News:

And we're back!

Main Menu

Mass shooting in San Bernadino

Started by Syt, December 02, 2015, 02:59:42 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Admiral Yi

That web site has a bizarre set up.

grumbler

I guess I am curious how the investigators would know which Tashfeen Malik was posting what, even if she used her real name and it was unique in the world.  The story, as I see it, is that officials pressed for a change in policy, and a pilot program was set up to determine how useful and feasible such a change would be.  I guess we should be outraged that the DHS didn't change the policy for her alone, even if they didn't change it for anyone else, because then, maybe, "some of those San Bernardino people would still be alive."
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

grumbler

Anybody else think that Tashfeen in that picture (the one on abcnews.com) looks just like Brian's mother in Life of Brian?

The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Razgovory

I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Jaron

Winner of THE grumbler point.

MadImmortalMan

"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

viper37

Quote from: grumbler on December 14, 2015, 05:36:27 PM
I guess I am curious how the investigators would know which Tashfeen Malik was posting what, even if she used her real name and it was unique in the world.
I guess the moment she applies for citizenship or visa, they have her full name, birth certificate and picture.  From doing further investigation, they will know her current employment and her school.  With that, it should be relatively easy to perform a check on her social media pages.

The downside of course, is that it is entirely possible there would be more than one person with the same name originating from the same city or graduating from the same school accross various years and they could easily make mistakes and reject valid application.
I don't do meditation.  I drink alcohol to relax, like normal people.

If Microsoft Excel decided to stop working overnight, the world would practically end.

garbon

Quote from: viper37 on December 14, 2015, 06:14:17 PM
Quote from: grumbler on December 14, 2015, 05:36:27 PM
I guess I am curious how the investigators would know which Tashfeen Malik was posting what, even if she used her real name and it was unique in the world.
I guess the moment she applies for citizenship or visa, they have her full name, birth certificate and picture.  From doing further investigation, they will know her current employment and her school.  With that, it should be relatively easy to perform a check on her social media pages.

I can thing of many social media accounts that don't even have my full name, let alone all of that information.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

derspiess

Quote from: DGuller on December 14, 2015, 05:09:23 PM
I have no idea where the balance is between safety and intrusiveness.  But I know enough to know that there is one, and that saying "fucking fuck" instinctively isn't instrumental in judging whether you're on the right side.  It's especially hard to hit that balance right because single-celled organisms and political opponents of the administration will go "fucking fuck" when it goes wrong one way, but when it goes wrong the other way it will be unobservable.

You need to get laid.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

derspiess

Quote from: garbon on December 14, 2015, 06:17:52 PM
Quote from: viper37 on December 14, 2015, 06:14:17 PM
Quote from: grumbler on December 14, 2015, 05:36:27 PM
I guess I am curious how the investigators would know which Tashfeen Malik was posting what, even if she used her real name and it was unique in the world.
I guess the moment she applies for citizenship or visa, they have her full name, birth certificate and picture.  From doing further investigation, they will know her current employment and her school.  With that, it should be relatively easy to perform a check on her social media pages.

I can thing of many social media accounts that don't even have my full name, let alone all of that information.

I'd have to think the NSA or similar organization would be pretty good at cross-referencing people's real names with their twitter handles & whatnot.  Maybe using IP address?  Dunno.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

The Minsky Moment

Quote from: derspiess on December 14, 2015, 05:00:47 PM
Trying to watch my language these days, but what the fucking fuck??

http://abcnews.go.com/US/secret-us-policy-blocks-agents-social-media-visa/story?id=35749325

Seems like a lot of scrambling about to CYA.  Whatever protocols were in place at the time were presumably put in by Cohen so he is not exactly a disinterested observer.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

derspiess

I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone (yet).  Just absolutely blows my mind that social media activity was specifically excluded from the review process.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

Jacob

Quote from: derspiess on December 14, 2015, 07:02:20 PM
I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone (yet).  Just absolutely blows my mind that social media activity was specifically excluded from the review process.

Without having investigated it any further, I'd guess it's a bureaucratic thing as per grumbler... how do you make sure you have the right person, the right staff with the right training, the right procedures and so on? From what I understand of US bureaucracy, it generally is super check-box driven and big on verifiable, repeatable results from a procedure. It's not, I don't think, a matter of just letting random reviewers google names when they feel like it and running with the results. You need a clear, equitable plan for doing this sort of review in a way that meets all kind of program and legal standards.

That and how do you judge the content of someone's social media accurately as a process, assuming you ascertain the identity correctly? Is it a key-word based system? Is it a points based thing? Does someone posing with a gun increase their likelihood of being a security hazard in a way that makes sense? What if they post something in Arabic? What if something was sarcasm or an accidental repost?

I'm sure you can eventually design a program of social media review that achieves some policy objectives, but first you have to identify those policy objectives.

So yeah, I don't think it's as trivial as all that once you get down to the details.

DGuller

Quote from: derspiess on December 14, 2015, 06:30:35 PM
Quote from: DGuller on December 14, 2015, 05:09:23 PM
I have no idea where the balance is between safety and intrusiveness.  But I know enough to know that there is one, and that saying "fucking fuck" instinctively isn't instrumental in judging whether you're on the right side.  It's especially hard to hit that balance right because single-celled organisms and political opponents of the administration will go "fucking fuck" when it goes wrong one way, but when it goes wrong the other way it will be unobservable.

You need to get laid.
I may have been unnecessarily harsh, but you just tripped a couple of pet peeves all at the same time.  That attitude of immediately going "fucking fuck" before asking questions is why we go through rape scans at airports. 

I don't know if a policy of trawling through someone's social media is reasonable or not, but you weren't even thinking of asking that question.  And because of people with that mindset, no politician will go with reasonable security precautions when highly unreasonable precautions could've in retrospect prevented one terrorist act.  Even if the unreasonable precautions result in damage equivalent to hundreds of terrorist acts quietly, under the news radar.

The Minsky Moment

It's pretty standard in legal cases to check on social media where relevant (e.g.accident cases).  A privacy rationale doesn't make much sense in this context.  There may be other reasons already alluded to why social media wasn't being routinely checked but it does seem like an area one would expect would be checked out.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson