This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Chief DHS Privacy Officer: Government Called Privacy Office "Terrorists"

George Washington's picture




 

Wall Street Journal reporter Jennifer Valentino tweets:

Former DHS Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan: DHS Privacy Office was accused monthly of being "terrorists" by DHS, IC

"DHS" stands for the Department of Homeland Security; "IC" stands for the intelligence community.

This is not an isolated or melodramatic statement.  Rather, it is how the homeland security and intelligence communities look at privacy.

For example, former NSA and CIA boss Michael Hayden compared privacy advocates to terrorists:

“If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?” said retired air force general Michael Hayden, who from 1999 to 2009 ran the NSA and then the CIA, referring to “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years”.

 

“They may want to come after the US government, but frankly, you know, the dot-mil stuff is about the hardest target in the United States,” Hayden said, using a shorthand for US military networks. “So if they can’t create great harm to dot-mil, who are they going after? Who for them are the World Trade Centers? The World Trade Centers, as they were for al-Qaida.”

 

Hayden provided his speculation during a speech on cybersecurity to a Washington group, the Bipartisan Policy Center, in which he confessed to being deliberately provocative.

Similarly, Slate reported last year:

If you’ve ever cared about privacy while using the Internet in public, you might be a terrorist. At least that’s the message from the FBI and Justice Department’s Communities Against Terrorism initiative. The project created flyers to help employees at several types of businesses—including military surplus stores, financial institutions, and even tattoo shops—recognize “warning signs” of terrorism or extremism. An admirable goal, perhaps, but the execution is flawed—particularly for the flyers intended to help suss out terrorists using Internet cafes.

 

The flyers haven’t been publicly available online, but Public Intelligence, a project promoting the right to access information, collected 25 documents that it found elsewhere on the Web. As Public Intelligence puts it, “Do you like online privacy? You may be a terrorist.”

Sadly, in its paranoid bunker mentality, the government considers just about all Americans to be terrorists.

Postscript (Irony Alert):  University of Washington Law School professor Ryan Calo points out an amusing irony in this story:

Former DHS chief privacy officer says # of privacy officers at NSA, including the chief privacy officer, was zero.

(Calo was reporting on a statement made by former chief DHS Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan at a recent talk.)

Tech Dirt explains:

Mary Ellen Callahan was the Chief Privacy Officer (and the Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer) at the Department of Homeland Security from 2009 until 2012 (though, don't tell DHS, since they still have a page on their website about her claiming she still has that role -- even though she left over a year ago).

In other words, the DHS considers government privacy officers to be terrorists, doesn't have any ... and yet - in blatant propaganda - pretends it does.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:30 | 4014450 SMC
SMC's picture

Parasites.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:04 | 4014348 torak
torak's picture

Substitute "Terrorist" for "Communist" and we are right back to a 1950s McCarthyism witchhunt here in the present day. 

(Sorry if you're not old enough to have even studied that in American History...if they even teach it.  Google it.)

 

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 14:33 | 4014767 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

The problem with that is McCarthy was right and he was not successful.  The people doing this to us today are the offspring of the ones that got away. 

Communism (any of those isms really) is antithetical to America, the American way of life, and being American.  In other words, to be an American communist is to be an American traitor. 

Bring back McCarthy and finish the job!

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 19:53 | 4016331 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

Only an incomprehensible self-fucking of the brain could lead anyone to think McCarthy was right in any shape or form.
There was not a problem with communists then, isn't now, and everything McCarthy did was a violation of laws, rights & freedoms.
May as well vote for the Patriot Act yourself. March right into the next vote to extend it and demand you get to do a YES vote just for being a Good Anticommunist Citizen.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 08:24 | 4017787 Race Car Driver
Race Car Driver's picture

Get over your publik skool brainwash, look around and ponder how it got this way.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:18 | 4018150 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

evades the topic.

Communism hasn't been used in any shape or form during McCarthy's attack nor after, in America. Anywhere.

What you see is corporate oligarchy merged to the government itself, the core definition of Mussolini's Fascism.

I'm not American, I wasn't brainwashed in your public schools.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 13:58 | 4019287 nugjuice
nugjuice's picture

Is Communism that new song by Taylor Swift?

 

I love Taylor Swift. I think I'm going to go buy the song on iTunes now.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 03:17 | 4021662 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

I'm tempted but I think I will hold out for the Ke$ha cover / duet with Snooki.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 09:06 | 4017929 11b40
11b40's picture

Here is a hint.....it was not because of communism.  Has any ism been more dis-credited than communism?  Can anyone point to any communist government anywhere that that could be called successful? 

When you hear these cheap politicians railing against communism, you can bet they are busy trying to throw red meat to brain dead followers who salivate like Pavlov's dogs at the mention of the word.......as a warm up to raise campaign money.  

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 15:42 | 4015159 11b40
11b40's picture

McCarthy was wrong, and so are you.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 08:42 | 4017846 the tower
the tower's picture

I think he means the Democrats and Republicans, who, of course, are communists, and should be removed from power.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 08:19 | 4017776 Terminus C
Terminus C's picture

McCarthy may have been right or wrong... but that doesn't really matter as he was a fascist.  He had no respect for the rule of law or the right to free speech, among other things.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:01 | 4014323 LawyerScum
LawyerScum's picture

Hayden you asshole, I have spoken to a girl in the past 5 years...and no, I'm not talking about my imaginary Anime girlfriend.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:42 | 4014494 Everyman
Everyman's picture

Couple of issues here, and I do have a "real" girl and she does dress in Anime for me from time to time.  The other one for this head up his ass fuckway, maybe some of the ladies HE HAS SEEN in the last five years were pretty LOW QUALITY i.e. something I would NOT want to see in the past 10 years.

What a fuckwad this freak is.  This the same guy that gets a hard on and masturbates on the bridge of the enterprise at NSA HQ while watching whatever repulsive porn on his "Enterprise veiw screens"???

 

There are a LOT of stupid fucks that needs their heads beaten with a hammer.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 15:27 | 4015060 LawyerScum
LawyerScum's picture

Sure my ex-wife would do the lingerie thing, but I could never convince her to dress up like my favorite female member of the X-Men,  Psylocke. 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs44/f/20...

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:39 | 4014482 George Washington
George Washington's picture

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:31 | 4014454 FeralSerf
FeralSerf's picture

What has speaking to girls, or not, have to do with terrorism or being a terrorist? These official scumbags, the real terrorists, are proficient at straw man arguments, of which this is one of them.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 17:51 | 4015780 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

They are being called FAGS.

 

Of course I call the Government Officials for what they are...PEDOPHILES. You must understand that they are intent on FUCKING YOUR CHILDREN...like this Soldier and his NINE OTHER FRIENDS...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKb5NXWi_B4&list=FL8QcbSiNx5aG21vlMz8A9wQ

 

Or how about the USA Servicemen giving service to this victim? WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FVxw4Log6j8

Here is a story out of The Asian Tribune:

http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2009/10/03/rape-iraqi-women-us-forces-weapon-war-photos-and-data-emerge

 

Are you listening NSA??? You Military Intelligence fucking Pedophiles? That is what they have planned for yours as these putrid Pieces of Shit come back to the States.

 

THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE NOT BEING TOLD.

 

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:03 | 4014347 fourchan
fourchan's picture

privacy is the new terrorism.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 15:13 | 4015005 Fred C Dobbs
Fred C Dobbs's picture

As are patriots, veterns, libertarians and gun owners.

 

Alex Jones has been right about all of this.  www.infowars.com   www prisonplanet.com

 

 

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 13:11 | 4014383 Citxmech
Citxmech's picture

This shit will be remembered the same way as McCarthy's paranoia regarding all those suspected Communist infiltrators.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 01:28 | 4017430 pparalegal
pparalegal's picture

McCarthy is dead and so is Che Guevara. Get over it. This is now with these creeps. If you don't see a problem with all of this then get your grass hut in N. Korea where you will feel at home.

Thu, 10/03/2013 - 05:47 | 4017588 Mototard at Large
Mototard at Large's picture

Che only had two full time jobs in his life.  He was the Central Bank governor for Castro as well as being his Minister of Industry.

Funny that!

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 16:35 | 4015463 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

Hmmm. Only problem with that is most of the dopes McCarthy pointed out were actually communists or very sympathetic to communism.

Correct my memory though, wasn't one of the dead Kennedy's very closely allied with McCarthy in this alleged witch-hunt......at least until the 'bad pub' part?

How soon we forget.......

"McCarthy established a bond with the powerful Kennedy family, which had high visibility among Catholics. McCarthy became a close friend of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., himself a fervent anti-Communist, and was a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters, Patricia and Eunice,[52][53] and was godfather to Robert F. Kennedy's first child, Kathleen Kennedy. Robert was chosen by McCarthy as a counsel for his investigatory committee, but resigned after six months due to disagreements with McCarthy and Cohn. Joseph Kennedy had a national network of contacts and became a vocal supporter, building McCarthy's popularity among Catholics and making sizable contributions to McCarthy's campaigns.[54] The Kennedy patriarch hoped that one of his sons would be president. Mindful of the anti-Catholic prejudice Al Smith faced during his 1928 campaign for that office, Joseph Kennedy supported McCarthy as a national Catholic politician who might pave the way for a younger Kennedy's presidential candidacy."

 

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 19:59 | 4016352 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

#1 no they weren't

#2 it wasn't illegal

#3 what McCarthy did WAS illegal

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 18:13 | 4015879 11b40
11b40's picture

McCarthy was a loud-mouthed demagogue who essentially accomplished nothing beyond destroying the lives of some pretty good people, while ultimately destroying his own reputation.  His name is synonomous with witch hunts for a reason.  He wsas a scum bag bully and self-promoter.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 14:13 | 4014647 jimmytorpedo
jimmytorpedo's picture

But it turns out that McCarthy was right, so it wasn't really paranoia was it?

Likewise, those of you only interested in some privacy will eventually be called upon to act like rebels trying to blow up the Death Star, even if it is temporarily closed.

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 15:39 | 4015137 11b40
11b40's picture

Since when was McCarthy right?  Since when has a witch hunt against American citizens, whipped up by a flaming self-promoter and demagogue, become accepted as "right"?

Hysteria then, hysteria now (regarding terrorists), while the real danger is the likes of McCarthy (now Hayden).

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 18:06 | 4015850 11b40
11b40's picture

Thjis is quite a little mish-mash of "isms" & I don't have time to get deep in the weeds with you.

Don't have the interest, either, but this link, for example, HOTT CAJI Report Treason 1/11 is to something by William Cooper.  For those who don't know:

Milton William "Bill" Cooper (May 6, 1943 – November 5, 2001) was an Americanconspiracy theorist, radio broadcaster, and author best known for his 1991 book Behold a Pale Horse, in which he warned of multiple global conspiracies, some involvingextraterrestrial aliens.[1][2][3] Cooper was also described as an HIV/AIDS denialist,[4] and a "militia theoretician".[5]

Oh, and Smedley Butler died in 1940.  The McCarty witch hunts took place in the early 50's.

Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was anAmerican politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsinfrom 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communistsubversion.[1] He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, his tactics and inability to substantiate his claims led him to be censured by the United States Senate.

The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.[2]

Wed, 10/02/2013 - 23:15 | 4017174 monad
monad's picture

McCarthy is here Myron C Fagan Illuminati 1967

The rest build substantial context. Bill Cooper spoke for himself and made a lot of enemies. Listen to what he said, TFY. 

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!