Corruption in he upper echelons of the NSA and intellligence services?

[JDPriestly]

I apologize if this was previously posted.

Teresa Shea used to be the National Security Agency’s director of signals intelligence, plus the wife of an executive in the business of selling things to agencies like hers, plus the host of a home-based signals intelligence business, plus the owner, via yet another business, of a six-seat airplane and resort-town condo.

. . . .

Roston, who has been diligently documenting Shea’s family businesses, revealed last month that the director’s husband was vice president at a signals intelligence contractor that appeared to be working for, or bidding to work for, the NSA. The same husband was also linked to a signals intelligence-related company registered at the couple’s home. Then last week Roston showed that Shea herself had evidently incorporated an obscure business in her name that nonetheless owned its own airplane and condominium in Hilton Head. All of this came while Shea was serving at the highest levels in one of the most significant divisions within the NSA.

. . . .

Shea is not the only high-ranking current or former NSA official coming under scrutiny for their financial dealings. Former agency director Keith Alexander was engaged in commodity trading linked to countries such as Russia and China — countries upon which the NSA spied heavily — while he was working at the agency.

As documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have shown, the NSA was keenly interested in economic espionage. One would hope that the people entrusted with gathering such information would adhere to some basic standards of ethical conduct in their own financial dealings.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/24/nsa-official-implicated-potential-conflicts-interest-resigns/

[Half-Century Man]

1. Title of OP wrong.

Question Mark in place of an Exclamation Point.
Please correct.

[iemitsu]

2. What more could we expect from those, who make their livings,

spying on their fellow citizen?
These are not really the quality of people you would want for your neighbor.

[Enthusiast]

17. That seems to be lost on many apologists.

[iemitsu]

22. Yep, it does.

[Man from Pickens]

28. I had a neighbor who did just that

She was only a mid-level analyst, nobody particularly important, but when she finally understood what her agency was actually doing, big-picture wise, she was completely sickened by it and quit.

[iemitsu]

32. Good for her.

We can use a few more like her in the general population.

[NightWatcher]

3. It's not about Countries anymore. It's about Companies

That's where people's loyalties are these days. If my company profits and happens to benefit the USA, great. If in order for my company to profit, something favoring another country over the US has to happen, so be it.

[sabrina 1]

7. Yes, Corporations are the new 'countries'. And naturally those Corporations are not happy

with those few, brave individuals like Edward Snowden eg, who expose their corruption and wrong doing, and as we have seen, over and over again, will brutally deal with anyone who dares to expose them. No doubt they do not view what they are doing as corruption, they view as their 'god given rights', much like the old Kings. The King could do no wrong and any truth teller was a Traitor.

We are back to those days, only now it's Global.

And in the end it is the fault of those who join the demonizing of every truth teller who emerges, because without them, they could not continue their brutal, illegal, unethical, corrupt takeover of whatever they want.

See the EU eg, where they planted Goldman Sachs loyalists in positions of power, to impose 'austerity' on the people of various countries there, forcing the PEOPLE to pay for their corruption. They collapsed the world's economies and got away with it. THEN made the PEOPLE pay for their bail outs.

[KingCharlemagne]

23. I call it "Neo-Feudalism," as the power of companies today resembles that of the

Last edited Sun Feb 14, 2021, 03:30 AM - Edit history (1)

dynastic families of yore, like the Medicis. Now, as then, there were 'national governments,' in a manner of speaking. But the power of those national governments was always conditional and contingent upon the fealty of the "Lords" of the land.

I've been taken to task on this by some of my Socialist comrades who prefer to call this just another phase of 'Capitalism' (or 'Imperialism') and don't like 'Neo-Feudalism' as a descriptor. But the analogues, I think, are appropriate.

[woo me with science]

4. Huge K&R. You're damned right it's corruption.

That's appalling, even if not surprising from these vultures. It stinks to high heaven.

And it's just *one* currently visible protuberance of the hideous, antidemocratic, corporate-bloodsucking-money-thieving-authoritarian iceberg of corruption that is the NSA.

Why do plutocrats put a sweeping, Constitution-assaulting, spying infrastructure into place? To create total information awareness, power and control; to spy on competitors and politicians; to facilitate their corporate predatory agenda; to prevent investigation of their abuses by a free press; and to crush dissent by protesters and the citizens they are systematically exploiting, stripping of their rights, and impoverishing.

What is the NSA really for?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024215519

NSA Spying Not Very Focused on Terrorism: Power, Money and Crushing Dissent Are Real Motives
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023923016

The U.S. Government’s Secret Plans to Spy for American Corporations- by Glenn Greenwald
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025494273

Corporate Espionage and the Secret War Against Citizen Activism
http://www.democraticunderground.com/111643982

Snowden: NSA conducts industrial espionage too - CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/snowden-nsa-conducts-industrial-espionage-too/

Keiser Report: CIA, NSA & Economic Espionage (E498) (second half with Greg Palast)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017146372

Spooky Business: Corporate Espionage Against Non-profits
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024106205

NSA data could be most useful for connected types on Wall Street.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022983519

NSA SPYING - Another Side Of The Story-- Data Privatized For CORPORATE USE
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023164662

The NSA’s Corporate Collaborators
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/09/the-nsas-corporate-collaborators/

NSA and Corporate Cooperation Revealed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-van-buren/nsa-and-corporate-coopera_b_4516581.html

AT&T Tells Shareholders to Mind Their Own Business on NSA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024154316

NSA spied on EU's Anti Trust Chief
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024204596

2011: Wall Street firms spy on protesters *with* police in tax-funded center
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023286585

OUTRAGEOUS: Our Tax Money Funds Gov Surveillance Center In Lower Manhattan--& Wall St Is Part Of It!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2178769

Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12527647

The NSA's Cyber-King Goes Corporate
Here's why Keith Alexander thinks he's worth a million dollars a month.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/29/the_crypto_king_of_the_NSA_goes_corporate_keith_alexander_patents

Raiding the "Corporate Store": The NSA's Unfettered Access to a Vast Pool of Americans' Phone Data
http://metamorphosis.democraticunderground.com/10023397695

"Clear evidence of collusion between TransCanada and the federal government assisting local police to unlawfully monitor and harass political protestors”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023049508

Just the tip of the iceberg...Yeah, I'd get rid of the question mark in the OP title, too.

Huge K&R. To the Greatest Page.

[KoKo]

8. Recommend your Post...Links..

[99th_Monkey]

9. +1000!!! If I had any doubt before

(which I didn't) ... this post would have removed them.

This is why it is such a travesty for a nation to spy on its own people:
the "spies" are human beings, with access to "privileged" information.
To suggest that these human beings will refrain from ever actually
using this information (including pics, etc.) for their own personal
gratification and/or to make a quick easy million dollars on the side,
is ludicrous on its face.

Every week that goes by with this NSA snooping on US Citizens, means
that the "privatization" worm has burrowed even deeper into our
once-democratic institutions, rendering them moot and pointless as
our corporate oligarchs laugh all the way to the bank to cash-in on
the carcase.

[JDPriestly]

11. Wow! I'm bookmarking your post for future reference.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. Who watches the watchers?

Stalin said a few things about that. Funny how we move closer to his style of surveillance.

[stevenleser]

31. That sentiment precedes Stalin by around 1800 years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenal

[greatlaurel]

6. In other news, water is wet. Sorry not trying to say this is not important info. It is a great post.

All the national security outfits and the military have always had very serious corruption problems. It is a historic problem that can be found even in ancient civilizations. The civilian side of government has more transparency, so the corruption can be spotted easier, unless you are John Kasich, king of Ohio, who gets the state legislation to pass a law so his JobsOhio scheme can not be audited. The secrecy is what makes self dealing so easy. Secrecy is always used by the military and security outfits to cover what they are really up to, which is usually enriching themselves and their pals.

I was just reading The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. The level of corruption and stupidity in the military of each of the great powers was appalling resulted in the unimaginable levels of suffering in WW1. I do not think much has changed.

The only remedy is transparency. That is going to take a lot of change in Congress.

[KoKo]

10. To remedy we need people to be aware and not fall into

the trap of accepting "They All Do It" as an excuse. When the ability to do such extensive Global Spying is on a scale never seen in history.

And, agree, we need people in Congress who can understand this threat and understand the damage it costs with profits for the few while the Middle Class and poor Globally suffer.

There are protests all over the world about Austerity Programs undertaken by Global Financial Regulators like IMF/World Bank and the rest.

Yet there are many who chose to ignore the whistle blowers and the journalists who try to get the truth out. Some for nefarious reasons and others because they just refuse to believe the extent of whats going on because Mainstream Media is all they are exposed to on their Cable Streams.

Transparency, Accountability and Diligence to pass laws or enforce existing laws so that the advantage of the wealthy, powerful and well connected in Industry, Government and the Military doesn't overpower the rights of the people.

A lot of Work Ahead....

[JDPriestly]

13. I am trying to think of ways to explain to DUers that events like the American Revolution

historic events that furthered the progress of mankind cannot take place when the governments do the kind of surveillance that the US is doing today.

Imagine 1775 and the British having the technology to monitor and collect data on the communications of the colonists. Imagine how history would have stood still had the British been able to record verbatim everything said when colonists met to discuss and sign the Declaration of Independence.

It isn't that anyone wants to have a revolution today. I certainly don't. But any suggestion of change or progress, any movement not sanctioned by the government or large corporations is difficult to organize -- even if it is to feed the homeless on the streets out of the back of a van -- when the government tracks your calls and doesn't necessarily like or condone what you are doing.

The Occupy Movement is an example of a movement trying to organize in spite of the government surveillance. We know what happened there.

It's good for government to have the power to obtain warrants and to subpoena evidence. It is not good for the government to monitor all communications or the events of communications (that is pen registers and the like).

But so many DUers naively trust. They don't understand what is going on and what price they may pay for it down the line. They just don't get it.

[greatlaurel]

14. You are spot on. The people (not all but a good percentage) in charge will use the info to further

their own interests before the interests of the nation. The majority of employees will go along to get along even if they would not seek advantage for themselves. The go along to get along attitude is a subset of corruption, IMO.

The surveillance state is truly a huge problem that cannot be corrected while the GOP has any power. If the GOP has a more than a handful of votes in Congress then we will get some Dems to go along to get along.

The exposure of the corruption in the surveillance state is the best way to reveal it for what it is used for. It does not protect us. It makes it easier for us to be taken advantage of by the real welfare queens. Once these revelations start, it will bring it all crashing down. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

[Enthusiast]

18. PLUS ONE, a whole bunch!

[woo me with science]

19. Amen.

It is the infrastructure of totalitarianism.

[woo me with science]

16. Great post.

Thank you.

[JDPriestly]

12. I'll haver to reread Guns of August. Tuchmann is a great writer. One of my favorites.

Thanks for reminding me.

I know it is always the same story of corruption over and over. But we forget. We need to keep aware of it over and over.

[greatlaurel]

15. Corruption is not a major theme, but it is there insidiously wreaking havoc.

Ms. Tuchman was a very astute observer and clever in how she used the facts found in all those mountains of documents. What a brilliant historian she was. She understood and revealed the undercurrents of how those powers failed their citizens.

Her books should be required reading.

[riderinthestorm]

20. Not surprised. Look at BFEE nt

[woo me with science]

21. kick

[RobertEarl]

24. Color me surprised. NOT.

Where the hell is my fan club?

They should be all over this thread, kicking it to hell and back.

And where are those in my wannabe fan club who have just begged me to quit fighting them on the snow-deen threads. <intentional missssspelling to throw off the spies>

[elias49]

25. Thanks for this.

People need to open their minds to the truth. The trend here is alarming.
Thank you Edward Snowden, Glen Greenwald, Laura Poitras and more.

Kick it up!!

[KingCharlemagne]

26. I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked. (Little shout out to fans of

Casablanca and Claude Rains.)

[SomethingFishy]

27. People seem to forget that what they see is about 10%

of what the government is actually doing. Cable has been re-running Enemy Of The State, a nice reminder of how far ahead the government is in Technology.

Go ahead do something the government doesn't like and see how long it takes them to know everyone you have called, e-mailed, or texted. How long it takes for them to know where you have been where you are now, what size pants you are wearing and what groceries are in the back of your car.

Anyone who thinks that the Government isn't recording all this information "just in case" is sadly ignorant. They may not be listening to your calls, but they have them on a drive somewhere in case they need them. And not just yours... everyones

[woo me with science]

29. CORRUPTION

kick

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. A lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots." Obama

[kelliekat44]

33. The corruption in these high security agencies is legion. That's why the President is not really in

control of what he should be. It's been that way since Hoover ran the FBI and Dulles ran the CIA.
Kennedy was able to stand up to them on a few things but then looked what happened to him.