I find it very entertaining to consider that groups that repeatedly complain about the gross incompetence of the government, will in the next breath pontificate on how that same incompetent government manages to conduct nearly omniscient feats of intelligence and maintain conspiracies comprised of thousands of individuals.
Of course the government conducts intelligence. All governments do. It is an unpleasant necessity because not every neighbor is a friend. If my government were even half as capable at intelligence gathering as the conspiracy theorists believe they are, events such as 9/11 would never happen and John Q. Public would never know that an unfriendly neighbor even attempted such. For intelligence gathering to be successful, it requires not only that the data be gathered, but also that the subject has no knowledge of being compromised. Furthermore, even omniscient data gathering without competent analysis is just noise. If the gathering of the intelligence is perceived as intrusive, then that clearly indicates it was not performed successfully. The reality, as usual, lies somewhere near the middle. The US Government is neither omniscient nor incompetent. Being run by humans, it is simply fallible. Bill Bass Greenville, SC -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Gilmore Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 12:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: NSA and Heartbleed <snip> As I have already said here, caricatures of the NSA as an omniscient villain in unhelpful, in considerable measure because they are easy to dismiss/refute, so easy to refute that the NSA may well welcome them, at least in a Pickwickian sense of the word 'welcome', at this juncture. (Recall Colonel Blimp's characterizations of Picasso's drawing as inferior in quality to those of his, Blimp's, grand daughter.) John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA <snip remainder> This e-mail, including attachments, may include confidential and/or proprietary information, and may be used only by the person or entity to which it is addressed. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient or his or her authorized agent, the reader is hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by replying to this message and delete this e-mail immediately. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
