NSA -- The Good Demon?

THREAT?  Would that be a White House generated NSA threat? 

Looks like the "terrorist threat" which caused the current closing of a number of US embassies, mostly in the Middle East, may have been still another Administration political action to distract the public -- and Congress from NSA's illegal operations.

Camp David Choom Birthday Parteee?

It apparently wasn't that big of a deal if Mr Obama chose to ignore the National Security Council meeting at the WH Sit Room -- and instead threw a golf and substance party for 11 of his pals at Camp David.  Is this his new Choom Gang?





What is disturbing is that we now have Saxby Chambliss praising the NSA for its prowess in tracking this "threat" -- justification for not impeding its mission with any "restrictive legislation". 

We have no objection to NSA carrying out its mission to monitoring foreign communications which might pose a threat to the US, and turning over those communications to Intelligence Community analysts to evaluate, assess, render their opinion. 

That's the mission of NSA, and has been since its inception.  While I worked in the Intelligence Community, I used NSA products on a regular basis; in operations, I had an NSA team at my disposal to target bad guys, and the team was superb.  So, I've always been a supporter of NSA's mission and product to gather foreign intelligence.

Formerly restricted to international monitoring           [Wired]

But, it is not the mission of NSA to monitor US citizens, or to monitor US politicians, or to share that which it has gathered in violation of its charter with US national and local law enforcement agencies to target US citizens for crimes such as using the internet to search for the best price on backpacks or pressure cookers. 




Mr Clapper and General Alexander have corrupted that mission -- to the detriment of our Constitution.


Traditionally, GOP politicians have been great supporters of the Intelligence Community [IC] and aggressive intelligence gathering.  As such, they have developed excellent relations with IC executives and operatives.  They have many "off the record" meetings, and the Intelligence liaison officers pimp their products with special "briefings' [some of which contain real intelligence] to stroke and seduce our politicians; they feel, oh-so-special to be treated so well by the spooks. 

It's an old game, and our politicians get quite giddy when the spooks share their "special secrets" with them. 
[Here, Senator, take a look at the dirt we collected on your political opponent; now, you didn't get this from us, heh heh heh.]

Senator Chambliss [R-Ga]

Senator Chambliss [R-Ga] unfortunately seems to have lost his objectivity in this exercise, and appears to be willing to sacrifice the Constitution for his allegiance to his "handlers" in the Intelligence Community.

With luck, perhaps his colleagues and knowledgeable constituents will bring him to the Intelligence Detox Center.



Wake up, Saxby!

Trayvon Martin According to Dave Chapelle

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Kids need structure.

A 17 year old young man is dead, and it could have been avoided.
Was it because of Racial Profiling? Maybe.
Was it because of Appearance Profiling?  Yes.
Should this happen again. No.

Let comedian Dave Chappelle make sense of this for us:

Dave Chapelle on How Women Dress (2:09 min)

Trayvon Martin's death is no laughing matter.

What Dave Chappelle is saying is if you dress like a "Ho", you will be viewed as such.
Similarly, if you dress, walk, and act like a probable criminal, you will be viewed as such.
This can all be avoided; parents and adult mentors can make the change. 

I have five children -- all of whom have been 17 year olds.  Like me, at 17 they were all mediocre to good students, charismatic, beloved by many classmates and very, very strong athletes.  At 17, any of us could have knocked a guy like Zimmerman on his butt.

My kids were a lot like Trayvon.

Where their paths deviate from Trayvon is that they did not dress or act in a suspicious manner in neighborhoods where they were not known -- or even in their own neighborhoods; ultimately, they did not physically assault grown adults when under scrutiny for wrongdoing.

At one time or another, all of us have found ourselves in compromising positions; the solution was not to get in the face of the questioning individual, and it definitely did not entail assaulting the adult. 

Race and ethnicity of a kid are irrelevant, whether White, Black, Hispanic, Asian or Martian. 
If you are unrecognizable and conceal your face by wearing a hoodie at night in a community in which you are not a resident, then you are a suspicious outsider.

Kids are setting themselves up to be "profiled" as someone to be monitored.  Period.  They may as well be wearing a ski mask or pantyhose on their head. Lest we forget the Sag, which showcases kid's underwear for the world to see.

[By the way, that style derives from young prison inmates; Snopes explains it as new inmates being issued oversized uniforms; a prison administrator suggested the look as deriving from new prisoners being required to provide instant sex on demand by more established inmates.  Either way, it is not a look for a new kid that assures on-lookers that he is on the up-and-up. The style is from PRISON!]

If you disagree, chances are you are not a property owner; you may be a bad parent, or perhaps, not a parent at all.

But if you are a parent, we suggest you provide your children with some framework.
A colleague, Colin Powell, offers this lesson: Kids need structure (TED Talk here)

We'll reference The Guardian in this link for some tools provided by prominent African-American bloggers 

Military Industrial Complex

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Looks like the Air Force has exonerated Booz Allen of any fault on the Snowden issue.

We'd expect nothing less from the Air Force hierarchy, many of whom have lined up positions with Booz, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, etc. 

Walking the halls of these companies is like walking the halls of the Pentagon, except the only uniforms you see are senior military officers on the verge of retirement signing on at nice salaries and bonuses -- to ensure their Pentagon projects are assigned to the companies hiring them.  The younger officers are brought on as "Business Development" executives, while the generals are designated "Vice Presidents" or appointed to the Boards of Directors.  The objective, of course, is to lock in lucrative contracts via these officers as they retire.

[SecretsoftheFed.com]

Some may remember that old "Military-Industrial Complex" thing General/President Eisenhower warned us about.

Ike watched the Defense Industry burgeon in the post-WW2/Korean War days and recognized the threat when he saw it. 

It culminated in the Vietnam War, based on a North Vietnamese attack on US warships which had violated North Vietnamese territorial waters.

Westmoreland led the campaign to increase the war and to maximize profits for the Military Industrial Complex.





The Vietnam wartime contracts/profiteering built the Defense giants of today.

Among the many contracts benefiting US politicians was one that awarded Lady Bird Johnson's shipping company the sole-source contract for all logistics shipments to Vietnam.

[Blurbrain.com]

Just for grins, check out how many of these companies have had Jim Clapper on their payroll as an executive, board member, or consultant.

Government positions:
USAF Lt General
Director: Defense Intelligence
DOD Undersecretary of National Intelligence
Director: National Geospatial Intelligence
Director: National Intelligence

Private Sector:
Booz Allen
SRA International
Sierra Nevada
Vredenburg
Raytheon

[He sat on the boards of directors of a number of Defense contractors, but those references are no longer publicly available. Mr Clapper's private sector affiliations have been purged from the Wikipedia web page, and it seems the Internet has been scoured clean as well.  Amazing what you can do when you have the full resources of the Intelligence Community to clean up your personal history.]


It's probably time for Congress to create an effective barrier between the revolving door at the Pentagon and the major contractors.

Actually, there might be merit in reviewing the entire federal contracting process. 

[USHistory.org]

But, given the campaign contributions these companies make to our politicians, that likely won't happen.