As I was saying...

[mdlbear]

NSA's Warrantless Wiretaps: How NSA Does It by Jerry Nelson

The Executive Branch has refused to tell very many Congressman very much about how the NSA system works. The secrecy seemed pointless to me, since any good technologist could figure it out. So I did. Not even your elected representatives could find out what I am about to tell you.

[...]

I leave you with one thought: neither God nor Nature owe the United States of America a democracy. If citizens give away all their freedoms, eventually they will have none. When the powerful have all the options and you have none, you are toast.

Democracies are not conquered. Democracies do not end when outsiders force them into subjugation. Democracies end when their citizens vote for a strongman who promises to protect them.

Here is how the National Security Agency is protecting you.

Remember what I've been saying about warrantless wiretaps? Nelson is saying it, too. Nothing new here, but it's thorough and well-written. As he says, "any good technologist could figure it out", but apparently not any politician. No surprise.

(Via cryptome)

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder if the politicians just *act* dumb to cover up their plans....

[mdlbear]

I think Hanlon's Razor (never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity) applies for the most part, but sometimes I wonder.

Warrantless Wiretapping

[jerry-va.livejournal.com]

Hi, All,
Thanks for the comments.
I've done 2 papers on the crossroads we find ourselves at in telecommunications. It is ridiculous that a complete outsider like me (my field is neuroscience) should be laying out these issues rather than people directly responsible for the nation's telecommunications infrastructure . . . I realize the mini-tutorial is a tough slog, but so much is at stake. The Internet is our greatest hope for civic renewal, but it is also the greatest tool for running police state surveillance ever devised -- the Jekyll and Hyde duality of any powerful technology crashing headlong into society. I hope you can find some time for it, maybe over the weekend. Thanks, all, for trying to make ours a great country once again.
--jerry (J. I. Nelson)

HOW THE NSA WARRANTLESS WIRETAP SYSTEM WORKS -- An Educated Guess
J. I. Nelson, Ph.D.
7 Feb 2006; revised 4Sept2006 (10 pp)
http://WireTapFacts.notlong.com

Summary: The National Security Agency (NSA) is opening so many phone taps that it is physically impossible to obtain court-reviewed warrants. It is time to forget warrants and move on. This Administration certainly has.

MINI-TUTORIAL:
THE NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES for VOICE and for DATA COMMUNICATIONS
J. I. Nelson, Ph.D.
19July2006; Rev 6Sept2006 (20 pp)
http://WIreTapBackground.notlong.com

Summary: You can tap only one phone line, but on the Internet you can only tap everything because there are no lines. Extending phone surveillance to VoIP on the Internet requires surveillance of everything we do on line. The nation's transition in telecommunications infrastructure will be as tumultuous for civic society and constitutional law as it already has been for the financial community and the boom-to-bust industry itself.