Letters to the Editor
Bill Owen
Published Letters: 508 Editor's Choice: 6
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Tiberius, the Pretentious
[Read the article: Krauthammer's plan to deny Palestinians gas and electricity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Tiberius was a great Roman general. His latest incarnation supports Krauthammer's murderous and sick plan to stop the rockets by cutting off electricity. If that does not work he supports cutting off the gas (how many Pals will this kill? Stupid question I know Ti baby, who cares about terrorists anyway?)
How will this plan work oh most brilliant of Generals? The Qassams do not run on electricity, and as for stopping moving them around - they weigh 40 kilos.
How about coming out and supporting the real plan? That is, torturing these poor bastards until they manage to strike back in some significant way, and then you can kill them all.
People like Krauthammer are murderous, sick, deluded scum. People who support them are just as bad.
Bet you were a big supporter of the war/genocide in Iraq too General, how's that working out for you?
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C'mon You KNOW you WANT her
[Read the article: Impressions of Paris' last night in jail]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To all those people outraged by the coverage of Paris Hilton. Paris is America, she is the epitome of a country that wants to change the subject. Who wants to talk about all those dead eyerackies?
If you don't want to read about Paris, don't read about Paris! It's easy.
And you know you want her, you know you are fascinated by her, otherwise why pay her so much attention. It's kind of like your obsession with cheerleaders.
650,000 dead in eyerack. Who cares?
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Salon Expense Accounts
[Read the article: Why I returned my iPhone]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let me get this straight. Salon wants Farhad to write about tech, iphones in particular, but then they make him pay for it? Not only that, they don't actually pay him enough so he can afford it!
BTW I agree with him on the voice dialing. I don't care how slick the interface is, nothing beats just opening your phone and saying "Call Steve". Hello Steve, yeah, it's me. Listen about this voice dialing...
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Anonymity/Pseudonymity and Anomie in the Age of Retinal Scans
[Read the article: Who are you, Anonymous?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What does it mean to be anonymous on Salon? Does anyone here really believe that if the goon squad came calling that Salon would not hand over their server records? Failing that does anyone think that the FBI's can't just hack in? Carnivore is out there and they are taking names. They know who you are, and what web sites you visit, your search terms, your Visa number, et al. Keywords are collated, indexed and cross referenced against IP addresses, suspicious emails and postings are flagged for more analysis. There is no anonymity, you are on camera, but don't smile - it messes up the facial recognition algorithms somewhat, but don't worry they will fix that.
Anonymous? Not likely. Feeling like you can threaten, and horsewhip your foes? Think again. There is more than enough data in this post for any moderately smart reader to track me right down to my address and cell phone number. Just how do you think all those dangerous radicals (read salon posters)got on the no fly list anyway?
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Give Me a Break
[Read the article: In Baghdad, time for a break]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Granted. And by the same logic, so should the American Congress stay at work, so should the President, the VP, the Directors of Homeland Security, CIA et al. But they are taking a break aren't they? Your call for the Iraqi Parliament not to take a break is inconsistent at best, hypocritical at worst.
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Handles = Anonymous
[Read the article: A little bit more about "anonymous"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anyone who posts using anything other than their real name is posting anonymously (quasi-anonymously anyway as Salon and your various security agencies know who you are.
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Perry Fellwock and the NSA
[Read the article: The really smart, serious, credible Iraq experts O'Hanlon and Pollack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Almost no one remembers Perry Fellwock and his revelatory exposure of the massive spying programmes that the NSA has engaged in and continues to engage in to this day. Only now the targets are American citizens, you are all suspects.
They want us to believe that keyword searches are not done. They are, and the scale is unbelievable. For anyone who does not believe, just think Google. This post on Salon will be filed, indexed, and made available for a "keyword" search to the entire world in just a few hours. The NSA network makes the Google network look like a Commodore 64.
Full text here: http://jya.com/nsa-elint.htm
Ramparts, Vol. 11, No. 2, August, 1972, pp. 35-50
U.S. Electronic Espionage:
A Memoir
About thirty miles northeast of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, right off the Baltimore-Washington expressway overlooking the flat Maryland countryside, stands a large three story building known informally as the "cookie factory." It's officially known as Ft. George G. Meade, headquarters of the National Security Agency.
Three fences surround the headquarters. The inner and outer barriers are topped with barbed wire, the middle one is a five-strand electrified wire. Four gatehouses spanning the complex at regular intervals house specially-trained marine guards. Those allowed access all wear iridescent I.D. badges -- green for "top secret crypto," red for "secret crypto." Even the janitors are cleared for secret codeword material. Once inside, you enter the world's longest "corridor" -- 980 feet long by 560 feet wide. And all along the corridor are more marine guards, protecting the doors of key NSA offices. At 1,400,000 square feet, it is larger than CIA headquarters, 1,135,000 square feet. Only the State Department and the Pentagon, and the new headquarters planned for the FBI are more spacious. But the DIRNSA (Director, National Security Agency) can be further distinguished from the headquarters buildings of these three other giant bureaucracies -- it has no windows. Another palace of paranoia? No. For DIRNSA is the command center for the largest, most sensitive and far-flung intelligence gathering apparatus in the world's history. Here, and in the nine-story Operations Building Annex, upwards of 15,000 employees work to break the military, diplomatic and commercial codes of every nation in the world, analyze the de-crypted messages, and send the results to the rest of the U.S. intelligence community.