This was the topic I responded to: "If people were being "disappeared" in the US "

As far as your grievances go, I understand that many people are opposed to the US defending itself against al Qaida, and the measures taken, but that is a different question than what I responded to.

The use of drones or cruise missiles does not constitute "summary execution," but is attacking members of an enemy force at war with the United States. You may not like that, but it is true. Bin Laden declared war on the United States on behalf of al Qaida in 1996, the US Congress authorized military action against al Qaida in 2001 after 9/11.

The fact that US citizens have joined al Qaida renders them no protection on the battlefield any more than the hundreds of thousands of Americans fighting for the Confederate States of America in the Civil War. There were shot and killed all the same without arrest, charges, trial, conviction, or sentencing. War is war, not a matter of the criminal justice system.

Muslims are fine, as long as they are peaceful. If they take up arms to attack the country they may be killed just like German Christians were killed in WW1 & WW2, Chinese atheists in the Korean War, and so on.

You may be gratified to know that the prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay received regular visits from the Red Cross.

Well, that certainly seems more likely than the possibility that a customs inspector overreached, doesn't it? After all, no bands or orchestras ever come to the US from overseas, do they?

The US has about 62 million visitors per year. I would expect that you could find the occasional horror story given the sample size and the vagaries of human behavior, especially when faced with a highly regulated activity such as crossing international borders.

Are you suggesting there are none to be found in Europe in general, or your country? No occasional injustice or difficulty? Care to test that?

Foreign visitors to U.S. hit record in 2011

If people were being "disappeared" in the US I expect we would hear something about it.

Imagine. There isn't genuine, notable political repression by the state in Western Europe or the Anglosphere.... yet. There is in parts of Eastern Europe and China.

Ironically it will probably be China first, followed by Russia, then rest of Europe. The tide is likely to keep rising.

Two bombs in Volgograd, Russia, kill 32 and leave dozens injured

The question isn't whether they had a contract, but what the contract did. Did they conspire to introduce weaknesses into their product? They deny that. Claiming that if they don't deny there was a contract makes them "guilty" is playing games.

RSA Response to Media Claims Regarding NSA Relationship

No time, too busy collecting Boxcar Willie and Slim Witman records. Are you saying there is someone I missed?

For the benefit of our (musical) flute/fife fans, a few pieces with a prominent role for flute/fife:

Bourée
Inca Dance
Gary Owen - Used in this scene from They Died With Their Boots On
Petruta Küpper Einsamer Hirte playing

I never thought of flutes as an "invasive species."

I think at this point the burden is on you to read: "we also categorically state that we have never entered into any contract or engaged in any project with the intention of weakening RSA’s products, or introducing potential ‘backdoors’ into our products for anyone’s use."

That seems pretty definitive to me.

I can play that game too. Change that one word from "known" to "fried chicken recipe." Did they deny that?

I had hoped that Slashdot had mainly passed beyond the "nutter" phase after the "truthers" have mainly cleared out. Apparently that was over optimistic.

I suggest anyone interested in this controversy read the following:

How a Crypto ‘Backdoor’ Pitted the Tech World Against the NSA

Although this is in regard to GCHQ, it probably applies to NSA as well: ‘We Can Trust GCHQ On Encryption’

The DES case is well understood NOW. DES was at the subject of conspiracy theories, suspicion, and fear for nearly 20 years, just in the same way that this controversy is likely to go.

The ironic thing about the DES controversy is that it was secretly stronger than many people knew, not weaker, and there are people that adopted other far weaker encryption schemes out of fear and suspicion rather than use DES. The secret techniques that DES was hardened against made cracking many of those other encryption much easier. I wonder how many secrets were lost because people went to those other encryption methods that were vulnerable to the secret cryptanalysis techniques that DES was immune to?

Here is a though provoking piece for you: ‘We Can Trust GCHQ On Encryption’