"The image looks like the NSA logo but has a motto that is clearly a pun—“Peeping while you are sleeping”..."
Well, maybe. I've seen other images, like this one -
http://i.imgur.com/Ugy44E5.jpg
- credited to Liberty Maniacs, which presents an exact copy of the NSA logo. I wonder if that was their original one that the NSA objected to, so they switched in the funny phrase and reissued it.
It doesn't actually matter whether it is an exact copy of the Logo or not as the logo belongs to the citizens as does the Government. Shame the citizens can't grasp that and introduce performance penalties.
Funny that the NSA's response neglects to continue the cite to that Public Law which says, "... in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the impression that such use is approved, endorsed, or authorized by the National Security Agency."
I'm not a lawyer, but it seems pretty obvious that the law that created the agency has this verbiage as a way to criminalize someone impersonating an agent of the NSA, not making fun of it, which is what McCall was doing, obviously. So I guess NSA doesn't have a sense of humor, either.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s the NSA was quite active and the US Army had a section called the Army Security Agency, which I was a part of for a short time. This was, of course, during the Vietnam War. I was told that the Army actually provided about 90% of the manpower for the NSA. The ASA didn't last past the mid-1970s - very likely due to the end of the war, though I only surmise that part. They recruited people from my suburb of St Louis pretty heavily, because I ran into several school mates while in the ASA.
I was stationed for a while at a listening post outside Washington DC, which - literally snooped into ALL the communications of ALL the Embassies in Washington. At that time the mission was severely limited to ONLY listening to foreign communications.
One funny part of it all is that the ASA provided the listening manpower for embassies around the world. This was late 1960s when I was with the ASA - top secret crypto clearance and all that. But the single best place to be stationed was a place called Tehran. That is the joke, because of what happened in 1979. The people you saw in films destroying or carting documents to be destroyed would have been ASA people - except that the ASA was disbanded, as I said, at the end of the Vietnam war. Had I stayed in the Army, and had I been so lucky, and had the ASA been still functional, I might have been one of those hostages.
NO, the NSA is NOT permitted to listen in on US citizens. Its charter strictly and specifically prohibits such activities. The very law that created the NSA forbid it. ALL the listening in on US citizens and collecting data or metadata about such communications IS illegal. It always has been illegal and always will be.
Posting this comment in mid-2015, the "permission" to listen in has recently not been renewed by Obama. We shall see.
One last item: Hollywood likes to play on making the NSA as even worse than the CIA. Hardly. NSA people do not go around with weapons, unless they are guards at some facility. The SOLE mission of the NSA is COMINTEL - communications intelligence gathering and assessment. That is it. No CIA-type black ops, no assassinations. That is all Hollywood's imagination.
http://benswann.com/exclusive-nsa-using-copyright-claims-to-crush-free-speech/
ReplyDeleteA breakdown of the issue which I found useful. YMMV.
"The image looks like the NSA logo but has a motto that is clearly a pun—“Peeping while you are sleeping”..."
DeleteWell, maybe. I've seen other images, like this one -
http://i.imgur.com/Ugy44E5.jpg
- credited to Liberty Maniacs, which presents an exact copy of the NSA logo. I wonder if that was their original one that the NSA objected to, so they switched in the funny phrase and reissued it.
I LOVE it!!! Off to buy one...
ReplyDeleteLet's not worry too much about the abuse of government power. Surely this same government can be trusted to run our healthcare system.
ReplyDeleteYes, insurance companies are the answer!
DeleteMy god America,,,please abandon all the flags and eagle paraphenalia for a while,,your'e looking kinda silly on the world stage.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't actually matter whether it is an exact copy of the Logo or not as the logo belongs to the citizens as does the Government.
ReplyDeleteShame the citizens can't grasp that and introduce performance penalties.
Doesn't NSA stand for "No Such Agency"? Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteFunny that the NSA's response neglects to continue the cite to that Public Law which says, "... in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the impression that such use is approved, endorsed, or authorized by the National Security Agency."
ReplyDeleteI'm not a lawyer, but it seems pretty obvious that the law that created the agency has this verbiage as a way to criminalize someone impersonating an agent of the NSA, not making fun of it, which is what McCall was doing, obviously. So I guess NSA doesn't have a sense of humor, either.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s the NSA was quite active and the US Army had a section called the Army Security Agency, which I was a part of for a short time. This was, of course, during the Vietnam War. I was told that the Army actually provided about 90% of the manpower for the NSA. The ASA didn't last past the mid-1970s - very likely due to the end of the war, though I only surmise that part. They recruited people from my suburb of St Louis pretty heavily, because I ran into several school mates while in the ASA.
ReplyDeleteI was stationed for a while at a listening post outside Washington DC, which - literally snooped into ALL the communications of ALL the Embassies in Washington. At that time the mission was severely limited to ONLY listening to foreign communications.
One funny part of it all is that the ASA provided the listening manpower for embassies around the world. This was late 1960s when I was with the ASA - top secret crypto clearance and all that. But the single best place to be stationed was a place called Tehran. That is the joke, because of what happened in 1979. The people you saw in films destroying or carting documents to be destroyed would have been ASA people - except that the ASA was disbanded, as I said, at the end of the Vietnam war. Had I stayed in the Army, and had I been so lucky, and had the ASA been still functional, I might have been one of those hostages.
NO, the NSA is NOT permitted to listen in on US citizens. Its charter strictly and specifically prohibits such activities. The very law that created the NSA forbid it. ALL the listening in on US citizens and collecting data or metadata about such communications IS illegal. It always has been illegal and always will be.
Posting this comment in mid-2015, the "permission" to listen in has recently not been renewed by Obama. We shall see.
One last item: Hollywood likes to play on making the NSA as even worse than the CIA. Hardly. NSA people do not go around with weapons, unless they are guards at some facility. The SOLE mission of the NSA is COMINTEL - communications intelligence gathering and assessment. That is it. No CIA-type black ops, no assassinations. That is all Hollywood's imagination.