1,000+ US Spies Are Protecting Rio Olympics, Says Report (nbcnews.com) 105
An anonymous reader writes from a report via NBC News: U.S. intelligence agencies have assigned more than 1,000 spies to security at the Rio 2016 Summer Games. NBC News reports: "The classified report outlines an operation that encompasses all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, including those of the armed services, and involves human intelligence, spy satellites, electronic eavesdropping, and cyber and social media monitoring. Areas of cooperation include vetting 10,000-plus athletes and 35,000-plus security and police personnel and others; monitoring terrorists' social media accounts; and offering U.S. help in securing computer networks, the review shows. 'U.S. intelligence agencies are working closely with Brazilian intelligence officials to support their efforts to identify and disrupt potential threats to the Olympic Games in Rio,' said Richard Kolko, a spokesman for National Intelligence Director James Clapper."
Be aware. We're everywhere. (Score:1)
Even watching this comment section. Our diligence knows no bounds.
Fuck Security (Score:5, Insightful)
How about you hire 36,000 people to clean up the city and the water?
Re: (Score:2)
Would even benefit the sportsmen. Not just the swimmers and those typically in contact with water. https://twitter.com/ArsalaiH/s... [twitter.com]
Re: (Score:1)
How about we stop this abortion of a "sporting" event that wrecks the finances of cities which host it.
Millions spent for two weeks of watching amateurs compete in events that almost no one will remember a month later.
Re:Fuck Security (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I've heard this before and it sounds like a wonderful idea. Plus, that's the traditional way to have the olympics, anyway! Everybody goes to Greece!
Re: Fuck Security (Score:1)
Is that really a good deal for Greece? Even when venues aren't being used, they need to be maintained. When sports are added to the Olympics, it costs money to build new venues. I'm not sure Greece is in a good position to do that. It helps if other events can be hosted there or the public can use the venues.
While many people believed that Athens was the right place to host the first modern Olympics, other cities were considered, including London. The Olympics were often hosted to coincide with internationa
Re: (Score:2)
A distributed Olympics might work better. Have venues all around the world, each hosting one class of sport every four years. No more need for bidding or for holding winter and summer Games at different times.
Imagine pool sports in Los Angeles, equestrian events in Lexington, golf in Scotland, skiing at Bariloche, cycling in France, marine sports in Vancouver, and track in Kenya - all at the same time.
Re: (Score:2)
So, why do you suppose those cities actually wanted the events? It wasn't forced upon them.
Re: (Score:2)
Might want to distinguish between "City Officials" and "City Inhabitants" there....
Re: (Score:2)
Might want to consider that more than half of the cities running the Olympics have turned a profit. Sure there are some notable failures...doesn't make it so for all of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3)
How about you hire 36,000 people to clean up the city and the water?
Why not do both? Hey all, you cops--when there aren't any criminals to bust, how about you pick up some litter, put it in a trashcan? Maybe one of you knows how to drive a garbage truck? Perhaps haul away some of those piles of trash!
It doesn't have to be police OR garbage collection, dammit--just have the same people do both jobs!
Re: (Score:1)
Clean water isn't as sexy as spies and blowing shit up.
Re: (Score:1)
Wait, who is "protecting" is back home with all these goons at some corporate event? Why are my tax dollars going to this shit?
Re: (Score:2)
How many US citizens are attending. Don't they deserve some protection?
Suppose we didn't and there was an attack, do you believe we wouldn't be sending people in to help? A couple of weeks of prevention is much less expensive than the alternative.
Re: (Score:1)
See, a 1000 spies is going to consist of some regular joe spies, manager spies, supervisor and junor spies. So while the intern spies are probably doing most the work the supervisors stand around looking useless or attend pointless meetings. See, these middle managers are all still doing important spy work by distracting people from the interns while the junoirs tie up the other junior spy agents working for other counties.
Replicate this with a cleanup crew. You'll get maybe four or five guys with shov
Re: (Score:2)
Smarter use of resources: rubber boats and nets (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have gone to places where the State Department reached out to me and told me that I was "a fucking idiot.
Most likely because you didn't pay attention to the warnings they post about the places you went to. If you ignore them, what do you expect them to do for you?
Re: (Score:2)
So, how many incidents/lives is $12M worth? Even making the announcement that this is going on is a good preventive measure.
Re: (Score:2)
"Is Brazil the target of industrial espionage?" (17 October 2013)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-... [bbc.com]
US allies Mexico, Chile and Brazil seek spying answers (1 July 2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl... [bbc.co.uk]
Too bad they can't eliminate the real threats. (Score:1)
Unsafe living quarters
Polluted water
Disease
Sorry, only fucking IDIOTS went to Rio this year.
Re: (Score:2)
I can go to nearly any major U.S. city and find those as well. Maybe not to the degree we're seeing in Rio, but let's see how many people come out sick before we cast stones from our glass house.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/24... [cnbc.com]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm... [nih.gov]
Housing is an important determinant of health, and substandard housing is a major public health issue.1 Each year in the United States, 13.5 million nonfatal injuries occur in and around the home,2 2900 people die in house fires,3 and 2 million peopl
Re: (Score:2)
Fuck, they've got CRE down in the water there! Basically it's a bacteria that's resistant to antibiotics that are generally considered "drugs of last resort".
And while CRE may not kill you itself, if you're a CRE carrier, and something else compromises your immune system, you're in SEVERELY deep shit!
Start the betting pools (Score:2)
By the end of the Olympics, how many of those spies will have been...
1) mugged
2) murdered
3) raped
4) infected with Zika
5) infected with an STI/STD
6) infected with something that comes from fecal matter
Brazilian revolt (Score:2, Insightful)
20 billion invested with only 4-4.5 billion return, the Brazilian people should get rid of the government stooges who okayed this olympic boondoggle. Oh wait, that's already happening. What a mess.
Re: (Score:2)
"vetting 10,000-plus athletes" (Score:2)
I wonder how many of them got denied credentials to participate in the olympics as a result of this vetting. Which is not necessarily bad, except whenever someone wins at any of the competitions, they don't get to say they're the best in the world anymore, they get to say they're the best best out of a hand picked group that was selected for reasons that may or may not be related to their athletic abilities.
And yet there's already been a shootout (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The 2016 Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin today, but for some it has already began with a bang.
Good grief. That's rather bad taste considering six people died.
Highly classified (Score:2)
Re: Highly classified (Score:1)
It was in hillarys email.
Re: (Score:2)
Because no operation that big doesn't leak out. And, it was likely leaked on purpose.
Agents aren't spies. (Score:1)
"Spying" general indicates undercover work. It would be ridiculous to have 1,000 undercover agents for the Rio games. They might be monitoring communication networks, but that can be done from lots of places.
Re: (Score:2)
BZZZZT! 52% of viewers are between ages 25-54.
http://hub.coxmedia.com/h/i/21... [coxmedia.com]
Re: (Score:3)
You cared enough to whine about it.
Brazil acceptance (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
They are there to protect Americans. Either from terrorism or street crime.
What BS (Score:1)
What a load of BS. We have fewer than 1000 "athletes" there. So that would be more than one protector per athlete. If we do that then everyone who leaves the country should get a government provided personal bodyguard, more than one when going to hostile nations. The Olympic committee is making a fortune on the games (with little or no accountability where that money goes), they should be providing any security that the host nation can't or won't (or provide security FROM the host nation in some cases).
Re: (Score:2)
We have fewer than 1000 "athletes" there.
554 actually. And I'm sure the went all by themselves.
OOPS....
Original estimates had about 200,000 Americans expected to attend the Rio Games, but a senior U.S. official said that number is now closer to 100,000
If the US has 1000 Spies in Brazil, (Score:1)
Then who's left here in the US to spy on us?
WTF... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
To put it in context, most of these agencies are sub-components of a larger federal agency. The DoD has 9 intelligence agencies, 5 of which are service-specific intelligence arms. While there is some overlap, each of the 17 agencies has a different focus area. You also have the question of Title 50 vs Title 10 authorities which governs what civilian and what military intelligence organizations can do.
Re: (Score:2)
Independent agencies
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
United States Department of Defense
- Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
- National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
- Twenty-Fifth Air Force (25 AF)
- Army Military Intelligence (MI)
- Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA)
- Office of Naval
You learn something new every day (Score:2)
All this time, I thought "Brazilian Cluster-fsck" was just an expression.
Re: (Score:2)
Really? How many cheating scandals have there been in the Olympics. I can think of several w/o even doing a search.
Re: (Score:2)
You have to be Donald.