Uncle Sam Is Watching You!

And so he has been for some time now. The Geek wants to repeat that. The Federal Government has been collecting data--spying if you prefer--on us for more than the past few years.

It's time we all get a grip on that unpleasant reality. The latest modification in the law governing the use of electronic intercepts changes nothing. That's n-o-t-h-i-n-g, nada, zero, zip.

All the huffing and puffing as illustrated by posts today in Alternet and Salon is as relevant as a barber to a bald man.

Laws such as that amending FISA do nothing to change the realities of spying. FISA and all the other enactments may affect what sources of information, indeed what information might be used in legal proceedings, but they don't alter realities.

The National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency (NGSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) exist in major part to collect information without the targets of collection being aware that information is being gathered. In a real sense these outfits are the ultimate expression of Jeremy Bentham's panopticon.

The panopticon you'll recall was Bentham's design for a penitentiary (also useful for schools and factories he noted) that allowed an unseen observer to monitor hundreds of convicts. His idea was that the uncertainty of being observed would deter bad behavior.

Closed circuit television cameras litter London's landscape with an identical purpose no matter how much the system is touted as a device for solving crimes. The primary purpose is deterrence not detection.

Many cities, shopping malls, and stores use the same approach, electronic panopticons. Perhaps the idea works.

The capacities of the National Panopticon illustrated by but not limited to NSA and NGSA are awesome. The Geek uses that word literally. The capabilities of multi-spectral imagers whether on aircraft, UAVs, or satellites inspire awe. So also do the sensors and computers deployed by NSA.

All these high-tech extenders of eyes and ears are at the disposal of the President of the United States. He directs their employment. Not personally of course, or at least not usually.

The collection ability of NSA, NRO, NGSA along with the collection and analytical assets of CIA, DIA, FBI as well as all the other components of the massive intelligence community are controlled, directed and tasked by the Administration through a web of interlocking interagency committees that purportedly assure cooperation, task sharing, and an absence of bureaucratic turf wars. Still the truth remains that the intelligence community is under the President as Commander in Chief. In that way it is like the US military services.

That means the NSA, NRO, NGSA, CIA, DIA, FBI and all the rest of the crew do what they are told to do. Told by the chain of command which ends with the President. No more than the Army or the Marine Corps runs off on its own to start a war do the intelligence agencies look for someone on whom to spy.

The spies have to be tasked. That's true for the individual CIA case officer. That's true for the massive and massively funded agencies.

If the President has reason to conclude that a threat faces the country, he would be delinquent if he did not order intelligence tasking. At this point the law does not matter. The President has the Constitutional responsibility for national defense in the role of Commander in Chief.

If confirming and countering the perceived threat requires electronic interception of emails or telephone conversations, it would be both irresponsible, even criminal, for such not to be ordered, and the order to be executed regardless of law.

OK. Now it seems the Geek has transmogrified himself into a fascist oppressor of American Civil Liberties.

No. He hasn't.

It's simply that even a cursory knowledge of what Administrations have done in the face of perceived national security threats shows that the law is not a great inhibitor except when it is used as an excuse for inaction. This doesn't make the Geek happy. But much of our history does not serve to bring a smile of quiet enjoyment to his face.

Can Presidents be trusted with the wise, careful and civil liberty sensitive use of the awe inspiring snooping capabilities at their fingertips?

Of course not. No human can.

The super-snoop technology exists. It's going to be used. Most of the time (95% or more) it will be employed on targets outside the US or with the authority of a Foreign Security Intelligence Court warrant. Most of the last five percent will be justifiable on the basis of a sincerely perceived threat. A small fraction of the time the National Panopticon will be vilely used.

Whatever the technology of the day, a small percentage of the Federal Government's data acquisition and surveillance capacities has been misused. Presidents (Richard Nixon comes to mind) have employed it for political and personal reasons. At least one Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, regularly used the capacities of his bureau for purposes of extortion and blackmail. Individuals within the intelligence community are not immune to the desire to know things to which they have no legal right.

We live in the National Panopticon. Get a grip on that very scary reality.

We are going to continue to live in the National Panopticon. The capacities of Uncle Sam to watch and listen when we can have no idea that he is doing so will continue to grow.

It can't be stopped by law unless we are ready and willing to decommission all the satellites, trash all the computers, fire all the folks who design and run the systems or interpret and assemble all the intelligence. (Additionally, we would have to make sure that none of the people with the relevant knowledge went to work for deep pocket corporations or foreign governments.)

All we can do is take comfort in two facts. First, laws at least protect us from improperly acquired information being used in court proceedings. Second and more important, the machines can collect so much raw data that the poor humans in the loop, the boys and girls who make sense of the catch, are overwhelmed. (Being overwhelmed by raw catch was a factor in not detecting and preventing the threat which hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon.)

The Geek's Life in the Panopticon Tip Number One: The panopticon principle deters only if you let it. Life in the Panopticon Tip Number Two: They have the techonology. We have the numbers and inventiveness. So for every high-tech capacity there is a low-tech solution.

The Geek has one final piece of advise on how to deal with life in the National Panopticon. At night when you see a satellite in a polar orbit pass overhead, smile, laugh, flip the bird. It will make you feel better.