The intelligence agencies vs. terrorism and vs. China are two very different things. Although I am sure cyber security is following the trails of terrorists online, this kid didn't exactly have an online persona. Yes, they failed miserably in stopping him (and then failed again in their reaction. Not a single damn thing TSA is doing will protect anyone from an attack.)Ander wrote:I guess I'm just not as impressed with our intelligence agencies after they "failed to connect the dots" with that Christmas day bomber when the guys dad calls us up and says "hey my son has been training as a terrorist and called me today saying it would be his last contact with me." After hearing about that kind of thing for awhile, it kind of dispels the whole superhuman persona around American intelligence agencies. Kind of like when you find out santa claus is just your parents tripping around in the dark.
-Ander
The type of things going on between Google and China are the same type of things going on between every country and every other country in the background. That one just made it a little more public. We will never know the crazy shit that is really happening between global internet connections, even between allies.
I wouldn't say that it is the biggest concern of leadership, but it is A concern. A terrorist attack is a large concern, but human rights violations are too. When we read about the things that terrorists have done to our own soldiers and civilians, we get pissed but leaving men to rot (with no evidence against them) is just as horrible thing to do. If we are to sentence them, it needs to be fairly. Period. I am ashamed of what our government has done to the people it has captured.Antilikos wrote:When the biggest concerns of leadership turns to reading terrorists their miranda rights on the battlefield it's no wonder small details like that fall through the cracks. Our intelligence community has been told they are a bunch of stinking liars and that they do not have the support of top leadership. What can we expect out in the field? I wouldn't want to buy a burger from a company that berates its employees like that much less stake a nations security on it.