NSA Panel Member Recommends Increased Data Collection. Michael Morell, the former acting director of the CIA and a member of President Obama's task force on surveillance, said in an interview on Sunday that a controversial telephone data-collection program conducted by the National Security Agency should be expanded to include emails. He also said the program, far from being unnecessary, could prevent the next 9/11. Morell, seeking to correct any misperception that the presidential panel had called for a radical curtailment of NSA programs, said he is in favor of restarting a program the NSA discontinued in 2011 that involved the collection of "metadata" for Internet communications.
That program gets only a brief mention in a footnote on page 97 of the task-force report, "Liberty and Security in A Changing World. " "I would argue actually that the email data is probably more valuable than the telephony data," Morell told National Journal in a telephone interview. Time for limits on the ever-expanding powers of NSA cyber spies. For 12 years, America’s national security apparatus has grown like kudzu on steroids, but, finally, President Obama may soon start trimming it back to preserve at least a small space for personal privacy in the United States.
A panel of five independent experts appointed by the president has come up with 46 recommendations that would set limits on the broad authority of the National Security Agency to engage in cyber spying. The panel is suggesting enhanced oversight and new checks on such things as the NSA’s spy operations targeting foreign leaders and cyber attacks abroad. The item on the panel’s list that has gotten the most attention is the recommendation to prohibit the NSA from hoarding data on every phone call placed by U.S. citizens. Instead, the information would stay with the telecommunications companies and could only be accessed by the government for a specific investigation authorized by a court order.
There are plenty of bad guys. Why NSA will have the capacity for all that data it's collecting. Why NSA will have the capacity for all that data it's collecting The National Security Agency’s data gathering operations are generating a lot of debate among security and privacy proponents, but one thing is sure: all that data will have some place to go, and NSA will have the capacity for it. NSA is a few months away from beginning operations at a massive $1.2 billion code-breaking and data analysis data center in Utah, and it recently broke ground on another new center in Maryland. The agency’s Utah Data Center at the National Guard’s Camp Williams 26 miles south of Salt Lake City is a 1 million square-foot-plus complex, where high-performance computers alone will fill 100,000 square feet, NPR reported.
And the center’s large footprint won’t just be physical. Estimates of its storage capacity put it in the zettabyte range; a former NSA technical director told NPR put the number at 5 zettabytes. NSA $3.2 Billion “Site M” Expansion Planning Documents Reveal Cyberwar Command Center. An overview of the NSA's facilities at Fort Meade. Site M, as well as Sites F and G, are located on the golf courses at the right side of the image. The NSA's headquarters is located at the far left. Photo Bing Maps. Public Intelligence In July 2010, the NSA revealed that it was expanding into a 227-acre parcel of land at Fort Meade called “Site M”, constructing a series of buildings that could cost as much as $5.2 billion. This expansion would displace two golf courses currently occupying the land and provide the NSA, which already occupies 630 acres at Fort Meade, with more space to build “an operational complex and to construct and operate consolidated facilities to meet the National Security Agency’s (NSA) continually evolving requirements and for Intelligence Community use”.
The project has been shrouded in secrecy throughout its existence and there are only a few references to “Site M” in DoD budget planning documents. Site M Key Facts Overview of Building Specifications Share this: Why The 2,776 NSA Violations Are No Big Deal. By Ron Paul: Thanks to more documents leaked by Edward Snowden, this time to the Washington Post, we learned last week that a secret May 2012 internal audit by the NSA revealed 2,776 incidents of “unauthorized” collection of information on American citizens over the previous 12 months. They are routinely breaking their own rules and covering it up. The Post article quotes an NSA spokesman assuring the paper that the NSA attempts to identify such problems “at the earliest possible moment.” But what happened to all those communications intercepted improperly in the meantime?
The answer is, they were logged and stored anyway. We also learned that the NSA routinely intercepts information from Americans while actually targeting foreigners, and that this is not even considered a violation. The Post article quotes an NSA official explaining that the thousands of unauthorized communications intercepts yearly are relatively insignificant. NSA Spying FAQ. FAQ on NSA Spying (General Questions) What is the NSA domestic spying program? In October 2001, President Bush issued a secret presidential order authorizing the NSA to conduct a range of surveillance activities inside of the United States without statutory authorization or court approval, including electronic surveillance of Americans’ telephone and Internet communications.
This program of surveillance continues through today, although the legal justifications have changed over time, and works with the major telecommunications and Internet companies. Shortly after the initial revelations, a whistleblower named Mark Klein came forward with evidence describing the specific AT&T facilities, including one on Folsom Street in San Francisco, where the handoff of customer communications is occurring. Click here for a complete overview of the NSA Domestic Spying program. What do the cases claim about the interception of domestic communications of millions of Americans? The Jewel v. No. No. No. Ideals. Is the NSA's Bulk Telephony Metadata Program Constitutional? | Geoffrey R. Stone. In my last three posts, I described the NSA's bulk telephony meta-data program, examined its pros and cons, and explained the recommendations of the President's Review Group. In this post, I consider the constitutionality of the bulk telephony meta-data program, as it currently exists.
This issue has garnered considerable attention in recent weeks, as two federal judges have reached diametrically opposed conclusions on the question. It turns out to be tricky. Get ready for a quick trip through the intricacies of the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment provides: "The right of the people to be secure in their papers, houses, persons, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.
" The central question posed by the bulk telephony meta-data program is this: Is the government's collection of an individual's telephone call records from the individual's telephone service provider a "search" of that individual within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment? What James Madison teaches us about NSA surveillance. A federal district judge ruled on Monday that the National Security Agency program tracking all Americans’ phone calls is “probably unconstitutional.” In Klayman v. Obama, Judge Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that “such a program infringes on ‘the degree of privacy’ that the Founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.” Appealing to the nation’s founding ideals, he continues, “the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware ‘the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,’ would be aghast.”
While Judge Leon spends mere sentences on this history, it is a crucial point that directly impacts pending cases challenging NSA surveillance programs. The manner in which our nation confronts the very real dangers we face will determine Americans’ future liberties How many more violations have there been of which we do not yet know? Legislation. Senate Intelligence Committee Approves FISA Improvements Act - Press Releases - News Room - United States Senator Dianne Feinstein. Washington—The Senate Intelligence Committee today approved the FISA Improvements Act by a vote of 11-4. The bipartisan legislation increases privacy protections and public transparency of the National Security Agency call-records program in several ways, while preserving the operational effectiveness and flexibility of this vital national security program.
The legislation: The bill also increases privacy protections and oversight of other intelligence activities: Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said: “The NSA call-records program is legal and subject to extensive congressional and judicial oversight, and I believe it contributes to our national security. But more can and should be done to increase transparency and build public support for privacy protections in place. “Today the committee passed a bipartisan bill to do just that. The threats we face—from terrorism, proliferation and cyber attack, among others—are real, and they will continue. US Spy Court: NSA to Keep Collecting Phone Records. FISA Court Reauthorizes NSA Phone Metadata Collection. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday reauthorized the National Security Agency's phone surveillance program, the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement. The reauthorization order was not immediately available, but the administration is undertaking a declassification review, officials said.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper pointed out that several federal judges have upheld the so-called metadata collection program. Separately, government lawyers on Friday asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to overturn the one recent ruling that found the surveillance program unconstitutional. Below, a statement on the FISA decision: On several prior occasions, the Director of National Intelligence has declassified information about the telephony metadata collection program under the “business records” provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 50 U.S.C.
Government Asks Appeals Court To Overturn NSA Surveillance Ruling. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s New NSA Bill Will Codify and Extend Mass Surveillance of Americans. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of the NSA’s biggest defenders, released what she calls an NSA “reform” bill today. Don’t be fooled: the bill codifies some of the NSA’s worst practices, would be a huge setback for everyone’s privacy, and it would permanently entrench the NSA’s collection of every phone record held by U.S. telecoms. We urge members of Congress to oppose it. We learned for the first time in June that the NSA secretly twisted and re-interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act six years ago to allow them to vacuum up every phone record in America—continuing an unconstitutional program that began in 2001.
The new leaks about this mass surveillance program four months ago have led to a sea change in how Americans view privacy, and poll after poll has shown the public wants it to stop. But instead of listening to her constituents, Sen. Make no mistake: this is not an NSA reform bill at all. S.1037 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act of 2013.
Bill Tracker: This bill has the status Introduced Here are the steps for Status of Legislation: IntroducedArray ( [0] => Array ( [actionDate] => 05-23-13 [displayText] => oracle.sql.NCLOB@c953dbe [description] => Introduced [externalActionCode] => 10000 ) ) Passed SenatePassed HouseTo PresidentBecame Law Summary: S.1037 — 113th Congress (2013-2014) Shown Here:Introduced in Senate (05/23/2013) Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act of 2013 - Prohibits the federal government or a state or local government from obtaining or seeking to obtain information relating to an individual or group of individuals held by a third party in a system of records, except as authorized by this Act. New California Legislation Seeks to Thwart NSA Spying. (Photo: EFF Photos / Flickr)LOS ANGELES - On January 7, 2014, two state senators introduced legislation in California that would block some of the practical effects of mass data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA). Sen.
Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, and Sen. Joel Anderson, a San Diego Republican, introduced the Fourth Amendment Protection Act to prohibit any state support of the NSA. "State-funded public resources should not be going toward aiding the NSA or any other federal agency from indiscriminate spying on its own citizens and gathering electronic or metadata that violates the Fourth Amendment," Lieu said in a press release.
Practically speaking, the bill addresses four areas where the NSA relies on state assistance to continue its programs. It would ban state and local agencies from providing any material support to the NSA within their jurisdictions. The bill would block public universities from serving as NSA research facilities or recruiting grounds. 4th Amendment Protection Act. The following is model legislation for your state to resist the unconstitutional NSA programs which violate the 4th Amendment billions of times each week. Learn about the strategy behind this bill and its constitutional foundation HERE. Plus, get action items for what you can do in your state. .pdf version HERE AN ACT, which shall be known and may be cited as the “4th Amendment Protection Act.”
SECTION 1. A. SECTION 2. A. . (1) Provide material support, participation or assistance in any form, with any federal agency which claims the power, or with any federal law, rule, regulation, order which purports to authorize, the collection of electronic data or metadata of any person(s) pursuant to any action not based on a warrant that particularly describes the person(s), place(s) and thing(s) to be searched or seized. SECTION 3. A. B. C. SECTION 4.
The provisions of this act are severable. SECTION 5. This act takes effect immediately upon approval by the Governor, the public safety requiring it. Americans angered by NSA spying take protest to Utah Data Centre, aka Bumblehive. Zoom BLUFFDALE, UTAH—Lorina Potter, 34-year-old IT specialist, mother of four, gun owner, Republican, self-described conspiracy theorist and Mormon, eases her white minivan off a desert stretch of highway outside the Utah Data Center, a secretive National Security Agency facility almost as big as the town where it is located. She parks behind Susan Beretta’s car, which died as soon as she turned off the ignition and now needs a boost. A couple of cars parked on the asphalt outside such a sensitive facility would presumably prompt a security alert, at the very least a car with flashing lights and a stern “move along, ladies.” But these women actually own this three-kilometre strip of road. Potter and Beretta are members of the Utah chapter of Restore the Fourth, a country-wide movement opposed to the NSA’s electronic omnipresence, as revealed through leaks from Edward J.
The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Potter bears a slight resemblance to actress Reese Witherspoon.