What to make of this unfolding story on the US Generals, their bonkees, the FBI, the CIA and how the whole thing appears infantile and irrelevant in the scheme of things - the war in Afghanistan, the conflict in the Middle East, etc. etc. And to reflect on how this has all come about.
"Well, an F.B.I. agent on friendly terms with a Florida socialite (enough to send her shirtless photos of himself) can, on the basis of a half-dozen mildly harassing e-mails she had received, set in motion an invasive inquiry that ends up leaving the C.I.A. without a permanent director and putting the appointment of the next Supreme Allied Commander in Europe on hold.
The United States is a very serious country that from time to time opts to turn itself into a complete joke.
The headline is obvious enough: Surveillance State Devours Its Own. I am not sure whose morals would stand up to this degree of intrusion.
The weirdly intersecting dalliances of Jill Kelley (just one more super-leveraged American throwing wild parties in Tampa as her family plunges into debt), Paula “Keep-Your-Hands-Off-My-General” Broadwell, David “Peaches” Petraeus and General John “I’m-Seriously-Into-E-mail” Allen happened to emerge as Google published its semi-annual transparency report about government demands to see its users’ private data.
The report for the first six months of 2012 makes interesting reading. Of the 20,938 requests for access to Google accounts from nations around the world, by far the largest single number — 7,969 — came from U.S. government agencies. The percentage of those U.S. demands that were “fully or partially complied with” by Google was also by far the highest — 90 percent. (Of Russia’s 58 requests, zero percent were complied with, and of Britain’s 1,425 requests, 64 percent were acted on). In all the U.S. requests targeted a total of 16,281 users or accounts in the period, almost half the global total of 34,614."
"Well, an F.B.I. agent on friendly terms with a Florida socialite (enough to send her shirtless photos of himself) can, on the basis of a half-dozen mildly harassing e-mails she had received, set in motion an invasive inquiry that ends up leaving the C.I.A. without a permanent director and putting the appointment of the next Supreme Allied Commander in Europe on hold.
The United States is a very serious country that from time to time opts to turn itself into a complete joke.
The headline is obvious enough: Surveillance State Devours Its Own. I am not sure whose morals would stand up to this degree of intrusion.
The weirdly intersecting dalliances of Jill Kelley (just one more super-leveraged American throwing wild parties in Tampa as her family plunges into debt), Paula “Keep-Your-Hands-Off-My-General” Broadwell, David “Peaches” Petraeus and General John “I’m-Seriously-Into-E-mail” Allen happened to emerge as Google published its semi-annual transparency report about government demands to see its users’ private data.
The report for the first six months of 2012 makes interesting reading. Of the 20,938 requests for access to Google accounts from nations around the world, by far the largest single number — 7,969 — came from U.S. government agencies. The percentage of those U.S. demands that were “fully or partially complied with” by Google was also by far the highest — 90 percent. (Of Russia’s 58 requests, zero percent were complied with, and of Britain’s 1,425 requests, 64 percent were acted on). In all the U.S. requests targeted a total of 16,281 users or accounts in the period, almost half the global total of 34,614."
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