ECHELON Follow-up:
Now I come to think of it, even the CIA itself could have a stake in this Echelon put-up job against the NSA.... After all, the latter ain't your grandpa's spook bazaar anymore --here's an excerpt of the NSA's "mission statement" right from the its official website:
Who is the NSA?
NSA employs the country's premier codemakers and codebreakers. It is said to be the largest employer of mathematicians in the United States and perhaps the world. Its mathematicians contribute directly to the two missions of the Agency: designing cipher systems that will protect the integrity of U.S. information systems and searching for weaknesses in adversaries' systems and codes.
Technology and the world change rapidly, and great emphasis is placed on staying ahead of these changes with employee training programs. The National Cryptologic School is indicative of the Agency's commitment to professional development. The school not only provides unique training for the NSA workforce, but it also serves as a training resource for the entire Department of Defense. NSA sponsors employees for bachelor and graduate studies at the Nation's top universities and colleges, and selected Agency employees attend the various war colleges of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Most NSA/CSS employees, both civilian and military, are headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland, centrally located between Baltimore and Washington, DC. Its workforce represents an unusual combination of specialties: analysts, engineers, physicists, mathematicians, linguists, computer scientists, researchers, as well as customer relations specialists, security officers, data flow experts, managers, administrative and clerical assistants.
[...]
nsa.gov
Get the picture, Charles?? So many brains! So many computer wonks, crypto-whizz-kids and the like buzzing 24/7 in their secluded labs, snooping around every suspect email, spotting any cyber-discrepancy.... And guess what the CIA is doing in the meantime: these guys are still sweating blood over it the old-fashioned way! They'll scramble to wiretap bin Laden's cell phone instead of cracking the internet rerouter Bob Denard is using to communicate with the DGSE! LOL!
Well, 20 years ago, when the world was still "brick-and-mortar", the CIA was probably the US's best bet to deal with intelligence matters. However, times have changed.... In today's global cyberworld, mastering the new information paradigm has likely become a key element in furthering the U.S.'s intelligence missions. As the CIA --along with its European obligés-- fears to fall behind the NSA, it might secretly welcome an embattled NSA. Both agencies are somehow involved in a tug-of-love for the custody of their most cherished babe, that is, US intelligence --and their leadership in outlining the "big picture" (to the President, the State Dept, etc.)....
Gus. |
