The NSA is probably spying on Congress too...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

(I put this in MPSIMS because I don’t really think there’s much to debate here and I’m sure the discussion will be civil.)

CNN just put up an article detailing how Sen. Bernie Sanders just asked if the NSA is spying on Congress and received this response:

“Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons…”

So in other words, none. In other words, at the NSA’s discretion they know exactly what is on Sen. Soandso’s Blackberry or in Sen. McDickpics’ email. No encryption is strong enough, no password secure enough, no device inaccessible enough for the NSA’s breathtaking powers. Having the title of Rep. or Sen. provides no defense.

This brings two questions to mind for me:

  1. Now that the Senators and Congresspeople know they are a likely target of NSA spying, will this light a fire under them to get some control over what the NSA can and cannot do?

  2. Can the NSA now play big league political football using the information they’ve obtained? Or more to the point, how long until they decide to? Being able to control the people who control the law would be an awfully handy ability to have when people start talking about restricting the NSA.

Article here:

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/04/nsa-wont-say-whether-it-spies-on-congress/?hpt=hp_t2

2

Well, it always seemed to work for old J. Edgar.

3

I’m thinking the NSA better rethink their priorities fast, and then conduct some epically silver-tongued diplomacy, or else they’ll end up with a budget of $1 next year.

4

It’s because of Congress that the NSA’s current programs are legal, ain’t it?

5

The most they would do would be to make an exemption for themselves.

6

So who spies on the NSA? The "Super"NSA?
This is getting absurd-if everybody knows they are being spied upon, no one will communicate anything of value. Maybe we will go back to talking outdoors, with a hand over the mouth (the Mafia guys did this).

7

Edward Snowden, apparently.