AK> Hi, All!   
    AK> Forward from English_tutor   
      
    RW>>> He's tried to keep his information from being revealed, but that   
    RW>>> may not last, depending on who has that information now.   
      
    ak>>> This information is just a scandalous information which tells the   
    ak>>> world about methods of CIA and other similar organizations.   
      
    AK> ^^^   
    RW>> NSA-------------------------   
      
    AK>    Anyway, Snowden did his best. If we think it over, the   
    AK>    logic is simple. The state must NOT have full control of   
    AK>    its citizens. The state must not have power to suppress   
    AK>    all clandestine activity. The state must not develop   
    AK>    such technical instruments that make clandestine   
    AK>    activity impossible. Because it is a matter of democracy   
    AK>    survival.   
      
    All true, and irrelevant. Any state that wants that control will   
    develop the technology to give it that control. The only answer   
    is to develop an electorate that will kick out any government   
    that tries to gain that much control.   
      
    Dictatorships will try, and all that will stop them is their   
    inability to do so, or a populous that will overthrow them.   
      
    AK>    Suppose, the state controls its people to such an   
    AK>    extent, that it knows all people connections. This means   
    AK>    that a member of clandestine organization cannot hide   
    AK>    anywhere among his friends, acquaintances and even   
    AK>    people with whom he once had a phone talk. Why it is   
      
    People do need to understand, clandestine does not automatically   
    mean illegal. It most certainly does not automatically mean   
    immoral. The WWII resistance movements, for example. Illegal but   
    not immoral. The secretive social groups, such as the Masons   
    etc. Clandestine, as keeping their internal activities secret,   
    but not illegal, and not immoral, as far as we know.   
      
    Then again, there are social groups that are fully clandestine,   
    as in keeping themselves secret, such as sexual swapping groups.   
    Immoral by common usage, but not illegal in many places.   
      
    Civil rights groups in the South during Jim Crow might be   
    clandestine, but not immoral, and not illegal under the US   
    constitution, no matter what local laws said.   
      
    AK>    bad? Because clandestine activity is a holy cow of   
    AK>    democracy. If some bustards came to power and they have   
      
    And that is key. Democracy has to allow people to keep secrets,   
    as long as they are not hurting others. Dictators will not allow   
    clandestine operations no matter what, so rules of morality   
    aren't relevant to them.   
      
    AK>    all levers to suppress any clandestine activity they   
    AK>    will be able to do it. And resistance will fail. That   
    AK>    why the state must not be too powerful, too omnipresent.   
      
    A long time principle in the US. One often forgotten, and often   
    ignored.   
      
    AK>    That's why NSA activity to trace all phone calls must be   
    AK>    stopped, and its equipment and spy bases destroyed. It   
    AK>    will, maybe, create some difficulties in catching real   
    AK>    criminals. But it worth it. It provide freedom and   
    AK>    democracy more chances for survival.   
      
    It's the fear of the smallest chance of hurt that drives people   
    to allow such loss of freedom.   
      
    Those who said we had to fight in Iraq to keep the terrorists   
    from following our troops home were cowards, and they doomed the   
    mission to failure from the beginning in any case.   
      
      
   BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn   
      
   ... Cheer Up! Things are getting worse at a slower rate.   
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