Archive for the ‘NSA’ Category

NSA reveals it used to have a Clown Club

Brittany Hillen

We've seen many NSA-related details surface, but none of them quite as unexpected as the latest revelation: the agency used to have a Clown Club. Less you think that is some cheery codename for a secret collective or program, it's not -- it was a literal Clown Club. It sounds almost too odd to be true, but the information was revealed by the NSA itself in an unclassified scan titled "Cryptologic Almanac 50th Anniversary Series" posted on its website. The club no longer exists, but its legacy apparently lives on.

The report starts off, "Once upon a time, a man named Ned Clark worked for the National Security Agency. And while he had an ordinary job at the Agency like everyone else, that's not how he left his mark here: he gained his NSA fame through clowning."

Clark, having served in the Marine Corps before joining the NSA in the 50s, worked as a typewriter repairman at the Agency. By the late 50s, Clark took up clowning under the moniker "Uncle Ned" as part of his work with children and charities. His life as a clown eventually spilled over to his job at the agency, where he "could always be counted on to entertain at the NSA Christmas Party or any other NSA family party."

In the 1970s, the agency had its own NSA Clown Club, of which Clark was the president. The Club contained the Clarkwheel Clowns, and was intended to "promote and develop among the membership interest, knowledge, and skill in being a clown." Clark is said to have given at least one lecture on clowning at the Friedman Auditorium during his time.

Clark passed away at the age of 67 in 1992, and at a time that isn't known the club was disbanded. However, as of 2002, one of the club's members going by the name "Snaggs" was still working for the NSA.

SOURCE: BuzzFeed

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NSA reveals it used to have a Clown Club

KeenON: Journalist and NSA Expert Barton Gellman – Video


KeenON: Journalist and NSA Expert Barton Gellman
It isn #39;t surprising that Edward Snowden chose then Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman as one of the earliest recipients of his leaked NSA documents. Gellman is the author of a best-selling...

By: Techonomy Media

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KeenON: Journalist and NSA Expert Barton Gellman - Video

DC Pork Bill Passed, Torture Report Distraction, Congress Allows All NSA Spying – Video


DC Pork Bill Passed, Torture Report Distraction, Congress Allows All NSA Spying
It looks like the House voted not to shut down the government with the budget it just passed. Conservative Republicans hate that Obama Care and illegal immig...

By: Greg Hunter

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DC Pork Bill Passed, Torture Report Distraction, Congress Allows All NSA Spying - Video

The Shugborough Inscription Deciphered By A Former NSA Agent! – Video


The Shugborough Inscription Deciphered By A Former NSA Agent!
http://www.keithmassey.com/ Keith Massey, PhD presents his decipherment of the enigmatic Shugborough Inscription. Dr. Massey is a former NSA Agent and Latin teacher who demonstrates that the...

By: Keith Massey

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The Shugborough Inscription Deciphered By A Former NSA Agent! - Video

No NSA Reform, No CIA Reform

The Democrats serving on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Diane Feinstein of California, have released their summary report on CIA torture. What is ahead now that the report is out?

Expect a merry season of verbose handwringing, with endless protestations of (momentary) embarrassment and mellifluous promise of immediate betterment. Even emphatic claims of Never Again!

Just dont believe it. All the statements by ever so embarrassed Senators, in the end, are but a highly ritualized form of appearing apologetic.

The news of the future will report that, despite the most earnest commitments to fundamental change of this critically important issue, nothing will happen. There will also be talk to hold an in-depth national conversation, including unrestrained readiness to look deep into our national soul. But that too is bound to be mostly lip service.

Remember the major embarrassment felt about the Snowden revelations that required urgent changes in the law in order to ensure that such gross betrayals of the rights of American citizens would never ever be repeated?

Or the statements that the NSA needed to be reined in? That it was an agency on autopilot? Well, there were high hopes for legislative reforms initially.

There were a spate of news articles and administration statements promising that real reform would come. Some people honestly thought that, given the immensity of the privacy violations by the NSA, this time things would be different.

In a parliamentary democracy, where majorities in the executive and legislative branches are by definition the same, reforms would likely have happened swiftly.

Not so in the United States, with its traditionally gridlocked domestic politics. There, it is never easy to achieve reforms. Still, after Snowdens revelations, many Democrats as well as some very right-wing Republicans, such as Rep. Sensenbrenner in the U.S. House, were adamant that things could not go on like that.

With such a wide-ranging coalition, along the entire U.S. political spectrum, what could possibly go wrong? A lot, as it turns out, led by a willy-nilly Obama Administration that always pretends to stand for principle before turning meek.

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No NSA Reform, No CIA Reform