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California Terror Attack PROVES Mass Spying Doesn’t Keep Us Safe
Top security experts agree that mass surveillance is ineffective … and actually makes us MORE vulnerable to terrorism.
For example, the former head of the NSA’s global intelligence gathering operations – Bill Binney – explained to Washington’s Blog that the mass surveillance INTERFERES with the government’s ability to catch bad guys, and that the government failed to stop 9/11, the Boston Bombing, the Texas shootings and other terror attacks is because it was overwhelmed with data from mass surveillance on Americans.
Binney told Washington’s Blog:
A good deal of the failure is, in my opinion, due to bulk data. So, I am calling all these attacks a result of “Data bulk failure.” Too much data and too many people for the 10-20 thousand analysts to follow. Simple as that. Especially when they make word match pulls (like Google) and get dumps of data selected from close to 4 billion people.
This is the same problem NSA had before 9/11. They had data that could have prevented 9/11 but did not know they had it in their data bases. This back then when the bulk collection was not going on. Now the problem is orders of magnitude greater. Result, it’s harder to succeed.
Expect more of the same from our deluded government that thinks more data improves possibilities of success. All this bulk data collection and storage does give law enforcement a great capability to retroactively analyze anyone they want. But, of course,that data cannot be used in court since it was not acquired with a warrant.
Binney also told us:
I always like to point to the obvious. Look at what is happening in France and Belgium after the attack in Paris. They are going after targeted individuals, who they knew were related to the killers before the attack. And, it’s working!!! So, this is what I have been saying they should do all along.
Do a targeted selection of data from the communications based on known people and their attributes and you can succeed (as now in France and Belgium) instead of the bulk collection on everyone which buries them in data and they fail. After the attack and people die, they do the right thing. This should make it obvious what route to take.
The same is true in California …
CNN reports:
Syed Rizwan Farook -- who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the San Bernardino shooting massacre -- apparently was radicalized and in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for international terrorism, law enforcement officials said Thursday.
Huffington Post notes:
David Bowdich, assistant regional director of the FBI, said Thursday that the couple had made trips to Pakistan and that Malik was in the U.S. on a visa. Although authorities have not yet singled out a motive, a U.S. intelligence official told the Associated Press that Farook had been in touch with extremists on social media accounts, and that the FBI had been monitoring the situation.
If the intelligence and law enforcement agencies had focused their resources on tracking known bad guys - and those they associate with - we could have stopped all of these terror attacks. By instead spying on all Americans, they are spaced out, with no focus on the bad guys ... and so terror attacks will keep on happening on their watch.
After the Paris terror attack, the New York Times correctly pointed out in a scathing editorial that mass surveillance won’t help to prevent terrorism:
As one French counterterrorism expert and former defense official said, this shows that “our intelligence is actually pretty good, but our ability to act on it is limited by the sheer numbers.” In other words, the problem in this case was not a lack of data, but a failure to act on information authorities already had.
In fact, indiscriminate bulk data sweeps have not been useful. In the more than two years since the N.S.A.’s data collection programs became known to the public, the intelligence community has failed to show that the phone program has thwarted a terrorist attack. Yet for years intelligence officials and members of Congress repeatedly misled the public by claiming that it was effective.
Binney and other high-level NSA whistleblowers noted last year:
On December 26, for example, The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy front-page article, quoting NSA’s former Senior Technical Director William Binney (undersigned) and former chief of NSA’s SIGINT Automation Research Center Edward Loomis (undersigned) warning that NSA is drowning in useless data lacking adequate privacy provisions, to the point where it cannot conduct effective terrorist-related surveillance and analysis.
A recently disclosed internal NSA briefing document corroborates the drowning, with the embarrassing admission, in bureaucratize, that NSA collection has been “outpacing” NSA’s ability to ingest, process, and store data – let alone analyze the take.
Indeed, the pro-spying NSA chief and NSA technicians admitted that the NSA was drowning in too much data 3 months BEFORE 9/11:
In an interview, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, the NSA’s director … suggested that access isn’t the problem. Rather, he said, the sheer volume and variety of today’s communications means “there’s simply too much out there, and it’s too hard to understand.”
***
“What we got was a blast of digital bits, like a fire hydrant spraying you in the face,” says one former NSA technician with knowledge of the project. “It was the classic needle-in-the-haystack pursuit, except here the haystack starts out huge and grows by the second,” the former technician says. NSA’s computers simply weren’t equipped to sort through so much data flying at them so fast.
And see this.
If more traditional anti-terror efforts had been used, these terror plots would have been stopped.
So why does the NSA collect so much information if it admits that it’s drowning in info?
Postscript: Sadly, our government is not serious about stopping terrorism.
Related:
Top NSA Whistleblower: “Every Time There Is a Terrorist Attack, What We Really Need to Do Is Demand that They CUT the Budgets of All the Intelligence Agencies”
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Why Have There Been More Mass Shootings Under Obama Than The Four Previous Presidents Combined?
http://thenewsdoctors.com/?p=554926
good question, like about 700% more to be accurate , but you will not hear a word from PRAVDA/MSM
we all live in massive illusions and all are simply control mechanisms to control you and your tax dollars to be used against you in a myriad of ways everyday !
mass spying is to insure that those who are carrying out obomba's "terrorism/false flag/workplace violence/get out the gun control legislation" attacks are on schedule and according to plan
There’s no way to quantify the acts of terror that were prevented. If you are alive right now, then you have been saved from acts of terror.
I feel... safe.
Ran out of your meds eh?
You dont close the door when you shit either i take it?
RIPS
Nice that Washington's blog is buying the terrorism narrative. Just more evidence that site is nothing but insider run fake dissident bullshit which I'm starting believe most of the alternative media is comprised of.
You like this better: The First Question to Ask After Any Terror Attack: Was It a False Flag?
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George, a straight right knock out. Well done.
off the subject but, Tylers, we need another arrow to fully compliment our growing numbers here on ZH.
^ agree
> you fucking moron
v disagree
wadda ya think?
I thought V was the "Your a Fucking Moron" button!
I would think the new choice would get so used that it would break down in no time.
FORWARD SOVIET!
Someone previously mentioned on ZH, when you're in the business of war, peace will make you poor. We've bombed hostpitals, schools, water treatment plants and innocent civilians in the M.E. for over two decades. Millions have been killed or living without limbs or family members. They simply won't submit to SWIFT and our usurious way of life under the all powerful banking elites. They're also cursed with the damn oil under their soil which TPTB wants so much under their control.
My heart goes out to the families in SB Cali. Those victims would be alive today if our War on ERROR-ism never started.
possibly, but they may have also been victims of drive bys by illegal aliens ? there has been few of those as well don't you know ? or caughjt AIDs or been shot by a cop ?
DUH! It's like the Cloward-Piven strategy to overwhelm the system. Hmmmmmmmm
They collect bulk data to use in the future to threaten and/or control and/or prosecute anyone they want. How does one defend against false data sworn to by a government employee? How easily can a prosecutor impeach testimony by demanding you remember and report exactly what was recorded?
There is no infallible nor unmanipulable government data. There are no trust-able government employees. Government data bases are for ex post facto control and thus fail ex ante (before the fact).
g.w., did you know that of the last 340 days there have been in excess of 350 mass murders in the usa defined as a perpetrator killing 4 or more human beings in a single event. the thing is the majority of the deceased were murdered by someone they either loved, thought they loved or thought loved them?. . that is provocative man.
Letters and PoliticsThursday, December 3, 2015 4:00 pm
http://wbai.org/server-archive.html
Well, yeah.
The guy went to Saudi Arabia and brought back his ole lady, with a passport. He also legally bought every gun he used, passing every background check there is.
He was also a government employee.
So I guess the logical takeaway to "keep us safe" here is, immediately suspend all government employee passports and prohibit and/or seize their weapons from them based on their past propensity towards violence.
Its for...the cheeelrun after all ;-)
Well done and almost complete comments (although I hate the use of the phrase, "the takeaway" reminds me of that mental/physical crip, John Hockenberry and that godawful show on NPR he hosts, the one funded by the Koch brothers, of course).
He was a Sunni, the same sect as ALL the other Moslems who have committed mass murders, from the African embassy attacks, the attacks at Bali, Indonesia, the attack on the USS Cole, 9/11, etc., etc. etc.
The TWO CONSTANTS are that they are ALWAYS Sunnis, and that they either recently came from Saudi Arabia, or made a recent trip to Saudi Arabia and then returned from there.
For the past thirty to thirty-five years, it has always been the Sunnis --- not Shi'a (although Obama and the other presidents always seem to support attacking them) --- not Aliwite --- no Sufi Islam, the Sunnis!
Our government isnt serious about stopping terrorism
Our government would have to quit starting terrorism, if it ever wanted to stop it.
Yezzz.
Just think for a moment about the pure cognitive dissonance involved, it's all encapsulated in this one event if only everyone could open their eyes and minds to see it.
Here we have a "radicalized group" of people where it's absolutely provable that they are responsible for murder, generalized mayhem and the destruction of private property on orders of magnitude greater than any other group in mankinds history, going back, not for decades...but going back for centuries.
Yet, I find it amazing that everyone stops to listen to this "radicalized group" time after time. To consider their bold lies once again, as if their lies had some great merit worthy of consideration based on their past performance.
And yes, I'm still talking about government employees ;-)
Overdue for real regime change in Saudi Arabia (so why is Obama fixated on Syria?????).
Because it's part of the "promised land".
I really don't know.
I've given up trying to read the mind of this arsonist. His main goal in life seems to be setting fire to buildings, then running over to another building and screaming for the world to look at the building thats now fully engulfed in flames, while he torches the one he's standing beside.
Thats as close as I can come to explaining what he does.
I bet if they track orthodox Muslims who buy guns and travel to Muslim countries with lots of terrorists they might get a fucking clue. How about that for somè detective work?
Brilliant, joegoe1, and therefore disqualified from the CIA, DIA, NSA and FBI.
Ever heard of Julie Sirrs, formerly an intrepid analyst with the DIA, before they forced her out?
"Top security experts agree that mass surveillance is ineffective … and actually makes us MORE vulnerable to terrorism."
So what? The surveillance system has nothing to do with terrorism. It's about getting blackmail material on everyone so you can control them.
Conceal carry or open carry.
Obombya is a mass terrorist and he wants to destroy this country.
When the gun grabbers come to confiscate, give them the bullets first. Right between the eyes.
Interesting they chose a center for disabled people vs my local gun range. This seems to be a common feature of all mass shootings, terrorist or not. For some reason even the die hard loonies pick a " shooting fish in a barrel" scenario vs one where they would have a possibility of return fire.
Since this country has a porous border and a socialist agenda, these events will just escalate. I wonder if this will finally get the attention of coddled Americans obsessed with celebrity posteriors.
Miffed
Just like wasting time fingering grannies ass at the airport doesn't do anything but waste time too. Devote the limited resources you have to keeping the bad guys out. I've crossed the border from Canada back into the US and they treat you like a criminal. I'm not the fucking bad guy idiots.
Why are we letting these people travel to terrorist hot spots and back? If you have been to any of those shithole countries you shouldn't be allowed back in, period.
Wife and I took our first vacation ever in 2012 (in thirty two years), three weeks eastern seaboard up to NY and into Maine...into Canada via Vermont.
Canada border. We want our passports stamped. You do? Why? So we can show people we came here. You know these are only good for ten or so years, right? Yeah, just stamp them, make it official. We're allowed to be in Canada. They had us get out of the car, after making us pull into a spot where they tear cars apart.
Ten minutes later, in this spacious office, a lady comes ou, monsiour "my name", and I don't speak a speck of french. I get up and she hands me our passports all bubbly and glad to see me. Speaks to me...Froncourir devoeri latte demond...I look at her blank faced, no idea what she just said. Mr. "My Name", welcome to Canada and Quebec, we've stamped your passport and you're free to tour our nation. Thank you for coming...and Welcome. Handshakes all around the office.
We do our tour. Wind up at the border of Michigan. Hugh fat-fuck Americna border guard. His gut was so awesome it could have lapped his montrous ass fourteen times. His border patrol shirt was a sheet that had four corners tucked into his pants. The rest was a greasy mass of fabric that went on for miles. Wuddaya want? We would like our passports officially stamped that we regained entrance to the United States through legal means. You 'merikans? Yes, we definitely are, but we've been in a foreign country and we're sure that you need to check us out as thouroughly as you do at airports and the mexican border. We've been to both, so we're prepared. Give me your fuckin' passports. Waddles off to an office. Thirty minutes later, waddles back, you, here, hands passports back, waddles off with no further word. Wife and I look in passport. Canada stamped the first page of our visas, perfectly. Michigan had a reentry stamp on page 12 of my passport, upside down. Wife had hers on page 13, rightside up, but tilted to the left.
I showed her the differences...ok, let's go to Detroit and see what's up there. Went to some casino in Detroit...spent an hour, I left up $300, wife left up $1,100; not bad for an hour.
Maybe, one of these days, we can take another vacation.
Interestingly, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not even put on a No-fly list, while he went back and forth to the Caucasus region. Even after the alert from the Russians. FBI head Mueller, during the Boston bombing hearing before Congressional committee, stated they knew Tamerlan long before the 2011 Russian alert, proving that the Boston FBI head Des Lauriers was lying when he appealed to the public in identifying the two photos of Tamerlan and Jahar.
So all that goes to prove is the FBI is just as royally effed up, royally useless, and should be shut down, as it should have been shut down immediately after its mass failure on 9/11 (along with the CIA, DIA and NSA).
Robert Mueller III, money derives from the Truesdale side of the family where they were affiliated with Rockefeller family, specifically with blowing up competitors' refineries.
Robert Mueller III is the grandnephew of Richard Bissell, one of the three CIA senior types fired by President Kennedy before he was assassinated.
Mueller was appointed head of the DOJ's criminal division by Geo. H.W. Bush when the investigation of the BCCI was getting ever closer to the White House.
Between Skull & Bones brother John Kerry (that would be John Forbes Winthrop Dudley Kerry, great-grandson of Francis Blackwell Forbes, super-opium dealer), who headed the congressional investigation, and Mueller, the investigation was stifled and never entered the White House.
There is the published picture of him surrendering, getting out of the boat. Looks scared. Hands in the air. Nothing physically wrong with him. Next thing you know, his larxn got shot out and he will never talk again.
True. And I followed that case closely. They never really presented any "proof" he did it.....in fact most of what they presented exonerates him, although the Media kept the circus emotionally charged. The Defense team (which works for the government as does the prosecution) travelled to Caucasus and they told the family they knew he was innocent but they were up against the U.S. DOJ and other government entities and it would be best to admit guilt so they could keep him off the death penalty. Although that backfired. Maybe purposely.
What a tool! Can't believe you didn't blame a Jew!
Tool of who? You have no argument. Tsarnaev brothers were patsies and they will execute the young man to silence him, although I have no idea why they need to as he has cooperated with the case against himself. You sound like a Jew, though. Must be to bring that into this without anybody else bringing it up.
George - NSA knowing shit, and acting on shit - are two different things.
Muppets are expendable for a just cause.
The NSA said, just 'cause.
Let us not forget they createst the problem in the first place. First WTC Bombing, in 1993 is a well documented example. The Egyptian ex-Army guy, went to his FBI handlers and said 'They want me to create a bomb, so I'll make them a fake one, right?' And the response was - no, make it a real one.
Yup, consious being, and when the FBI raided the apartment of the murderer of old Rabbi Kahane, they found detailed plans for the attack on the WTC.
What a country . . . .
The cops practiced for this exact event ON-SITE for months. I'll be a few armed folks in the building would've done better. But in Calif. - Noooooo.
NSA still hasn't justified it's existence, with the all seeing-eye type of spying...that allowed the San Bernardino jihadist attack to occur; in spite of the billions poured into it over the last few years. Since they can't perform their function, maybe it's best to save tax dollars by SHUTTING THE NSA DOWN.
Not sure they should be shut down but domestic spying should be illegal for the NSA, period.
OK, then let the citizenry order complete forensic financial audits on the CIA, NSA, DIA and FBI.
To my recollection, there has never been an audit on the CIA, the last time one was ordered was shortly before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but it seemed to disappear after his burial.
I can't recall any government agency ever being shut down. Perhaps this is because they don't need to prove their usefulness or be accountable to anyone. Seems a good approach is not adding to the ones we already have.
Yet, every time I have flown in the last 6 years, at least one person claims the inconvenience of security is worth it because it keeps us safe. I'm too jaded and cynical to argue with them anymore.
Miffed
@ Miffed: "I can't recall any government agency ever being shut down."
Not to mention "mission creep" that leaves an agency's original raison d'etre in the dust.
Take the Department of Energy, for example. It was created in 1977 to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, following the 1973 oil crisis.
So far, so good — http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/S9guoP-utHI/AAAAAAAANVI/jhvqpZm0za... — while becoming a $27 billion bureaucratic monstrosity in the process.
You may be jaded & cynical, but you're still miffed :)
The surveillance is not about safety. It is about control.
This way they can dig until they find some dirt, and keep this against anyone they don't like, or who does not tow the line.
This is Animal farm on wide screen, all animals are equal. Some are just a bit more equal than others!!
Fuck this modern form of communism and all who stand behind it!
Here we go.
Obama is...in Paris...trying to pontificate intelligently about (among other things) gun control and presumably also how well France protects it's citizens with it's exceptionally strict gun control laws and police state.
For all you Huff-Po readers dropping by to see what the other half thinks...isn't that nice?
Well, so far this year...Paris...has more mass shooting deaths than America...508 to 394.
Exceptional ;-)
I thought he was hosting the Weather Channel...?
completely agree on all points