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.
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- If the NSA databases were hacked by China, Russia, Iran, North
Korea, Anonymous, or Al Quada, what would the security
implications be?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- When you tell us that you are lying to us for our own good
then why should we believe anything you say?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.