404 Error - The Atlantic

Ex-CIA, NSA, FBI and GCHQ Employees Urge Former Colleagues to Blow the Whistle
▻http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/ex-cia-nsa-fbi-and-gchq-employees-urge-former-colleagues-to-blow-the-whistle/282287

Says a portion of the letter:

Hidden away in offices of various government departments, intelligence agencies, police forces and armed forces are dozens and dozens of people who are very much upset by what our societies are turning into: at the very least, turnkey tyrannies.

One of them is you.

You’re thinking:

● Undermining democracy and eroding civil liberties isn’t put explicitly in your job contract.
● You grew up in a democratic society and want to keep it that way
● You were taught to respect ordinary people’s right to live a life in privacy
● You don’t really want a system of institutionalized strategic surveillance that would make the dreaded Stasi green with envy – do you?

Still, why bother? What can one person do? Well, Edward Snowden just showed you what one person can do. He stands out as a whistleblower both because of the severity of the crimes and misconduct that he is divulging to the public – and the sheer amount of evidence he has presented us with so far – more is coming. But Snowden shouldn’t have to stand alone, and his revelations shouldn’t be the only ones.

You can be part of the solution; provide trustworthy journalists – either from old media (like this newspaper) or from new media (such as WikiLeaks) with documents that prove what illegal, immoral, wasteful activites are going on where you work.

There IS strength in numbers. You won’t be the first – nor the last – to follow your conscience and let us know what’s being done in our names. Truth is coming – it can’t be stopped. Crooked politicians will be held accountable. It’s in your hands to be on the right side of history and accelerate the process.

Courage is contagious.

On explique les échecs de l’emploi de la force comme on explique ceux de l’austérité : ce n’était pas suffisant.

War on Terror Hawks Can’t Fail, They Can Only Be Failed - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic
▻http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/war-on-terror-hawks-cant-fail-they-can-only-be-failed/281939

On Sunday, Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate intelligence committee, and Mike Rogers, the head of the House intelligence committee, appeared on network television, where they announced that terrorists have gained ground in recent years. 

Among their claims:

– We’re less safe than we were two years ago.
– Islamist groups are winning the minds of the disenfranchised in the Middle East and Asia.
– There has been “a rise in fatalities from terrorist-related activities.”
– The enemy has “increasingly specialized and dangerous technology,” including powerful bombs.
– “Terror groups had already tried, on four separate occasions, to send these newer, more deadly explosives into the United States.”
– “Al Qaeda as we knew it before is metastasizing to something different.”

Got that? When it comes to terrorism, they say you’re no better off than you were two years ago. As a result, these two legislators have declared recent national security policy a failure, insisted on mass firings for cause in the national security bureaucracy, and called for a new approach to counterterrorism.

Ha! Just kidding. Even though they think we’re less safe now, and that the enemy is more dangerous, they favor continuing or intensifying current policy, and they aren’t calling for any resignations at the CIA or the NSA or the DOD or the White House or anywhere else.