Kiwifarms, we live in a time of Big Data. I'm very worried about this, not because I have things to hide (although I doubtlessly do) but because the people doing it are liars. In a direct contradiction to the NSA's assurance to United States Congress that it does not collect any type of data on millions of Americans, the existence of a big data analysis and data visualization tool used by the United States National Security Agency was disclosed by documents leaked by Edward Snowden, who worked at the NSA for the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The 'Terrorist Surveillance Program' was an electronic surveillance program implemented by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The program, which enabled the United States to secretly track billions of phone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens over a period of decades, was a blueprint for all of the NSA surveillance that would come after it. They see all, so they claim, and so they know all.
But what kind of people are the agencies recruited to do this sort of work?
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. Books and investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by the historian Alfred McCoy, professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott, journalists Gary Webb and Alexander Cockburn, and writer Larry Collins. These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General. Nothing has come of it.
While the Corsican Gang was protected by the CIA and the SDECE after World War II in exchange for working to prevent French Communists from bringing the Old Port of Marseille under their control. While the CIA was sponsoring a "Secret War" in Laos from 1961 to 1975, while it was openly accused of trafficking heroin in an area of approximately 950,000 square kilometres (367,000 sq mi) that overlaps the mountains where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet at the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. CIA historian Thomas Ahern, drawing from his own recollection, stated only that local tribesman being trained by the CIA were prohibited from carrying opium on U.S. chartered flights. However only large packages were inspected, so that small amounts of opium for local consumption might have been carried by individuals, but the prohibition of commercial traffic was unequivocal.
Nothing has come of it.
The Honduran drug lord Juan Matta-Ballesteros was the owner of SETCO, an airline which the Nicaraguan Contras used to covertly transport military supplies and personnel in the early 1980s. Writers such as Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall have suggested that the U.S. government's desire to conceal or protect these clandestine shipments led it to close the DEA office in Honduras when an investigation began into SETCO, allowing Matta-Ballesteros to continue and expand his trafficking. U.S. Government Officials said in 1990 the Anti-Drug Unit of the C.I.A. "accidentally" shipped a ton of cocaine into the United States from Venezuela as part of an effort to infiltrate and gather evidence on drug gangs. The cocaine was sold on the streets in the United States. No criminal charges were made in this incident, however C.I.A. officer Mark McFarlin resigned and another C.I.A. officer was disciplined. The CIA issued a statement on the incident saying there was "poor judgment and management on the part of several C.I.A. officers". In 1996, Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. In October 2013, two former federal agents and an ex-CIA contractor told an American television network that CIA operatives were involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA covert agent Enrique Camarena, because he was a threat to the agency's drug operations in Mexico. According to the three men, the CIA was collaborating with drug traffickers moving cocaine and marijuana to the United States, and using its share of the profits to finance Nicaraguan Contra rebels attempting to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government.
These sorts of men control universal surveillance of you and I. Everyone.
My question is this, if the NSA sees so much and is saving us everyday from terrorism and worse then how are they not able to verify for congress if the CIA are monsters who have slipped the leash? Are they in on it? Is the surveillance program actually a dud? Why can't they stop the drug trade? Are they incapable of stopping human trafficking, or are they allowing it for kickbacks?
But what kind of people are the agencies recruited to do this sort of work?
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. Books and investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by the historian Alfred McCoy, professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott, journalists Gary Webb and Alexander Cockburn, and writer Larry Collins. These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General. Nothing has come of it.
While the Corsican Gang was protected by the CIA and the SDECE after World War II in exchange for working to prevent French Communists from bringing the Old Port of Marseille under their control. While the CIA was sponsoring a "Secret War" in Laos from 1961 to 1975, while it was openly accused of trafficking heroin in an area of approximately 950,000 square kilometres (367,000 sq mi) that overlaps the mountains where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet at the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. CIA historian Thomas Ahern, drawing from his own recollection, stated only that local tribesman being trained by the CIA were prohibited from carrying opium on U.S. chartered flights. However only large packages were inspected, so that small amounts of opium for local consumption might have been carried by individuals, but the prohibition of commercial traffic was unequivocal.
Nothing has come of it.
The Honduran drug lord Juan Matta-Ballesteros was the owner of SETCO, an airline which the Nicaraguan Contras used to covertly transport military supplies and personnel in the early 1980s. Writers such as Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall have suggested that the U.S. government's desire to conceal or protect these clandestine shipments led it to close the DEA office in Honduras when an investigation began into SETCO, allowing Matta-Ballesteros to continue and expand his trafficking. U.S. Government Officials said in 1990 the Anti-Drug Unit of the C.I.A. "accidentally" shipped a ton of cocaine into the United States from Venezuela as part of an effort to infiltrate and gather evidence on drug gangs. The cocaine was sold on the streets in the United States. No criminal charges were made in this incident, however C.I.A. officer Mark McFarlin resigned and another C.I.A. officer was disciplined. The CIA issued a statement on the incident saying there was "poor judgment and management on the part of several C.I.A. officers". In 1996, Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. In October 2013, two former federal agents and an ex-CIA contractor told an American television network that CIA operatives were involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA covert agent Enrique Camarena, because he was a threat to the agency's drug operations in Mexico. According to the three men, the CIA was collaborating with drug traffickers moving cocaine and marijuana to the United States, and using its share of the profits to finance Nicaraguan Contra rebels attempting to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government.
These sorts of men control universal surveillance of you and I. Everyone.
My question is this, if the NSA sees so much and is saving us everyday from terrorism and worse then how are they not able to verify for congress if the CIA are monsters who have slipped the leash? Are they in on it? Is the surveillance program actually a dud? Why can't they stop the drug trade? Are they incapable of stopping human trafficking, or are they allowing it for kickbacks?
