Today's award goes to the National Security Agency (NSA) for this lame-brained bit of doofidity.
Thanksgiving can be a touchy time for families with divergent politics. If not Obamacare, it's a good bet that somebody, somewhere was facing off with an aunt or uncle about the NSA.
Defenders of the spy agency might have found this set of talking points helpful. Distributed internally by the NSA the week before Thanksgiving ... the two-pager — a literal set of bullet points — armed employees with verbal ammunition that they were encouraged to share "with family and close friends."
As with previous sets of talking points prepared for top intelligence officials, this latest document isn't afraid to invoke 9/11. It also cites a common statistic about the effectiveness of NSA surveillance, claiming that it contributed to the disruption of 54 terrorist plots since 2001. Critics challenge this figure, saying that less than a handful of those cases can be realistically connected to the snooping.
There's more at the link.
So the NSA expected its employees, instead of giving thanks, to propagandize their families about an overreaching, out-of-control bureaucracy that's ridden roughshod over the provisions of the US constitution and all ethical and moral norms derived from it.
Uh-huh.
Thanksgiving is often referred to in the USA as 'Turkey Day'. It's therefore perhaps appropriate that it should be misused in this way by what's become a 'Turkey Agency', according to the alternative meaning of the word 'Turkey' . . . Remember, the NSA has consistently and persistently lied to the US Congress, its oversight authority; so how can we know that they're not lying to us? Answer - we can't. As far as I'm concerned, if the NSA claims or states anything as fact, distrust it, and where possible verify it against multiple (more trustworthy) sources before accepting it. If the NSA says that Monday is the day after Sunday, no matter how sure you may be that the agency is right, cross-check that against a calendar; and if the calendar agrees with the NSA, cross-check the calendar!
Peter
4 comments:
It's the administration... What else do you expect?
Stupidly, the folks in DC appear to be lying even when telling the truth is to their advantage. I'm one step away from questioning even the weather report. Of course, given the normal error rate for the weather, we may never notice.
After reading the nsa employee turkey day Taurus Excreta, I have one question. I need a few tons of fertilizer, so how many copies of this document can I obtain?.
Seriously though, at the time when New Zealand denied access to American Navy vessels to its ports, because America would not confirm or deny nuclear carriage on such vessels, I worked with New Zealanders (Kiwis) and we were instructed that the Kiwis were not to be made privy to Intel gathered that could be of use to them.
Aussies do not forget their Mates, EVER!, so there were, err...'ways and ways' around this edict.
NSA is not alone in how it does what it does, everyone does it, but the revelations of late beggar belief, but they're hardly surprising.
Coming from Keith Alexander, I'm not surprised. That man was as oily and smarmy as they come when I served under him, and time doesn't seem to have improved him at all.
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