What the NSA Spying Scandal Means to You. Wyden Warns of Potential Public Backlash From Allowing Secret Law. Eric Holder Pressed On DEA, NSA. By John Shiffman WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Eight Democratic U.S. senators and congressmen have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to answer questions about a Reuters report that the National Security Agency supplies the Drug Enforcement Administration with intelligence information used to make non-terrorism cases against American citizens.
The August report revealed that a secretive DEA unit passes the NSA information to agents in the field, including those from the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and Homeland Security, with instructions to never disclose the original source, even in court. In most cases, the NSA tips involve drugs, money laundering and organized crime, not terrorism. Five Democrats in the Senate and three senior Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee submitted questions to Holder about the NSA-DEA relationship, joining two prominent Republicans who have expressed concerns.
Holder, an appointee of U.S. Also on HuffPost: There's a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says | Danger Room. You think you understand how the Patriot Act allows the government to spy on its citizens. Sen. Ron Wyden says it’s worse than you know. Congress is set to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the surveillance law as early as Thursday. Wyden (D-Oregon) says that powers they grant the government on their face, the government applies a far broader legal interpretation — an interpretation that the government has conveniently classified, so it cannot be publicly assessed or challenged. But one prominent Patriot-watcher asserts that the secret interpretation empowers the government to deploy “dragnets” for massive amounts of information on private citizens; the government portrays its data-collection efforts much differently. “We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden told Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office.
What exactly does Wyden mean by that? Site: Oregon.gov See Also: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations | World news. The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell. The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request.
From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said. Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. A matter of principle. Why The NSA's Secret Online Surveillance Should Scare You. The reaction to the National Security Agency (NSA)’s secret online spying program, PRISM, has been polarized between seething outrage and some variant on “what did you expect?” Some have gone so far as to say this program helps open the door to fascism, while others have downplayed it as in line with the way that we already let corporations get ahold of our personal data.
That second reaction illustrates precisely why this program is so troubling. The more we accept perpetual government and corporate surveillance as the norm, the more we change our actions and behavior to fit that expectation — subtly but inexorably corrupting the liberal ideal that each person should be free to live life as they choose without fear of anyone else interfering with it. Put differently, George Orwell isn’t who you should be reading to understand the dangers inherent to the NSA’s dragnet. You’d be better off turning to famous French social theorist Michel Foucault. Lawrence Lessig on Government Spying. BILL MOYERS: This week on Moyers & Company… LAWRENCE LESSIG: In a world of terrorism the government's going to be out there trying to protect us.
But let's make sure that they're using tools or technology that also protects the privacy side of what they should be protecting. ANNOUNCER: Funding is provided by: Carnegie Corporation of New York, celebrating 100 years of philanthropy, and committed to doing real and permanent good in the world. The Kohlberg Foundation. Independent Production Fund, with support from The Partridge Foundation, a John and Polly Guth Charitable Fund. The Clements Foundation. Park Foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. The Herb Alpert Foundation, supporting organizations whose mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society.
The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation. The John D. Anne Gumowitz. The Betsy And Jesse Fink Foundation. The HKH Foundation. Barbara G. BILL MOYERS: Welcome. Lawrence Lessig also warned us. Terror Bytes: Edward Snowden and the Architecture of Oppression. The Price of the Panopticon. We privacy watchers and civil libertarians think this complacent response misses a deeply worrying political shift of vast consequence. While President Obama has conveniently described the costs of what appears to be pervasive surveillance of Americans’ telecommunications connections as “modest encroachments on privacy,” what we are actually witnessing is a sea change in the kinds of things that the government can monitor in the lives of ordinary citizens.
The N.S.A. dragnet of “connection data” — who communicates with whom, where, how often and for how long — aims at finding patterns between calls or messages, and between parties with given characteristics, which correlate with increased odds of terrorist activity. These patterns can in turn cue authorities to focus attention on possible terrorists. The success rate in these operations is a matter of intense speculation, given the authorities’ closemouthed stance on the matter. The question, though, is what comes next? Pentagon bracing for public dissent over climate and energy shocks| Nafeez Ahmed | Environment. Top secret US National Security Agency (NSA) documents disclosed by the Guardian have shocked the world with revelations of a comprehensive US-based surveillance system with direct access to Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants. New Zealand court records suggest that data harvested by the NSA's Prism system has been fed into the Five Eyes intelligence alliance whose members also include the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
But why have Western security agencies developed such an unprecedented capacity to spy on their own domestic populations? Since the 2008 economic crash, security agencies have increasingly spied on political activists, especially environmental groups, on behalf of corporate interests. This activity is linked to the last decade of US defence planning, which has been increasingly concerned by the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis - or all three. Is Edward Snowden a Hero? A Debate with Journalist Chris Hedges & Law Scholar Geoffrey Stone. This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to a debate on Edward Snowden’s decision to leak a trove of secret documents outlining the NSA’s surveillance program.
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Snowden described why he risked his career to leak the documents. EDWARD SNOWDEN: I think that the public is owed an explanation of the motivations behind the people who make these disclosures that are outside of the democratic model. When you are subverting the power of government, that that’s a fundamentally dangerous thing to democracy. NERMEEN SHAIKH: Edward Snowden’s actions have elicited a range of reactions.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, Douglas Rushkoff wrote on CNN, quote, "Snowden is a hero because he realized [that] our very humanity was being compromised by the blind implementation of machines in the name of making us safe," unquote. For more, we host a debate on Edward Snowden. AMY GOODMAN: Chris Hedges, your response? REP. 6 Government Surveillance Programs Designed to Watch What You Do Online | Civil Liberties. President Eisenhower was right on point about the military-industrial complex, but he could not have predicted the emergence of the massive surveillance state -- combining the government and private sector -- that bolsters it. Sadly, neither President Obama nor his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, has the desire or moral courage to fight the growing power and influence of the Corporate Security State. We are witnessing the integration of spying on two levels, the government level (federal, state and local) and the corporate level (via telecom providers, web services and credit card companies).
If you are a user of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Craigslist or another popular site, the U.S. security state is watching you. An increasing number of federal agencies are employing sophisticated means to monitor Americans' use of social networking sites. Here is a brief summary of some of the other programs. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. These terms are organized into nine categories: REVEALED: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you. Department of Homeland Security forced to release list following freedom of information requestAgency insists it only looks for evidence of genuine threats to the U.S. and not for signs of general dissent By Daniel Miller Published: 09:32 GMT, 26 May 2012 | Updated: 17:46 GMT, 26 May 2012 Revealing: A list of keywords used by government analysts to scour the internet for evidence of threats to the U.S. was released under the Freedom of Information Act The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'. Scroll down for full list However the agency admitted that the language used was vague and in need of updating.
CIA-Sponsored Trolls Monitor Internet & Interact With Users to Discredit Factual Information. Department Of Homeland Security Tells Congress Why It's Monitoring Facebook, Twitter, Blogs. At a Congressional hearing this morning that veered into contentious arguments and cringe-worthy moments, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spilled the beans on their social media monitoring project. DHS Chief Privacy Office Mary Ellen Callahan and Director of Operations Coordination and Planning Richard Chavez appeared to be deliberately stonewalling Congress on the depth, ubiquity, goals, and technical capabilities of the agency's social media surveillance. At other times, they appeared to be themselves unsure about their own project's ultimate goals and uses. But one thing is for sure: If you're the first person to tweet about a news story, or if you're a community activist who makes public Facebook posts--DHS will have your personal information.
The hearing, which was held by the Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Intelligence headed by Rep. General Dynamics and the Department of Homeland Security are primarily engaging in keyword monitoring of social media. We Just Built Skynet in the Desert, Now What? | Endless Innovation. By Dominic Basulto Ten years after 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) is close to putting the finishing touches on what will be the single biggest spy center in the country. According to James Bamford of WIRED, this new one million-square foot spy complex in the Utah Desert will actually be capable of monitoring, intercepting and de-encrypting just about any message sent over any communication network in the country. It will be capable of keeping tabs on any civilian in the U.S. or any foreigner visiting the USA.
And it will all be hooked up to federal computers in Washington, giving it access to the records and databases of the most powerful government agencies in the country. If all this is starting to sound a lot like Skynet in the Terminator movies, that’s because, well, it is - minus the Schwarzenegger robots, of course. That’s quite an electricity bill for a "data center. " Facts on #CISPA. With the body of SOPA still warm in the grave, Congress is making another run at a cyber-bill -- and the battle over it is starting to look a little familiar. This one's not about piracy. Known as CISPA (the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) the bill would, among other things, allow private companies -- internet service providers and others -- to turn over information about users to law enforcement and security agencies without a court order. It has bipartisan support (there are 82 Republican co-sponsors and 25 Democratic ones, unusual these days) and a lot of backing from big tech companies.
But it has infuriated advocates who claim it lacks protections for individual privacy. A vote in the House is expected next week, which has privacy advocates scrambling -- this week a coalition launched a Twitter campaign similar to the one that brought the SOPA bill to the public's attention. You can read our profile of the bill (H.R. 3523) here. Photo courtesy of Rep. The End of Privacy? Who’s Watching the N.S.A. Watchers? ACLU Blasts Supreme Court Rejection of Challenge to Warrantless Spying Without Proof of Surveillance.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. NERMEEN SHAIKH: A legal effort to block the government’s warrantless domestic surveillance program has failed after the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday a group of journalists, lawyers and human rights groups cannot challenge the law. In what’s been described as a Kafkaesque decision, the five-four conservative majority agreed with the Obama administration by concluding the plaintiffs lacked, quote, "standing" or jurisdiction to proceed, since they could not prove they had been targets of the secretive surveillance program. The American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of human rights groups and journalists filed the lawsuit in 2008 hours after President Bush signed amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which gave the National Security Agency almost unchecked power to monitor international phone calls and emails of Americans.
Welcome to Democracy Now! JAMEEL JAFFER: Thank you. JAMEEL JAFFER: Sure. Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data Bind. The judges disagreed. That left Yahoo two choices: Hand over the data or break the law. So Yahoo became part of the ’s secret Internet surveillance program, Prism, according to leaked N.S.A. documents, as did seven other Internet companies.
Like almost all the actions of the secret court, which operates under the , the details of its disagreement with Yahoo were never made public beyond a heavily redacted court order, one of the few public documents ever to emerge from the court. The name of the company had not been revealed until now. Yahoo’s involvement was confirmed by two people with knowledge of the proceedings. But the decision has had lasting repercussions for the dozens of companies that store troves of their users’ personal information and receive these national security requests — it puts them on notice that they need not even try to test their legality. “The tech companies try to pick their battles,” said Stephen I. But Mr. The company went to court. NSA Bombshell Shocks Former Spooks: "Why in The World Would We Burn Google?" Are They Allowed to Do That? A Breakdown of Selected Government Surveillance Programs.
FBI Admits That Obeying The Constitution Just Takes Too Much Time. German Television does first Edward Snowden Interview (ENGLISH) California Can Cripple the NSA By Passing This One Law. Stop Watching Us: The Video.