Thursday, May 29, 2014
Constants and variables 13, I think
It's fun to watch Godzilla Kerry roaring fiery overmodulated imprecations at "our" enemies of the moment. If we assume that "our" enemies are actually enemies, Godzilla Kerry is the best friend they ever had. Every single bad deed he accuses "our" enemies of committing is a deed that Kerry himself committed at some point in the past.
Today Old Zil is roaring at Snowden, with the usual rot about giving "our" enemies data that "our" enemies didn't have before.
Of course this is perfect nonsense. Anyone who has been watching NSA for the last several decades knows that NSA monitors everything.
I haven't been surprised by anything Snowden said. I'm an outsider who happened to be in a position to see the 'penumbra' of NSA a couple of times, but otherwise paid little attention to the subject. We can assume serious opponents have been paying vastly more attention, and have been interacting in a vastly more intense way than I have.
Well, what's the broader answer? Do criminals and terrorists behave differently after Snowden? Do they suppress their communication now that they realize that someone else might be listening?
Constants and variables. We have two separate situations.
High-level gangsters and high-level national opponents have been running their own spy activities. China has been penetrating all of our institutions for 30 years, and Sheikh Osama was working for CIA until his usefulness (and thus his life) expired. If those are "our" main enemies, it's dead certain that they knew far more specific details than Snowden has thus far revealed. Their operations won't change because they already knew everything important.
For low-level criminals the answer is the same for an entirely different reason. Basic professional criminals are short-term thinkers with no empathy, no ability to think from another angle. They didn't understand the phone system before Snowden and they still don't understand the phone system.
In today's local news:
Today Old Zil is roaring at Snowden, with the usual rot about giving "our" enemies data that "our" enemies didn't have before.
Of course this is perfect nonsense. Anyone who has been watching NSA for the last several decades knows that NSA monitors everything.
I haven't been surprised by anything Snowden said. I'm an outsider who happened to be in a position to see the 'penumbra' of NSA a couple of times, but otherwise paid little attention to the subject. We can assume serious opponents have been paying vastly more attention, and have been interacting in a vastly more intense way than I have.
Well, what's the broader answer? Do criminals and terrorists behave differently after Snowden? Do they suppress their communication now that they realize that someone else might be listening?
Constants and variables. We have two separate situations.
High-level gangsters and high-level national opponents have been running their own spy activities. China has been penetrating all of our institutions for 30 years, and Sheikh Osama was working for CIA until his usefulness (and thus his life) expired. If those are "our" main enemies, it's dead certain that they knew far more specific details than Snowden has thus far revealed. Their operations won't change because they already knew everything important.
For low-level criminals the answer is the same for an entirely different reason. Basic professional criminals are short-term thinkers with no empathy, no ability to think from another angle. They didn't understand the phone system before Snowden and they still don't understand the phone system.
In today's local news:
Detectives searched a home in July 2013 after a tip came that the people who lived there were the last to see Broadwater alive. They left with no evidence of a murder but a new tip may be the break they need. A tipster came forward saying he received a text which said "the body is buried what do I do next." The recipient had no tie to the case and did not recognize the number.Dumb criminal. Blindly following orders, not even foreseeing that a text message might go to the wrong number, let alone to NSA's monitors!
Labels: Constants and Variables
¶ 12:52 PM
