Matt Gurney: ‘Supporting documents’ for CBC’s bombshell NSA scoop don’t support the story much at all

...There is no proof of “widespread surveillance.” Clearly, an operation was being conducted. But no hint whatsoever is given to how widespread the surveillance was, or was not. You can’t tell from this document.

Further, there is nothing to back the CBC’s claim that the “spying at the Toronto summit in 2010 fits a pattern of economic and political espionage by [the NSA] and its partners [in Canada].” Beyond the generic statement that the NSA “is actively assisting executive protection and event security, and providing support to policymakers,” the document contains nothing approximating an even semi-complete operational plan or list of objectives that could then be fitted into any broader pattern. The closest we come is a generic list of services the NSA could offer, and the document itself notes the list is not exhaustive.

Indeed, it’s only clear upon rereading how little information the Nov. 27 report ever really claimed came from the NSA documents...

Read it all at NATIONAL POST 

In case you didn't know, there's no such thing as Internet privacy

John Stossel: Why Libertarians Have Better Things to Worry About Than the NSA

...So it's invasive, probably illegal and maybe useless. I ought to be very angry. But I'm not. Why? 

I need to keep thinking about this issue, but for now, two reasons: 

1. Terrorists do want to murder us. If the NSA is halfway competent, Big Data should help detect plots. 

2. My electronic privacy has already been utterly shredded by Google, Amazon, YouTube and so on. 

They know with whom I talk, what interests me and how much time I spend doing this or that. They creep me out with targeted ads. How did they know I want that?! Oh, right ... I spent an hour searching ...

Then I go outside in New York City, where 16 cameras record me on my way to work.

Greedy lawyers can subpoena my private records. My employer has a right to read my emails. 

My privacy is already blown.

What should really worry Americans is when Comrade Barack sends his secret police to search the homes of people just because they made fun of him.

Anyone who believes government agencies are competent should read this

More on the idiocy and Orwellian intrusions into the lives of citizens in Ontario  by government agencies. A man was arrested and compelled to submit to  a search of his home because his daughter drew a picture of him holding  a toy gun in class.

Anyone who knows any civil servants should realize, that while many if not most are nice people, very, very few have the intelligence or capabilities to be given real authority over our lives.