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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Nobody talks about the more effective ways to prevent terrorism
Like ceasing to support undemocratic kings and dictators in foreign lands, quitting enabling Israel do violate human rights with impunity, and quit forcing little countries to do our will.
Really, Karl? The terrorists just want western-style Democracy? My relatives still in Lebanon, and those who emigrated from there, would strongly disagree.
John
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Maybe I've spent too much time in Latin America, but I got used to the freedom they have. In Colombia there is no one who can really protect you, but you can do anything you want. The police don't bother you unless you're doing something wrong. Actually nobody at all bothers you unless you're doing something to them.
In Colombia, if the government were collecting info like this, it would get sold 100 times by various people in the intel agencies. Somebody would be pissed at you for whatever reason, and pay somebody to get your data. Or just do it to blackmail you if you had a lot of money or something else they wanted.
We have powerful armed groups like the FARC and BACRIM, drug trafficking organizations, but if you don't bother them they don't bother you. My office is in Apartado, near the Colombian border with Panama. When I enter the US I get interrogated by DHS, one time the agent was insisting that I couldn't live there unless one of the groups was protecting me. He probably believed it and it shows he didn't understand the situation, which is that no one can protect you and if you side with one of those groups you just become the enemy of the others.
So I have to agree with rSin and others who use the word "pussy" to describe the North American attitude towards security and terrorism. It doesn't really matter that much if some guy in Afghanistan hates the US. He doesn't have to do anything, the Americans will make their own self inflicted wounds.
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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I'm slightly on the left end of the political spectrum, but I'm currently dissatisfied with the governments policies. They listen to my calls, and it's super annoying.
Stop listening to my phone calls! You're not listening into any conversations that discuss illegal things!
Carry on.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Karl said: ..."quitting enabling Israel do violate human rights with impunity"
I have seen you post this more than once Karl. ie, "It's the Jews fault for not wanting to be dead". I guess I can see that point. I know you are a good person but I can't let it go by again. I'm sure that the Israeli Jews would feel much better about your statement Karl except that currently the alternative for them is death and old school Pogroms. Not just the loss of a homeland. PS, perhaps you can show where you have complained as voraciously and consistently about the wanton death and murder of Arab on Arab of an currently estimated 80,000 - 100,000 (so far) in Syria, or the repression, jailing and murder by the authorities of minorities and Christians in many Arab countries...
Which, as TGT knows, is creeping over and touching on Lebanon as I type this.
ps, I already as much as said this: "We push our weight around everywhere and have hypocritical double standards and we expect everyone to just bend over and take it. They won't. Even Europe and Latin America are getting pissed off at us now" I concur buddy.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Shouldn't the Electronic Privacy group "stick to what they know" too? Or does that only apply to me talking about Snowden?
It only applies to you talking about Snowden.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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From the top of the ladder:
How could you let this happen? How could you let the land of Freedom, the land of Hope and Glory, slowly be turned into the land of Distrust and Paranoia. Is business and money driving the change? Is fear profitable? A new fear-business emerging?
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WBraun
climber
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His own fellow NSA whistleblowers call him a traitor
Those guys are nobodies and not even the real whistle blowers.
More white washed bullsh!t made up propaganda from Hedge's fools he listens to since he doesn't have clue where the real information is.
Take a vacation Joe you have already exploded from all your stupidity ....
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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http://www.usatoday.com/media/cinematic/video/2425523/
Frightening interview of 3 previous NSA whistleblowers and their attorney by USA TODAY
Tom's post ...
And another:
i worry about a criminal fractional reserve banking system, backing a monopolized military/industrial complex, backing a falsely legalized barbaric totalitarian police state, violating everyone's civil rights of privacy, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness
and about people like you [Joe] who seem to be able to justify such things
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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And they also say that what the NSA is doing is illegal.
"Did he [Snowden] do the right thing?"
"Yes."
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Joe, that interview refutes every one of your points you make to attack the necessity for the blanket surveillance.
Radack: I consider this [FBI Verizon order] to be an unlawful order. While I am glad that we finally have something tangible to look at, this order came from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. They have no jurisdiction to authorize domestic-to-domestic surveillance.
It goes on and on about how wrong the whole thing is. I find it surprising that you continue to support the program.
Attack Snowden all you want. It's what he revealed about the program that is truly bothersome.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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I just find it remarkable that 95% of the people on this thread refuse to admit what is plainly obvious - that Snowden committed treason. Even his fellow whistleblowers admit it.
Just one said "he is transitioning from whistle-blower to a traitor." The other two edged away from the traitor comment, and 'transitioning' is hardly calling him a traitor straight on.
Come on, I know you read better than that. Stop bending their words.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Drake: For me, it was material evidence of an institutional crime that we now claim is criminal.
Binney: Which is still criminal.
Wiebe: It's criminal.
Come on Joe, tell us again how it's legal, when these very honorable NSA agents, who have collectively over 100 years in the business, say it's criminal.
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PSP also PP
Trad climber
Berkeley
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He exposed that we were spying on our number 1 enemy Brazil!? and the EU!?and the american citizens!? He has embarrassed the secret US government snooping where they had no constitutional right to be. Now they want to spank him but he got away and they are looking like thieves with their hand in the cookie jar. The guy has balls.
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lostinshanghai
Social climber
someplace
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Company Overview
Raytheon UTD Inc. provides engineering and scientific analysis, site and facilities assessments, and technology development services to federal, state, and local government agencies in the United States and internationally. It operates in three divisions: Technology, Analysis, and Assessment. The Technology division offers data acquisition, board design, custom sensor development, telemetry, site characterization, digital elevation modeling, terrain and imagery analysis, and 3D spatial and flythroughs services. The Analysis division provides remote imaging, geotechnical characterization, and sensor development and applications for hostile system and target characterization. The Assessment division performs critical infrastructure evaluations, as well as implements assessment recommendations for a range of government and private sector customers. Raytheon UTD Inc. was formerly known as UTD, Inc. As a result of the acquisition of UTD, Inc. by Raytheon Co., UTD, Inc.'s name was changed to Raytheon UTD Inc. in 2005. The company was founded in 1977 and is based in Springfield, Virginia. As of August 22, 2005, Raytheon UTD, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Raytheon Co.
That is just one part; they have other or many assessments/ services in their bag of goodies.
Blast as in for protecting structures is one.
But blast not your cup of tea maybe this will interest you.
Contractor Seeks 'Cyber Warriors' to Help Defend U.S.
Published July 27, 2009
But here is the jest of the scope for looking for a few good men.
Want to be a "cyber warrior" defending your country? If so, there are plenty of well-paid jobs available.
Leading defense contractor Raytheon is looking for a few good men and women a couple of hundred of them, in fact to patrol the front lines of America's cybersecurity.
"We're aggressively recruiting," Raytheon Vice President of Information Security Solutions Steve Hawkins said.
Applicants need to be a bit aggressive as well, according to the solicitation Raytheon put online seeking applicants for more than 30 different job descriptions.
Click here to apply.
"Our Raytheon cyber warriors play offense and defense, and know how the adversary thinks and can adopt their perspective," says the Web page, which lists positions ranging from "network and security engineers" to "data modeling engineers" to "media sanitation specialists."
Asked what that last job entails, Hawkins laughed.
"That's where you erase or destroy devices that would have sensitive data on them," he explained. "You try to find individuals who've been trained in doing that. But I'm afraid those positions have mostly been filled."
Nevertheless, Hawkins says the company's made about 50 to 60 hires so far this year, and wants to take on 150 more new cyber warriors by December.
National cybersecurity is a hugely growing field, with the crude but effective shutdown of U.S. and South Korean government Web sites over July 4 weekend coming as the latest example of our weaknesses.
A report released just this past Wednesday found that the federal government is woefully behind in cybersecurity, with the lack of trained personnel the biggest problem.
For the Raytheon jobs, all you need are very strong computer skills a college degree in computer science, math or engineering is preferred, but not necessary strong ethical standards, and, for most positions, the ability to pass government security clearances, which entails U.S. citizenship.
And while some security companies hire ex-hackers, Hawkins said such formerly shady characters need not apply in this case.
"We certainly love ex-hackers' skills, but you have to get ethical people," he said. "There are very extensive background investigations, and you don't usually find criminals making it through that process."
Even former teenage hackers who haven't been convicted of any crime but are suspected of a few would not be considered.
"That would be a very negative thing," Hawkins says. "We would rather take engineers with basic skills and train them from scratch."
Hawkins wouldn't get specific about compensation but said that it's a "typical engineering pay scale, which varies widely based on level of experience."
A quick online survey shows that systems analysts generally make in the high five figures.
Hawkins added that for those applicants who pass the most stringent security clearances, "which limits the available talent," there's "premium compensation ... I'd say they make 10 to 15 percent more."
While the list of jobs looks pretty intimidating, Hawkins stressed that applicants would be better off if they weren't too specialized.
"We're looking for those individuals who understand the inner workings of computer systems and software, who understand the interaction between hardware and software down to the nitty-gritty," he said. "Not people who've specialized in high-level computer languages."
In other words, Raytheon doesn't need programmers trained in the most modern, efficient techniques, which automate many routine processes, but rather those who know how to get closer to what the computers are actually doing.
It's a bit like the difference between driving a car with automatic transmission and one with a stick shift, where you have more of a sense of what the engine's up to.
While many private computer firms favor younger applicants over older ones, Hawkins says that's not the case here.
"We're perfectly willing to take mid-career applicants, especially those who've had full military careers," he says. "It really comes down to the thought process they have, the skills they have."
New graduates fresh out of college are welcome, too, as well as recently laid-off Wall Street quantitative analysts.
"If they don't have the skills we need, then we'll sent them to our version of boot camp training," he adds.
In a difficult job market, with so many people looking for work, why does Raytheon need to advertise?
"In the past three to four years, the number of graduates in the fields we're looking at has really plateaued," said Hawkins. "The citizenship requirements mean there's a limited supply for a growing field."
"Kids these days tend to lose interest in math sometime in middle school," he added. "We've got a program for schoolkids called 'MathMovesU.' We've reached 700,000 kids and teachers this way in the past few years."
Locations for the jobs are in Garland, Texas (near Dallas), Melbourne, Fla., and as might be expected, two areas near Washington, D.C.: northern Virginia, home of the Pentagon and CIA, and Linthicum and Fort Meade, Md., where the National Security Agency is.
That doesn't mean people working in the latter two would be directly placed in the NSA or Pentagon, Hawkins explained.
"We do support all the major federal customers," he said. "We're not limited by proximity."
That was in 2009.
Hmmm, wonder if they are still hiring?
Want their phone #.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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The courts say otherwise, though. What bearing does NSA background have on legal matters?
On the three NSA whistleblowers, they tried to go to the courts with the legality of the NSA domestic surveillance program, but the courts instead turned against them. At this point, I can say the courts are not interested in what is legal or not, they are concerned with their pet program.
And it's funny how you keep debating me on your side of the argument (surveillance), which I willingly engage in, but you refuse to even admit that mine (treason) exists. Why is that, "K-Man"?
Well jghedge, it's "k-man" (if you're gonna put quotes around it). Or call me Kelly, my real name ;-)
I'm with DMT here, until we know the facts, I'm not going to say it is, or is not, treason.
And here I need to correct you again, only one of the NSA agents said that Snowden was "transitioning" towards treason. The other two did say no such thing.
I am more concerned about what was revealed about the domestic spying, and how the Gov't is now beyond reproach, than with Snowden. What our gov't is doing scares me more than imagining a terrorist has a suitcase nuke, and knows how to use it.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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It seems that any terrorists worthy of posing a significant threat (nuclear holocaust!) is going to be sophisticated enough to secure their communications.
The one real threat I can think of is to smuggle a nuclear weapon into the US. Could be done easily from Colombia. The drug shipments are huge, always multi-ton. Each shipment is worth millions so there is plenty of money to bribe everyonbe along the way, to not notice the blip on the radar, and so on. (fact: few drug shipments would enter the US without bribing someone in the US Coast Guard) There are a thousand ways to bring drugs into the US and its just as easy to bring in a nuke, with the people doing it thinking they're smuggling drugs.
Colombian drug traffickers are very sophisticated and hire the best computer people money can buy. On the other hand, the Taliban don't use computers or phones. All of their orders are hand written, and transmitted by hand. There's no other safe way.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Imagine youre playing chess and one of your pawns is infected with some form of radiation. Each piece in its vicinity and any piece that defeats it becomes infected as well. What options do you have? What would you do? How can you limit its damage while still maintaining an overall defensive or offensive strategy? How would your initial strategy change with the introduction of this radioactive pawn?
This is the game of chess that is being played between the United States and Russia. Edward Snowden is that radioactive pawn (henceforth, he will be known as the superhero/villain RadioPawn
http://sofrep.com/22999/playing-chess-with-edward-snowden/
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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Jul 10, 2013 - 12:30pm PT
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The idea that Dick Cheney was behind illegal government activity is hardly surprising. He practically invented it.
Curt
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