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Monday 14 April 2014 - 08:46

US technology riddled with NSA spy tools

Story Code : 372617
US technology riddled with NSA spy tools
Question: What exactly does it mean, if it is true, that the US National Security Agency would know about this and how harmful it could be potentially and not warn at least the American people, if not the rest of the people in the world?
 
Kall: It tells us the mindset and the culture of NSA. NSA is run by a military director and it’s very, very top down. That’s what I’ve learned in my interviews with whistleblowers who have been high level administrators in the NSA.
 
Basically the NSA has this constant war mentality and they are total control freaks. They want to have all the information in the world; they want to control the information; they want to dole it out when they need to. And it is so secret. The NSA was always among the most secret organizations in the world.
 
So, what we have here is an organization that is more interested in protecting itself and controlling than it is in protecting America. This is very damaging to America.
 
I recently interviewed Alan Grayson Congressman for Florida on my show who said it is a total violation of the US Constitution what they’re doing.
 
This latest example, which they deny... they’re denying it ... but also saying "unless there is a clear national security or law enforcement need, this process is bias toward responsibly disclosing such vulnerabilities”. What that is, is their ‘out’.
 
    Originally when the heads of the NSA and the heads of the intelligence community were asked by Congress if they were spying on us they lied repeatedly and said that they weren’t. Now they’re lying about this.
 
The lying really goes to the top, all the way up to Obama – because he’s in charge. There is no reason that we should believe them when they say that they didn’t know about it.
 
We do know about it now. What we know is that they’ve been exploiting it and there are probably more of these.
 
Since this has the potential to cause billions of dollars in commercial damage, it just adds to the bad situation that we’ve already had.
 
    Other commentators have said, why would anybody buy US technology when we now know that NSA has riddled it with spying and holes where they have the ability to go in and use it.
 
For example, a satellite that was going to be put up for close to one billion dollars and then that there were chips in it from the US and they realized that they didn’t want to have a spy satellite. I think it was a Middle Eastern country that was to have it launched and they didn’t want to have it with holes in it that worked with NSA.   
 
Q: You say if this is true it is against the US Constitution, so what exactly does that mean, if it is proven that they actually did have the information? What exactly does it mean if they have violated the US Constitution? Are we likely to see any type of legal ramifications or repercussions? What will happen, in your perspective? 
 
Kall: Good question and the answer is nothing! Nothing will happen. There may be some movement, but the fact is that the head of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice Roberts, he appoints the judges who are in the FISA Court – the court that is supposed to supervise NSA.
 
That pretty much makes it clear that if anything ever goes to the Supreme Court, then, nothing will happen because it’s got Roberts who already knows what’s going on and he’s on board with it. It’s not going to change things at all.
 
The only way it might change is if Congress changes things and they don’t have the spine to do it.
 
Q: There are those that say the United States is growing closer and closer to being, if not already, but on the route to becoming a police state – of course, with greater sophistication than some police states that would be quite obvious, but in using technology and using various methods of security to control the people.
 
Do you think that your country is heading towards being a police state?  
 
Kall: Well, it’s all relative... I’ve written about it. Our top headline story yesterday was about just how bad things have gotten in Albuquerque, where the police are killing people and getting away with it – and that’s happening more and more all over the country.
 
It’s still probably better in the US than a lot of other countries, but it is getting worse and worse; and more institutionalized and going deeper and deeper into the core of the system.
 
I’ve had Glen Greenwald on my show to talk about how there are two different tiers of justice in the United States where if you’re a member of the elite then you don’t get the same kind of justice that you do if you are an average person.
 
The police are a special case. The police seem to have virtual immunity from doing almost anything, almost anywhere. Most police are probably good people, but Obama has funded billions and billions of dollars of money going to police departments to give them tools and supplies that are for military purposes.    
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