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Michael<br>
<br>
Since McTim had asked me once how I would go about handling the 70
to 80% fo the "single rooters" (an appelation that I will continue
to use because the historical trajectory that brings us to some of
your questions), I thought I would discern some of the tactics that
have led directly or indirectly to this fork in the road (defending
the indefensible like 'single rooters' seems a lot easier than this
spat):<br>
<br>
1. Denial (of point made or its relevance).<br>
2. Demands for evidence.<br>
3. Obfuscation (sometimes even definitional), nuance (I don't fit in
that box, or don't put me in there because) or calling
contradictions.<br>
4. Collective attacks.<br>
5. Appeals to higher authority.<br>
6. Common cause made with conspiracy nuts (of course it is lost on
some that truth can be stranger than fiction).<br>
<br>
But we should not forget adaptation, and it is great if people
change their minds when the facts change. But the test of that
pudding is in the tasting.<br>
<br>
Can you believe that these kinds of issues were suggested to be
labelled as tangential? <br>
<br>
Thanks for these excellent posts, comments and queries.<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2013/06/09 11:10 AM, michael
gurstein wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">What this below appears to say is that
the surveillance procedures are done within and in
accordance with a broad interpretation of US law which is,
of course, designed to protect the rights of US citizens
(how well that is being done is another question of
course). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">What it also says is that "foreigners"
i.e. everyone else in the world are to be treated as
potential suspects and are thus fair game. Given the global
reach and current dominance of US Internet corporations and
the central role of the USG in all aspects of global
Internet activities including Internet governance (or lack
thereof) and of the US based technical community in all
aspects of the technical operation of the Internet the
implications of this position need hardly be spelled out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">Thus, at least in this context we,
i.e. everyone else in the world appear to have no rights and
little protections except those that totally outclassed
institutions such as the EU or other national, privacy
protection regimes might provide to their citizens. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">Of course, since the parties from whom
the data is being acquired i.e. the dominant US Internet
corporations are not directly subject to any laws outside of
the US and since they along with the USG and their civil
society and technical community collaborators have been so
active in ensuring that no such regulatory regime could be
created, such protections seem to be more or less
non-operational.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">BTW, I'm still waiting for an answer
to the question I posed earlier to McTim and others re: the
position and response of the "technical community" to these
revelations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">M<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">From the
Washington Post, just published:<br>
<br>
"Intelligence community sources said that this description,
although inaccurate from a technical perspective, matches the
experience of analysts at the NSA. From their workstations
anywhere in the world, government employees cleared for PRISM
access may “task” the system and receive results from an
Internet company without further interaction with the
company’s staff."<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-company-officials-internet-surveillance-does-not-indiscriminately-mine-data/2013/06/08/5b3bb234-d07d-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_print.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-company-officials-internet-surveillance-does-not-indiscriminately-mine-data/2013/06/08/5b3bb234-d07d-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_print.html</a><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<pre><o:p> </o:p></pre>
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