posted on Aug, 1 2011 @ 02:47 PM
Although I wouldn't be all that surprised to learn that the NSA has broadened the scope of its activities, the NSA's mandate is Signals
Intelligence, i.e.: If it is broadcast (or narrowcast) over the airwaves, through wires, or through the Internet, the NSA attempts to grab it--all of
it. They are not supposed to spy domestically, though no one believes they do not. I do know that employees (includes the military and contractors)
who are caught doing so get in serious trouble. (You see, I also have a friend who is associated with the NSA and have heard a few stories myself.)
But understand that like any large and bureaucratic organization, employees feed off of rumors and anything allegedly "secret."
As an information gathering agency the NSA would not be involved in any policy decisions. It's job is to pass the information it receives on to
decision makers in the military, other spy agencies, and the executive. Naturally the NSA has to pick and choose what to send on, but that's the
level of decision-making they do. No GS-12 in the NSA is going to be tasked with releasing any information. This means that the NSA is involved only
in a peripheral manner, as a conduit of information. In effect they are sergeants in the information dissemination business, not generals.
So this begs the entire question. You have to ask yourself: How and why would any normal person working for the NSA in signals intelligence be in any
position to predict disclosure? Did they see a cablegram? Did they read an e-mail? Did they listen in on a cell phone call? Did they see a memo? Did
they hear someone higher up than thay are say something?
OK. Let's say for the sake of argument that they did. How do they know it was real? One of the things we know from the past is that spy agencies are
interested in tracking the dissemination of information. They have an academic interest in this, but also a practical interest from a security
standpoint, i.e.: Will employees leak really good stuff? Will they tell their really good friends from childhood that disclosure is coming?
Please understand that I am not accusing the OP of anything here, but technically it is possible he made this all up, misconstruing the role of the
NSA and using it because it's mysterious to disseminate this tale. That's one possibility. A second possibility is that his friend is the one making
stuff up and disseminating it to the OP, meaning the OP is 100% innocent. Thirdly, the OPs friend could believe he was telling something real, but is
being set up himself, making OP's friend also 100% innocent. Who knows how far back a chain of innocents could go?
Given the role of the NSA, it is highly unlikely that a typical employee knows anything particularly earth-shattering here. If there were something
like this in the offing, it wouldn't be coming from the NSA at all.