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Comment by vxxzy | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it sad that since the NSA revelations it's very easy to speculate? It doesn't take much to stretch the imagination any longer.

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Don't you think it's just a little bit of a stretch from "The NSA is recording phone calls" to "The NSA kills people"?

I look at it from the standpoint of trust. How can we trust that no foul play was invloved. I'm not saying take it as the gospel... Best just to keep an opened mind at this point.

That seems excessive. Can we trust that the government isn't setting up an elaborate "Truman Show"? I'd just go with the Occam's Razor test: it doesn't really seem to make sense and seems like a much higher risk than whatever "they" are trying to cover up. Manning -- not dead. Snowden -- not dead. If the US really wanted them dead, they would be dead.

And dammit I missed my chance at making a "fowl play" joke ( should be "foul play" :) )!

The American government can already kill it's own citizens without due process[1]. That's not very far from the NSA killing citizens.

EDIT: One intelligence agency, CIA, has already killed an American citizen[2].

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-ki... 2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01...

It absolutely is a stretch. You're comparing apples & oranges. To me it seems like saying "A soldier kills militants in XYZ country. Therefore it's not a stretch to say he kills his family if he's mad."

Oh, like Anwar_al-Awlaki's son?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki#Abdulrahm...

I don't find this analogy meta-discussions valuable. The only stretch is whether or not the killing could happen inside USA. Of course it (perhaps) hasn't happened yet, but that's what we are discussing: if it could happen. Any evidence on the truth of "could it happen?" has to has some differences, otherwise it would have already happened and we wouldn't be debating this in the first place.

Actually I think the stretch was the other way around. We already knew, from a long history, that the US intelligence establishment kills people. We only recently found out that they ALSO record all our phone calls. Just sayin...

Can you cite an example of the NSA killing someone?

I am not sure that is their department. They probably have to submit a form.

The NSA is recording phone calls? We wish. The NSA is capturing all (most?) data going in and out of America and frequently cooperates with other countries by exchanging data, thus having access to a large chunk of worldwide communications. It also cooperates closely with the CIA, to catch or kill 'terrorists'.

How is it a bit of a stretch to think an organization that powerful might kill someone?

How many really odd deaths of people who had information the NSA wouldn't like getting out before we consider the possibility?

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