Zip
Weasel Zippers
6/6/2013
Whoever leaked this to the WaPo better flee the country because Holder is going to come down on them with a vengeance.
The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.
The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy. Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who know about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues…
…The technology companies, which participate knowingly in PRISM operations, include most of the dominant global players of Silicon Valley. They are listed on a roster that bears their logos in order of entry into the program: “Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” PalTalk, although much smaller, has hosted significant traffic during the Arab Spring and in the ongoing Syrian civil war…
The National Security Agency’s monitoring of Americans includes customer records from the three major phone networks as well as emails and Web searches, and the agency also has cataloged credit-card transactions, said people familiar with the agency’s activities.
The disclosure this week of an order by a secret U.S. court for Verizon Communications Inc.’s phone records set off the latest public discussion of the program. But people familiar with the NSA’s operations said the initiative also encompasses phone-call data from AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp., records from Internet-service providers and purchase information from credit-card providers.
The agency is using its secret access to the communications of millions of Americans to target possible terrorists, said people familiar with the effort…
PRISM: “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type.”
…Here’s how the program works. Internet companies are given immunity by the government in exchange for accepting on-demand “directives” from the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence to open their servers to the FBI. In 2008, Congress gave the Department of Justice the ability to force compliance after receiving an order from a Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court. “[C]ollection managers in the NSA’s Special Source Operations group, which oversees the PRISM program, are drawn to the wealth of information about their subjects in online accounts,” the Post reports…
Former Obama National Security Council Spokesperson Mocks Privacy Concerns
On Thursday afternoon, former Obama National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor took to Twitter to mock American concerns about invasions of privacy due to the administration’s blanket surveillance of phone records for Americans…
Three guesses who. Senator ‘Glad’ NSA Gathering YOUR Phone Records
You know the world is inside out when you’re agreeing with Bob Beckel: ‘Fascism’: The Five’s Beckel Explodes At Obama Administration Over ‘Deplorable’ NSA Phone…
…”Sen. Rand Paul today announced he will introduce the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act of 2013, which ensures the Constitutional protections of the Fourth Amendment are not violated by any government entity.”…
…if people do not find these things “astounding” and “shocking,” the President is likely to win…
Update: More perjury: Verizon Scandal: Intel Director Testified in March that Gov. Does Not Collect Data on Americans
Evidently, Clapper lied to Senator Wyden. We’re shocked. Aren’t you?
New York Times quietly changes published editorial to make it less damning of Obama
NSA Inevitability and what Ted Kennedy Knew!
‘I’m glad I’m not going to be around when you guys are my age.’ I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because when you guys are my age, the whole thing is going to fall apart.’ ”
CAJ note: And who endorsed Barack Obama…?
Update 2: Rep. Justin Amash Leads Letter to NSA, FBI on Phone Tracking
…“The astonishing amount of information the government is secretly seizing from Americans should shock anyone who has even a passing interest in privacy, civil liberties, or the Constitution,” said Amash. “The government is vacuuming up data on every call made by every customer of a major phone company. This sort of sweeping surveillance is not even plausibly authorized by statute, let alone the Constitution.”
Twenty-one Representatives signed the letter to Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, and Keith Alexander, the head of the NSA. The letter asks for specific information about the government’s surveillance, including the frequency of the practice and the agencies’ legal justification.
