In Defense of the NSA

[SteelCrysis]

If true, it's not the first time Tor has been seriously compromised. Back in 2006, Tor was totally bypassed by incredibly simple methods, like sticking a 1x1 pixel Flash applet into a page. The bypass caused the true IP to be sent to the server of the page with the Flash applet.

Incidentally, I think the claim that the FBI paid Carnegie Mellon $1 million to break Tor is wrong, because I don't think they would have paid that little.

Meanwhile, http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/16/97452...ting-error
The Forbes reporter is now saying he got it wrong. Sure he did, there's no way he was under pressure from his superiors to lie about a true story, who are trying to save themselves from the rest of the pro-privacy media. Even The Verge has to admit that someone got caught when they downloaded bomb instructions on their PS4. Yay for electronic surveillance, and The Verge will soon get rid of the reporter for contradicting the media's agenda.

Of course, the White House knew about 9/11 threats before it happened.  Bush wasn't surprised when he heard the news of WTC being struck.  I think the NSA knew about the Paris attacks before they happened, but it was France who simply underestimated the whole thing - mainly focusing on protecting the president first and foremost.

That's likely: in fact, that's what happened with Pearl Harbor. We didn't know where the Japanese attack would be, and assumed it would be in the Philippines. But we didn't see "citizens" calling for an end to espionage and cryptanalysis because Pearl Harbor happened.