Democratic Underground censored this article - they don't want the sunlight in.
You can read the replies to it herehttp://www.democraticunderground.com/10023301982
They are VERY effective at building a surveillance dossier on EVERY American to suppress any future political dissent - see Stasi.
The terrorists and Islamic Extremists have known for many years that the US is monitoring and collecting all phone traffic.
In places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen the Islamists have switched to using walkie-talkies - NOT mobile phones.
If for any reason they do have to make a phone call about operations, like Bin Laden they will use a courier to make the call at least 100 miles away from their base of operations and be careful to avoid the code words that might alert the NSA.
Lists of code words the NSA monitors for, are widely available on the net.
Similarly the Islamic Extremists in America or Europe use anonymous Pay as You Go phones and change them every 2 or 3 months, to avoid detection and any history being collected by the NSA.
All of the Islamists know that all regular internet communications are being monitored - so they don't use them if they don't want the NSA to find out.
They use specialist sites that are not indexed by Google etc.
ALL of the data collection and phone monitoring performed by the NSA is totally ineffective against terrorists and Islamic Extremists. They already knew about the Mass Surveillance programs - at least from 2005/2006. See 1
The only thing the NSA Mass Surveillance programs are effective for is to build a surveillance dossier on all LAW ABIDING citizens.
The NSA are collecting as much data on everyone as possible.
The purpose of which is for future blackmail and intimidation on political dissidents or people the government wants to control. See 2
The NSA's Mass Surveillance programs are an existential threat to democracy in America.
See 3
Together with the other abuses of civil rights all the infrastructure is now in place for an authoritarian Fascist Police State in America.
Whether you think this President or some future President will abuse these powers is immaterial.
See 4.
All law abiding citizens are also being monitored in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well - so it's a threat to democracy in those countries too.
These five countries all share the spy data collected with each other, to get around any privacy rules on spying on their own citizens.
The program is called Five Eyes. See 5
Germany and France are also spying on their own law abiding citizens, but to a lesser extent.
NSA scandal - the Agency is out of control | James Bamford
N.B. Organized criminals also know about all the Mass Surveillance programs too and will take steps to avoid them, so the authorities are not going to pick up anything useful on them either, by using dragnet surveillance programs.
John Roberts is the unaccountable chief justice of the surveillance state.
He appoints all of the FISA judges with no oversight from Congress - see 6
Everything You Wanted to Know about NSA Spying … But Were Afraid to Ask
Spying: The Big Picture
If you’ve been too busy to keep up with the spying scandal, here’s an overview:
The government is spying on virtually everything we do
The government’s mass spying doesn’t keep us safe
NSA spying did not prevent a terror attack on Wall Street
There is no meaningful oversight of the spying programs by either Congress or the courts
We can keep everyone safe without violating the Constitution … more cheaply and efficiently than the current system
The top counter-terrorism Czar under Clinton and Bush says that revealing NSA spying programs does not harm national security
Whistleblowers on illegal spying have no “legal” way to get the information out
A high-level intelligence source says “we hack everyone everywhere”
Some people make a lot of money off of mass spying
Spying started before 9/11 … and may have stemmed from an emergency program only meant to be activated in the case of a nuclear war
Governments and big corporations are doing everything they can to destroy anonymity
Mass spying creates an easy mark for hackers
Polls show that the public doesn’t believe the NSA
Surveillance can be used to frame you if someone in government happens to take a dislike to you
An NSA whistleblower says that the NSA is spying on – and blackmailing – top government officials and military officers (and see this)
Read more at :-
Appendices
1. U.S. Surveillance Is NOT Aimed at Terrorists | Bloomberg
The debate over the U.S. government’s monitoring of digital communications suggests that Americans are willing to allow it as long as it is genuinely targeted at terrorists. What they fail to realize is that the surveillance systems are best suited for gathering information on law-abiding citizens. (emphasis mine)
People concerned with online privacy tend to calm down when told that the government can record their calls or read their e-mail only under special circumstances and with proper court orders. The assumption is that they have nothing to worry about unless they are terrorists or correspond with the wrong people.
The infrastructure set up by the National Security Agency, however, may only be good for gathering information on the stupidest, lowest-ranking of terrorists. The Prism surveillance program focuses on access to the servers of America’s largest Internet companies, which support such popular services as Skype, Gmail and iCloud. These are not the services that truly dangerous elements typically use.
......
In a January 2012 report titled “Jihadism on the Web: A Breeding Ground for Jihad in the Modern Age,” the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service drew a convincing picture of an Islamist Web underground centered around “core forums.” These websites are part of the Deep Web, or Undernet, the multitude of online resources not indexed by commonly used search engines.
Read more at :-
2. The dirty little secret about NSA Mass Surveillance - it's not about counter terror
Edward Snowden presents hard evidence of the extent and scope of the NSA's Mass Surveillance.
It is reported in the Guardian on June 6th.
Little that is new is revealed by Snowden in this and subsequent articles, except that the NSA's mass internet data collection program is called Prism.
Every potential terrorist and just about every foreign government knew that the NSA was spying on EVERY American and millions more around the world.
Lots of other people knew too.
Glenn Greenwald's first and subsequent articles report that the NSA is indiscriminately collecting phone call data and massive amounts of internet activity on EVERY American.
The only thing that is new is that the world (and Congress) sits up and takes notice.
The scandal causes major embarrassment to members of the US government.
Predictably the US government and the US media try to attack the messenger not the message.
They fail and the scandal grows as more and more people sit up and take notice.
Previous NSA whistle blowers, William Binney, Thomas Drake and J Kirk Wiebe are completely vindicated. They confirm what Snowden is saying.
James Clapper and Dianne Feinstein are caught lying big time.
Clapper's perjury under oath to Congress carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in jail.
See 7.
The NSA Director, General Keith Alexander, is caught lying under oath to Congress 14 times by Hank Johnson.
Each count of perjury carries a maximum sentence of 5 years - 70 years in total. See 8
James Bamford's previous article on the NSA's massive data center, just completed in Utah, is used by Hank Johnson as evidence.
The reason the Utah data center is so massive and has the capacity to store the entire contents of the internet thousands of times over is obvious.
It is required to store massive amounts of surveillance data on EVERY American and millions more around the world.
Amy Goodman's article, from 2012, that the NSA has gone rogue is completely vindicated.
The NSA's justification for their Mass Surveillance activities are completely discredited.
They can cite ZERO examples where a terror plot could not of been foiled without the Patriot Act by obtaining a warrant after finding probable cause.
And they do not need to carry out mass surveillance in order to thwart terrorist plots.
The Dirty Little Secret About Mass Surveillance: It Doesn’t Keep Us Safe
The Zazi New York subway case is completely discredited by Obama himself
It could easily have been thwarted after obtaining a WARRANT after finding PROBABLE CAUSE.
No, NSA Spying Did NOT Prevent a Terror Attack on Wall Street
We Have the Technological Ability to Keep Americans Safe WITHOUT Spying On Everyone
Alan Grayson clearly spells out the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs to the American people and to Congress.
He is determined to put a stop to it.
It is revealed that the NSA is getting around the "limitations" on spying on millions of Americans via the Five Eyes program with the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
They spy on each other's citizens and swap data. See 5
The NSA is caught telling 11 lies and 1 truth at a Congressional "hearing" on 18th June. See 9.
Obama is lying when he says that the CONTENTS of phone calls are not being collected - they are. See 10.
It is revealed that GCHQ is tapping into the world's major fiber optic cables to bulk collect internet and phone data on just about everone in the world.
They then pass this information on for the NSA to store at their facility in Utah.
People are very slowly starting to wake up as to the true purpose and implications of the NSA Mass Surveillance programs.
GCHQ revelations: mastery of the internet will mean mastery of everyone | Guardian
The NSA's Mass Surveillance programs are NOT counter terrorism measures for which they are extremely ineffective.
See Boston which was a massive intelligence failure and should of been stopped. See 11
The true purpose of the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs are to blackmail and intimidate in order to suppress political dissent and to control those in government or political rivals.
When someone upsets the government in some way they will become a "a person of interest", their existing surveillance file (they have one on everyone) will be looked up to see what the NSA has on them.
The scope of the NSA's data collection :-
ALL phone records, including Meta data giving location.
The contents of ALL phone calls
ALL Emails
ALL texts
ALL voicemails
ALL SKYPE conversations
Large amounts of social media activity
ALL internet searches
ALL internet sites visited
Large amounts of electronic financial transactions - bank accounts and purchases etc.
Some of the political enemies, dissidents or rivals that are to be targeted as "persons of interest"
Occupy protesters
Leading climate change protesters
Keystone pipeline protesters
Anti Monsanto organizers
Tea Party activists
Gun rights activists
Troublesome journalists (there are not many of those these days, the vast majority of mainstream journalists are lapdogs for the Establishment)
National politicians - members of Congress
Federal judges
State politicians
Leaders of State Parties
Critics of the NSA
Vocal critics of government policies
Top military personnel
Top government officials
Business people
Lawyers
Civil rights activists
etc. etc.
There are now something like 800,000 people on government watch lists.
Probably at least half of them have nothing whatsoever to do with Islamic Extremism or Terrorism.
They are people the government DOESN'T LIKE and wants to CONTROL.
Bombshell: Former. Intelligence Agent confirms that the NSA is spying on a broad range of top politicians and officials, including Obama himself in 2006 and that Obama is Lying.
Clear Evidence That Corporate America Wants the Government to Treat Protesters as 'Terrorists' | Alternet
The government is LYING to you on a GRAND SCALE. See 12
The real threat from the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs - the existential threat to democracy itself in America
Appendices
Over one million people have already signed the international petition to grant Snowden immunity from prosecution and to stop Prism immediately.
The White House petition to "Pardon Edward Snowden" has now reached it's target of 100,000 in order to force (a dismissive) response from Obama.
Even more signatories would be helpful to make a stronger case.
Over 500,000 people have signed EFF's petition to "Stop Watching Us"
William Binney's previous revelations about the NSA's mass data collection programs. See 13
AP's article on the history and extent of the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs
National Security Agency discloses in secret Capitol Hill briefing that thousands of analysts can listen to domestic phone calls. That authorization appears to extend to e-mail and text messages too.
3. The existential threat to American Democracy from the massive NSA spying capabilities
The NSA Mass Surveillance programs are actually even more of a FIRST amendment issue than even the 4th - the right to privacy.
Journalists are already worried about how much the NSA is spying on them and being careful what they write and what they talk about over the phone.
The swapping of thoughts, ideas and stories by journalists is healthy, the suppression of it is not.
Political activists such as Occupy, Climate Change and Keystone are worried about the same thing.
Vocal supporters of the Bill of Rights, Tea Party activists and gun rights organizers will also be targets.
One of the fundamental rights in any democracy is the right to peaceful protest.
It keeps the government in check.
The main purpose of the NSA Mass Surveillance programs is to blackmail and intimidate any form of dissent against the government.
Democracies only survive if there is free information, a free press and people are comfortable in speaking out or protesting.
America now ranks number 32 for press freedoms
Our democracy is existentially threatened by these massive surveillance programs.
The risk of abuse now or in the near future are too great.
The time to speak out is NOW.
Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society.
Tim Berners Lee
The National Security Agency's] capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.
Senator Frank Church, 1975
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Benjamin Franklin
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
UN Declaration on Human Rights
Democracy requires an informed citizenry in order to function properly, and transparency and accountability are essential parts of that. That means knowing what our government is doing to us, in our name.
Bruce Schneier
The extent of the mass data collection on EVERY American
ALL phone records, including Meta data giving location.
The contents of ALL phone calls
ALL Emails
ALL texts
ALL voicemails
ALL SKYPE conversations
Large amounts of social media activity
ALL internet searches
ALL internet sites visited
Large amounts of electronic financial transactions - bank accounts and purchases etc.
Some of the political enemies, dissidents or rivals that are to be targeted
Occupy protesters
Leading climate change protesters
Tea Party activists
Gun rights activists
Troublesome journalists (there are not many of those these days, the vast majority of mainstream journalists are lapdogs for the Establishment)
National politicians - members of Congress
Federal judges
State politicians
Leaders of State Parties
Critics of the NSA
Vocal critics of government policies
High ranking government officials
Can you imagine how many US politicians, judges, lawyers, top military, business ppl, journalists, media pundits etc. can be blackmailed using NSA interceptions?
etc. etc.
There are now something like 800,000 people on government watch lists.
Probably at least half of them have nothing whatsoever to do with Islamic Extremism or Terrorism.
They are people the government doesn't like and wants to control.
4. All the infrastructure a Tyrant would need, courtesy of Bush, Obama and Congress
Combining the people who didn't trust Bush and the ones who don't trust Obama adds up to a sizable part of the citizenry. But even if all the critics were proved wrong, even if the CIA, NSA, FBI, and every other branch of the federal government had been improbably filled, top to bottom, with incorruptible patriots constitutionally incapable of wrongdoing, this would still be so: The American people have no idea who the president will be in 2017. Nor do we know who'll sit on key Senate oversight committees, who will head the various national-security agencies, or whether the moral character of the people doing so, individually or in aggregate, will more closely resemble George Washington, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, John Yoo, or Vladimir Putin.
What we know is that the people in charge will possess the capacity to be tyrants -- to use power oppressively and unjustly -- to a degree that Americans in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, or 2000 could've scarcely imagined. To an increasing degree, we're counting on having angels in office and making ourselves vulnerable to devils. Bush and Obama have built infrastructure any devil would lust after. Behold the items on an aspiring tyrant's checklist that they've provided their successors:
A precedent that allows the president to kill citizens in secret without prior judicial or legislative review
The power to detain prisoners indefinitely without charges or trial
Ongoing warrantless surveillance on millions of Americans accused of no wrongdoing, converted into a permanent database so that data of innocents spied upon in 2007 can be accessed in 2027
Using ethnic profiling to choose the targets of secret spying, as the NYPD did with John Brennan's blessing
Normalizing situations in which the law itself is secret -- and whatever mischief is hiding in those secret interpretations
The permissibility of droning to death people whose identities are not even known to those doing the killing
The ability to collect DNA swabs of people who have been arrested even if they haven't been convicted of anything
A torture program that could be restarted with an executive order
Even if you think Bush and Obama exercised those extraordinary powers responsibly, what makes you think every president would? How can anyone fail to see the huge potential for abuses?
NOBODY knows who will get voted in, in 2017.
5. Prism: concerns over government tyranny are legitimate | Guardian #FiveEyes
How to get round the political backlash of spying on your own citizens.
Spy on someone else's citizens and swap info.
The “Five Eyes” alliance between the intelligence agencies of the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK effectively permits those governments to circumvent the prohibition against gathering data on their own citizens by sharing information across the Five Eyes intelligence community. The UK for example can spy on Americans and make that information available to the US government on its massive spy cloud – one that the NSA operates and the Five Eyes share.
Recent polls in the US suggest that the public is not much preoccupied with the fact that our data is being retained, so long as our own political party is in control of the government. That kind of fickle comfort is small-minded. The point we should derive from Snowden’s revelations – a point originally expressed in March 2013 by William Binney, a former senior NSA crypto-mathematician – is that the NSA’s Utah Data Center will amount to a “turnkey” system that, in the wrong hands, could transform the country into a totalitarian state virtually overnight. Every person who values personal freedom, human rights and the rule of law must recoil against such a possibility, regardless of their political preference. Others take a more cavalier approach, such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidtin 2009: “If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.”
We should heed warnings from Snowden because the prospect of an Orwellian society outweighs whatever security benefits we derive from Prism or Five Eyes. Viewed through the long lens of human history, concerns over government tyranny are always legitimate. It is those concerns that underpin the constitutions of most developed countries, and inform international principles of human rights and the rule of law. Prism and its related practices should be discontinued immediately, and the Utah Data Center should be leased to cloud storage companies with encryption capabilities.
Read more at :-
6. Did you know John Roberts is also the unaccountable chief justice of the NSA’s surveillance state?
Chief justice of the United States is a pretty big job. You lead the Supreme Court conferences where cases are discussed and voted on. You preside over oral arguments. When in the majority, you decide who writes the opinion. You get a cool robe that you can decorate with awesome gold stripes.
Oh, and one more thing: You have exclusive, unaccountable, lifetime power to shape the surveillance state.
Chief Justice John Roberts decides who watches the spies. (Michael Conroy/Associated Press)
Chief Justice John Roberts decides who watches the spies. (Michael Conroy/Associated Press)
To use its surveillance powers — tapping phones or reading e-mails — the federal government must ask permission of the court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A FISA judge can deny the request or force the government to limit the scope of its investigation. It’s the only plausible check in the system. Whether it actually checks government surveillance power or acts as a rubber stamp is up to whichever FISA judge presides that day.
The 11 FISA judges, chosen from throughout the federal bench for seven-year terms, are all appointed by the chief justice. In fact, every FISA judge currently serving was appointed by Roberts, who will continue making such appointments until he retires or dies. FISA judges don’t need confirmation — by Congress or anyone else.
No other part of U.S. law works this way. The chief justice can’t choose the judges who rule on health law, or preside over labor cases, or decide software patents. But when it comes to surveillance, the composition of the bench is entirely in his hands, and, as a result, so is the extent to which the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation can spy on citizens.
Read more at :-
One man should not have that much arbitrary power.
It is entirely against the principles of government the Founders set up - the splitting of powers between the three branches of the Federal government, so that it was harder to abuse the power they had.
(Now of course the 3 branches are all in league with each other and to hell with the Constitution.)
Let's ask Chief Justice Roberts to handover all his phone calls, emails, financial trasnactions etc. for the last 10 years.
After all, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.
Let's see how he likes it. Let's allow a small team of computer nerds and spy-catchers to review it all and decide whether he should be droned or hired as a consultant. Would that make him feel freer, safer, less afraid of terrorists?
And then, let's see whether he will also give us the access to whatever is in those records. After all, the NSA can stop at your metadata but doesn't have to.
I'd like to see how Justice Roberts would feel about having his personal data probed, categorized and analyzed. Same for Dianne Feinstein and all those who think that his vast program which is accountable apparently only to Justice Roberts and his picks for the FISA court is just a hunky-dory program to keep us "safe."
7. Feinstein and Clapper caught lying BIG TIME. The implications of a MASS SURVEILLANCE STATE
They say that they won't look at the records without a good reason.
They previously lied and tried to cover up that they were collecting the phone records of all Americans, what makes you think we can trust them to not look at the data they have collected, whenever it suits the government to do so?
Clapper denied collecting phone records on millions of Americans
The reason for the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs is to suppress political dissent, they are not anti-terror measures.
Why didn't the authorities stop the Boston bombing with all of the intel they had and are now collecting on everyone?
There was plenty of evidence that the elder brother was a substantive threat and the FBI had had contact with him for at least 2 years before contact was "dropped" after his 6 month visit to the Caucasus.
His activities in the Caucasus included attendance at, at least one Islamic Extremist conference in Georgia, with the main speakers being Islamic hate preachers.
The Russians warned at least three times that he was a threat and to watch him.
But the authorities didn't watch him. Why not?
The reason the authorities didn't stop Boston is because anti-terror is not the priority.
They would rather use the 4,000+ private contract staff and who knows how many NSA staff, to go after domestic political dissenters.
Edward Snowden was a private contractor working for Booz Allen who had top secret clearance.
(A third of private contractors have top secret clearance.)
Snowden claims that he had authorisation to snoop and listen in on anyone "Federal judges, even the President".
The FBI have already tried to label Occupy protesters as "domestic terrorists".
When the FBI were pursuing and harassing Occupy, what makes you think that the FBI did not go to the NSA and ask "what have you got on these people".
Or "can you help us identify others".
NSA "why we sure can - we've got LOADS of data going back 7 years - we'll get back to you tomorrow."
The authorities will do the same against Monsanto protesters or attendees at gun rights rallies etc.
Anything the government doesn't like, any political dissenters.
Similarly the government will try and use this information on any civil rights activists like the ACLU.
The FBI getting a spy in the camp of the ACLU would be a coup.
There is probably someone in the top levels that has something to hide and can be blackmailed to provide information on what the ACLU is planning to do, or provide some information on some other top level person.
If they can't get a top level person, they will work on the next level down or secretaries etc.
But it gets worse.
The government and party leaders have always kept dossiers on politicians to use as leverage to make sure "they vote the right way".
Now they have access to :-
all their phone records
the contents of every phone call made
every email
every text
their social media interactions
their voice mails
their financial transactions
etc. etc.
They also have access to the same data for all their staffers.
What makes you think the government won't use this information if they want to swing a tight vote?
Similarly they will keep dossiers on all State Party leaders, National Committee members and legislators.
But it gets worse.
What makes you think the NSA does not have a surveillance dossier on every TV anchor and media personality?
What makes you think the government won't try and use the above information to try and ensure the media stick to the "government's story".
(Obviously most of the media personalities won't be able to be blackmailed, but some will. If they can't blackmail the actual media personality, maybe they can get something on their partner or their kids. Threatening to go after their teenage kid for smoking dope and jailing them would be a powerful weapon.)
But it gets worse.
What makes you think the NSA does not have a dossier on every Federal judge?
What makes you think the government won't try and use the above information to ensure "the right verdict" on any sensitive cases?
If there is any doubt, a Federal judge will be appointed that CAN be blackmailed into delivering the "right verdict".
But it gets worse.
What makes you think the NSA does not have a dossier on every member of SCOTUS?
What makes you think the government won't try and use the above information to ensure "the right verdict"?
If all of the above is not happening now, and I am pretty sure it is, what makes you think the President who takes office in 2017 won't do it?
NOBODY knows who that will be.
The time to speak out against this is NOW.
A Democrat supporter put this better than me :-
"The storage of the collected surveillance data is the most egregiously fascistic aspect of this. They are creating a database on every single citizen's communication and activities. Those who don't see the danger in that are either rank apologists, or they have not thought through the possibilities.
Citizen 1,675,402 begins to look a little too angry or activist, and it will be no trouble at all to search through the data and find some reason, somewhere, to call the local officers to check out some violation from 2013. To arrest, and have someone disappear.
It offers an entire infrastructure for pre-emptive silencing of opposition to the government, even before it has a chance to materialize. And for those who are implementing an agenda of corporate, profit-centered and human-exploiting policies that will cause widespread impoverishment and rage, this is exactly the sort of system that will offer tremendous temptations for abuse to prevent the inevitable pushback.
We saw already what the government did to proactively target Occupy. This surveillance program violates the fundamental trust Americans are supposed to have in their representative government. It is deeply disturbing, creepy as hell, and ALL Americans should be standing together now to stop it."
8. NSA Director Keith Alexander is caught lying under oath to Congress by Hank Johnson
We know the NSA is routinely collecting ALL emails from American citizens as well as a large number of electronic transactions as well as other data.
Here is the wired article that Hank Johnson refers to.
There is plenty of other evidence from whistle blowers and various newspaper articles that the NSA Director was lying.
E.G. William Binney and Thomas Drake - as well as the claims of Edward Snowden.
The refutation of General Alexander's lies
9. The 11 lies and 1 truth told at the recent NSA "hearing" on June 18th
1. NSA Director's lie #1. Snowden's leaks didn't damage US National Security.
Everybody who wanted to know already knew. Snowden's "leaks" didn't reveal anything "new".
Every foreign government and potential terrorist knew, what I knew.
It has all been widely available on the net for many years.
Snowden "leaked" very little that was "new".
2. NSA Director's lie number 2. The Zazi subway plot has already been completely discredited. It could of been foiled with a warrant after finding probable cause
3. NSA Director's lie #3. The mass data collection of Americans, does not help America's National Security. It distracts from real dangers.
4. "Standard for permitting query of internal US phone calls is a "reasonable, articulable suspicion"".
They have been listening in on US troops PHONE SEX when they call home.
5. "Only 20 analysts within NSA are empowered to approve targeting US-based phone conversations" There are many hundreds, over a thousand.
6. Do you feel that Fisa court is a rubber stamp? Alexander does not feel that way. Over 33,000 requests have been approved - only 11 have been rejected.
7. "we would like to release as much of Fisa court rulings as we can" They've been covering them up as hard as they can.
8. "NSA only records that are collected" under 215 "is that telephony data. That's all." Alexander. Collecting pretty much ALL electronic comms
9. NSA can't target calls or emails of any US person, anywhere in world," without an individualized court order. Verizon covered many millions.
10. Do we maintain a database of all the emails that have ever been sent? "None at the NSA." Alexander. ALL emails are now being collected. Probably all have been collected since circa 2006.
11. Of the 4 cases cited, 2 could of been stopped with a warrant after probable cause (1 and 4).
No need for Mass Surveillance. The other 2 need to be checked.
12. Half a lie
How many contractors work as system administrators? "On the order of a thousand," Alexander says. There are over 4,000 private contractors. One third have Top Security security clearance. So that's at least 1,300. Alexander will know the exact number.
Some other statements need to be fact checked, 2 or 3 other lies will probably be found.
The above ia after a cursory look through the statements made and the most obvious of patent lies.
Truth number 1
With exposure of surveillance programs "We run the risk of losing these collection capabilities." Yep - they are unconstitutional under the 4th Amendment.
They are a gross invasion of privacy, don't make anyone safer and pose an existential threat to democracy in America.
They are also a threat to international relations with our allies.
The Germans have already cried foul and over 1 million people have signed the international petition to grant Snowden immunity and to stop the Prism program immediately.
The majority of the signatories are from Europe.
Let's restore the Rule of Law in America and stop spying on every American.
Nobody mentioned Boston.
How come with this Mass data collection program the Boston bombing wasn't stopped?
There was a wealth of evidence that the elder brother posed a substantive terrorist threat.
The FBI had been keeping tabs on him for at least 2 years previously BECAUSE he was a substantive terrorist threat.
That risk only increased during his 6 month visit to the Caucasus where he mixed with Islamic hate preachers.
Yet he was down graded on the watch lists - how come?
N.B Neither the Patriot Act nor Mass Surveillance was required to keep tabs on the bomber.
The FBI already had plenty of PROBABLE CAUSE to obtain a warrant.
Ruppersberger wants to know how to stop the next Snowden.
I want to know how they are going to stop getting distracted by spying on millions of totally innocent Americans and stop the next BOSTON - instead of completely failing in what is supposed to be their primary purpose.
Comment - the Senators were coaching and leading Alexander for the answers they wanted to hear.
Less of a hearing and more a piece of political theater designed to try and fool the gullible.
Bachmann asked a VERY leading question when she asked :-
Has the NSA collected every email ever sent?"
Of course not - the first email was sent in the mid 90's or even earlier.
The NSA have been collecting every American's email sent after circa 2006 and a large number from 2002.
The final irony :-
NSA Director General Alexander :- "trust us, we have internal safeguards" LOL
10. Obama is lying when he says they are not collecting the CONTENTS of phone calls
Tim Clemente ex-FBI on CNN recently "(The NSA) can listen to ANY phone call AFTER the event"
Shia LaBeouf Revealed FBI Phone Snooping Five Years Ago on ‘Leno’
The FBI played back to him a phone call he had made 2 years previously.
The videos above, prove Obama is lying when he says the NSA is not collecting the contents of phone calls.
11. Boston was a MASSIVE intelligence FAILURE, stopping the attack was actually HINDERED by the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs.
Of the 20 terrorist plots supposedly foiled between 911 and Boston :-
3 were foiled by an alert public. (The shoe bomber, the underwear bomber and the Times Square bomber.)
17 were manufactured fake plots by the FBI encouraging people to commit terror.
NONE were foiled in any shape or form by the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs.
Boston should of been stopped.
There was plenty of evidence against the elder brother to make him a substantive risk and to get a WARRANT with probable cause.
But the authorities didn't even bother to keep tabs on him after he came back from his 6 month visit to the Caucasus.
His visit included attendance at Islamic Extremist seminars where the main speakers were Islamic hate preachers.
The FBI HAD been keeping tabs on him for 2 years prior to this, BECAUSE he posed a security risk.
Boston was a MASSIVE intelligence FAILURE, stopping the attack was actually HINDERED by the NSA's programs.
The NSA is actually putting MORE American lives at risk, NOT making Americans safer.
12. NSA Mass Surveillance - the government is LYING to you on a GRAND SCALE
AMERICANS need to be INFORMED what the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs are really about.
AMERICANS then need to DECIDE the proper boundaries of government POWER.
Whistleblowers William Binney, Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden are all American HEROES.
They ALL shone a light onto MASSIVE government abuses - that's what important whistle blowers do.
They are ALL ordinary men who have done EXTRA ORDINARY things.
They have ALL risked EVERYTHING and wrecked their own lives for the benefit of OTHERS.
What other definition of hero is there?
Arguments about breaking the law are SPECIOUS.
Governments decide what is LEGAL.
Human beings decide what is MORALLY RIGHT.
Owning slaves was legal - that does not make it morally right.
The people who ran the Underground Railroad that helped slaves break free, broke the law.
They are now recognized as heroes.
The Nazi's changed German law to ensure everything they did was "legal".
Intimidating and murdering political dissidents, killing upwards of 10 million of their own citizens in wars of aggression and gassing 6 million Jews was NOT morally right.
William Binney reported upwards, through the proper official channels, what he believed to be massive abuses of government power.
The government had pointed their massive foreign intelligence gathering capabilities at their own citizens - specifically against the 4th amendment of the Constitution.
He reported how the privacy safeguards in Thin Thread were deliberately removed to collect surveillance data on EVERY AMERICAN.
The government raided his house and pointed a GUN at his HEAD for his trouble.
They have hounded him for years.
Thomas Drake was charged under the Espionage Act for reporting massive government waste and abuses of power.
He was threatened with 35 years in jail for telling the truth to the American people.
The charges did not hold water and were dropped at the cost of pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.
Drake's life was still wrecked - he now works in an Apple store giving technical advice.
And now we have Edward Snowden.
Snowden put his life on the line and wrecked a very comfortable life, because his MORAL PRINCIPLES did not allow him to do otherwise.
He wanted to let the American PEOPLE decide what is MORALLY RIGHT, not the government.
He reported that ALL Americans are now being spied upon, through the collection of hundreds of millions of phone records and trillions of pieces of other electronic surveillance on the internet.
I believe, like Snowden, that NO government should have that much power - it is too ripe for abuse.
The Founders thought so too, that is why they included the 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights - "All persons shall have privacy in their persons and papers".
It is my belief that :-
What the government is now doing is ILLEGAL under the Constitution.
What they are now doing is MORALLY REPUGNANT to every decent human being.
It should be up to up to the American PEOPLE to decide.
But first :-
There needs to be TRANSPARENCY about what the government is actually doing - the government is trying desperately to cover up what it is doing.
Let's INFORM the American PEOPLE - they certainly haven't been informed yet - despite the revelations so far in the news.
Let's inform the American public of the implications of a MASS SURVEILLANCE STATE.
Let's inform them they would no longer be free.
Then let's have a proper debate with a WELL INFORMED public.
And then let's see what the American PEOPLE decide as to what is MORALLY RIGHT and what are the proper boundaries of government POWER.
That is the American way - there is NO OTHER WAY, if we are to remain the "Land of the Free".
Thin Thread - the FOREIGN surveillance program from the 90's.
13. William Binney from 2012 on Stellar Wind, NSA and the dangers of a Mass Surveillance "Stasi" state
Binney was a 32 year veteran in the NSA, who resigned and blew the whistle after 911, when foreign intelligence systems were turned inwards to spy on Americans.
Mr. Binney described details about Stellar Wind, the N.S.A.’s top-secret domestic spying program begun after 9/11, which was so controversial that it nearly caused top Justice Department officials to resign in protest, in 2004.
“The decision must have been made in September 2001,” Mr. Binney told me and the cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. “That’s when the equipment started coming in.” In this Op-Doc, Mr. Binney explains how the program he created for foreign intelligence gathering was turned inward on this country. He resigned over this in 2001 and began speaking out publicly in the last year. He is among a group of N.S.A. whistle-blowers, including Thomas A. Drake, who have each risked everything — their freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships — to warn Americans about the dangers of N.S.A. domestic spying.
Video included in the link
See also William Binney's interview with Amy Goodman from Democracy now from 2012.
Almost an Orwellian surveillance state
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