We really expected that back in the Indymedia days - all our communications for sysadmin and the IRC channel were all encrypted. Some people called us paranoid, but it seems we were just exercising good common sense…
When your only tool is a hammer…
When your government is a band of vicious thugs, human rights groups are a threat to national security.
Some people called us paranoid
One of the many nice side effects of the Snowden leaks is people say that drivel a lot less nowadays. Also, people that still do call others “paranoid” for using encryption, etc. look more like idiots to society than they ever did before.
That’s the optimistic interpretation… Given what we are wont to do in the name of security, the conclusion that human rights groups are contrary to the interests of American policy seems pretty logical to me.
Not the sort of logical that one is so crass as to state in polite company, of course; but those guys probably made our operation of a shadowy network of extrajudicial torture dungeons 15% peskier. We’ve unleashed the drones for substantially less.
Cory et al. . .
You’re surprised by this?? It’s pretty much the case that the NSA spies on anything and everything it can reach…
Surprised? No, I doubt anyone is surprised by any of NSA’s hijinks anymore.
But it’s still worth pouring buckets of sunshine on each and every egregious act, because there’s a difference between ‘knowing’ these things are going on and Knowing these things are going on.
Well said!
I hope you won’t mind if I reuse the phrase 
My inlaws believe the NSA’s excuses and thought the 60 minutes story was reason to relax. I appreciate the media outlets that continue to poor it on the NSA because there are a lot of people like my inlaws that want to / need to believe in our government (the system is working for them, they are successful and believe the dream is honest and just… eagles and flags and all that shit)
You’re surprised by this?? It’s pretty much the case that the NSA spies on anything and everything it can reach…
The factions supporting the spy programs get great traction on claims that surveillance is critical for national security, and it is tightly controlled, and good citizens have nothing to worry about.
Those claims are all false, but they can only be demonstrated to be false by bringing the systematic routine abuse (such as this) into the light and shouting it from the rooftops.
Don’t fall into outrage-fatigue. When shocking things come to light, if cynicism leads to being meh instead of outraged, you are giving tacit permission for outrages to continue.
Surprise is not the issue. These aren’t massive revelations that shock us to the core. This is an ongoing documentation of shit that is happening in our world.
If we must be surprised by something in order for it to be seen as worthy of printing or discussing, then there is literally nothing a government can do that will be worth talking about (other than perhaps providing for its citizens and not repressing basic liberties - that would be surprising).
The ‘yawn - everybody knows this already’ response is exactly what these oppressive pricks want us to do. Shrug, enjoy a little smug ‘I knew it’ and go back to sleep. It is not the right response.
Oh, I think the application of copious amounts of sunshine is warranted. Or at least sunshine-equivalent.
I wonder how many megatons would be needed, and in how many packets ??? (evil grin)
I spent years defending the United States, to have it come to THIS ???
So, why don’t you ask “You’re surprised by this??” on all the other articles posted on Boing Boing? There’s exactly as much of an indication of surprise in those. That is to say, none at all. (Well, maybe that crinkle-cut banana slicer…)
You know what I find really obnoxious? People who assume discussing something, or making a blog post about something, means we’re “surprised” about the subject matter.
take not NSA the lady is the founder of “the militant wing of the Salvation Army”. hear that army scary stuff.
Also, people who think their suspicions are as good as concrete evidence. One good example of something that really happened is worth 100 "I knew that all along"s.
No. I’m still pissed off though.
It’s quite predictable that if you have a surveillance state, it will spy on its critics, on dissidents, and on human rights groups.
It’s quite predictable that if you have a surveillance state which spies on its, critics, on dissidents, and on human rights groups, it will use what it knows or thinks it knows to harass its critics, harass dissidents, and harass human rights groups.
If people are pretending that this surveillance state is different, that this one is defending us all from The Terrorists, then it’s helpful to have evidence that no, it is no different, it is doing these things. Of course, if people are going to ignore the whole history of the Stasi and Cointelpro, then they are capable of ignoring anything,
They (FBI, etc) have been spying on peaceful groups in the US since the 1960’s and probably long before that. The general outlook and habits of TPTB do not change over time.
