Thanks, Marc.
Sending this straight to Rand Paul's office.
On Jun 18, 2013 6:21 PM, "Marc Perkel" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Congress is asking the wrong questions. I think if they really want to
> know what’s going on they would give Snowden immunity and bring him back
> and get him to tell Congress what’s really going on. But short of that,
> here’s what I would be asking if I were on the committee.
>
>
> 1. We now know you are getting information for the cell phone
> companies and major IT companies ike Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Are you
> also getting information from the banks? And if you are, are you
> accumulating a database of credit card purchases?
> 2. Do you have the ability to include NSA code into operating system
> updates that would create a back door for the NSA to collect keystrokes,
> activate the microphone or cameras, read the file system, or modify the
> operating systems of Windows and mac computers or Windows, iPhones and
> Android phones?
> 3. If you have an NSA back door into our computers and cell phones,
> what do you have in place to prevent China, Russia, Iran, North Korea,
> Anonymous, or Al Quada from discovering the back door?
> 4. If the NSA databases were hacked by China, Russia, Iran, North
> Korea, Anonymous, or Al Quada, what would the security implications be?
> 5. Since Edward Snowden had the access he had, what is the security
> implications for an evil Snowden who was selling this information on the
> black market rather that trying to protect America (rightly or wrongly)
> from itself?
> 6. With an operation this large did you have any reasonable
> expectation it would remain secret? If not Snowden wasn’t it just a matter
> of time before we found out for someone else?
> 7. Wouldn’t it be better to give Snowden immunity and bring him back
> here rather than risk that he be captured by an enemy and forced to reveal
> what he knows to an enemy?
> 8. Because the NSA has extracted this data and is keeping it outside
> the source companies, doesn’t that increase the security risks and exposure
> of sensitive information?
> 9. Isn’t our position that there are 2 kinds of people in the world,
> Americans and foreigners, and insult to 96% of the world’s population? Does
> this not cause them to respect us less and have no respect for our privacy
> when we have no respect for theirs?
> 10. Does our spying set a world wide precedent whereby other countries
> will have the green light to spy on us because we spy on them? Doesn’t this
> put the whole world at risk?
> 11. Assuming it was inevitable that this spying would eventually
> become public, doesn’t it put America in greater danger by alienating the
> rest of the world because we are spying on them? Isn’t this just the same
> argument as the torture argument, that we increase the number of enemies
> more than we prevent attacks? Isn’t this just going to be another terrorist
> recruiting tool?
> 12. When you tell us that you are lying to us for our own good then
> why should we believe anything you say?
> 13. Don’t laws that undermine and nullify the constitution, even if
> it’s for our own safety, make us a nation that is no longer under the rule
> of law? That secret courts and secret warrants making secret law make us no
> longer America?
> 14. The secret NSA court orders require companies to lie to the public
> about what information they are giving to the NSA. If these companies tell
> the truth they are punished. What the government requires its citizens to
> lie and punishes the truth, how is that not an Orwellian society?
> 15. What America lies to the world and we have secret courts that
> require citizens and corporations to lie, doesn’t that weaken America as a
> world power? Doesn’t that send a message to the world that we are not to be
> trusted?
> 16. Doesn’t the appearance that we are taking the same kind of steps
> that one would take towards becoming an Orwellian society create at least
> an apparent threat to the world and undermine our international relations?
> 17. With this kind of information is there not an opportunity for
> criminals, companies, or our enemies to blackmail our elected officials?
> For example, Senator Vitter is tracked using his smart phone GPS to 5
> hotels. One could search for all smart phones in his vicinity to determine
> what women were with him at the same time and cross reference them based on
> how often these women frequent hotels in these areas to determine if he is
> seeing prostitutes again. And that this won’t be revealed as long as he
> supports some cause – such as NSA spying? How do we know this isn’t already
> happening?
> 18. Doesn’t the NSA already effectively have a gun owner’s database?
> For example, if someone joins the NRA with their credit card online, buys
> ammo at Walmart with a debit card, and has his smart phone with GPS in his
> pocket while going to a gun club or firing range, don’t we know that are a
> gun owner? And because of their GPS phone, don’t we also know where they
> are so we can pick them up at any time?
> 19. If we see government misconduct, like we find a CIA torture camp,
> and we want to report it to th press, doesn’t the fact that the NSA has the
> news media’s phones and email tapped discourage whistle blowers from
> reporting things that need to get out into the press to protect democracy?
> Doesn’t this threaten free speech?
> 20. Since this kind of technology can be used to create an Orwellian
> society, what safeguards do you have to make sure that doesn’t happen? Have
> you considered this possibility and fully explored the ramifications?
> 21. Taking all of the above questions into consideration, how do you
> repair the trust we should have in our government and how to we assure the
> “foreigners” that we are going to respect their rights as citizens of the
> planet?
>
> YES – please copy these questions and post them all over the internet.
> Feel free to add to the list.
>
>
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