Geoff Stone, Obama's Review Group

Guido Witmond guido at witmond.nl
Thu Apr 3 00:49:45 PDT 2014


On 04/03/14 06:56, Douglas Lucas wrote:
>>From the looks of this speech, the NSA must have blackmailed him.
> 


There are some who think this is quite clever.

Quoted from a comment by user 'decrement' on techdirt [1]:

There is a bit of genius behind Geoffrey Stone's approach.

It is far too easy when being blasted by public and press opinion to
simply circle the wagons and ignore the criticism. To simply resist the
opposing viewpoint. To trivialize it.

What is the ideal result one can hope for going forward? In my opinion
that result looks like opening doors to tighten privacy laws and ending
some of these unfettered metadata collection activities.

By reinforcing to the employees at the NSA that they are doing a good
job, and protecting the country, then placing blame outside the NSA
George diffuses the personal nature of the argument. This allows
employees to be more receptive to the message, and plants the seed that
accepting change is not equated with a defeat.

In terms of realizing a true significant modification of these programs,
planting this seed is brilliant move. Continuing to water it may grow
additional support for these ideas from within. Splitting hairs by
demonizing the entire organization, as reprehensible as past actions
might be, is a certain way to maximize resistance.

I like the focus on "what is the desired outcome?" rather than
reactionary outrage.

end quote.



Guido.


1:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140401/17575126774/member-intelligence-review-group-tells-nsa-you-guys-have-done-amazing-work-protecting-america-should-never-ever-be-trusted.shtml

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