Comment Technology != Intelligence (Score 1) 119
A recent article in the German magazine Der Spiegel detailed how the German NSA-equivalent agency intercepted data traffic originating from Liechtenstein banks, and how this data apparently reveals the big-time money laundering connections of this countrylet. Quite a coup, it seems.
There is no doubt that concern about the increasing invasion of privacy is appropriate, especially when it is unclear which information is intercepted by whom for what purpose. Credit ratings, AIDS, credit card nos. are just the tip of the iceberg.
To put this into perspective, though,
remember that all the electronic sophistication of the NSA and all the president's CIA men failed miserably in predicting, for example, Saddam's invasion of Kuweit in 1990. Similar intelligence failures abound, e.g. the Nairobi/Daressalaam and the Atlanta bombings.
Most telling of all is the case of East Germany, where the Stasi had unlimited powers inside the country, had a spy in every house plus spys spying on spys, had innumerable sleepers and moles in various Western governments -- and yet the state collapsed in a miserable heap anyway, simply because no amount of spying on your own people saves a bad system in the long run.
So, I would not overrate the effectiveness even of a technologically advanced system. Technology is just one of many factors, including the overall state of the economy and the intelligence of the intelligence gatherers.
There is no doubt that concern about the increasing invasion of privacy is appropriate, especially when it is unclear which information is intercepted by whom for what purpose. Credit ratings, AIDS, credit card nos. are just the tip of the iceberg.
To put this into perspective, though,
remember that all the electronic sophistication of the NSA and all the president's CIA men failed miserably in predicting, for example, Saddam's invasion of Kuweit in 1990. Similar intelligence failures abound, e.g. the Nairobi/Daressalaam and the Atlanta bombings.
Most telling of all is the case of East Germany, where the Stasi had unlimited powers inside the country, had a spy in every house plus spys spying on spys, had innumerable sleepers and moles in various Western governments -- and yet the state collapsed in a miserable heap anyway, simply because no amount of spying on your own people saves a bad system in the long run.
So, I would not overrate the effectiveness even of a technologically advanced system. Technology is just one of many factors, including the overall state of the economy and the intelligence of the intelligence gatherers.
