NSA Declassified Map Declares Mexico and Canada Part of US "Homeland"

Sen. Dianne Feinstein referred to the US,
Canada and Mexico as “the Homeland” at an NSA Senate briefing on Wednesday,
presenting a map that united the three nations as one.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting held
to acquire details on the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance
programs, Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) made a geographic mistake in which she
united three large countries into one. The error went by without comment
during the briefing, but generated a significant response upon closer
examination of the map.

During the briefing, Feinstein, who serves as
chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was defending the NSA’s
data-collection programs when she pulled out a world map that identified
North America as the “Homeland”. The newly-declassified diagram showed terror
activity that the NSA had allegedly disrupted throughout the world.

But while Europe, Africa and Asia were
correctly identified by their continent’s name, countries of North America
were all encompassed as a new mega-nation.

“Now, the NSA has produced and declassified
a chart, which I’d like to make available to all members. It has the 54 total
(terror) events,” Feinstein said. “And it shows the events disrupted… 13 in
the Homeland, 25 in Europe, five in Africa and 11 in Asia.”

Although it might be easy to brush off the map
as nothing more than a mistake made by a staffer, a writer at The Atlantic
suggested that it might indicate a potential NSA attempt at tallying thwarted
attacks in North America to make anti-terrorism efforts in the US look more
successful.

“Normally, this would be written off as a
design goof, as one of the NSA’s (newly adept) graphics guys using a little
more light blue than he ought,” writes the Atlantic’s Philip Bump. “This
being the NSA, we’re not inclined to offer that benefit of the doubt. Is this
a way of blending in Canadian and Mexican terror activity disruptions (which,
we’ll remind you, is different from actual plots interrupted) to give a
larger sense of the NSA’s success at halting terrorism within our borders?”

Whatever the reason for the NSA’s creation of
“the Homeland”, the spy agency has already been condemned for failing to respect
the sovereignty of other nations through its extensive data-collection
efforts.

Some people have taken to Twitter to
sarcastically welcome Canada and Mexico to the United States.

“Earths newest continent. Welcome to the
Homeland, Mexico and Canada!” wrote Twitter user Kat Capps.

“Are Canadians losing their sovereignty?”
tweeted user Kevin King.

“We did it! Canada is now part of the American
‘homeland,’” tweeted Canada.com, a site for “spirited discussions on what’s
important to Canadians.”

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=283894