[aklug] Re: Article: Bamford, They Know Much More Than You Think

On Fri, 26 Jul 2013, Greg Schmitz wrote:

> FYR
>
> "They Know Much More Than You Think"
> August 15, 2013
> James Bamford
>
> "Looking back, the NSA and its predecessors have been gaining secret, illegal
> access to the communications of Americans for nearly a century. On July 1,
> 1920, a slim balding man in his early thirties moved into a four-story
> townhouse at 141 East 37th Street in Manhattan. This was the birth of the
> Black Chamber, the NSA?s earliest predecessor, and it would be hidden in the
> nondescript brownstone. But its chief, Herbert O. Yardley, had a problem. To
> gather intelligence for Woodrow Wilson?s government, he needed access to the
> telegrams entering, leaving, and passing through the country, but because of
> an early version of the Radio Communications Act, such access was illegal.
> With the shake of a hand, however, Yardley convinced Newcomb Carlton, the
> president of Western Union, to grant the Black Chamber secret access on a
> daily basis to the private messages passing over his wires?the Internet of
> the day."

Damn. Now I'll have to stop using telegrams... If they go after pigeons
we're all screwed! ;-)

Not to make light of a government that's seriously out of control. We've
lost sight of Barnhill's truism: Where the people fear the government you
have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.

Somehow, we've let them turn the tables on us.

         --Arthur Corliss
           Live Free or Die
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Received on Fri Jul 26 09:07:07 2013