It was all vaguely satisfying. Like watching a ramshackle, travelling huckster carnival fleeing the Law, dealing crystal meth in the backwaters, only to be shut down by the local OSHA for violating slushy cone regulations. On a variety of levels. Not just for the theater of the frantic, squeeling Fran Townshend. But also how such an obvious, tedious NIE now comes full circle since October 2002’s crapfest as the voice of permanent government. Finally staring down the diminished Warlord.
That’s really about it. Did we miss anything? We see little point in discussing the historical nature and mechanics of NIEs (or SNIEs), or even their historical record as useful exercises. On this subject at least, they no longer function even as bureaucratic by-product but have assumed a political dimensionality all their own.
If the Warlord, like some of his predecessors, believes Providence dictates (and protects) his actions, little can be done absent his removal without 67 rational senators. So reports the Sainted David Brooks. Yesterday’s attempted political theater in the Senate merely underscores the point. And highlights how much the Democrats have yet to re-learn about stagecraft. Or even recognizing and having the courage to embrace the recognition that politics is, like the world, a stage.
For Beschloss’ colleagues (‘we historians, Tim’), the Warlord presents thin gruel to work with. What we see is what we get. Moreover, plumbing the depths of the EOVP sanctum are likely to be years away. Note that the commissioned hack Stephen Hayes’ effort to shine the Cheney memorial oddly was defeated by the commissioning feudal lord himself.
So we are left with the animation, above.
Comment says
Sibels stumbles on one of those state secrets that the regime specializes in – Ones that foreigners are aware of, but citizens are kept ignorant of.
Didn’t she basically say Hastert was in indirect pay of Turkish drug interests? No wonder it’s secret – Maybe Flynt will report it. LOL.
re British badgers –
There is saying, both old and true –
If thou you will France win
Then with Scotland first begin
So when the eagle England is in prey.
the weasel Scot comes to suck
her princely eggs,
So noble badgers must un-leashed be
To Iraq, to maintain the English scorn!
DrLeoStrauss says
Sibel Edmonds’ case against the FBI was denied due to State Secrets privilege as asserted by the Warlord’s regime. Appeal to the Supreme Court was denied cert.
As a non-sequitor, those clever Brits are fomenting subversion in Basra and Iran with beavers — from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm
Comment says
The history of heavy surveillance and crackdowns is not a good one – For every good piece of intelligence or ill gotten evidence, there are countless good things never done people are just not at their best when a lack of trust pervades the atmosphere – It’s hard to measure the loss.
Think about all the time wasted – all the analytical effort wasted – Oh btw, what ever happened to that Turkish woman in the Bureau’s translating department who basically reported it as a nest of spies.?
Dr Leo Strauss says
As an aside, here is what the Bureau is conceding it is using to determine who is using what email addresses, etc.
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/4625
This raises the question Declan and others have been pursuing, i.e., how many of the main anti-spyware and anti-virusware (and Apple) vendors have made deals with the Bureau and God knows who else to put their surveillance software on a so-called ‘White List’ so their instrusion will not be detected.
http://www.politechbot.com/2007/07/17/correction-on-security/
Givent the absence of adult, let alone professional, supervision of the Bureau and the swamp of splinter groups and contractors, it is fair to ask if the Vendors all say their software *would* alert a user to a non-judicially sanctioned intrusion, what exactly the FBI is using — although we don’t know if they did bother to get a judge involved.
UPDATE: Apparently, a magistrate was involved. Here’s the FBI affadvadit and other details from Declan.
There have been rumors for years about the FBI remotely installing spyware via e-mail or by exploiting an operating system vulnerability from afar — and now there’s confirmation.
Last month, the FBI obtained a federal court order to remotely install spyware called CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier) to find out who was behind a MySpace account linked to bomb threats sent to a high school near Olympia, Wash.
The story is here:
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9746451-7.html
I’ve posted the FBI affidavit, which is interesting reading, and a summary of the CIPAV results that the FBI sent back to a magistrate judge, here:
http://politechbot.com/docs/fbi.cipav.sanders.affidavit.071607.pdf
http://politechbot.com/docs/fbi.cipav.sanders.search.warrant.071607.pdf
Here’s a Slashdot thread:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/18/1434229
Wired’s article on CIPAV notes that the FBI’s 2008 budget request includes $220,000 to “purchase highly specialized equipment and technical tools used for covert (and) overt search and seizure forensic operations… This funding will allow the technology challenges (sic) including bypass, defeat or compromise of computer systems”:
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/07/fbi_spyware
All this is quite timely given our discussion yesterday about security firms detecting spyware:
http://www.politechbot.com/2007/07/17/correction-on-security/
-Declan