American Stasi: Work for the NSA, Spy on the World

I've been watching the Academy Award-winning drama The Lives of Others based on the operations of the East German-era secret police, the Stasi. Vast improvements in technology have enabled gathering ever-more information on the activities of you and me, and the United States has come under massive fire from virtually every continent in the world for its surveillance activities. Even Malaysia--Malaysia! is now complaining. Under the excuse of thwarting the proliferation of terror, it appears the US is rather indiscriminate in snooping on friend and foe, netizens and "terrorists" alike. Commercial data mining usually has a purpose in detecting consumption patterns of people; NSA snooping does not seem to have any underlying logic save for annoying everyone else with Yanqui intrusiveness. To be honest, I find these busybodies appalling: don't they have anything better to do than, as the movie title suggests, monitor the lives of others? Sure the United States' National Security Agency pays its operatives well, but the broader question remains--is this a morally acceptable occupation? If you are a Yanqui with no scruples, however, and are a dab hand with computers and software, I have the ideal job for you--"cyber professional" at the NSA:

The National Security Agency has a complex mission: to gather foreign intelligence and to defend U.S. government information systems.  Communications have evolved from the past.  Today, the IT infrastructure is digital from start to finish.  America's national security information depends on technology as never before.

That's why NSA employs a wide variety of cyber professionals: to help protect and defend U.S. government IT systems, and to help exploit the intelligence of adversaries [my emphasis--and that category would obviously include anyone and everyone since US identification friend or foe (IFF) is evidently non-existent in this respect].

As our use of technologies grows exponentially, so do our country's vulnerabilities.  Our national security depends on the stability and reliability of our communications infrastructure.  The cyber threat to IT and national security systems has never been greater.

In fact, with the increased number of cyber events around the world, it’s more important now than ever to stay a step ahead of our cyber adversaries [my emphasis again--by spying on them before they spy on you, obviously]. At NSA, knowing cyberspace matters. As a cyber professional, you will become a part of a tradition of excellence, poised to lead the nation in the protection of our country’s national interests in cyberspace for years to come.

Even the normally placid and US-loving German chancellor from former East Germany has taken exception to the Americans' nefarious activities. Catch Angela (Merkel) gossiping about Schweini and other matters of great security to American national security in the global war on terror (GWOT).

That an NSA job is considered a cushy one in today's America says all you need to know about it in this day and age. These people--especially those jerks at the NSA--should spend more time minding their own business, not least because it's going nowhere fast economically, politically or morally.