Nailed it! Again!
I love being right! Time after time, I see my words vindicated. I fell like an exceptionally good-looking Nostradamus!
The latest case would be the evolving discussions inside the beltway about mass data collection. As I said in 16 20 24, there was one and only one reason to have this data in the hands of the federal government. And that reason is not National Security!
When Congress finally mustered the testicular fortitude to shut down the data collection, I saw that as good news. Now, the politicians (even Obama) are realizing the truth sounds better then the lie. Yesterday, one of the intelligence professionals I admonished my readers to consult on the issue said exactly what I had written. William Binney, a former NSA Intelligence Officer, said that the previous system of collecting all that metadata created too much information to be of any use. The cost of this was in his words, “paralysis of analysis.” Even the programs designed to spot and develop patterns to be reviewed by analysts was left to produce millions of potential patterns leaving the end user overwhelmed and further behind the eight ball than he would be by just collecting sets of focused, purpose-driven information.
All those fighting to save this flawed program knew it was worthless as an intelligence tool. Now, they are finally admitting it because the voters are, each day, armed with more information like the paragraph above.
We’re not out of the woods yet. It is still too easy to get a warrant from the rubber-stamp FISA court. Real judges with real discretion should be issuing these warrants.
So what the hell did they want with reams and reams of information, too cumbersome to be of timely use? Well, that would be in Chapter 15. Happy reading.
Oh, I know, I know. I’m such a tease.
An interesting lecture (Binney).
Matt Jordan is a travel writer, political commentator and author of 16 20 24. Get your SIGNED copy here!
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