Author Topic: McCain defends surveillance programs  (Read 860 times)

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Online mystery-ak

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McCain defends surveillance programs
« on: June 09, 2013, 02:20:51 pm »
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/?hp=ar

McCain defends surveillance programs
By SEUNG MIN KIM |
6/9/13 10:02 AM EDT

Sen. John McCain on Sunday defended the wide-reaching government surveillance programs revealed last week, arguing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court system gives them “appropriate.”

Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union,” whether he was bothered by the programs, the Arizona Republican replied: “No, not really.”

“I believe that the FISA court system is an appropriate way of reviewing these policies,” said McCain, a top defense hawk on Capitol Hill.

“To somehow think that because we are having phone calls recorded as far as their length and who they were talking to, I don’t think that that is necessarily wrong if they want to go further and they have to go to this court,” McCain added.

The phone-records program has its defenders in Congress, with top intelligence leaders arguing that those methods helped prevent potential terrorist attacks. But civil libertarians such as Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have criticized the initiatives for reaching too far into Americans’ privacy.
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Re: McCain defends surveillance programs
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2013, 02:21:14 pm »
Rand Paul: NSA monitoring an 'extraordinary invasion of privacy'

By JONATHAN TOPAZ |
6/9/13 9:15 AM EDT

Sen. Rand Paul on Sunday called the National Security Agency's monitoring of telephone call logs and the Internet  an "extraordinary invasion of privacy."

The NSA is monitoring more than "a billion phone calls a day," an alarming number that is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, the Kentucky Republican said, adding that he and a growing number of Americans want to stand up against a "snooping government" increasingly demanding private records.

Calling the NSA strategy inefficient for counterterrorism, he called for more "targeted" monitoring, saying the current policy wastes time on a massive amount of information from private citizens who are no threats to national security.

The IRS scandal and the NSA monitoring, Paul said show a "pattern" of a government that has too much unchecked power.
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Oceander

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Re: McCain defends surveillance programs
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2013, 02:25:50 pm »
The most efficient form of intelligence gathering is still what it has always been:  people on the ground and in the situation.  Apparently, the ability to train real intelligence gatherers has altogether withered away.  Is it any wonder that our "intelligence" services continually miss terrorists and planned terror attacks that are right under their very noses - the Boston Massacre, for example.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 02:26:49 pm by Oceander »

Offline andy58-in-nh

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Re: McCain defends surveillance programs
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2013, 02:47:04 pm »
The most efficient form of intelligence gathering is still what it has always been:  people on the ground and in the situation.  Apparently, the ability to train real intelligence gatherers has altogether withered away.  Is it any wonder that our "intelligence" services continually miss terrorists and planned terror attacks that are right under their very noses - the Boston Massacre, for example.

Bingo.

There is simply no effective substitute for the gathering of human intelligence ("Humint"). Electronic signals intelligence of the kind currently favored by Obama's NSA is the world's biggest shotgun, and its abuse not only results in collateral damage, but tends to obscure threats rather than reveal them. Traditional elements of the trade, including visual observation, shadowing, recruiting, covert messaging, infiltration and pattern analysis tend to yield far better results - if in fact, one seeks to discover real threats and not merely to procure politically useful data. 

P.S.: McCain is still an idiot.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 02:49:24 pm by andy58-in-nh »
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