"Military Intelligence"
Posted by: Archimedes on Jan 27, 2009 - 10:26 AM
Politics
|
As a military veteran I can't TELL you how thrilled I was to see a letter come to me in 2006 from the Department of Veterans Affairs after a recent theft of a notebook containing sensative records of some 26 MILLION veterans - a letter that stated that my OWN identity might be compromised. NICE!
We've heard tell of computers at the Pentagon being hacked by Chinese sources (so they believe). We've heard tell of sensative information leaks across the board. And with the growing number of breaches in financial institutions lately, of which I was a part of at least once now which prompted me to have to change my credit card account, it appears to me that between the corporations and our own government, their handling of our information, both personal and fiscal, has been about as well maintained as a '72 Pinto with a couple hundred thousand miles on it!
Now, I'll admit - stealing my idenity really isn't that big a thrill. More to the point, there's little to steal. And I expect that with the vast majority of American's, many of whom are up against it as a result of different things, there isn't a lot that is worth stealing. But all the same, you'd think that people at these levels would care enough to at least make a decent effort and, if they can't take care of such information as they hold now, would STOP this bullshit about demanding MORE information. Oh, wait...I forgot, they don't give a shit. I have to remind myself of that on a regular basis.
And all of this, at least insomuch as the government is concerned, is done in 'our own best interest and for our security and safety'. Oh, yeah. Given a track record like that, I know I feel a lot safer with the government controling pertinent and sensative information about me and my family...NOT!!!
And what the HELL was this information doing on an MP3 player??!!! What? Some bored DoD worker decide they'd take their work home with them and at the same time play their favorite Justin Timberlake music while they worked on the files??!! Jesus Jumpin' Mother-Lovin' Christ!! What kind of 'security' policies are these that you can put critical information like TROOP movements and placement, let alone their home address and freakin' CELL PHONE NUMBER on a PERSONAL MP3 PLAYER that winds up in a THRIFT STORE?!!! I dunno about YOU, but I can say with some certainty that it makes me glad I'm not in the military anymore. I wouldn't relish the idea of getting shot at in general. But I'd like it a lot less if I thought that information like that might make it into the hands of the people SHOOTING at me!
And you want to know the worst thing about it? It's not even the fact that they can't seem to keep such information safe, corporations OR the government. They can't even get it RIGHT!! It's always great fun when you have to explain YOUR history to one (or all three) of the big credit companies out there and then have them tell YOU to prove it!! By all accounts so far, I'm 48 and, at some point in my life, I lived in Tenessee. I've never even BEEN to Tenessee. And believe me, I have NO desire to be any older than I already am. I had a hard enough time just dealing with turning f*cking 40!! I sure as hell don't want to be pushing 50 already! No offense to the other 'me' out there.
And more to the point, I can even pretty much theorize when my information became so screwed up. From 1993 to 1996 I served at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. At the same time, there was another 'me' serving up there as well. It also lent itself to some confusion at the Alaska DMV when I went in to change my drivers license over. The other 'me' was serving just up the road at Eilson Air Force Base. And both of us served in Alaska within 20 miles of one another for about the same period of time. Who wants to take bets that somewhere along the way Transunion, Equifax and Experian, probably along with the military, local, state and federal government all got their wires crossed? Anyone?
And then we come to such legislation as The Real ID Act, a rider bill that never saw a vote, yet managed to make it past the House and Senate to see it become a law...as a rider on a mliitary spending bill. So now the government can seek to gather yet MORE information about us to keep in their little databases all over God's Green Acre on computers rarely checked on or known to exist even within their OWN ranks, managed by organizations whose security polices obviously include the principle that 'it's okay to take your work home with you on your MP3 player'. Yeah, that really gives me a warm and fuzzy! Oh, and let's look for a moment at whose brainchild this was - the fat bastard Senator Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr. of Wisconsin. And his reasoning? To better control the illegal immigration problem. I said it then and I say it now - exactly what kind of f*cking illegal immegration problem do YOU have, Mr. Senselessbrenner, in WISCONSIN?!!
Does it seem to anyone else think this whole thing is a really BAD idea?! Does it appear to ANYONE that perhaps there is no less likely candidate to hold such information than our government? With our fiscal situation being such that we're now using plastic instead of paper to perform our transactions - and believe me, I'm very grateful for the convenience of being able to swipe a card to get my groceries - and the growing number of breaches that alone seems to be generating, I tend to think that perhaps it's probably NOT a good idea to expand on that information to include pretty much everything about us in some database to be managed, maintained and 'protected' by our government. Oh, let's not even take into consideration the recent knowledge brought to light about the NSA TAKING personal information without anyone even KNOWING about it or even them knowing what to DO with it.
Somewhere along the way, people, we have allowed out government to step on our personal freedoms time and again and ruthlessly. All in the name of preserving our freedom. Has it dawned on anyone yet that that's not freedom? Has it occured to anyone that privacy is one of the freedoms afforded us by the constitution? And before some schmuck from the government says that that's not what the founding father's meant, here's a quote from Benjamin Franklin:
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
|
|
| |
|
