The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

Re:The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by N... by mpweiher on Thursday August 28, 2014 @08:50AM (#8236936)

As retold by Adam Curtis in the excellent BBC three-parter "The Power of Nightmares":

3a. CIA people told new director, "er, boss, that was actually us".

3b. CIA director does not believe his own people.

And of course the whole "Team B" episode (Rumsfeld etc.), where the complete lack of evidence that the Soviets had <weapon-of-choice> was reinterpreted to mean they MUST OBVIOUSLY HAVE <even-worse-than-weapon-of-choice-even-if-physically-impossible> and perfect secrecy, otherwise how could we not have found any evidence?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares

http://vimeo.com/84414208

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_B

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Re:The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by N... by chc on Thursday August 28, 2014 @12:43PM (#8238199)

Curtis wrote also wrote a great piece about the role incompetence played in the formation of intelligence agencies, titled "BUGGER: Maybe the Real State Secret Is That Spies Aren't Very Good At Their Jobs And Don't Know Very Much About the World".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER

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Re:The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by N... by mpweiher on Friday August 29, 2014 @12:34AM (#8241140)

Yep, that was also excellent. Some confirmation from the highest places:

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt recounts that he never read the BND reports, because anything they wrote was tainted. He just asked other world leaders directly instead.

http://www.zeit.de/2013/45/nsa-abhoeraffaere-gelassenheit

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Re:The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by N... by Soyuz on Thursday August 28, 2014 @09:51AM (#8237168)

That was wonderful documentary. I will watch it. Thanks

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