This NSA "fine print" from 2007 was a real shocker -- that only left me wondering WHY!?
No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.
by Scott Shane, NYTimes -- Nov 2, 2013
The Global Phone Book [ pg 2 ]
No investment seems too great if it adds to the agency’s global phone book. After mounting a major eavesdropping effort focused on a climate change conference in Bali in 2007, agency analysts stationed in Australia’s outback were especially thrilled by one catch: the cellphone number of Bali’s police chief.
[...]
Don't ask why, unless you have the "need to know."
And unless you have HUGE commercial interests in the Energy Status Quo -- YOU (as in us the Energy Consumer) apparently have "NO need to know."
What happened in United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali? Nothing much except for the serious implementation Kyoto Protocol, by most of the attendees:
Representatives from over 180 countries attended, together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.[2] [...] A meeting of environment ministers and experts held in June called on the conference to agree on a road-map, timetable and 'concrete steps for the negotiations' with a view to reaching an agreement by 2009.[2]
THAT Nothing.
The problem with secrecy is -- it relies on Trust. And in the belief of the ultimate "good intentions" of the secret-takers.
It seems the NSA may be mis-using that "trust" -- especially when everyone (including our friends and allies) are considered snoop-worthy. (But how would we know?)
Would YOU trust a "friend" who "tapped" all you phones, etc? Some friend ...
[ The Global Phone Book, New York Times post continues ...]
“Our mission,” says the agency’s current five-year plan, which has not been officially scheduled for declassification until 2032, “is to answer questions about threatening activities that others mean to keep hidden.”
The aspirations are grandiose: to “utterly master” foreign intelligence carried on communications networks. The language is corporate: “Our business processes need to promote data-driven decision-making.” But the tone is also strikingly moralistic for a government bureaucracy. Perhaps to counter any notion that eavesdropping is a shady enterprise, signals intelligence, or Sigint, the term of art for electronic intercepts, is presented as the noblest of callings.
“Sigint professionals must hold the moral high ground, even as terrorists or dictators seek to exploit our freedoms,” the plan declares. “Some of our adversaries will say or do anything to advance their cause; we will not.”
Just Trust Them! You know they only got "our best interests" in mind.
Yeah Riiight!
You know what they say about the 'road to hell',
it's paved over with "good intentions" --
and the personal details of those who got in the way.
Well-intended People it was deemed somewhere, who had "NO need to know." ...
Don't bother asking those mission-professionals "what good they do" ... because if they told us the whole truth, we probably wouldn't like the answer(s).
Afterall, they still have "vital national-foreign interests" to protect. Therefore, we should just Trust them.
Yeah Riiight! That worked out so-well, the last several times, didn't it?