[Fwd: NSA tapping undersea fibers?]

[John Young]

Last evening at a session of four former Directors of Central
Intelligence (Deutch, Woolsey, Webster and Turner), the WSJ
report on NSA tapping and its alleged going deaf came up. 

Deutch and Woolsey said that while NSA may have a few 
problems at the moment those will be overcome with sufficient 
funding which must be provided.

Deutch said the French had the same apprehension about new
technology when telegraph began to spread and threatened the
spooks' thriving letter opening program. That anxiety soon
disappeared when it was learned that spying on telegraphy was
even easier than on paper despite the increase in traffic.

Deutch surmised that NSA would go on to greater successes
against latest technology, again with sufficient funding. Unsaid 
was whether the spooks welcomed the new technology and
its enhanced spyability over legacy systems. 

And, to be sure, that alarm about "going deaf" was the SOS.

That cliche is becoming as common as "cyber Pearl Harbor,"
though not as often shrieked as cutting-edge lipflap about
"domestic terrorism" and "weapons of mass destruction." 
These latter two were much mawed by Deutch and Woolsey 
at the session, suggesting that foreign enemies were
nothing compared to the homeland's.

Undersea cables are of interest, from this viewpoint, only
to spy on one's own.