One of the hottest topics this weekend, is the NSA’s collection of massive amounts of data regarding huge numbers of ordinary citizens, and the agency's apparent freedoms to pursue this endeavor unbridled by any kind of governmental or other constraint.
There are arguments on both sides of the issue with those in favor of continuance believing the practice helps combat terrorism, presenting no threat to one's doing nothing illegal. Those opposed feel it’s an illegal invasion of privacy that must be curtailed.
My own thoughts on the matter come down on government's side for once, whereas I not only have nothing to hide, I post my thoughts in public every day, read by folks all over the world. And since further research of my personal data won’t yield anything untoward either, I couldn’t care less about who searches what or when.
On the other hand, however, if the probes truly help uncover ones involved in harmful plots or activities, I not only see no harm in that, I favor it and sincerely hopes it works. Because the world has changed, the technology’s there and there really are some very bad folks doing their damnedest to do us all in. So, if we can prevent that from happening, I think it irrational not to use every weapon we’ve got, including this one.
Now, having stated all that, I think there’s another, far more rational way to look at this matter. Because what’s being discussed by the talking heads, pro and con, is the concept of the overall issue without really delving into its implementation. And as far as implementation’s concerned I think we need to consider that this is being done by the incumbent’s administration. Therefore, the chances of this program working correctly, if at all, are probably somewhere around zero, or less, leaving nothing very much to worry about at all.
In that regard, whether by chance or by plan, one of the cable networks offered a movie last night, Enemy of the State, filmed in1998 with Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, and Jason Robards.
According to the blurb on Wikipedia, “As the U.S. Congress moves to pass new legislation that dramatically expands the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies, Congressman Phil Hammersley (Robards) remains firmly opposed to its passage.”
Having never seen the film before, I watched and think it helped me gain perspective on what’s entailed to really implement this kind of project.
First and foremost, there’s so much data to be mined that even in 1998 its mass was overwhelming, and the process of cross-referencing created so much physical follow-up work that any kind of actual “hit “ required either existing suspicion or flat-out dumb luck.
Then, after a suspect was identified it took a full time, 24-7-365 team of ten or twelve individuals to surreptitiously search, follow and trail the target. And naturally, since most of the one’s doing those jobs were government employees, things began to unravel and come apart do to gross incompetence, letting their innocent “suspects” win.
Now, naturally there was far more detail to this movie than I’ve posted here, but nonetheless the conclusion’s pretty much the same. That just like the producers of the film believed in 1998, its probable that the only dupes this administration will catch through data-mining will likely be themselves and their cohorts.
That’s it for today folks.
Adios
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