US Intelligence Community So Readily Admits To Fantasies Of Killing Ed Snowden

[LazarX]

Abraham spalding wrote:

The government is not perfect but it has been rather open in regards to when it screws up. Does this mean the screw ups did not happen? No, but it is hardly fair to question the honesty of someone that outright admits its flubs and broadcasts them and then ignore the fact the guy making claims about them has outright be proven to lied about his own actions.

If that was true, then there wouldn't be such a pile of unwashed laundry that Snowden, Assange, and others have taken pains to air. We're not talking about military secrets, we're talking about abuse that the general public was completely unaware of. Such as forcibly derailing the personal plane of the President of Bolivia because they thought Snowden was on board.

The NSA has only admitted fault when pressed to the wall for each occurrence, and for every foulup they'd admitted to there's a whole truckload they've never fessed up to volountarily. What we have is an intelligence community which has grown with no restraint, largely because of the unreasoning fear that was used to push aside such restraints.

When I'm being reassured by someone who has a history of lying more often than not, I can be forgiven for questioning both his veracity and sincerity.

The whole weirdness of this modern world was never so crystallized with me as when we have the U.S. Secretary of State asking for extradition from Russia with the promise not to torture. This of course came after the exposure of the American CIA practice of off-shoring it's captives to places like Romania where they most enthusiastically torture people.

[Orfamay Quest]

Abraham spalding wrote:

I'm not saying not to be suspicious or to not verify what you can of what the NSA puts out. But Sissyl outright dismissed anything said by the NSA.

As is appropriate. There's a very old legal maxim (dating back to the Roman Republic) : Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus. Which translates roughly to "lie once, and everything you say will be treated as a lie."

Quote:

It's akin to saying, "You can defend yourself but I don't care what you say."

As is, again, appropriate. If the NSA has been show to be a liar, then everything the NSA says can be presumptively assumed to be a lie.

And so if the NSA wants to be believed in anything they say, they need to provide independent verification of their claims.

You can defend yourself, but I don't care what you say, only what you prove.

[Kir'Eshe]

I fantisize about giving edward snowden a hug. And maybe some holiday cookies.

[Comrade Anklebiter]

Orfamay Quest wrote:

As is appropriate. There's a very old legal maxim (dating back to the Roman Republic) : Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus. Which translates roughly to "lie once, and everything you say will be treated as a lie."

Stream-of-consciousness aside:

At a recent rally for Mike Brown here in the Granite State, the NAACP chapter head was trying to get people to speak, and one of the Occupy folks who had become a Democratic state rep got up and started talking about Cicero and the rule of law.

And I thought to myself, "Yeah, great, another bunch of slaveowners. How appropriate."