"According to the present CIA director, ex-airforce general Michael Hayden, the report is a "glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency"."

As the story went on to state also that he was head of the NSA. It seems that the goverment just likes to repeat history. Now its the NSA, but I doubt those records will ever be de-classified. With "Democracy" comes a price, actual freedoms. As much as we Americans think we are free we are just sheep having the wool pulled over us because we are too gullible to beleive any different. Although I do not consider myself on of the mainstream I am always skeptical of all goverment. I'm not out on the conspircy or lunitic fringe but I do believe there is way more going on then most anyone actually wants to believe. Such a sad state of affairs when a country claims to be free but is actually worse then the Russians in the days of communism at least people knew what the KGB was about.

We should be way more concerned about the " now " era than in

30 or so years in the past indeed.

It's a nice diversion .. but if you look at the published documents

most of the real juicy stuff is blanked out.

Many pages are just white pages ..

Most of the real important stuff has been censored.

Thought they would play straight and give us the real picture maybe ?

Keep dreaming.

The here and now of what the intel in the US do should be more

interesting .. ex : submaries specially fitted to be able to tap into

cables at the bottom of the ocean ..

What they do , of course , shouldn't be a concern to the honest

law abiding citizen ..

ROFL LMAO

They never played straight and never will. That's their job. !

well the way i see it, who actually cares if they are still doing this sort of thing.

it IS in the interest of national security, and if you have nothing to hide then why worry.

personally i feel safer knowing that they have the ability to do these things and if i results in the government stopping another 9/11 or 7/7 then carry on say I

The buggers have whiteout-ed the sections they don't want us to read, and scanned it rather than using microsofts wonderful black out text features which can be circumvented by selecting the text.

+1 for military intelligence, which makes a change from the oxymoron nature of the term.

But what about the Ned Fowden that is linked with Al-Queda, is that you? Or maybe that is just an error on the part of the security services? Nevermind, we can find out while you are held without charge or access to proper legal services for a few months. That ok with you?

While you think you have nothing to hide, the security services 'may' have other ideas. You want to protect your civil rights now or wait till you are wearing a nice orange jumpsuit?

That's the type of ill concieved statement which gets my goat. Sure Stalin wiped out millions and millions of people, millions more in prison, the whole population terrified, but at least they never had the CIA to worry about.

Utter, utter balls.

Do you have curtains?

Yes.

In that case, you do have something to hide, because you're not doing anything that's illigal in your house now, are you?

Do you have curtains? Does everyone where you work know your salary?

Do you know who will be in charge in a decade's time?

Do you trust who's in charge now to be 100% infallible?

"Nothing to hide = nothing to fear" is just woolly-minded optimism.

Maybe I'll post my CIA file (I used to hold a TS and above). Don't print it, though. The amount of dark bars will use up your black toner real fast. This report is not amazing in the high amount of redaction, but in the low amount.

My file has 16 pages of black lines. Out of 36. But I do know when and where I was born.

My FBI file is even more interesting. They have the date of my arrest (possession), but not the date of the dismissal. They have my attorney, but not the prosecuter. They one of the arresting officers, but not the other. All sorts of weird stuff like that.

The feds redact all sorts of stuff. They have no rhyme or reason. They are the government, they don't have to make sense.

Do you have curtains? Does everyone where you work know your salary?

Do you know who will be in charge in a decade's time?

Do you trust who's in charge now to be 100% infallible?

"Nothing to hide = nothing to fear" is just woolly-minded optimism.

Again!!!! Why do you monkeys always, always do this. You all know damn well what is meant by "Nothing to hide = nothing to fear"

Grow up FFS!!!

Yes I realise the irony of posting anonymously. Delicous isn't it?

Intelligence services are infamous for this stuff (no surprise), KGB, CIA, NSA, MI5, NKVD, Stasi, MI6, et alii: Agencies snoop (which is their Job) and sometimes snoop too much or not where they are allowed to. Thats where accountability comes in.

These reports are a good thing, it forces agencies like the CIA to explain their activities (or at least much of them).

Yes, the CIA is not particularly good in this report, but in reality the Stasi, KGB, even MI5 and MI6 were and are similarly problematic. This is petty compared to the Stasi files and some of the former Soviet and current Chinese monitoring of dissidents.

I have already downloaded the reports, so this could make for some fun leisure reading.

I suspect that most folks over the age of 18 (and some under) realize that war, cold or hot, is not "nice", and that occasionally folks like the CIA and KGB "need" to do some doubleplusungood things in the furtherance of the cause. When the cause is "prevent global thermonuclear war", it's hard to plausibly argue with it. The problem is that, at least since The Great War, these agencies have been far more likely to be working for "them" (What Ike called the Military/Industrial complex, or possibly a single political party or dictator) than "Us" (the citizenry of the country that nominally employs them, let alone "humanity").

"Again!!!! Why do you monkeys always, always do this. You all know damn well what is meant by "Nothing to hide = nothing to fear"

Grow up FFS!!!"

Listen numbnuts - if the oh-so-friendly security apparatus comes looking for *YOU* and carts *YOU* off for months and *YOU'VE* no recourse to legal representation, THEN try spitting out that 'nothing to hide/nothing to fear' bullshit.

I was in the fucking cops - Surrey Police UK - before you were a twinkle in your father's eye and know *exactly* what they get up to. And I'm still subject to the Official Secrets Act. But you and the rest of the idiots who've swallowed the Whitehall line don't want to hear the truth; all you want is a false sense of security.

Carry on; trust them. You'll find out soon enough what they're really like.

Twat

To the ex-cop who signed off with "Twat" ...

Thanks. It's good to see a posting which states in clearly understandable language just how stupid the "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" people are. Never mind about "You know damn well what is meant by ...", the State is something real to be feared and we are lucky that, at the moment, it is relatively benign. Don't fall for the ID Cards lies (they've already dropped some of the claims for them), or the NHS Spine (where your medical details will eventually be sold to insurance companies et al.). Tell 'em nowt!

Why do you always resort to name calling and insults?

Seems to me to be just a tad fanatical, or maybe hysterical. Watch out for that blood pressure ol' chap.

Actually I'm not clear on what you mean by "nothing to hide, nothing to fear"

It sounds like you're accusing anyone who doesn't want to entirely surrender their privacy of being a criminal or terrorist.

If that isn't what you mean I suggest you explain.

If that is what you mean I suggest you emigrate to North Korea.

I think with the systematic errosion of our civil liberties that is going on around us EVERY DAY, I think that perhaps fanatical & hysterical are good starting places.

If we dont speak out now, when will we?

If we dont speak out at all, who will?

Who will stop them when they come for us?

Because its never happened anywhere before has it?

Oh wait...

Re-read your own posting s-l-o-w-l-y and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y then answer the following questions:

Who called whom 'monkeys'?

Who resorted to name calling first?

Then try to read & u-n-d-e-r-s-t-a-n-d what the following piece means to a democratic society.

http://tinyurl.com/2k4oow

Seems to me that your post was both ad hominem & dodging the issue. Not bad at all for someone both young & naive.

All of you - remember the state exists to serve the people, not the other way round.

And on the subject of nothing to hide, nothing to fear:

Have you ever belonged to a political party?

Are you Gay?

Do you have a religion?

Have you ever smoked dope?

Ever bought porn / sex toys?

Do you have an embarrassing illness?

Do you work for a government department (now that's something to hide!)

I could go on, but 'nuff said...

Ever pirated any software?