Understanding the past is still the key to the future. I have used that theme on several occasions here in "politidose" during commentary in the past few years. Those who fail to understand and learn from the past will reap a future that looks like the past. The NSA picture that is in the news today is a good example and represents the future (present time) and is a repeat of the past. Let us examine the past.
The NSA is only one arm of the United States's intelligence community and what is being exposed today, but the news story is really not new. In a book titled "Body of Secrets" written by James Bramford almost 20 years ago detailed NSA's signal capabilities of intercepting phone conversations and etc. and processing such information with a super computer. The book detailes the many questionable acts NSA was involved with. It also detailed a little known fact of Israel's involvement in an attack of a U.S. naval ship that killed 34 Americans. The book exposed many of NSA's secrets.
NSA is also doing now what they did in the past under the Bush administration. At that time they were even by passing the FISA court. That was later corrected by actions of Congress. So the NSA revelation is nothing new, it has its roots in the past. Elected officials have failed to regulate and use their oversight to correct the mistakes of the past and therefore the future is like the past. The intelligence community has a past history of violating the law. That has been documented in the "Church Report" that dates back to the 70's, Watergate, The Kennedy Killing, Iran-Contra and former CIA director Alan Dulles even told the Warren Commission that employees of the CIA would even lie under oath in a court of law. President Truman who created the CIA was established to gather intelligence so that the President could make sound judgements.
Truman withheld from the CIA operation authority and was appalled when he learned that Presidents who followed him gave that out to the intelligence community. He wrote several articles concerning that. Our elected officials have learned nothing from the past about oversight and holding the intelligence community responsible for their actions. Therefore the future that is now being played out in the news media is a repeat of the past. Until elected officials learn that understanding the past is the key to the future nothing will change, and the future will continue to be like the past. And that does not only apply to intelligence matters.
This post written by John Lucia
