Here is the beginning of the hearing on the National Security Agency held by the Church Committee which occurred on October 29th, 1975. The Chairman was Frank Church, a Democratic senator from Idaho who had presidential aspirations. He makes it clear at the outset that, at the time, the NSA was so secretive that almost no Americans had ever heard of it, despite its huge employee base and enormous budget. It had no statutory basis and no oversight.
Americans really should familiarize themselves with this history.
We already have the CIA, and all that entails. Why do we need the NSA?
Huh?
Do you ever listen to yourself talk?
The CIA deals with human intelligence and the NSA deals with signals intelligence.
And the CIA doesn’t deal in signal intelligence? The point is why do we need the alphabet soup? Why not just have it all under one umbrella?
I was in HS when we heard about this, and even we young-un’s asked the exact same question.
They didn’t use the term back then, but I suspect it was another silo, where a different set of people with a different skill-sets from the CIA sort, had career opportunities – up to, and including, heading the government agency.
Now, you could have TWO people in charge of ten’s of thousand’s of others, instead of just one – and, of course, all of the other jobs.
Now, we “outsource” this national security stuff to private firms.
And, if that’s not the feckin’ stupidest most insane idea of all time, then I must not be creative enough!
All under one umbrella, is that really a good idea? our system is set up with checks and balances and multiple branches of gov.
Well, one thing that happened is that we built the internet. I’m not about to say that this justifies everything the NSA and the CIA do, but it’s important to keep in mind that they aren’t the only spies on the internet.
The internet is inherently a massive security risk, because the whole point is to share information. At the same time that we’ve got these concerns about online privacy, the technology is moving in the direction of greater and greater transparency. It’s all about integration and interoperability.
You can view the source of this page right here and see how many servers you’re allowing to push data to your machine. I counted 18. There are ways to make sure they’re reasonably trustworthy, but every one is a security risk.
So integration is a security risk, and that applies to intelligence agencies as well. The bigger the umbrella, the greater the damage if your security is compromised.
Actually I miscounted. It’s more like 10 servers I have to trust here. But still.
Americans really should familiarize themselves with this history.
Agree. But sadly, the vast majority of Americans don’t give a rat’s ass.
The sad reality is that the defense of personal liberties is dependent on a small minority who have the foresight to see the need for defense. And unfortunately we learned in 2002-3 that a large part of that minority who claims to defend liberties – the Glenn Reynolds libertarians – will gladly give up personal liberties under the right circumstances. Basically for defense of personal liberties we are down to the ACLU and its supporters – period.
I do admit that if it came down to a protector of the safety net who was bad on civil liberties vs a full on libertarian for president, I’d take the protector of the safety net. So it could come down to the fact that many people like me have different priorities.
I really don’t go with your cynicism and disparagement of our fellow citizens. That aside, however, we as USAians need more emphasis on history generally and Booman’s emphasis on history is one of the many strengths of this site.
American should know this 🙂 http://linkapp.me/I5K4W
The Central Intelligence Agency — note the word “Central” — was intended after WWII to create a single intelligence agency under the direct control of the President.
The military services that lost some intelligence functions (and budgets) were not happy with that. James Carroll in House of War tells how and why the military created the Defense Intelligence Agency (Carroll’s dad was its first head). As new technical capabilities appeared DoD rushed to create new intelligence capabilities, with or without authorization.
There are now 16 agencies in the “intelligence community” officially, that is legally authorized and with oversight. They are:
Independent agencies
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
United States Department of Defense
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
National Security Agency (NSA)
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency (AFISRA)
Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM)
Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA)
Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)
United States Department of Energy
Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (OICI)
United States Department of Homeland Security
Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A)
Coast Guard Intelligence (CGI)
United States Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Drug Enforcement Administration, Office of National Security Intelligence (DEA/ONSI)
United States Department of State
Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)
United States Department of the Treasury
Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI)
And the Office of National Intelligence (that would be James Clapper) was created as a matrix function to re-centralize these agencies.
But there needs to be an independent investigation by Congress to determine whether there are unauthorized operations without oversight going on again. Secrecy and compartmentalization can hide things from Congress, which is how NSA got started in the first place.
Given the attitudes of Bush and Cheney, I would suspect there is something out there that is burrowed in and that even DiFi (the singularly incurious) does not know about.
Precisely.
The only inaccuracy in this post may be here:
It is the “oversight” word that bothers me.
Who in their right mind really believes that so-called “oversight” committee members are being given accurate information? I mean…really!!! The intelligence web that has grown around this country’s government since WW II possesses information gathering capabilities that have enabled parts of it to engage in financial insider trading on an unimaginable level. When the possibility of theft without reprisal exists, it’s just human nature to start stealing. And they have. Bet on it. Trillions and trillions of dollars’ worth. More. Add in the drug/anti-drug scam and I don’t know if we have the ability to understand dollar numbers large enough to reflect the magnitude of that theft. I doubt it. Couple that with the capability to murder without reprisal, gather information on people that would make J. Edgar Hoover’s miniscule little filing cabinets look like playground material and control over the major media outlets in this country and what do you have?
You have the current United States of Omertica.
Bet on it.
What to do?
First…understand the magnitude of the problem.
Next?
Damned if I know.
Pray that the living, evolving universe still has a need for free people in this little corner of its growth, I guess.
Peace.
It’s what’s for dinner.
Bet on that as well.
Later…
AG
Given the fawning relationship that DiFi has with the intelligence community, I should have put scare quotes around “oversight”.
I think you meant “financial” relationship.
Oh, is that what causes those big liquid eyes every time one of those intelligence agency heads testifies at a hearing. The way to a politican’s heart is….
And GreenCaboose adds:
Neither gets to the root of the question.
Why don’t they know about these things? Why do they not know of many other things as well, things that negatively impact their lives on a massive, daily basis.
There is a two-pronged answer.
1-They trust the government media complex to inform them.
2-They…many of them, anyway…think that the U.S. educational system is in place to educate rather than subjugate them.
Plus another factor. Some percentage of every culture is simply too stupid to think a problem through even if it had been given a thorough education and adequate information.
The real job of said government media complex is to misinform, disinform and distract the population in order to keep it in line with the wishes of its controllers, and the real job of the educational system…public, private, parochial, collegiate and postgraduate…is to produce obedient workers that will fit into the system as it stands, top to bottom. That’s all there is to it, and that has been all there is to it since at least the post-WW II economic boom.
Solution(s)? Other than trying to enlighten a few people about their real position in this society, I have none.
One mind at a time is the best that i can do.
So it goes and wake the fuck up.
If you have the slightest trust in the U.S. political, educational, financial or media system as it stands today, you’ve been had.
Wake the fuck up.
AG
Interestingly enough, sales of George Orwell’s 1984 are way up recently, as reported by NPR.
WTF kind of reporting is this?
Either “human interest” reporting or an intra-intelligence-community hit job.
I wonder which of the journalists are intelligence assets, playing the disinformation game.
Mueller testifying to Congress now. According to the tweetstream, apparently he thinks that PATRIOT Act section 215 powers (the widescale scooping up of everyone’s data) can be used for criminal investigations and is not limited to prevention of terrorism.
Looks like mission creep.