Through a lawsuit brought by an enemy collaborator in Federal court, which would be within the 9th Circuit. [Later news report indicates that such a lawsuit was already begun several months ago.] So the enemy now knows for sure that the 9th Circuit is effectively beyond federal control. Our little Waziristan, in other words. Courts in the 9th District will be inclined to serve the enemy, while other areas are more inclined to serve the United States.
This accidentally ties in with a point I was making yesterday. Our victory in WW2 was assisted by mobilization of American companies. In that war, fought with huge quantities of tanks, aircraft and bombs, American automobile and steel makers played the major part. In WW4, fought largely in the realms of intelligence, American phone companies are the critical industries.
So this 'revelation' verifies something I've been worried about for a long time. Kindler Gentler George is unwilling to use the carrot of defense contracts and the stick of prosecution to mobilize the appropriate sectors of American industry.
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Addendum: Kudos to ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for stating clearly and flatly, without the usual pretense of some-say-this / some-say-that debatability, that traffic analysis is absolutely legal!
¶ 3:39 PM
Unlike the previous NSA 'revelation', this one could do some actual harm.
Here's why: The article says that Qwest has refused to go along with this traffic analysis, because Qwest is afraid of legal consequences. This gives specific and useful info to the enemy.
Without any special knowledge, the Army of Allah could easily assume, as I did, that traffic analysis is a constant part of our intelligence operations. But they couldn't automatically assume that Qwest phones were immune from surveillance. Now they know it.
One more step: How would Qwest be subject to legal consequences? Through a lawsuit brought by an enemy collaborator in Federal court, which would be within the 9th Circuit. [Later news report indicates that such a lawsuit was already begun several months ago.] So the enemy now knows for sure that the 9th Circuit is effectively beyond federal control. Our little Waziristan, in other words. Courts in the 9th District will be inclined to serve the enemy, while other areas are more inclined to serve the United States.
This accidentally ties in with a point I was making yesterday. Our victory in WW2 was assisted by mobilization of American companies. In that war, fought with huge quantities of tanks, aircraft and bombs, American automobile and steel makers played the major part. In WW4, fought largely in the realms of intelligence, American phone companies are the critical industries.
So this 'revelation' verifies something I've been worried about for a long time. Kindler Gentler George is unwilling to use the carrot of defense contracts and the stick of prosecution to mobilize the appropriate sectors of American industry.
-----
Addendum: Kudos to ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for stating clearly and flatly, without the usual pretense of some-say-this / some-say-that debatability, that traffic analysis is absolutely legal!
¶ 3:39 PM
