"Privacy" Redefined - Move Over Mr. Webster; Dr. Kerr is in the House

By Robert A. Nash

Privacy: “Is a system of laws, rules, and customs with an infrastructure of Inspectors General, oversight committees, and privacy boards on which our intelligence community commitment is based and measured.”

If I were to define privacy as quoted above what would you call me? Uneducated? Ignorant? Out of my **** mind? Nope, afraid not, you’d have to call me the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.

Dr. Donald Kerr was nominated to be Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence by President George W. Bush on 7/11/07. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence by a vote of 12-3, reported out the nomination of Mr. Kerr to serve on 9/18/2007. In finality, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 10/4/07.

Yep, for worse, for sure, Donald Kerr is our new leader on all issues pertaining to intelligence – And more importantly, the guy who has no regard for your civil liberties. “Privacy no longer can mean anonymity. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information.” These are Mr. Kerr’s words of testimony before Congress on 11/11/2007.

The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is currently “taking a second look at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.”

Here we have it… Facing an all out invasion of personal privacy and what is the response from the Deputy Director? It’s time to redefine privacy. Follow the logic here:

Presuppositions:
-Security has primacy over all things.
-The Government is the agent of security.
-In today’s virtual world anonymity no longer exists.

Argument:
Privacy is the safeguarding all of information by the security agent. Therefore, you must sacrifice traditional and outdated notions of privacy in order to be secure.

That only leaves one small problem… Who’s going to protect us from our keepers? Americans have become exceedingly foolish – Dumb as Oxen. Really, what is the clinical definition for mental retardation? Our society must be close.

Ahh, why worry? This is the stuff of conspiracy! “Donald Kerr is only one man”, they say. Let’s review the role of the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence – Mr. Kerr:

• Is the Principal Adviser to the President for intelligence matters relating to national security.
• Is the Principal Adviser to the National Security Council for intelligence matters relating to national security.
• Is the Principal Adviser to the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters relating to national security.
• Serves as the head of the sixteen-member Intelligence Community.
• Oversees and Directs the National Intelligence Program.

On 10/23/07 Mr. Kerr spoke at the 2007 GEOINT Symposium in San Antonio, Texas – Here he expanded upon his ideals of security, privacy and freedom – I encourage you to read the entire speech (link below) – Here is one quote of interest, containing in context, the definition listed at the beginning of this article:

“Too often, privacy has been equated with anonymity; and it’s an idea that is deeply rooted in American culture. The Long Ranger wore a mask but Tonto didn’t seem to need one even though he did the dirty work for free. You’d think he would probably need one even more. But in our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity – or the appearance of anonymity – is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Anonymity results from a lack of identifying features. Nowadays, when so much
correlated data is collected and available – and I’m just talking about profiles on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube here – the set of identifiable features has grown beyond where most of us can comprehend. We need to move beyond the construct that equates anonymity with privacy and focus more on how we can protect essential privacy in this interconnected environment.

Protecting anonymity isn’t a fight that can be won. Anyone that’s typed in their name on Google understands that. Instead, privacy, I would offer, is a system of laws, rules, and customs with an infrastructure of Inspectors General, oversight committees, and privacy boards on which our intelligence community commitment is based and measured. And it is that framework that we need to grow and nourish and adjust as our cultures change.”

Just to clarify, here's the true defintion of privacy, according to Mr. Webster: "a: the quality or state of being apart from company or observation: b: freedom from unauthorized intrusion" - Someone please pass this along to Mr. Kerr.

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Ben Franklin

Read the full AP article on Dr. Kerr’s recent statements HERE.

Read the full GEOINT Speech HERE.

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As I was researching this article I ran across a couple of corresponding pieces of information which NiceneTruth readers may also find interesting:

1)      As mentioned Dr. Kerr made his recommendations to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – Anyone care to gander a guess at who chairs that committee? It’s John D. Rockefeller IV! See his smiling face on the committee home page here. I couldn’t help but think of Jay’s recent article posted on NiceneTruth.com found here.

2)      David had written an article about “Spy Drones” found here. In that article he lists an official explanation that shows the drones are used for the “forest fire” intel – I found it very interesting that Dr. Kerr echoes that same lame explanation in his recent speech at GEOINT (see link above, look in Q&A section at end of speech – It’s the first question.)