National Intelligence Director Wants Access to All Internet Communications
In this week's issue of the New Yorker, there is a profile of the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell (pictured), that reveals some interesting information about his desires to "listen in" on Internet communications in order to protect America's cyberspace. According to McConnell, in order to properly protect the United State's electronic interests the government needs to be able to read all information crossing the Internet.The measures will be hard sell to both the Congress and the American people. Following the controversy surrounding the questionably legal NSA wiretaps, citizens and legislators have become far more aware of the government's ability to pry and abuse domestic intelligence gathering, which has also made us more protective of our privacy.
Will McConnell get the broad reaching powers he wants to scan through your E-mails to Aunt Dolly asking for pictures of the new twins? Probably not, but the fact that he would even openly pursue such powers is a somewhat frightening prospect.
From Ars Technica
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
goplies2u @ Jan 18th 2008 12:14PM
Well why would they want to scan through American's emails when the White house now has 473 days worth of missing emails?
White House study found 473 days of e-mail gone and the director of intelligence wants to read America’s emails?
National intelligence officers should spend time locating “the missing” White House emails first.
The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday by a congressional Democrat.
There is an escalating dispute over whether the Bush administration has complied with long-standing statutory requirements to preserve official White House records -- including those reflecting potentially sensitive policy discussions -- for history and in case of any future legal demands.
The White House is required by law to preserve e-mails considered presidential or federal records, and it is the target of several lawsuits seeking information about missing data and efforts to preserve electronic communications.
The internal study found that for Bush's executive office, no e-mails were archived on 12 separate days between December 2003 and February 2004, Waxman said. Vice President Cheney's office showed no electronic messages on 16 occasions from September 2003 to May 2005
Archived e-mails were missing from even more days in other parts of the White House, the analysis found. The Council on Environmental Quality and the Council of Economic Advisers, for example, showed no stored e-mails for 2 1/2 months beginning in November 2003. The Office of Management and Budget showed no messages for 59 days -- including the period from Nov. 1, 2003, to Dec. 9, 2003 -- and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative showed no e-mail for 73 days.
robert @ Jan 18th 2008 4:13PM
This is an example of the kind of people King George is appointing to the most powerful positions in the government. I fall on my knees every night and give thanks that this administration only has about a year left to screw with our civil liberties.
Ellie @ Jan 20th 2008 12:25PM
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING.
john @ Jan 20th 2008 12:59PM
go to the site freedomtofascism.com and you'll see why they don't want us to know whats going on. no national I.d. card for me and no microchip either.
ArchiBunch @ Jan 21st 2008 10:12PM
Hell no!
fgc-hello @ Jan 21st 2008 11:19PM
Why do these people want to have all the info from all the people?
Before 9/11 attacks, the federal government did have enough information (several already identified terrorists sharing the same postal address, suspicious movements, groups of them ticketing for the very same flights...), and just were not able to act accordingly
So, Mr. McConnell, you are telling us, that by multiplying the amount of data to analize, only then, you will see the things that you already are missing?
Vesta @ Jan 22nd 2008 12:47AM
Mr. McConnell looks like he would love to eaves-drop to make his life more exciting...
Daniel Gaunt @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:22AM
yes, thats why they set up facebook!
http://freeextras.blogspot.com/
http://lifeorsomethingnotquitelikeit.blogspot.com/
http://r.yuwie.com/naturistdaniel
tempfate @ Feb 5th 2008 2:47PM
fgc-hello that day was nothing more than a false flag bought and sold to the sheeple. One plus one really does equal four, the perpetrators were all what Saudi nationals, with the so-called architect hiding in the hills of where our buddies in the Pak who might add don't maybe have WMD (nukes) they do, and we go where Iraq. Yeah right, give me a break. And everyone is surprised at this, what' get ready for the concentration camps, yes, and it's not science fiction. Can you say V for Vendetta.
lisageeb2 @ Feb 5th 2008 2:54PM
And how long will it be before the government believes it has the right to read our mail? Tap all of our phones? Have a central depository for all of our text messages? Nikita Kruschev once told Americans that Communism would take over our country "from the inside." I grew up horrified by the Communist government's control over the Russian people, and the denial of their basic human rights. Our government is walking a fine line, and it looks as though some of our "leaders" are willing to cross that line under the pretense of national security. That's exactly what the Communist government used as their justification. Please, God, don't let Kruschev's horrifying prediction come true! I love America, we are a country built on freedom. We should be focusing on the bad guys, rather than wasting time AND the tax payer's money by going through e-mails of law-abiding Americans.
mike @ Feb 15th 2008 12:25PM
National Security! If I remember my history, Hitler rounded up ALL unsatisfactory citizens of Germany and the conquered territories in the name of ensuring German national security! Stalin imprisoned or executed millions of Russians in the name of Soviet national security! Senator McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover wanted and tried to in the 1950's. Now it seems our government is looking to try again! National Security is important, and all reasonable efforts should be taken to protect it. But not at the cost of the nation itself! Once we lose our rights in the name of national security, no one is secure and America is no more!
Dog Lover Ca. @ Mar 9th 2008 7:29PM
I think they are allready doing it. Big Brother is here folks.
John @ Mar 20th 2008 2:22PM
I confess that I voted for President Bush, but I have been absolutely dismayed by the administrations many failures. This is one of the worst. The complete disregard of privacy, one of the most important of our constitutional guarantees is simply unacceptable. The thought that none of us would be free to exchange private communications means that the government would be free to abuse the information in our letters.
J. Edgar Hoover managed to remain at the helm of the FBI for many years because he had spied on, and was able to blackmail, just about every significant public offical. Need I say more?