Note to Steven Bay

Note to Steven Bay

 

Edward Snowden's Supervisor Steven Bay Speaks

 

“Knowing what I knew at the time, l would have hired [Edward Snowden] again,” Steven Bay, a former cyberintelligence analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton, said today in Seattle at the IEEE Computer Society’s “Rock Stars of Cybersecurity” conference.

“Knowing what I know now, obviously, I wouldn’t,” he added.

Bay said today’s talk marked the first time he discussed his side of the Snowden story in a public forum.”  - as reported in Geekwire.



Edward Snowden, NSA Whistleblower

Steven Bay Talks at CyberSecurity Conference

 

Steven Bay was Edward Snowden’s supervisor as a contractor at the National Security Agency.  He spoke at a conference recently defending the mass data-collection programs run by the NSA.  He mentioned all the procedural and administrative protections in place to prevent misuse of American’s personal information. Edward Snowden’s outrage at the NSA’s and U.S. Government’s actions led him to expose the existence of these programs to the world.

 

 

 

Personal Question for Steven Bay

Steve, may I call you Steve? Steve, you were quite clear about all the procedural protections against the misuse of personal information of American citizens. I believe you, and further believe that those procedures are followed.

 

Given that, there is something you should think about:  all that and more was in place to prevent torture, and it happened anyway.

The tools, and data, that the National Security Agency relies upon can easily be used for political purposes, and probably already have.  I’m speaking about the targeting of the Occupy movement. No one doubts your procedures and sincerity. We doubt their resilience. I know from personal experience that there will be other NSA employees who will fall on the sword, professionally speaking, to stop political exploitation of your agency’s tools. But we all have seen how that is not enough to stop torture, and it will not be enough to prevent the use of the NSA's tools from being used for political purposes.

My question is whether or not, when the time comes, you will be willing to risk prison and a destroyed career to object when these surveillance tools are used to break up a peaceful political movement.  Will you be willing to go public?  Will you be strong enough to refuse?  Where do you draw the line? 

Most people will do nothing.  Will you?

Political actions protect civil liberties, and so do uncomfortable questions asked of elected representatives. Newspaper articles. Protests. Sunlight. That's the value of the public's right to know.  So they can make decisions about how their country behaves.
 

I know you believe what you are saying, and I don't doubt your integrity. I'm just saying that administrative rules, without external review, are not adequate to protect American freedom, because that is indeed what is at stake.

Saddam Hussein's Execution

The world is simply different now. Expectations of privacy are passe, even at an execution. No concept of dignity attaches anymore as everyone has a mobile film recorder with them at all times. The most indecent, ill-thought action can be viewed by the entire world.

Not only that, it can define your whole life. Imagine spending the next fifty years having to explain why you spat out that birthday cake and it landed on the cat. Did you aim the semi-chewed sweet at the cat? Were you a cat-hater? My cat saved my life, you know. Such are the conversational openers you would hear for the rest of your life.

And Saddam Hussein is no exception. In the end, his defining moment was his execution. And Econo-Girl cannot complain about the sneaky filming of his death. What relief it must bring to those who suffered from Saddam Hussein's evil to see his reckoning. "There! That's the man who killed my family! Ha! He is not so big now!"

In a global spiritual sense, wouldn't the fear that you might be on t.v. cause a person to temper their behaviour? Econo-Girl thinks so. And if one were a despot, wouldn't the idea that one day you would have to answer for your choices influence them?

Not really. After all, Econo-Girl is sure that Rumsfeld never thought so.