The Global War On Terror Becomes A War On Privacy
Here is a third installment in the ongoing tale of the NSA's growth from an anti-terror organization into an anti-dissent tool. The story continues to unfold. People are being watched. People are watching back. And the NSA is not ready for close scrutiny.
As inquisitive humans continue to explore and expose this central office of intelligence, its opposite is more and more taking shape. The secret spy center has become a mystery to be unraveled, a story wanting to be told. While it clings to its secrets, it is surrounded more and more closely by "dark holes" into which secret information can be dropped by whistleblowers. This secret information then gets passed to a waiting public.
Knowledge may thrive, but no secrets will survive.
Overview of the over-viewers:
06/05/13 - 10/11/13 The NSA Files - The Guardian's Overview
The forty major stories so far...
09/11/13 oen Gems Mined from the NSA Documents and FISA Court Opinions Released
09/21/13 aclu The Ten Most Disturbing Things You Should Know About the FBI Since 9/11
10/23/13 wapo Former NSA chief: NSA and U.S. Cyber Command are now ‘indistinguishable’
The head of the NSA happens also to be the head of the U.S. Cyber Command.10/24/13 jc How the US Government Betrayed the Constitution and Invented an Imaginary Fascist One
How the NSA got here:
10/21/13 dd A psychological history of the NSA
The slender thread of case law that makes NSA legal:
10/09/13 jc How a Purse Snatching Led to the Legal Justification for NSA Domestic Spying
The NSA has been collecting more and more data. "Collect it all!" is the idea.
09/19/13 y Anti-terror program tracks innocents, ACLU says
"An off-duty supervising dispatcher with Sacramento P.D. noticed a female subject taking pictures of the outside of the post office in Folsom on Riley Street this morning. The female departed as a passenger in a silver Mazda."09/26/13 cbs Watching you: When and where you may be tracked
09/26/13 hufpo Keith Alexander: In Best Interest Of U.S. To 'Put All The Phone Records' Into A Searchable 'Lockbox'
09/28/13 bb DiFi admits that the NSA is wiretapping the Internet's backbone
10/02/13 du NSA director admits agency trawls Twitter/Facebook but insists they are NOT building personal files on Americans
10/10/13 gdn The double danger of the NSA's 'collect it all' policy on surveillance
10/11/13 td The Data Hackers:
"... Inside your mobile phone and hidden behind your web browser are little known software products, marketed by contractors to the government, that can follow you around anywhere."
The NSA collects what's in your computer's email address books:
10/14/12 wapo NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally
10/14/13 reu U.S. spy agency collects millions of email address lists: report
10/14/13 bb Report: The NSA collects half a million buddy lists and inboxes a day. Is one of them yours?
10/15/13 jc Now the NSA has your Little Black Book
The NSA is keeping lists of everyone's friends:
09/28/13 nyt N.S.A. GathersData on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens
09/30/13 aw White House Defends NSA ‘Social Mapping’ of Americans
09/30/13 td NSA Creates Social Profiles of U.S. Citizens
There is no limit to the information the government collects:
09/07/13 du Computer program uses Twitter to 'map mood of nation' (and this may be legal~ed)
"They claim Emotive could help calm civil unrest and identify early threats to public safety." (Such as picketing the White House....?)
09/08/13 hufpo NSA Can Access Most Smartphone Data, Der Spiegel Reports
09/08/13 y Ruling allowed NSA search of domestic email
09/12/13 frbs E-ZPasses Get Read All Over New York (Not Just At Toll Booths)
09/13/13 w FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack
09/29/13 td NSA Agent Spied on Women for Years
10/07/13 ajz Report: Government data collection imperils liberty and security
10/17/13 brnc The U.S. Government’s Secrecy Problem Just Got Worse
10/08/13 fp Hostile Takeover: Now the NSA Wants to Snoop on Wall Street, too
10/30/13 h NSA Broke Into Yahoo, Google Data Centers: Report
10/30/13 tpm NSA Chief: 'To My Knowledge' Agency Didn't Tap Google, Yahoo Data Centers
(General Keith Alexander pretending not to know about NSA program 'Muscular'...)
The information is dispersed to our allies:
09/12/13 jc US NSA Gives Israel Raw Intelligence on US Citizens (Chamberlain)
Accumulating all this data accomplishes nothing:
10/21/13 atlntc Why the NSA's Defense of Mass Data Collection Makes No Sense
"The U.S. intelligence community claims it's not spying on citizens until someone actually looks at the data it collects. That argument is deeply flawed."
Businesses have been forced to help the NSA spy on people:
09/27/13 td The One Telco Exec Who Resisted The NSA Has Been Released From 4+ Years In Jail
10/01/13 du A CEO who resisted NSA spying is out of prison. And he feels ‘vindicated’ by Snowden leaks.
09/25/13 rt Attorneys for shuttered email service Lavabit ask court to unseal case files
10/03/13 bb Unsealed Lavabit docs show that Feds demanded SSL keys
10/07/13 tny How Lavabit Melted Down
10/11/13 gdn Skype under investigation in Luxembourg over link to NSA
10/11/13 du Amid NSA Outrage, Big Tech Companies Plan to Track You Even More Aggressively
10/17/12 bb Apple: Rebutting Apple's claim of Imessage security: Apple can too spy on users
10/22/13 bb VPN company shuts down after Lavabit case demonstrates threat of state-ordered, secret self-sabotage
10/23/13 tpm Facebook Eliminates Feature That Lets Users Hide From Search
Some businesses are in the business of inventing spy tools for the government:
10/02/13 mccy Senate intelligence committee director denies NSA collects data on Americans’ cellphone locations ...Correct... It's the FBI that tracks phone locations, not the NSA (see next link below)...
10/09/13 jc Big Brother’s little Brothers: How Surveillance Companies Mine your Info for the Gov’t
"Harris Corporation provides technology to the FBI to track, via our mobile phones, where we go"
Some businesses resist being forced to work with the spy system:
09/10/13 td FLYING PIG: The NSA Is Running Man In The Middle Attacks Imitating Google's Servers
"Back doors" have been installed in hardware/software by the makers that allow the NSA entry - and anyone else, too:
09/11/13 bb How the feds asked Microsoft to backdoor BitLocker, their full-disk encryption tool
10/03/13 bb EFF: the NSA has endangered us all by sabotaging security
"NSA has deliberately weakened the security that ensures the integrity of the banking system, aviation control, embedded systems in everything from cars to implanted defibrillators, as well as network infrastructure, desktop computers, cloud servers, laptops, phones, tablets, TVs, and other devices."10/08/13 sln NSA’s hardware back doors may still be a “problem from hell”
NSA forced a standards committee to put a "back door" into encryption standards:
09/05/13 LAT Latest Snowden revelation: NSA sabotaged electronic locks
"In an era in which businesses, as well as the average consumer, trust secure networks and technologies for sensitive transactions and private communications online, it’s incredibly destructive for the NSA to add flaws to such critical infrastructure."09/08/13 bb Firsthand account of NSA sabotage of Internet security standards
09/09/13 bb What NSA sabotage does to security
09/10/13 bb This is the crypto standard that the NSA sabotaged
Other nations are distressed and offended:
09/08/13 jc NSA Spying: Indian Gov’t Bans Employee Google Use as Euro Parliament Weighs Law Fining Cooperative Firms
09/08/13 wapo Brazilian TV show says U.S. spied on state-run Petrobras oil firm, cites NSA documents
09/13/13 oen Brazil Launches Investigation Of NSA Spying Allegations
09/17/13 tpm Brazilian President's State Visit To White House Cancelled After Spying Flap
09/18/13 jc Brazilian President Snubs Obama: How US Cyber Espionage will Destroy the Internet
09/25/13 th NSA planted bugs at India's missions in D.C., U.N.
09/25/13 td Brazilian President Speaks Out Against U.S. Spying
10/06/13 gdn Cabinet was told nothing about GCHQ spying programmes, says Chris Huhne
"Cabinet ministers and members of the national security council were told nothing about the existence and scale of the vast data-gathering programmes run by British and American intelligence agencies, a former member of the government has revealed."
10/20/13 hufpo NSA Hacked Mexican Presidents' Email For Years: Report
10/20/13 du Uruguay's president quips about alleged US espionage
10/24/13 du 'Out of Hand': Europe Furious Over US Spying Allegations
10/20/13 du Uruguay's president quips about alleged US espionage
10/24/13 du 'Out of Hand': Europe Furious Over US Spying Allegations
10/25/13 hufpo Divided EU Responds To NSA Spying Scandal"The newest allegations of US spying have unleashed a torrent of criticism and concern in Europe. If suspicions unearthed by SPIEGEL that the US tapped Chancellor Merkel's cell phone turn out to be true, the ramifications for trans-Atlantic ties could be immense."
10/25/13 bb NSA spied on 35 world leaders
"A leaked 2006 memo from the NSA to staffers in the White House, State and the Pentagon asked them to search their rolodexes for the personal numbers of world leaders so the Agency could spy on them."10/25/13 du NSA Spying Not Very Focused on Terrorism: Power, Money and Crushing Dissent Are Real Motives Ops
"One unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately “tasked” for monitoring by the NSA." - Guardian10/26/13 tpm Report: U.S. Tracked Merkel's Cell Phone Since 2002
10/26/13 hp NSA Collected Data On 60 Million Phone Calls In Spain Over Course Of One Month: Report
10/26/13 du Exclusive: 21 Nations Line Up Behind U.N. Effort to Restrain NSA
10/14/13 nyt Clapper and Carney Get Slippery on Surveillance
"Then, yesterday, Der Spiegel reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Mr. Obama “for a thorough explanation of serious indications that U.S. intelligence agencies had declared her private mobile phone to be a target in their operations.”10/31/13 tpm NSA Surveillance Threatens U.S. Efforts Abroad
The White House press secretary, Jay Carney said, “The president assured [Merkel] that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications” of the chancellor.” Please note: IS not monitoring and WILL NOT monitor. The allegation, unaddressed, was that the United States HAD been monitoring her calls (until it was caught in the act)."
"Secretary of State John Kerry went to Europe to talk about Mideast peace, Syria and Iran. What he got was an earful of outrage over U.S. snooping abroad."
The British are similarly invasive:
10/25/13 gdn Leaked memos reveal GCHQ efforts to keep mass surveillance secret
10/26/13 bb UK spies were terrified that the willing cooperation of telcos would get out; understood they were breaking the law
The NSA (and the Brits) think the solution to their exposure is to stop the presses:
10/25/12 gdn As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media
10/28/13 gdn David Cameron makes veiled threat to media over NSA and GCHQ leaks
The NSA is a law unto itself. It lies to the President:
09/10/13 tpm U.S. Officials: NSA Phone Record Collection Violated Privacy Protections
09/20/13 bb Report: Dept of Justice ethics watchdog didn't look into judges' NSA concerns
09/25/13 bb Secret Cold War docs show NSA spied on senators back then
09/30/13 td NSA Holds Internet Records Longer Than Obama Said
09/10/13 y Docs: Officials misused US surveillance program
"U.S. officials for nearly three years accessed data on thousands of domestic phone numbers they shouldn't have and then misrepresented their actions to a secret spy court to reauthorize the government's surveillance program, documents released Tuesday show."09/12/13 w 6 Whopping Government Misstatements About NSA Spying
10/28/13 jc America’s Secret 4th Branch of Government: The NSA kept even Obama in the Dark
10/31/13 bb NSA spokesmen told to just say "9/11" to deflect criticism
The DEA is even worse:
10/23/13 du Massive Snooping (makes NSA look like rank amateurs) by the DEA via ATT into our phone records...
"The "Hemisphere Project" keeps track of every phone call going through an ATT switch, going back 26 years -- adding about 4 billion new call records per day."
The surveillance apparatus decides for itself how powerful it should be:
09/25/13 cbs Independent NSA spying review not so independent
The Director of National Intelligence is reviewing the NSA. Not an independent, as was promised.
The cost to America:
09/11/13 blbg NSA Spying Seen Risking Billions in U.S. Technology Sales
Exigency rules the land. Justice is defiled.
09/12/13 to When the Police Become a Standing Army, Liberty is Sacrificed Without Security
09/18/13 hufpo Nameless And Shameless: Masked DEA Agents Raid Innocent Women, Refuse To Reveal Their Identities
09/22/13 du Destroying the Right to Be Left Alone
09/28/13 du AP: Journalist Glenn Greenwald to Investigate the NSA's Role in Washington's Assassination Program
10/09/13 nj Soon, Drones May Be Able to Make Lethal Decisions on Their Own
10/17/13 hufpo NSA Involvement In Drone Program Revealed In Documents
Censorship requires privacy loss:
09/06/13 bb UK censorwall bans VPNs:
Enforcers decide that dissent equals terrorism
09/25/13 gdn UK detention of Reprieve activist consistent with NSA's view of drone opponents as 'threats' and 'adversaries'
09/26/13 oen The Federal Government's War on Martin Luther King Went Far beyond NSA Taps
10/18/13 to Report Finds Police Worldwide Criminalize Dissent, Assert New Powers in Crackdown on Protests
10/18/13 to Canadian Police Use Military Tactics to Disperse Indigenous Anti-Fracking Blockade
10/29/13 td Greenwald and Friends Add Two Journalists to News Venture
If Glenn Greenwald's new venture brings whistle-blower reports to the world, he will have perfected the automation of the news-gathering process. And the news will be what it should be.
The NSA, which has had a corner on secrecy, is finding itself surrounded by information vacuums which are sweeping up secrets left and right and releasing them to a global audience.
Knowledge may thrive, but no secrets will survive.
09/11/13 blbg NSA Spying Seen Risking Billions in U.S. Technology Sales
Exigency rules the land. Justice is defiled.
09/12/13 to When the Police Become a Standing Army, Liberty is Sacrificed Without Security
09/18/13 hufpo Nameless And Shameless: Masked DEA Agents Raid Innocent Women, Refuse To Reveal Their Identities
09/22/13 du Destroying the Right to Be Left Alone
09/28/13 du AP: Journalist Glenn Greenwald to Investigate the NSA's Role in Washington's Assassination Program
10/09/13 nj Soon, Drones May Be Able to Make Lethal Decisions on Their Own
10/17/13 hufpo NSA Involvement In Drone Program Revealed In Documents
"The National Security Agency has been extensively involved in the U.S. government's targeted killing program... "
Censorship requires privacy loss:
09/06/13 bb UK censorwall bans VPNs:
"The only way to stop Internet users from accessing "bad" websites is to spy on all their Internet traffic (you have to look at all their traffic in order to interdict the forbidden sites). So it follows that any censorship system must also ban any privacy/security tools."
Enforcers decide that dissent equals terrorism
09/25/13 gdn UK detention of Reprieve activist consistent with NSA's view of drone opponents as 'threats' and 'adversaries'
09/26/13 oen The Federal Government's War on Martin Luther King Went Far beyond NSA Taps
"They talked ominously of "neutralizing" him as an effective leader. And even more ominously they sent him a poison pen letter flatly saying "King you are done" and suggesting he kill himself."10/07/13 du NC legislature police chief says ‘anarchists’ from ‘Moral Monday’ protests on watch list
10/09/13 du Virginia State Police Surveilled And Recorded License Plates At Routine Political Gatherings"General Assembly Police Chief Jeff Weaver testified to a murmur of disbelief among the many lawyers attending the Wake County District Court hearing that his 18-officer department had people in this region they labeled “anarchists” and collected intelligence on them."
10/18/13 to Report Finds Police Worldwide Criminalize Dissent, Assert New Powers in Crackdown on Protests
10/18/13 to Canadian Police Use Military Tactics to Disperse Indigenous Anti-Fracking Blockade
Citizens cope with privacy loss:
09/09/13 gdn How to foil NSA sabotage: use a dead man's switch
09/18/13 bb Browser plugin that adds NSA-trolling keywords to the URLs you load
09/19/13 bb Grumpy cat wants a gnu Internet
Reform of the intelligence process is beginning:
09/06/13 aw Surveillance State Repeal Act Would Ban NSA ‘Back Doors’
09/06/13 td Surveillance State Legislation Would Bar Some NSA Decryption
09/07/13 mj Google Redoubles Effort to Thwart NSA Surveillance
09/12/13 bb EFF's guide to NSA reform bills
09/11/13 du Senator Pat Leahy: Bulk collection of metadata must stop
09/12/13 hufpo Parts Of Secret Yahoo Court Order Will Be Declassified, Justice Department Says
09/13/13 gdn Time to tame the NSA behemoth trampling our rights
09/16/13 wapo ACLU calls on Obama, Congress to rein in power of the FBI
09/25/13 du Senators Push Bill to End Phone Record Collection
09/30/12 cnn Former NSA contractor designs 'surveillance-proof' font
09/30/13 rsn NSA Spying Creates a New Data Haven Industry. Government Stimulus at Work!
10/01/2013 aw California Governor Signs Ban on NDAA Detentions:
09/09/13 gdn How to foil NSA sabotage: use a dead man's switch
09/18/13 bb Browser plugin that adds NSA-trolling keywords to the URLs you load
09/19/13 bb Grumpy cat wants a gnu Internet
Reform of the intelligence process is beginning:
09/06/13 aw Surveillance State Repeal Act Would Ban NSA ‘Back Doors’
09/06/13 td Surveillance State Legislation Would Bar Some NSA Decryption
09/07/13 mj Google Redoubles Effort to Thwart NSA Surveillance
09/12/13 bb EFF's guide to NSA reform bills
09/11/13 du Senator Pat Leahy: Bulk collection of metadata must stop
09/12/13 hufpo Parts Of Secret Yahoo Court Order Will Be Declassified, Justice Department Says
09/13/13 gdn Time to tame the NSA behemoth trampling our rights
09/16/13 wapo ACLU calls on Obama, Congress to rein in power of the FBI
09/25/13 du Senators Push Bill to End Phone Record Collection
09/30/12 cnn Former NSA contractor designs 'surveillance-proof' font
09/30/13 rsn NSA Spying Creates a New Data Haven Industry. Government Stimulus at Work!
10/01/2013 aw California Governor Signs Ban on NDAA Detentions:
"State Will Not Cooperate With Any Federal Attempts to Detain Californians -
"The NDAA allows the president to place people into indefinite detention by the US military without charges or a trial on “national security” grounds and has sparked a series of lawsuits from Americans who fear detention as political dissidents."
10/07/13 ew 6 Years Later, Are the Internet Companies Trying to Expose Telecoms Stealing Their Data, Again?
10/07/13 time Tech Titans Poised for Showdown With Justice Department Over NSA
10/08/13 bb Crowdfunding $300 to make the NSA disclose its IT meltdowns
10/07/13 time Tech Titans Poised for Showdown With Justice Department Over NSA
10/08/13 bb Crowdfunding $300 to make the NSA disclose its IT meltdowns
10/10/13 gdn Patriot Act author prepares bill to put NSA bulk collection 'out of business
10/10/13 gdn The USA Freedom Act: a look at the key points of the draft bill
10/11/13 aw FISA Court: NSA Can Keep Collecting Your Phone Records
"Several different bills are currently going through Congress which would eliminate the legal provisions under which the surveillance authority is requested, and would keep the NSA from bringing such requests to the FISA courts."
10/17/13 nyt Europe Moves to Shield Citizens’ Data
10/30/13 nyt No U.S. Action, So States Move on Privacy Law
Making the NSA a laughing stock helps the process along:
10/10/13 gdn The USA Freedom Act: a look at the key points of the draft bill
10/11/13 aw FISA Court: NSA Can Keep Collecting Your Phone Records
"Several different bills are currently going through Congress which would eliminate the legal provisions under which the surveillance authority is requested, and would keep the NSA from bringing such requests to the FISA courts."
10/17/13 nyt Europe Moves to Shield Citizens’ Data
10/30/13 nyt No U.S. Action, So States Move on Privacy Law
Making the NSA a laughing stock helps the process along:
09/11/13 bb Iranian filmmaker punks NSA again "Because a lot of my friends (and other people who posted a comment on our channel) were concerned that I might get in trouble with NSA after my telephone call last week, I decided to call NSA again and ask them whether I have anything to fear from the agency."
10/24/13 hp Former NSA Director Isn't Too Thrilled About Having His Private Conversations Tweeted
10/24/13 hp Former NSA Director Isn't Too Thrilled About Having His Private Conversations Tweeted
10/24/13 du Activist Tweets Former NSA Chief’s ‘Off Record’ Phone Call On Train (includes tweets. Then he asked Clapper for a picture... and got one.)
Left and Right unite to fight the blight:
09/06/13 wt Patriot Act’s author files court papers to stop ‘frightening’ Obama abuses
09/15/13 nbc NRA, fearing gun registry, joins ACLU in opposing NSA phone records sweep
09/25/13 du Something amazing is happening over the NSA and you all are missing it.
- A massive list of organizations opposed to NSA espionage -
10/08/13 aw NSA Surveillance: What We Know; What to Do About It – Wednesday Cato Conference
10/09/13 wt Sen. Wyden seeks to scale back NSA surveillance (Dem at Cato Conference)
10/16/31 fp How the NSA Scandal Is Roiling the Heritage Foundation
10/30/13 to Activists of Color Lead Charge Against Surveillance, NSA
Left and Right unite to fight the blight:
09/06/13 wt Patriot Act’s author files court papers to stop ‘frightening’ Obama abuses
09/15/13 nbc NRA, fearing gun registry, joins ACLU in opposing NSA phone records sweep
09/25/13 du Something amazing is happening over the NSA and you all are missing it.
- A massive list of organizations opposed to NSA espionage -
10/08/13 aw NSA Surveillance: What We Know; What to Do About It – Wednesday Cato Conference
10/09/13 wt Sen. Wyden seeks to scale back NSA surveillance (Dem at Cato Conference)
10/16/31 fp How the NSA Scandal Is Roiling the Heritage Foundation
10/30/13 to Activists of Color Lead Charge Against Surveillance, NSA
Belly up, NSA's innards are now becoming public:
09/10/13 tpm The NSA Machine: Too Big For Anyone To Understand
"Newly declassified documents released Tuesday tell a story of a surveillance apparatus so unwieldy and complex that nobody fully comprehended it, even as the government pointed it at the American people in the name of protecting them."
09/10/13 bb NSA reveals that it illegally gathered thousands of phone records, to the appalled astonishment of FISA court judge
09/12/13 du Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA surveillance secrets
09/13/13 tpm U.S. To Declassify Secret 2008 Order That Made Yahoo Turn Over Customer Data
09/26/13 du Official sidesteps queries on cellphone locations
All this effort is not foiling any terrorist plots - just wasting money:
10/08/13 aw Fun Fact: NSA’s Collection of Americans’s MetaData Doesn’t Make Us Safer
10/24/13 pp The NSA's Big Terrorism Claim Doesn't Hold Up
10/11/13 aw The NSA Isn’t Foiling Terrorist Plots
The NSA director, General Keith Alexander, has admitted lying and will retire soon:
09/15/13 du Inside the mind of NSA chief Gen Keith Alexander
09/25/13 aw NSA Chief Defends Collecting Americans’ Phone Records
10/15/13 aw No, NSA Surveillance Wouldn’t Have Prevented 9/11 And It Hasn’t Foiled a Single Terror Plot
09/10/13 tpm The NSA Machine: Too Big For Anyone To Understand
"Newly declassified documents released Tuesday tell a story of a surveillance apparatus so unwieldy and complex that nobody fully comprehended it, even as the government pointed it at the American people in the name of protecting them."
09/10/13 bb NSA reveals that it illegally gathered thousands of phone records, to the appalled astonishment of FISA court judge
09/12/13 du Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA surveillance secrets
09/13/13 tpm U.S. To Declassify Secret 2008 Order That Made Yahoo Turn Over Customer Data
09/26/13 du Official sidesteps queries on cellphone locations
"Alexander says his agency can only collect such data with an individual court order. But he did not say whether the agency had ever collected information about locations from which cellphone calls are made."
"Wyden is a longtime critic of NSA surveillance methods. Earlier this year, he questioned Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about whether U.S. intelligence gathered the records of millions of Americans. Clapper said no, but had to apologize later when leaks by a former NSA systems analyst revealed the bulk collection of U.S. telephone records and email data."
All this effort is not foiling any terrorist plots - just wasting money:
10/08/13 aw Fun Fact: NSA’s Collection of Americans’s MetaData Doesn’t Make Us Safer
"this single successful prosecution, under a vague criminal statute, which stopped a few thousand dollars from reaching one side in a local conflict in the Horn of Africa, is the sole success story for the NSA bulk domestic surveillance program."
10/24/13 pp The NSA's Big Terrorism Claim Doesn't Hold Up
10/11/13 aw The NSA Isn’t Foiling Terrorist Plots
The NSA director, General Keith Alexander, has admitted lying and will retire soon:
09/15/13 du Inside the mind of NSA chief Gen Keith Alexander
A lavish Star Trek style bridge that he had constructed as part of his 'Information Dominance Center' is endlessly revealing... the cost: over a hundred million dollars...09/16/13 bb Video of top NSA spook Gen'l Alexander's Starship Enterprise clone/Information Dominance Center
09/25/13 aw NSA Chief Defends Collecting Americans’ Phone Records
10/15/13 aw No, NSA Surveillance Wouldn’t Have Prevented 9/11 And It Hasn’t Foiled a Single Terror Plot
"The problem is that NSA Director Alexander says a lot of things that aren’t true. Back in June, he claimed that NSA’s bulk collection of call records and Internet activity disrupted 54 “terror plots.” Early this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee got Alexander to admit that this claim was wrong and misleading..."10/12/13 nyt N.S.A. Director Firmly Defends Surveillance Efforts
"The director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, said in an interview that to prevent terrorist attacks he saw no effective alternative to the N.S.A.’s bulk collection of telephone and other electronic metadata from Americans."
The government is in a tizzy:
10/11/13 bb NSA chiefs confiding in their allies: Obama is hanging us out to dry
10/21/13 hufpo U.S. Army Says Only Two Brigades Fully Trained Amid Budget Cuts, Fiscal Uncertainty
The NSA loses its best defender - Dianne Feinstein:
10/28/13 tpm Official: Feinstein's Statement On Intel Collection Not Accurate
10/28/13 aw NSA Staff Angry at Obama’s Attempts to Distance Himself
10/28/13 gdn NSA review panel to present Obama with dossier on surveillance reforms
10/28/13 aw Key Lawmakers Turn Against NSA, Back Reform Bill
10/11/13 bb NSA chiefs confiding in their allies: Obama is hanging us out to dry
10/21/13 hufpo U.S. Army Says Only Two Brigades Fully Trained Amid Budget Cuts, Fiscal Uncertainty
The NSA loses its best defender - Dianne Feinstein:
10/28/13 tpm Official: Feinstein's Statement On Intel Collection Not Accurate
"Earlier in the day, Feinstein said: “The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support."
The official said that statement is not accurate."
At that point, Feinstein lost her temper.10/28/13 y NSA official: 'We're really screwed now:'
"We're really screwed now," the official said. "You know things are bad when the few friends you've got disappear without a trace in the dead of night and leave no forwarding address."10/28/13 fp 'We're Really Screwed Now': NSA's Best Friend Just Shivved The Spies
"In a pointed statement issued today, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Dianne Feinstein said she was "totally opposed" to gathering intelligence on foreign leaders and said it was "a big problem" if President Obama didn't know the NSA was monitoring the phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel."
"Perhaps most significant is her announcement that the intelligence committee "will initiate a review into all intelligence collection programs."10/28/13 du White House official sees need for 'constraints' on NSA spying
"Republican hawk John McCain, for instance, is now calling for a special select committee to investigate U.S. spying."
10/28/13 aw NSA Staff Angry at Obama’s Attempts to Distance Himself
10/28/13 gdn NSA review panel to present Obama with dossier on surveillance reforms
10/28/13 aw Key Lawmakers Turn Against NSA, Back Reform Bill
10/29/13 du Top intelligence officials called to testify on NSA surveillance programs
10/29/13 jc Elites Stick together... Feinstein Slams NSA Merkel Tap
Spying on citizens and foreign leaders is not about terror:
10/28/13 pol Glenn Greenwald: Spying not about terror
10/29/13 cbs EU official alleges NSA sought economic edge for U.S.
Circling the wagons:
10/17/13 ajz The US government's secrecy problem just got worse
Now, the government can classify and hide any document that they think might possibly be used by others to incite people against us. Or which might make people think a little less of us.
The inevitability of leaks:
09/08/13 bb NSA leaks as a demographic phenomena
"Many will also believe in openness, especially the hacker types the NSA needs to recruit."
A new plot line develops: empower the whistleblowers:
09/18/13 jc How the National Security State Creates its own Whistleblowers
10/15/13 bb Freedom of the Press Foundation Launches SecureDrop, an Open-Source Submission Platform for Whistleblowers
10/16/13 du Wikileaks In A Box: SecureDrop Is WhistleBlower Communication Tool For Media
Juan Cole notes that Merkel is 'one of us'...
".... the news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal cell phone was monitored by the NSA has finally made waves in Washington. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who vocally defended mass electronic surveillance of the American public and who wants to introduce legislation regularizing it, professes to find the Merkel tap unseemly."10/29/13 hp James Clapper: Spying On Leaders Not Significant Enough To Tell Congress
... the German Chancellor is a European white person, a peer of the politicians in Washington, and it is not gentlemanly or ladylike to spy on their persons."
Spying on citizens and foreign leaders is not about terror:
10/28/13 pol Glenn Greenwald: Spying not about terror
10/29/13 cbs EU official alleges NSA sought economic edge for U.S.
Circling the wagons:
10/17/13 ajz The US government's secrecy problem just got worse
Now, the government can classify and hide any document that they think might possibly be used by others to incite people against us. Or which might make people think a little less of us.
"Perhaps even more disturbing, this justification for secrecy will be strongest when the U.S. government's conduct most clearly violates accepted international norms. Evidence of human rights abuses against foreign nationals, for instance, is particularly likely to spark hostility abroad."10/31/13 tpm Report: Obama Scales Back Eavesdropping Of U.N. Headquarters
"The judge in al-Qahtani's case showed no such restraint. She held that the photos and videos were properly classified because "it (is) both logical and plausible that extremists would utilize images of al-Qahtani ... to incite anti-American sentiment, to raise funds, and/or to recruit other loyalists."
When CCR pointed out that this result was speculative, the judge responded that "it is bad law and bad policy to second-guess the predictive judgments made by the government’s intelligence agencies." In short, the government may classify information, not because that information reveals tactical or operational secrets but because the conduct it reveals could in theory anger existing enemies or create new ones."
The inevitability of leaks:
09/08/13 bb NSA leaks as a demographic phenomena
"Many will also believe in openness, especially the hacker types the NSA needs to recruit."
A new plot line develops: empower the whistleblowers:
09/18/13 jc How the National Security State Creates its own Whistleblowers
10/15/13 bb Freedom of the Press Foundation Launches SecureDrop, an Open-Source Submission Platform for Whistleblowers
10/16/13 du Wikileaks In A Box: SecureDrop Is WhistleBlower Communication Tool For Media
"... the Freedom of the Press Foundation has launched SecureDrop, an anonymous submission tool for secure communications between sources and journalists."10/15/13 bb Greenwald leaves Guardian for new venture backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (updated) Perhaps he anticipates a lot of whistle-blowing. There are certainly a lot of whistles that can be blown.
10/29/13 td Greenwald and Friends Add Two Journalists to News Venture
If Glenn Greenwald's new venture brings whistle-blower reports to the world, he will have perfected the automation of the news-gathering process. And the news will be what it should be.
The NSA, which has had a corner on secrecy, is finding itself surrounded by information vacuums which are sweeping up secrets left and right and releasing them to a global audience.
Knowledge may thrive, but no secrets will survive.
posted by Dan McIntyre at 12:29 PM
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