Things Aren’t Always What They Seem

A few interesting news analysis pieces are making the point that what you hear in the news is not always what it appears to be:

• Syria. To many, the news on Syria is Obama warmongering and posturing, and indicating he will go around Congress. But is it? The Huffington Post opines that what Obama did was something that both the left and the right missed — he restored the tradition of asking Congress before the country embarked on a war. This is a tradition that had gone away since the Korean War, and had led to the Imperial Presidency. Further, there are those now that are thinking that Obama did much more: He really never planned to attack, but planned to use the threat of the attack and the delay from Congress to push Syria into a peaceful solution. We won’t know for a while whether these suppositions are true, but they are an interesting way of looking at things.
• Encryption. Everywhere you are reading that the NSA broke encryption on the Internet. But did they really? Most security specialists will indicate that the math behind encryption is still sound, and hasn’t been broken. So what did NSA do? They just took advantage of all the different ways to go around encryption, from weak operating systems, to back doors, to keys inadequately protected. In other words, they went after the weakest link. Now consider this: The skills of the NSA are likely not just limited to the NSA — they aren’t a magic agency with all the brains, despite what people think. If they can do it… others can possibly go around as well.

 

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