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J. Edgar Hoover blackmailed his way through 40 years of unchecked power. Trouble is, Hoover eventually had to die; NSA, not being human, does not have that natural limit.
of any aspect of this whole disclosure orgy, this alone is the most disturbing conclusion. "intelligence" has morphed into a feedback cancer in multiple aspects of our public and private lives, currently yet to realize an awefull inevitable corruption to extremes without restraint by increasingly malevolent actors. there is no rational justification for billions in covert crimes committed not just foreign but domestic, with the audacity of judicial seal under collusion, all at public expense. fuck that! your dollars at work, for BULLRUN alone[0], not to mention DIA/DoD budgets, not to mention foreign players: * weakened algorithms/protocols for big players (e.g., GSM, Cisco) * weakening of RNGs * inside access by 'covert agents' to hand over secrets (e.g., big 4) * corruption of the standards process (NIST 2006?) * corruption of certification process (CSC) * corruption of judial process (NSL to "compell under duress") for access to long term keys and to build in back door support. * using certification process early-access to prepare backdoors for production runs (CSC) * crunching of poor passwords * black ops to steal keys * black ops to pervert systems [0] thanks ian!