Exactly Right

Saturday 14 September 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Ken White of Popehat on the NSA and its antagonistic campaign to defeat encryption algorithms:

I am not — at least not yet — classified as a terrorist, cybercriminal, or human trafficker. So I suppose I am the “other.” I want to learn to use strong crypto effectively, and encrypt my professional and personal communications from government spying.

I am the other because I do not trust my government in general, or the people working for its security apparatus in particular.

I am the other because I believe the Security State and its representatives habitually lie, both directly and by misleading language, about the scope of their spying on us. I believe they feel entitled to do so.

I am the other because I believe the Security State and its representatives habitually violate such modest restrictions as a complacent and compliant legislature puts on their spying — again, because they feel entitled to do so.

I am the other because I don’t believe the Security State and its representatives when they say that government spying is reserved for foreign terrorists. In fact, the NSA’s “minimization” techniques — touted as methods for restricting spying to foreign terrorists instead of U.S. citizens — are often transparently and insultingly ridiculous.

I am the other because I don’t believe my government when it tries to convince us that enhanced spying techniques are used to protect us from terrorists. I believe, instead, that the increased powers acquired by my government since 9/11 have been habitually brought to bear for domestic purposes, including such things as the ruinous and amoral War on Drugs.

I am the other because I represent people accused of crimes by the government. Based on nearly 20 years experience in the criminal justice system, I believe my government and the people working for it are likely to (1) use national security apparatus to gather intelligence on defendants accused of domestic crimes, (2) pass that intelligence along to domestic prosecutors, and (3) lie about and conceal the source of the information or how it was transmitted. I know many individual prosecutors who, I believe, would not review and use intercepted attorney-client communications and conceal them from me. However, institutionally, I believe the United States government and many of its prosecutors are willing and able to do so.1

I am the other because I believe a free person needs no excuse whatsoever to keep communications secret from the government, whether those communications are weighty or frivolous. I am the other because I believe the mantra “what do you have to hide” is a contemptible and un-American sentiment that fundamentally misconstrues the proper relationship between citizen and state.

Exactly right. The government actively sees all citizens who deem it right to resist being spied upon as adversaries to be defeated. The government can go fuck itself.

2013-09-14  »  madlibertarianguy