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May 22 15 9:43 PM
Snowden Calls Ruling Against NSA 'Extraordinarily Encouraging'
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has praised a federal appeals court's ruling that the agency's surveillance program is illegal, saying the decision was "extraordinarily encouraging." As we reported on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd District in New York issued a ruling Thursday that the bulk collection of metadata that Snowden's leaks revealed was not authorized under federal law, including the USA Patriot Act. In an interview on livestream published by Forbes, Snowden, speaking from exile in Russia, called the ruling "significant."
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has praised a federal appeals court's ruling that the agency's surveillance program is illegal, saying the decision was "extraordinarily encouraging."
As we reported on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd District in New York issued a ruling Thursday that the bulk collection of metadata that Snowden's leaks revealed was not authorized under federal law, including the USA Patriot Act.
In an interview on livestream published by Forbes, Snowden, speaking from exile in Russia, called the ruling "significant."
Read more @ http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/08/405252184/snowden-ruling-against-nsa-extraordinarily-encouraging
Paul spoke for more than 10 hours on the floor of the Senate – and he and his colleagues reminded us the Patriot Act can collect a lot more than phone records Republican senator Rand Paul, with the help of Democrat Ron Wyden and several others, held court on the Senate floor for more than 10 and a half hours straight on Wednesday in an attempt to grind the Senate to a halt until the part of the Patriot Act used by the NSA to conduct mass surveillance expires on 1 June. (Although by stepping aside before midnight, it’s unclear if Paul did, in fact, derail the extension of the act). Paul spent a lot of his time eloquently explaining the dangers of secret and suspicionless spying on innocent Americans’ telephone records, but he and his colleagues also made a lot of other great points often lost in the current debate. Here are five: 1. The NSA can use the Patriot Act to collect in bulk a lot more than phone records The controversy over Section 215 of the Patriot Act centers around the NSA’s massive phone metadata program, first revealed by Edward Snowden in the Guardian in 2013, which allows the spy agency to collect the phone records of millions of innocent Americans. But as Wyden emphasized during one of Paul’s short interludes, the NSA also thinks it can use the same law to collect in bulk the cellphone location information of Americans – and it has in the past. The NSA thinks it can essentially turn all our phones into tracking devices 24 hours a day, despite the law saying nothing of the sort. While Wyden said the NSA claims it is not doing this today, he indicated the agency thinks it has the legal authority if it wants to. He strongly suggested the agency also believes it can collect in bulk millions of innocent Americans’ credit card records, medical records, financial and bank records, and gun records, using the same law as well. 2. The USA Freedom Act doesn’t cover everything While there’s debate about how much the USA Freedom Act – the legislation passed by the House of Representatives last week that would replace bulk collection with a system to search the data held by telephone companies on a case-by-case basis – actually reforms the NSA, there are major parts of the spy agency’s legal authority that everyone admits the bill does not amend. Paul repeatedly brought up the Fisa Amendments Act, which is the law underpinning the controversial Prism program – which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats – revealed by Edward Snowden. The NSA also abuses the same law to scan large portions of emails coming in and out of the United States in secret. The USA Freedom Act also doesn’t touch executive order 12333, which governs how the NSA can collect supposedly purely overseas communications. Whistleblower John Napier Tye harshly criticized this order in the Washington Post, saying that based on information he saw as someone with top-secret clearance as a high-ranking State Department official, “Americans should be even more concerned about the collection and storage of their communications under Executive Order 12333 than under Section 215 [of the Patriot Act].” 3. NSA surveillance is used for a lot more than just for terrorism cases Government officials often justify NSA surveillance by claiming it is vital for fighting terrorism, but many of its programs are used for a lot more than just that. Paul brought up the little-cited technique known as “parallel construction”, where the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) gets wiretaps from the NSA and hands over the information to local cops, who then pretend they got the information from somewhere else besides the NSA. The whole point is to prevent courts and judges from ever finding out the information’s origin. Shortly after Snowden’s revelations first started in 2013, Reuters reported that the DEA had regularly laundered intelligence in this unconstitutional manner for years. 4. Using the Patriot Act for mass surveillance is illegal no matter what Congress does Lost in much of the debate over whether or not to reauthorize the Patriot Act is the fact that the historic second circuit court of appeals opinion, released two weeks ago, ruled that it was illegal for the NSA to use the law to conduct mass surveillance at all. Paul brought the opinion up several times over the course of the day, wondering out loud how Congress could even be considering renewing an authority for a program that would be illegal for the NSA to continue anyway.
Paul spoke for more than 10 hours on the floor of the Senate – and he and his colleagues reminded us the Patriot Act can collect a lot more than phone records
Republican senator Rand Paul, with the help of Democrat Ron Wyden and several others, held court on the Senate floor for more than 10 and a half hours straight on Wednesday in an attempt to grind the Senate to a halt until the part of the Patriot Act used by the NSA to conduct mass surveillance expires on 1 June. (Although by stepping aside before midnight, it’s unclear if Paul did, in fact, derail the extension of the act).
Paul spent a lot of his time eloquently explaining the dangers of secret and suspicionless spying on innocent Americans’ telephone records, but he and his colleagues also made a lot of other great points often lost in the current debate. Here are five:
The controversy over Section 215 of the Patriot Act centers around the NSA’s massive phone metadata program, first revealed by Edward Snowden in the Guardian in 2013, which allows the spy agency to collect the phone records of millions of innocent Americans. But as Wyden emphasized during one of Paul’s short interludes, the NSA also thinks it can use the same law to collect in bulk the cellphone location information of Americans – and it has in the past. The NSA thinks it can essentially turn all our phones into tracking devices 24 hours a day, despite the law saying nothing of the sort.
While Wyden said the NSA claims it is not doing this today, he indicated the agency thinks it has the legal authority if it wants to. He strongly suggested the agency also believes it can collect in bulk millions of innocent Americans’ credit card records, medical records, financial and bank records, and gun records, using the same law as well.
While there’s debate about how much the USA Freedom Act – the legislation passed by the House of Representatives last week that would replace bulk collection with a system to search the data held by telephone companies on a case-by-case basis – actually reforms the NSA, there are major parts of the spy agency’s legal authority that everyone admits the bill does not amend.
Paul repeatedly brought up the Fisa Amendments Act, which is the law underpinning the controversial Prism program – which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats – revealed by Edward Snowden. The NSA also abuses the same law to scan large portions of emails coming in and out of the United States in secret.
The USA Freedom Act also doesn’t touch executive order 12333, which governs how the NSA can collect supposedly purely overseas communications. Whistleblower John Napier Tye harshly criticized this order in the Washington Post, saying that based on information he saw as someone with top-secret clearance as a high-ranking State Department official, “Americans should be even more concerned about the collection and storage of their communications under Executive Order 12333 than under Section 215 [of the Patriot Act].”
Government officials often justify NSA surveillance by claiming it is vital for fighting terrorism, but many of its programs are used for a lot more than just that. Paul brought up the little-cited technique known as “parallel construction”, where the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) gets wiretaps from the NSA and hands over the information to local cops, who then pretend they got the information from somewhere else besides the NSA. The whole point is to prevent courts and judges from ever finding out the information’s origin. Shortly after Snowden’s revelations first started in 2013, Reuters reported that the DEA had regularly laundered intelligence in this unconstitutional manner for years.
Lost in much of the debate over whether or not to reauthorize the Patriot Act is the fact that the historic second circuit court of appeals opinion, released two weeks ago, ruled that it was illegal for the NSA to use the law to conduct mass surveillance at all. Paul brought the opinion up several times over the course of the day, wondering out loud how Congress could even be considering renewing an authority for a program that would be illegal for the NSA to continue anyway.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/21/rand-paul-senate-filibuster-nsa-surveillance
Now that the U.S. House has voted to reform the government’s sweeping telephone surveillance program, the Senate should quickly do the same. It’s a first step in a long overdue examination of government snooping on Americans. A determination to keep the country safe from the growing threat of terrorism produced the excesses of the National Security Agency. In the process, the agency not only violated the nation’s fundamental sense of privacy, but it also also resorted to methods deemed illegal by a federal appellate court earlier this month. The reform bill does not contain all the safeguards that privacy advocates want, but it’s a start. It prohibits the NSA’s bulk collection of “metadata,” which charts all the telephone calls made by Americans. Removing the government’s authority to collect the records is a plus, although the bill stops short of denying the information to the government.
Now that the U.S. House has voted to reform the government’s sweeping telephone surveillance program, the Senate should quickly do the same. It’s a first step in a long overdue examination of government snooping on Americans.
A determination to keep the country safe from the growing threat of terrorism produced the excesses of the National Security Agency. In the process, the agency not only violated the nation’s fundamental sense of privacy, but it also also resorted to methods deemed illegal by a federal appellate court earlier this month.
The reform bill does not contain all the safeguards that privacy advocates want, but it’s a start. It prohibits the NSA’s bulk collection of “metadata,” which charts all the telephone calls made by Americans. Removing the government’s authority to collect the records is a plus, although the bill stops short of denying the information to the government.
Read more @ http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article21515952.html
In American Civil Liberties Union v Clapper, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed head-on whether the National Security Agency’s (NSA) secretive bulk collection of every American’s telephone metadata was legal. The court’s answer? The program is not lawful. The court did not just rule the program unlawful; in its 97-page decision, the court gave loud and clear cues to Congress to reform existing intelligence-gathering legislation to both protect citizens' privacy and still provide the government the necessary tools to gather critical information on terrorism. Given the Fourth Amendment and our federal wiretapping legislation – both of which prohibit warrantless government surveillance of our electronic communications – a secretive collection of every American’s telephone call metadata unrelated to a targeted law enforcement investigation by the NSA would seem per se unlawful. So how did something so seemingly simple and clear become so complicated?
In American Civil Liberties Union v Clapper, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed head-on whether the National Security Agency’s (NSA) secretive bulk collection of every American’s telephone metadata was legal.
The court’s answer? The program is not lawful.
The court did not just rule the program unlawful; in its 97-page decision, the court gave loud and clear cues to Congress to reform existing intelligence-gathering legislation to both protect citizens' privacy and still provide the government the necessary tools to gather critical information on terrorism.
Given the Fourth Amendment and our federal wiretapping legislation – both of which prohibit warrantless government surveillance of our electronic communications – a secretive collection of every American’s telephone call metadata unrelated to a targeted law enforcement investigation by the NSA would seem per se unlawful.
So how did something so seemingly simple and clear become so complicated?
Read more @ http://theconversation.com/appeals-court-ruling-urges-congress-to-stop-nsas-mass-scale-surveillance-41546
The U.S. National Security Agency and its allies planned to send infected links to the Google and Samsung mobile app stores in an attempt to monitor smartphones, according to documents made public by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and published by CBC and the Intercept. The pilot project, known as Irritant Horn, would have made it possible for spies from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia to spy on devices around the world without an owners' knowledge.
The U.S. National Security Agency and its allies planned to send infected links to the Google and Samsung mobile app stores in an attempt to monitor smartphones, according to documents made public by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and published by CBC and the Intercept.
The pilot project, known as Irritant Horn, would have made it possible for spies from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia to spy on devices around the world without an owners' knowledge.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com/report-before-snowden-leak-the-nsa-planned-to-hack-google-and-samsung-app-stores-2015-5?IR=T
Spying program Snowden exposed expires June 1 unless reauthorized by Congress. "This has been a very important part of our effort to defend the homeland since 9/11. We know that the terrorists overseas are trying to recruit people in our country to commit atrocities in our country." Those were the words of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The GOP leader was rallying behind his legislation that would prevent the June 1 expiration of the phone metadata spying program Edward Snowden exposed two years ago. McConnell's statement Sunday on ABC's This Week comes days after the House passed a measure known as the USA Freedom Act. Supported by the President Barack Obama administration, the measure would dramatically revise the surveillance program—the first time following the 9/11 terror attacks that lawmakers have voted to reduce the surveillance state. But was McConnell exaggerating? Yes. Well, that is if you believe the Obama-commissioned Privacy and Civil Liberties Board. Last year it concluded that the program didn't help the nation's spies counter terrorism. "Based on information provided to the Board, we have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the telephone records program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation," the board concluded. "Moreover, we are aware of no instance in which the program directly contributed to the discovery of a previously unknown terrorist plot or the disruption of a terrorist attack."
"This has been a very important part of our effort to defend the homeland since 9/11. We know that the terrorists overseas are trying to recruit people in our country to commit atrocities in our country."
Those were the words of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The GOP leader was rallying behind his legislation that would prevent the June 1 expiration of the phone metadata spying program Edward Snowden exposed two years ago.
McConnell's statement Sunday on ABC's This Week comes days after the House passed a measure known as the USA Freedom Act. Supported by the President Barack Obama administration, the measure would dramatically revise the surveillance program—the first time following the 9/11 terror attacks that lawmakers have voted to reduce the surveillance state.
But was McConnell exaggerating?
Yes. Well, that is if you believe the Obama-commissioned Privacy and Civil Liberties Board. Last year it concluded that the program didn't help the nation's spies counter terrorism.
"Based on information provided to the Board, we have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the telephone records program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation," the board concluded. "Moreover, we are aware of no instance in which the program directly contributed to the discovery of a previously unknown terrorist plot or the disruption of a terrorist attack."
Read more @ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/rhetoric-flies-as-deadline-looms-to-renew-bulk-phone-metadata-surveillance/
For U.S. Allies, a Paradigm Shift in Intelligence Collection
Fearful of an expanding extremist threat, countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities with new technology, new laws and -- in at least one case -- a searing debate on how much the American government should be allowed to spy on their own citizens. Responding to a jihadi movement that is successfully recruiting people from around the world, France and Canada are both passing laws that would dramatically ramp up their surveillance apparatus. In France, lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would let the government install "black boxes" to collect metadata from every major phone and Internet company. Canada's measures were rushed through after a two separate attacks in October 2014 on Canadian soldiers -- including one that ended when the gunman stormed Parliament and was shot to death by guards and police. France's law went into high gear after the January terror attacks on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket that left 20 dead, including the gunmen. Analysts say it's not so much a question of diminishing cooperation with the U.S. -- the revelations of Edward Snowden have ultimately done little to harm relationships between allies -- as a push to increase domestic capacities ill-equipped to face the rising threat of Islamic State and other jihadi groups. "These are not people coming from the outside, these are not people who are taking plane trips, they are not people who attracted notice outside our countries. These are people who come from the heart of our society," said Alain Chouet, a former French intelligence official who recently returned from an extended trip to Canada where he debated the measures in both countries. "International cooperation in this area isn't hugely useful."
Fearful of an expanding extremist threat, countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities with new technology, new laws and -- in at least one case -- a searing debate on how much the American government should be allowed to spy on their own citizens.
Responding to a jihadi movement that is successfully recruiting people from around the world, France and Canada are both passing laws that would dramatically ramp up their surveillance apparatus. In France, lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would let the government install "black boxes" to collect metadata from every major phone and Internet company.
Canada's measures were rushed through after a two separate attacks in October 2014 on Canadian soldiers -- including one that ended when the gunman stormed Parliament and was shot to death by guards and police. France's law went into high gear after the January terror attacks on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket that left 20 dead, including the gunmen.
Analysts say it's not so much a question of diminishing cooperation with the U.S. -- the revelations of Edward Snowden have ultimately done little to harm relationships between allies -- as a push to increase domestic capacities ill-equipped to face the rising threat of Islamic State and other jihadi groups.
"These are not people coming from the outside, these are not people who are taking plane trips, they are not people who attracted notice outside our countries. These are people who come from the heart of our society," said Alain Chouet, a former French intelligence official who recently returned from an extended trip to Canada where he debated the measures in both countries. "International cooperation in this area isn't hugely useful."
Read more @ http://www.cio-today.com/article/index.php?story_id=111003TUXMNU
Report by department’s inspector general found that the FBI received from the Fisa court 51 orders for such data between 2007 and 2009 As lawmakers and security agencies braced for a potential loss of the heart of the Patriot Act, a long-delayed Justice Department report showed that the FBI uses the surveillance authorities it provides for “large collections” of Americans’ internet records. Section 215 of the Patriot Act permits the FBI to collect business records, such as medical, educational and tax information or other “tangible things” relevant to an ongoing counter–terrorism or espionage investigation. Since 2006, the NSA had also secretly used it to collect US phone data in bulk. After Edward Snowden’s leaks allowed the Guardian to reveal the phone-records bulk collection in June 2013, deep political opposition coalesced around the bulk program – eclipsing the FBI’s acquisition of other data, which has long been an issue only for civil libertarians. But a Justice Department inspector general’s report finally released on Thursday covering the FBI’s use of Section 215 from 2007 to 2009 found that the bureau is using the business-records authority “to obtain large collections of metadata”, such as “electronic communication transactional information”.
Report by department’s inspector general found that the FBI received from the Fisa court 51 orders for such data between 2007 and 2009
As lawmakers and security agencies braced for a potential loss of the heart of the Patriot Act, a long-delayed Justice Department report showed that the FBI uses the surveillance authorities it provides for “large collections” of Americans’ internet records.
Section 215 of the Patriot Act permits the FBI to collect business records, such as medical, educational and tax information or other “tangible things” relevant to an ongoing counter–terrorism or espionage investigation. Since 2006, the NSA had also secretly used it to collect US phone data in bulk.
After Edward Snowden’s leaks allowed the Guardian to reveal the phone-records bulk collection in June 2013, deep political opposition coalesced around the bulk program – eclipsing the FBI’s acquisition of other data, which has long been an issue only for civil libertarians.
But a Justice Department inspector general’s report finally released on Thursday covering the FBI’s use of Section 215 from 2007 to 2009 found that the bureau is using the business-records authority “to obtain large collections of metadata”, such as “electronic communication transactional information”.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/21/fbi-patriot-act-doj-report
A woman at a gym tells her friend she pays rent higher than $2,000 a month. An ex-Microsoft employee describes his work as an artist to a woman he’s interviewing to be his assistant—he makes paintings and body casts, as well as something to do with infrared light that’s hard to discern from his foreign accent. Another man describes his gay lover’s unusual sexual fetish, which involves engaging in fake fistfights, “like we were doing a scene from Batman Returns.” These conversations—apparently real ones, whose participants had no knowledge an eavesdropper might be listening—were recorded and published by the NSA. Well, actually no, not the NSA, but an anonymous group of anti-NSA protestors claiming to be contractors of the intelligence agency and launching a new “pilot program” in New York City on its behalf. That spoof of a pilot program, as the prankster provocateurs describe and document in videos on their website, involves planting micro-cassette recorders under tables and benches around New York city, retrieving the tapes and embedding the resulting audio on their website: Wearealwayslistening.com.
A woman at a gym tells her friend she pays rent higher than $2,000 a month. An ex-Microsoft employee describes his work as an artist to a woman he’s interviewing to be his assistant—he makes paintings and body casts, as well as something to do with infrared light that’s hard to discern from his foreign accent. Another man describes his gay lover’s unusual sexual fetish, which involves engaging in fake fistfights, “like we were doing a scene from Batman Returns.”
These conversations—apparently real ones, whose participants had no knowledge an eavesdropper might be listening—were recorded and published by the NSA. Well, actually no, not the NSA, but an anonymous group of anti-NSA protestors claiming to be contractors of the intelligence agency and launching a new “pilot program” in New York City on its behalf. That spoof of a pilot program, as the prankster provocateurs describe and document in videos on their website, involves planting micro-cassette recorders under tables and benches around New York city, retrieving the tapes and embedding the resulting audio on their website: Wearealwayslistening.com.
Read more @ http://www.wired.com/2015/05/nsa-pranksters-planted-tape-recorders-nyc/
DEEP in the desert in Utah, the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s signals intelligence branch, has built a $1.5 billion centre to scoop up and analyse data from the internet. The building includes its own water-treatment facility, electric substation and 60 back-up diesel generators. It will use over a million gallons of water a day. Its data-storage capacity would be enough, according to one estimate, to store a year of footage of round-the-clock video-recording of over a million people. At this centre, communications from across the globe are tapped directly from the fibre-optic backbone of the internet. And yet even as these data are gathered, America’s politicians are fretfully discussing how much of the pile government snoops can look at, and under what circumstances. Two years after Edward Snowden, a contractor for the NSA, revealed the extent of it, the technical capacity of America’s surveillance state has never been more dramatic. Its legal capacity, however, is becoming markedly more restricted. In Congress and in the courts, the right of the government to collect the data of Americans is being challenged. Politically, the consensus that this level of surveillance (at least of American citizens) is necessary appears to be breaking down. As The Economist went to press on May 21st, Congress was in a fraught debate about whether and how to renew Section 215 of the Patriot Act—a law passed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of September 11th 2001—which was due to expire. House Republicans, urged on by Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning senator who is running for president, were deadlocked with Republican leaders in the Senate. On May 20th-21st Mr Paul spoke against renewal for 10½ hours, arguing that the act damaged both liberty and privacy. Senate leaders, though, worried about hampering the ability of spooks to spy.
DEEP in the desert in Utah, the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s signals intelligence branch, has built a $1.5 billion centre to scoop up and analyse data from the internet. The building includes its own water-treatment facility, electric substation and 60 back-up diesel generators. It will use over a million gallons of water a day. Its data-storage capacity would be enough, according to one estimate, to store a year of footage of round-the-clock video-recording of over a million people. At this centre, communications from across the globe are tapped directly from the fibre-optic backbone of the internet.
And yet even as these data are gathered, America’s politicians are fretfully discussing how much of the pile government snoops can look at, and under what circumstances. Two years after Edward Snowden, a contractor for the NSA, revealed the extent of it, the technical capacity of America’s surveillance state has never been more dramatic. Its legal capacity, however, is becoming markedly more restricted. In Congress and in the courts, the right of the government to collect the data of Americans is being challenged. Politically, the consensus that this level of surveillance (at least of American citizens) is necessary appears to be breaking down.
As The Economist went to press on May 21st, Congress was in a fraught debate about whether and how to renew Section 215 of the Patriot Act—a law passed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of September 11th 2001—which was due to expire. House Republicans, urged on by Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning senator who is running for president, were deadlocked with Republican leaders in the Senate. On May 20th-21st Mr Paul spoke against renewal for 10½ hours, arguing that the act damaged both liberty and privacy. Senate leaders, though, worried about hampering the ability of spooks to spy.
As the Senate considers the USA Freedom Act this week, policymakers should strengthen it by limiting large-scale collection of records and reinforcing transparency and carrying court reforms further. The Senate should also take care not to weaken the bill, and should reject any amendments that would require companies to retain personal data for longer than is necessary for business purposes. It has been two years since the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden unleashed a steady stream of documents that exposed the intention by the United States and the United Kingdom to “collect it all” in the digital age. These revelations demonstrate how unchecked surveillance can metastasize and undermine democratic institutions if intelligence agencies are allowed to operate in the shadows, without robust legal limits and oversight.
As the Senate considers the USA Freedom Act this week, policymakers should strengthen it by limiting large-scale collection of records and reinforcing transparency and carrying court reforms further. The Senate should also take care not to weaken the bill, and should reject any amendments that would require companies to retain personal data for longer than is necessary for business purposes.
It has been two years since the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden unleashed a steady stream of documents that exposed the intention by the United States and the United Kingdom to “collect it all” in the digital age. These revelations demonstrate how unchecked surveillance can metastasize and undermine democratic institutions if intelligence agencies are allowed to operate in the shadows, without robust legal limits and oversight.
Read more @ http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/nsa-snooping/congress-races-wrap-nsa-bulk-data-collection-debate-n361281
Read more @ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/05/21/buck-sexton-explains-the-debate-over-section-215-of-the-patriot-act-in-just-two-minutes/
Read more @ http://www.salon.com/2015/05/21/9_depressing_predictions_for_the_future_of_america_partner/
The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, voiced his support for the surveillance capabilities of American law enforcers and intelligence agencies on Monday during a speech that also ranked him among the more hawkish likely presidential contenders.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/18/chris-christie-backs-nsa-snooping-hawkish-foreign-policy-speech
We are again facing the fallacy of the false choice. Those who are concerned about protecting the privacy rights of Americans (including this writer) should not have to choose between protection of those rights and avoiding another 9/11 terrorist attack. The National Security Agency went too far when it established a program to collect the bulk metadata of all telephone calls made by Americans, on the thin reed that such collection was “relevant,” as that word was used in Section 215 of the Patriot Act, to finding and preventing terrorist acts in the U.S. But a recent 97-page decision by the New York-based Second Circuit Court of Appeals, applauded by privacy advocates, actually was a narrow legal decision based on statutory construction. The court found that when Congress passed the act that explicitly allowed collection of “relevant” telephone records information of U.S. citizens, the word “relevant” was not intended to mean all records, regardless of whether there was a specific investigation of a possible call from a suspected foreign terrorist or someone affiliated with a terrorist organization. But note that, despite the position taken by supporters of Edward Snowden and other anti-NSA challengers, the Second Circuit panel did not rule that the program was a violation of the Fourth Amendment or in any way unconstitutional. The court decision allowed access to the metadata, with private companies retaining them. It actually seemed to invite the metadata program to continue, while requiring Congress to be more specific in the circumstances and evidence of a terrorist threat justifying a search of the telephone companies’ bulk metadata.
Read more @ http://www.newsmax.com/LannyDavis/Privacy-Protection-Security-NSA/2015/05/21/id/645965/
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
Interact
May 24 15 8:21 AM
http://missionquest.fpb.yuku.com/reply/35383/UK-internet-surveillance-program-in-works#reply-35383
Excerpt:
On May 11, 2006, controversy arose when USA Today revealed that Verizon, along with AT&T Inc. and BellSouth, had turned over the call records of millions of U.S. citizens to the Natíonal Security Agency. Verizon flatly denied turning over records to the government, but did not comment on whether MCI, which it had acquired in January, had done so. On October 12, 2007, the company admitted in a letter to the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce that it had turned over customer information to the FBI and other federal agencies of the U.S. government approximately 94,000 times from January 2005 to September 2007, providing such information 720 times without being presented with a court order or warrant.
Read more @ http://missionquest.fpb.yuku.com/reply/36217/THE-quotI-HATE-VERIZONquot-THREAD#reply-36217
Posts: 1814
May 24 15 10:11 AM
Posts: 14359
May 24 15 12:55 PM
May 24 15 9:53 PM
MOKSHA wrote:How soon does amnesia take effect? and who is it who notices? A
icepick wrote:I have never cared for Ron Paul much, but I'm liking Rand Paul more all the time:http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/rand-paul-2016-nsa-patriot/2015/05/23/id/646470/
May 24 15 10:10 PM
May 25 15 12:15 AM
icepick wrote:How I pray that you are right, and he will be the one to get it. My only remaining question for him regards defense, but I have a hunch he will pass it with flying colors. The media keeps trying to trash him, but he just keeps on landing on the right side of the issues. I knew there had to be one left somewhere.
May 25 15 5:27 AM
May 25 15 10:17 PM
Hi Tim
It occurred to me today that they have spent literally trillions of dollars building these spy organisations….. they built it up over time as new technology became available. Its being going on since I was young…. A long time! I thought that they would never allow the trillions spent to be wasted and would find ways of keeping it going….. then I thought about the inaction over ISIS and wondered if it’s being allowed as a reason to keep the spying going. So I have spent a good deal of my day reading the first thread on the spying….. it’s a real eye opener when you read where it is now at this point in time, two years later. Nothing has changed!! The lies, deceit, innuendoes, threats, denials, distractions/diversions, vying for time …... So far quite a few good stories have disappeared off the internet. No surprise there…. If I hadn’t copied some of the story in each link I would not have remembered any of the content. It has stuck in my mind the comment by Snowden that the spying wasn’t about terrorism…. It was about power, control, economic espionage etc…..
Obama’s Years of Collaboration with Terror Supporters
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/exposed-obamas-years-of-collaboration-with-terror-supporters/
http://www.mic.com/articles/47355/edward-snowden-interview-transcript-full-text-read-the-guardian-s-entire-interview-with-the-man-who-leaked-prism
And recently there was an article on these experts taking huge sums of money from the NSA to give their expert advice.
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/five-eyes-spying-alliance-will-survive-edward-snowden-experts-20130718-hv0xw
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/nsa-police.html
https://theoldspeakjournal.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/upstream-they-know-much-more-than-you-think/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/06/corporate-government-data-collection?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487%C2%A0
Obama says phone spying not abused, will continue
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/23095199/obama-new-oversight-but-no-change-to-spying-power
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-broke-privacy-rules-thousands-of-times-per-year-audit-finds/2013/08/15/3310e554-05ca-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop
May 25 15 10:24 PM
US Senate rejects compromise bill on surveillance reform
Washington: The US Senate has turned back legislation that would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of private telephone records, a secret program first disclosed to Americans by whistleblower Edward Snowden. A procedural vote on the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month and is supported by the White House, failed 57-42. Sixty votes were necessary to proceed with its consideration. The rejection of the compromise legislation was the latest turn in a complex standoff over NSA surveillance powers that has pitted Democrats, House Republican leaders, Senate Republican leaders and a GOP presidential candidate against one another as members of Congress eyed a holiday break this week. If senators do not act before leaving Washington, the legal authority underpinning the NSA's bulk collection of private telephone records will expire at midnight on May 31. The impasse continued late into Friday, after the Senate passed contentious trade legislation, then recessed for several hours to allow the clock to run out on a procedural roadblock to the surveillance legislation.
Washington: The US Senate has turned back legislation that would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of private telephone records, a secret program first disclosed to Americans by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
A procedural vote on the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month and is supported by the White House, failed 57-42. Sixty votes were necessary to proceed with its consideration.
The rejection of the compromise legislation was the latest turn in a complex standoff over NSA surveillance powers that has pitted Democrats, House Republican leaders, Senate Republican leaders and a GOP presidential candidate against one another as members of Congress eyed a holiday break this week.
If senators do not act before leaving Washington, the legal authority underpinning the NSA's bulk collection of private telephone records will expire at midnight on May 31.
The impasse continued late into Friday, after the Senate passed contentious trade legislation, then recessed for several hours to allow the clock to run out on a procedural roadblock to the surveillance legislation.
Read more @ http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-senate-rejects-compromise-bill-on-surveillance-reform-20150523-gh84b4.html
If the room was practically empty that is a good gauge on the type of people that have been voted in to look after the people. If it was their wages that was being talked about the room would have been full.
Yes, the 10 hours and 30 minutes the senator spent speechifying on the Senate floor Wednesday against NSA spying wasn’t technically a filibuster. But that wasn’t the point. From afar, it seemed as though Rand Paul were addressing a crowded stadium. His voice boomed through the Senate chamber on Wednesday afternoon as he argued against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act during what he described as a filibuster. “We think collecting everyone’s phone records all the time without suspicions is sort of like a general warrant,” he said of himself and his allies on the issue, like fellow Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). “We think that the American people also believe this.” Up close, the production felt much smaller than that. The Kentucky senator was, in fact, addressing a nearly vacant room. He stood mostly alone, but often flanked on either side by an aide, behind a row of desks. Three binders of notes, highlighted in yellow and blue and bookmarked with Post-Its, were arrayed in front of him across three desks. He fiddled with two pairs of eyeglasses, placing one pair in a drawer; he changed from leather Cole Haan dress shoes into gray running sneakers (keeping the dress shoes underneath the desk); he refused the glass of water in front of him, which was regularly refreshed by a staffer. He yammered on and on, sometimes stopping to breathe and rest his voice by allowing a guest star, like Wyden or Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), to echo his anti-spying sentiment. Small groups of visitors filed in and out to peer from the balcony at the tiny spectacle beneath them.
Yes, the 10 hours and 30 minutes the senator spent speechifying on the Senate floor Wednesday against NSA spying wasn’t technically a filibuster. But that wasn’t the point.
From afar, it seemed as though Rand Paul were addressing a crowded stadium.
His voice boomed through the Senate chamber on Wednesday afternoon as he argued against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act during what he described as a filibuster. “We think collecting everyone’s phone records all the time without suspicions is sort of like a general warrant,” he said of himself and his allies on the issue, like fellow Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). “We think that the American people also believe this.”
Up close, the production felt much smaller than that.
The Kentucky senator was, in fact, addressing a nearly vacant room. He stood mostly alone, but often flanked on either side by an aide, behind a row of desks. Three binders of notes, highlighted in yellow and blue and bookmarked with Post-Its, were arrayed in front of him across three desks.
He fiddled with two pairs of eyeglasses, placing one pair in a drawer; he changed from leather Cole Haan dress shoes into gray running sneakers (keeping the dress shoes underneath the desk); he refused the glass of water in front of him, which was regularly refreshed by a staffer.
He yammered on and on, sometimes stopping to breathe and rest his voice by allowing a guest star, like Wyden or Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), to echo his anti-spying sentiment. Small groups of visitors filed in and out to peer from the balcony at the tiny spectacle beneath them.
Read more @ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/21/rand-paul-will-hate-the-nsa-until-you-love-him.html
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, wading into a key debate before Congress, said Sunday the government should get a warrant before it snoops on email and phone calls or collects wide swaths of call data. Mr. Huckabee said the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of phone data and far-reaching spying powers appear to override the “fundamental” balance of powers between governmental branches. The executive branch should have probable cause before it snoops on Americans, he told “Fox News Sunday.” Plus, government reports say the secret bulk collection program disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden hasn’t had a direct effect on protecting the homeland. “If this is so effective, why hasn’t it been connected to the foiling of terrorist plots?” Mr. Huckabee asked Fox’s Chris Wallace.
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, wading into a key debate before Congress, said Sunday the government should get a warrant before it snoops on email and phone calls or collects wide swaths of call data.
Mr. Huckabee said the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of phone data and far-reaching spying powers appear to override the “fundamental” balance of powers between governmental branches. The executive branch should have probable cause before it snoops on Americans, he told “Fox News Sunday.”
Plus, government reports say the secret bulk collection program disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden hasn’t had a direct effect on protecting the homeland.
“If this is so effective, why hasn’t it been connected to the foiling of terrorist plots?” Mr. Huckabee asked Fox’s Chris Wallace.
Read more @ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/24/mike-huckabee-on-nsa-want-to-snoop-get-a-warrant/
In American Civil Liberties Union v Clapper, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed head-on whether the National Security Agency’s (NSA) secretive bulk collection of every American’s telephone metadata was legal. The court’s answer? The program is not lawful. The court did not just rule the program unlawful; in its 97-page decision, the court gave loud and clear cues to Congress to reform existing intelligence-gathering legislation to both protect citizens' privacy and still provide the government the necessary tools to gather critical information on terrorism. Given the Fourth Amendment and our federal wiretapping legislation – both of which prohibit warrantless government surveillance of our electronic communications – a secretive collection of every American’s telephone call metadata unrelated to a targeted law enforcement investigation by the NSA would seem per se unlawful. So how did something so seemingly simple and clear become so complicated? The tension between national security and domestic security The problem starts with the inherent tension between the executive branch’s power to protect national security on the one hand and to enforce domestic security on the other. The law regulates and restricts in very different ways the executive branch’s authority to engage in these two distinct activities.
The problem starts with the inherent tension between the executive branch’s power to protect national security on the one hand and to enforce domestic security on the other. The law regulates and restricts in very different ways the executive branch’s authority to engage in these two distinct activities.
The Patriot Act as we know it is in trouble. Passed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the act has been used to justify controversial national security programs — including the National Security Agency’s bulk collection and storage of Americans’ call records. Before the act’s expiration on June 1, a coalition of Democrats and a few libertarian-minded Republicans are threatening to block renewal efforts unless the NSA’s dragnet spying program is significantly curtailed. If Congress fails to reauthorize the act, the NSA would be forced to shutter the controversial program. The NSA has already begun winding down the program. On Wednesday, the Justice Department circulated a memo warning lawmakers that the NSA had begun shutting down the program in preparation for the law’s expiration on June 1.
The Patriot Act as we know it is in trouble.
Passed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the act has been used to justify controversial national security programs — including the National Security Agency’s bulk collection and storage of Americans’ call records.
Before the act’s expiration on June 1, a coalition of Democrats and a few libertarian-minded Republicans are threatening to block renewal efforts unless the NSA’s dragnet spying program is significantly curtailed.
If Congress fails to reauthorize the act, the NSA would be forced to shutter the controversial program.
The NSA has already begun winding down the program. On Wednesday, the Justice Department circulated a memo warning lawmakers that the NSA had begun shutting down the program in preparation for the law’s expiration on June 1.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/what-will-happen-if-the-patriot-act-isnt-renewed-2015-5
The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) yesterday released another report on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of Section 215 of the Patriot Act between 2007 and 2009. The report was long delayed due to declassification and redaction issues, but the timing is appropriate considering that the Senate is spending the waning hours of its legislative session considering the impending expiration of Section 215. That’s because the OIG report heightens the case for meaningful reform of the intelligence community by undermining many of the flimsy defenses offered by defenders of the status quo. Above all, the report demonstrates that secrecy and lack of oversight in the administration of surveillance laws is perhaps as significant as outright misuse. Section 215 is most famously the authority that the National Security Agency claims allows it to conduct mass collection of Americans’ telephone records. A federal appeals court recently ruled that this interpretation was “unprecedented and unwarranted” and that the NSA’s program was illegal. However, the FBI is actually the agency that administers the law, presenting applications for the collection of information to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) on behalf of NSA, as well as the FBI itself.
The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) yesterday released another report on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of Section 215 of the Patriot Act between 2007 and 2009. The report was long delayed due to declassification and redaction issues, but the timing is appropriate considering that the Senate is spending the waning hours of its legislative session considering the impending expiration of Section 215.
That’s because the OIG report heightens the case for meaningful reform of the intelligence community by undermining many of the flimsy defenses offered by defenders of the status quo. Above all, the report demonstrates that secrecy and lack of oversight in the administration of surveillance laws is perhaps as significant as outright misuse.
Section 215 is most famously the authority that the National Security Agency claims allows it to conduct mass collection of Americans’ telephone records. A federal appeals court recently ruled that this interpretation was “unprecedented and unwarranted” and that the NSA’s program was illegal. However, the FBI is actually the agency that administers the law, presenting applications for the collection of information to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) on behalf of NSA, as well as the FBI itself.
Read more @ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/oversight-report-fbis-use-patriot-act-highlights-need-intelligence-reform-crucial
I don’t know what planet that this Judge lives on…..?? I am thinking if he has to read 70 pages of information each time he has a case, and he says he had 40 cases a week, then its human nature to cut corners…. And lightly skim over things. And I am betting also that he had no idea about technology and what it can do.
Washington (CNN)For years, federal Judge Reggie Walton served on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which repeatedly approved the U.S. government's requests to collect telephone metadata on millions of Americans. Walton also served as the FISA court's presiding judge. And he was tapped to lead the court just months before former NSA contractor Edward Snowden unleashed an era of intense public scrutiny and attention toward the court. He left the FISA court last year after a 7-year stint. Here is a lightly edited transcript of CNN's interview with Walton, the court's only former presiding judge who served during and after the Snowden leaks. CNN: How many cases did you preside over while you were on the FISA court? And how demanding was the job? Reggie Walton: I can't really calculate how many cases it was. Over the course of a week you would probably hear 40 cases. It's very demanding. Information that is submitted by the government is 50, 60, 70 pages or more. And obviously you have to read more information to familiarize yourself with what the government is requesting. CNN: What was your top concern as the FISA Court's chief judge? National security or civil liberties? Walton: I think it's a combination of both, which makes the job very demanding.
Washington (CNN)For years, federal Judge Reggie Walton served on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which repeatedly approved the U.S. government's requests to collect telephone metadata on millions of Americans.
Walton also served as the FISA court's presiding judge. And he was tapped to lead the court just months before former NSA contractor Edward Snowden unleashed an era of intense public scrutiny and attention toward the court.
He left the FISA court last year after a 7-year stint.
Here is a lightly edited transcript of CNN's interview with Walton, the court's only former presiding judge who served during and after the Snowden leaks.
CNN: How many cases did you preside over while you were on the FISA court? And how demanding was the job?
Reggie Walton: I can't really calculate how many cases it was. Over the course of a week you would probably hear 40 cases.
It's very demanding. Information that is submitted by the government is 50, 60, 70 pages or more. And obviously you have to read more information to familiarize yourself with what the government is requesting.
CNN: What was your top concern as the FISA Court's chief judge? National security or civil liberties?
Walton: I think it's a combination of both, which makes the job very demanding.
Read more @ http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/22/politics/nsa-surveillance-fisa-judge-reggie-walton/
Obama and other NSA defenders insist there are robust limitations on surveillance but the documents show otherwise
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/19/fisa-court-oversight-process-secrecy
After reading a few news articles on how much different people get for backing the spying…. Its hard to trust anyone who is backing it….. the question is in the back of your mind all the time when you read articles like this….. "how much are they getting?"
Senators on Friday raced their own holiday-imposed deadline for preserving key Patriot Act powers, with Democrats accusing Republican leaders of trying to force a choice between having to back the NSA’s controversial bulk collection powers or else letting other wiretapping and lone-wolf terrorism tools expire. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican trying to force the choice, said the blame instead lies with an Obama administration ready to scrap the National Security Agency’s phone-snooping program without having a viable backup in place. “This is beyond troubling,” Mr. McConnell said, reading out President Obama’s own words last year defending the NSA program’s capabilities as “critical” to the fight against terrorists, and wondering what changed between then and now, when Mr. Obama has called on Congress to scrap the Patriot Act’s bulk collection powers, which would end the NSA program. Mr. Obama could end the program himself, but has refused so far to do so, instead demanding Capitol Hill do it through legislation. House lawmakers, on a bipartisan basis, have agreed, passing the USA Freedom Act, which would prohibit government bulk data collection. That bill passed 338-88 with the blessing of House Speaker John A. Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Senators on Friday raced their own holiday-imposed deadline for preserving key Patriot Act powers, with Democrats accusing Republican leaders of trying to force a choice between having to back the NSA’s controversial bulk collection powers or else letting other wiretapping and lone-wolf terrorism tools expire.
But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican trying to force the choice, said the blame instead lies with an Obama administration ready to scrap the National Security Agency’s phone-snooping program without having a viable backup in place.
“This is beyond troubling,” Mr. McConnell said, reading out President Obama’s own words last year defending the NSA program’s capabilities as “critical” to the fight against terrorists, and wondering what changed between then and now, when Mr. Obama has called on Congress to scrap the Patriot Act’s bulk collection powers, which would end the NSA program.
Mr. Obama could end the program himself, but has refused so far to do so, instead demanding Capitol Hill do it through legislation. House lawmakers, on a bipartisan basis, have agreed, passing the USA Freedom Act, which would prohibit government bulk data collection. That bill passed 338-88 with the blessing of House Speaker John A. Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Read more @ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/22/fight-over-nsa-snooping-patriot-act-goes-down-wire/?page=all
I mentioned in the first or second thread on this subject that they would stall for time to give them time to build up the spying in other countries….. and it seems to be the case. Australia, NZ, Canada, Iceland and Europe have taken up the reins so they can still do whatever they want to do.
FONTAINEBLEAU, France — From this side of the Atlantic, developments in the government surveillance debate look a little disorienting. Over in Washington, supposedly the great innovator in “1984”-style surveillance, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., just spoke for 11 hours against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. A week earlier, the House overwhelmingly voted to limit the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection, which might force the agency to shut down, at least temporarily, its most controversial surveillance programs. And earlier this month, a federal appeals court unanimously declared much of the NSA’s work to be illegal. The United States, in other words, seems to be in the process of modestly scaling back its surveillance state. But here in France — and in other European countries that have so fastidiously guarded privacy rights and so roundly condemned U.S. violations of those rights — the surveillance state is growing. Big Brother, meet Grand Frere. Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA were met with furor in the European Union two years ago. How outrageous yet how very American it seemed that the Yanks had such little regard for the privacy of millions swept into their digital dragnets. After all, in the European Union, unlike in the United States, privacy is an explicit human right. Its inclusion in the European Convention on Human Rights was partly motivated by Europe’s own harrowing experiences with trench-coated secret police, but in practice it has disproportionately imprinted itself upon the jurisprudence applied to private companies. Compared with the United States, Europe generally has more muscular laws regarding what information companies can track, use and retain, as evidenced by, for example, the many cookie alerts you see when surfing the Web here. Peculiarly, though, over the years there has been relatively little regulation surrounding what data European governments should be allowed to collect and what they could do with that data. Until now. And the answer appears to be: Perhaps even more than what the big, bad United States can do.
FONTAINEBLEAU, France — From this side of the Atlantic, developments in the government surveillance debate look a little disorienting.
Over in Washington, supposedly the great innovator in “1984”-style surveillance, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., just spoke for 11 hours against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. A week earlier, the House overwhelmingly voted to limit the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection, which might force the agency to shut down, at least temporarily, its most controversial surveillance programs. And earlier this month, a federal appeals court unanimously declared much of the NSA’s work to be illegal.
The United States, in other words, seems to be in the process of modestly scaling back its surveillance state. But here in France — and in other European countries that have so fastidiously guarded privacy rights and so roundly condemned U.S. violations of those rights — the surveillance state is growing.
Big Brother, meet Grand Frere.
Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA were met with furor in the European Union two years ago. How outrageous yet how very American it seemed that the Yanks had such little regard for the privacy of millions swept into their digital dragnets.
After all, in the European Union, unlike in the United States, privacy is an explicit human right. Its inclusion in the European Convention on Human Rights was partly motivated by Europe’s own harrowing experiences with trench-coated secret police, but in practice it has disproportionately imprinted itself upon the jurisprudence applied to private companies. Compared with the United States, Europe generally has more muscular laws regarding what information companies can track, use and retain, as evidenced by, for example, the many cookie alerts you see when surfing the Web here.
Peculiarly, though, over the years there has been relatively little regulation surrounding what data European governments should be allowed to collect and what they could do with that data.
Until now. And the answer appears to be: Perhaps even more than what the big, bad United States can do.
Read more @ http://lacrossetribune.com/news/opinion/catherine-rampell-big-brother-finds-home-in-europe/article_ecd5c6c8-a886-5b88-ad05-55eb8b5e06c0.html
America’s Allies Want Their Own NSA Alternatives
Countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities. PARIS — Fearful of an expanding extremist threat, countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities with new technology, new laws and — in at least one case — a searing debate on how much the American government should be allowed to spy on their own citizens. Responding to a jihadi movement that is successfully recruiting people from around the world, France and Canada are both passing laws that would dramatically ramp up their intelligence apparatus. In France, lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would let the government install “black boxes” to collect metadata from every major phone and Internet company. Canada’s measures were rushed through after a two separate attacks in October 2014 on Canadian soldiers — including one that ended when the gunman stormed Parliament and was shot to death by guards and police. France’s law went into high gear after the January terror attacks on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket that left 20 dead, including the gunmen. Analysts say it’s not so much a question of diminishing cooperation with the U.S. — the revelations of Edward Snowden have ultimately done little to harm relationships between allies — as a push to increase domestic capacities ill-equipped to face the rising threat of Islamic State and other jihadi groups.
Countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities.
PARIS — Fearful of an expanding extremist threat, countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities with new technology, new laws and — in at least one case — a searing debate on how much the American government should be allowed to spy on their own citizens.
Responding to a jihadi movement that is successfully recruiting people from around the world, France and Canada are both passing laws that would dramatically ramp up their intelligence apparatus. In France, lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would let the government install “black boxes” to collect metadata from every major phone and Internet company.
Canada’s measures were rushed through after a two separate attacks in October 2014 on Canadian soldiers — including one that ended when the gunman stormed Parliament and was shot to death by guards and police. France’s law went into high gear after the January terror attacks on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket that left 20 dead, including the gunmen.
Analysts say it’s not so much a question of diminishing cooperation with the U.S. — the revelations of Edward Snowden have ultimately done little to harm relationships between allies — as a push to increase domestic capacities ill-equipped to face the rising threat of Islamic State and other jihadi groups.
Read more @ http://www.mintpressnews.com/americas-allies-want-their-own-nsa-alternatives/205824/
PARIS (AP) " Fearful of an expanding extremist threat, countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities with new technology, new laws and " in at least one case " a searing debate on how much the American government should be allowed to spy on their own citizens. Responding to a jihadi movement that is successfully recruiting people from around the world, France and Canada are both passing laws that would dramatically ramp up their surveillance apparatus. In France, lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would let the government install "black boxes" to collect metadata from every major phone and Internet company. Canada's measures were rushed through after a two separate attacks in October 2014 on Canadian soldiers " including one that ended when the gunman stormed Parliament and was shot to death by guards and police. France's law went into high gear after the January terror attacks on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket that left 20 dead, including the gunmen. Analysts say it's not so much a question of diminishing cooperation with the U.S. " the revelations of Edward Snowden have ultimately done little to harm relationships between allies " as a push to increase domestic capacities ill-equipped to face the rising threat of Islamic State and other jihadi groups.
PARIS (AP) " Fearful of an expanding extremist threat, countries that for years have relied heavily on U.S. intelligence are quickly building up their own capabilities with new technology, new laws and " in at least one case " a searing debate on how much the American government should be allowed to spy on their own citizens.
Canada's measures were rushed through after a two separate attacks in October 2014 on Canadian soldiers " including one that ended when the gunman stormed Parliament and was shot to death by guards and police. France's law went into high gear after the January terror attacks on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket that left 20 dead, including the gunmen.
Analysts say it's not so much a question of diminishing cooperation with the U.S. " the revelations of Edward Snowden have ultimately done little to harm relationships between allies " as a push to increase domestic capacities ill-equipped to face the rising threat of Islamic State and other jihadi groups.
Read more @ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11452105
Edward Snowden, former NSA infrastructure analyst turned whistleblower, spoke on May 15 to Cubberley Auditorium to discuss the philosophical tensions of whistleblowing and government surveillance. The 2015 Symbolic Systems Distinguished Speaker, Snowden spoke via video conference from Moscow. Professors of philosophy John Perry and Kenneth Taylor moderated the discussion, part of which also served as a recording of “Philosophy Talk,” a nationally-syndicated radio program which grapples with problems in philosophy and how philosophy relates to our everyday lives. After brief introductions by Perry and Taylor, Snowden addressed the dilemmas in whistleblowing and his thoughts on his situation. Taylor asked whether he sees himself as a hero or a traitor, considering the various depictions presented by the government and media. “This is a really common question that’s asked a lot,” he said. “I think it’s got one of the least interesting answers. I don’t think about myself or how I will be perceived. It’s not about me. It’s about us. I’m not a hero. I’m not a traitor. I’m an ordinary American like anyone else in the room. I’m just trying to do the best that I can.” Snowden, who currently resides in Russia under asylum, proceeded to discuss the cost-benefit analysis that whistleblowers must consider before leaking information. “I certainly paid for it,” he said. “I lived in Hawaii, had a wonderful girlfriend, a home, a happy family, a successful career. To walk away from that it does require a real commitment to something…I think the driving principle is that you have to have a greater commitment to justice than a fear of the law.”
Edward Snowden, former NSA infrastructure analyst turned whistleblower, spoke on May 15 to Cubberley Auditorium to discuss the philosophical tensions of whistleblowing and government surveillance. The 2015 Symbolic Systems Distinguished Speaker, Snowden spoke via video conference from Moscow.
Professors of philosophy John Perry and Kenneth Taylor moderated the discussion, part of which also served as a recording of “Philosophy Talk,” a nationally-syndicated radio program which grapples with problems in philosophy and how philosophy relates to our everyday lives.
After brief introductions by Perry and Taylor, Snowden addressed the dilemmas in whistleblowing and his thoughts on his situation. Taylor asked whether he sees himself as a hero or a traitor, considering the various depictions presented by the government and media.
“This is a really common question that’s asked a lot,” he said. “I think it’s got one of the least interesting answers. I don’t think about myself or how I will be perceived. It’s not about me. It’s about us. I’m not a hero. I’m not a traitor. I’m an ordinary American like anyone else in the room. I’m just trying to do the best that I can.”
Snowden, who currently resides in Russia under asylum, proceeded to discuss the cost-benefit analysis that whistleblowers must consider before leaking information.
“I certainly paid for it,” he said. “I lived in Hawaii, had a wonderful girlfriend, a home, a happy family, a successful career. To walk away from that it does require a real commitment to something…I think the driving principle is that you have to have a greater commitment to justice than a fear of the law.”
Read more @ http://www.stanforddaily.com/2015/05/18/edward-snowden-talks-ethics-of-whistleblowing/
May 27 15 3:10 PM
Apple co-founder says the NSA whistleblower “gave up his own life . . . to help the rest of us” Steve Wozniak reaffirmed his staunch support for digital privacy in an interview over the weekend in which the Apple co-founder called National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden “a hero.” Wozniak, who helped build Apple AAPL -2.07% with Steve Jobs before leaving the tech giant in the mid-1980’s, has expressed an affinity for Snowden in the past. Over the weekend, Wozniak reiterated his admiration for Snowden in an interview with ArabianBusiness.com in which the inventor said Snowden “gave up his own life . . . to help the rest of us.”
Apple co-founder says the NSA whistleblower “gave up his own life . . . to help the rest of us”
Steve Wozniak reaffirmed his staunch support for digital privacy in an interview over the weekend in which the Apple co-founder called National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden “a hero.”
Wozniak, who helped build Apple AAPL -2.07% with Steve Jobs before leaving the tech giant in the mid-1980’s, has expressed an affinity for Snowden in the past. Over the weekend, Wozniak reiterated his admiration for Snowden in an interview with ArabianBusiness.com in which the inventor said Snowden “gave up his own life . . . to help the rest of us.”
Read more @ http://fortune.com/2015/05/26/steve-wozniak-edward-snowden/
And "Woz" is equally approachable for normal people. He speaks passionately about everything and does not appear to edit himself. When we start to talk about privacy and I ask him whether he thinks NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is a hero or a villain his answer is prompt and unabashed. "Total hero to me; total hero," he gushes. "Not necessarily [for] what he exposed, but the fact that he internally came from his own heart, his own belief in the United States Constitution, what democracy and freedom was about. And now a federal judge has said that NSA data collection was unconstitutional." Snowden, who revealed classified NSA documents to reporters in 2013, is a fugitive from US prosecutors, living on a temporary visa in Russia, another nation he has criticised for its approach to privacy. The judgement Wozniak refers to is that of a federal court in New York, which earlier this month found Section 215 of the US Patriot Act, which authorised the mass surveillance programmes exposed by Snowden, to be insufficient grounds for justifying the NSA's collection of domestic communications data. "So he's a hero to me, because he gave up his own life to do it," says Wozniak. "And he was a young person, to give up his life. But he did it for reasons of trying to help the rest of us and not just mess up a company he didn't like."
And "Woz" is equally approachable for normal people. He speaks passionately about everything and does not appear to edit himself. When we start to talk about privacy and I ask him whether he thinks NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is a hero or a villain his answer is prompt and unabashed.
"Total hero to me; total hero," he gushes. "Not necessarily [for] what he exposed, but the fact that he internally came from his own heart, his own belief in the United States Constitution, what democracy and freedom was about. And now a federal judge has said that NSA data collection was unconstitutional."
Snowden, who revealed classified NSA documents to reporters in 2013, is a fugitive from US prosecutors, living on a temporary visa in Russia, another nation he has criticised for its approach to privacy. The judgement Wozniak refers to is that of a federal court in New York, which earlier this month found Section 215 of the US Patriot Act, which authorised the mass surveillance programmes exposed by Snowden, to be insufficient grounds for justifying the NSA's collection of domestic communications data.
"So he's a hero to me, because he gave up his own life to do it," says Wozniak. "And he was a young person, to give up his life. But he did it for reasons of trying to help the rest of us and not just mess up a company he didn't like."
Read more @ http://www.arabianbusiness.com/steve-wozniak-us-would-look-like-dubai-if-it-didn-t-spend-all-its-money-on-military--593703.html#.VWUvbUbdfxJ
Edward Snowden's impact on how we look at security and privacy cannot be understated. Even today, years later, we're still learning more and more about the extent of government surveillance. He has fundamentally changed how we look at and talk about the internet. Given his knowledge of how the world wide web works, surely he must've seen this coming.
Edward Snowden's impact on how we look at security and privacy cannot be understated. Even today, years later, we're still learning more and more about the extent of government surveillance. He has fundamentally changed how we look at and talk about the internet.
Given his knowledge of how the world wide web works, surely he must've seen this coming.
Read more @ http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2015/5/21/8638361/edward-snowden-meme
He talked about Rand Paul, too In case you were curious, Edward Snowden still enjoys pizza in Russia. “Do you miss pizza? Favorite thing about Russia so far? If you could be an insect, which would you be and why?” a Reddit user asked Snowden in a recent AMA, or “Ask Me Anything.” Snowden’s response was short and sweet: “This guy gets it. Russia has Papa John’s. For real.” But Snowden also took the opportunity to answer questions on more serious subjects. After all, the conversation was centered around Section 215 of the Patriot Act. That’s one section Snowden brought to the public’s attention in 2013 when he leaked information about the NSA’s telephone records collection program. Snowden took the AMA opportunity to respond to a question about Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster against the Patriot Act. Snowden wrote: It represents a sea change from a few years ago, when intrusive new surveillance laws were passed without any kind of meaningful opposition or debate. Whatever you think about Rand Paul or his politics, it’s important to remember that when he took the floor to say “No” to any length of reauthorization of the Patriot Act, he was speaking for the majority of Americans — more than 60% of whom want to see this kind of mass surveillance reformed or ended. Snowden conducted the Reddit conversation along with Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the ACLU.
In case you were curious, Edward Snowden still enjoys pizza in Russia.
“Do you miss pizza? Favorite thing about Russia so far? If you could be an insect, which would you be and why?” a Reddit user asked Snowden in a recent AMA, or “Ask Me Anything.” Snowden’s response was short and sweet: “This guy gets it. Russia has Papa John’s. For real.”
But Snowden also took the opportunity to answer questions on more serious subjects. After all, the conversation was centered around Section 215 of the Patriot Act. That’s one section Snowden brought to the public’s attention in 2013 when he leaked information about the NSA’s telephone records collection program.
Snowden took the AMA opportunity to respond to a question about Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster against the Patriot Act. Snowden wrote:
It represents a sea change from a few years ago, when intrusive new surveillance laws were passed without any kind of meaningful opposition or debate. Whatever you think about Rand Paul or his politics, it’s important to remember that when he took the floor to say “No” to any length of reauthorization of the Patriot Act, he was speaking for the majority of Americans — more than 60% of whom want to see this kind of mass surveillance reformed or ended.
Snowden conducted the Reddit conversation along with Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the ACLU.
Read more @ http://time.com/3892891/edward-snowden-pizza/
In an exclusive interview from Moscow, Snowden cautions that more needs to be done to curb NSA surveillance two years after his disclosures Edward Snowden has hailed landmark shifts in Congress and the US courts on NSA surveillance but cautioned that much more needs to be done to restore the balance in favour of privacy. He also warned this was only the beginning of reform of the NSA, saying there are still many bulk collection programmes which are “even more intrusive”, but expressed hope that the Senate would act to curb the NSA, saying retention of the status quo is untenable. In an hour-long interview with the Guardian in Moscow, the NSA whistleblower said the moves by the federal court and the House of Representatives marked the first time since the 1970s there had been a reduction rather than expansion in the powers of the surveillance agencies. “In our modern era, that is without precedent,” he said.
In an exclusive interview from Moscow, Snowden cautions that more needs to be done to curb NSA surveillance two years after his disclosures
Edward Snowden has hailed landmark shifts in Congress and the US courts on NSA surveillance but cautioned that much more needs to be done to restore the balance in favour of privacy.
He also warned this was only the beginning of reform of the NSA, saying there are still many bulk collection programmes which are “even more intrusive”, but expressed hope that the Senate would act to curb the NSA, saying retention of the status quo is untenable.
In an hour-long interview with the Guardian in Moscow, the NSA whistleblower said the moves by the federal court and the House of Representatives marked the first time since the 1970s there had been a reduction rather than expansion in the powers of the surveillance agencies.
“In our modern era, that is without precedent,” he said.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/22/edward-snowden-nsa-reform
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks exclusively to the Guardian about why he's working harder now than ever before; how good it feels to be a 'small part of something important'; and why he believes there is still so much more he wants to accomplish. In regards to people's privacy, he argues that it is about more than just changing laws and systems, but actually people's values
Watch the video @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/may/22/edward-snowden-work-not-finished-video
Watch the video @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/may/22/edward-snowden-rights-to-privacy-video
Right or wrong, the leaks of classified information by Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) shook things up. Some people look at what Mr. Snowden did and call him a traitor, others a modern day Daniel Ellsberg – a hero of free speech and democracy. The debate is highly polarized. One thing most people can agree on is that, at a more abstract level, the very possibility of having whistleblowers is a good thing. When government actions are excessive, abusive, or just outright wrong, it is comforting to know there could be whistleblowers with the courage and opportunity to stand up and call a spade a spade. Free and democratic societies need the possibility of whistleblowers. Unfortunately, Mr. Snowden and Ms. Manning might be the last whistleblowers of this generation – if not longer. Why, you might ask? The answer is simple: big data. Big data is the aggregation of everything we do online. It includes everything we search for, view, chuckle at and share online. Big data also increasingly includes information collected by the Internet of Things (IoT), which tracks our movements, health and habits. Taking all this information together paints a tremendously accurate picture of what a person is like, where they go, who they associate with, and, most extraordinarily, what they are likely to do. Herein lies the problem for the possibility of whistleblowing. As recently as 2014, employees and external contractors for the U.S. government who received “secret clearance” were subject to a reinvestigation every 10 years. Even those with “top-secret clearance” were investigated only every five years. Plenty can change within five years and even more in 10, including someone’s willingness to keep government secrets.
Right or wrong, the leaks of classified information by Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) shook things up. Some people look at what Mr. Snowden did and call him a traitor, others a modern day Daniel Ellsberg – a hero of free speech and democracy. The debate is highly polarized.
One thing most people can agree on is that, at a more abstract level, the very possibility of having whistleblowers is a good thing. When government actions are excessive, abusive, or just outright wrong, it is comforting to know there could be whistleblowers with the courage and opportunity to stand up and call a spade a spade. Free and democratic societies need the possibility of whistleblowers.
Unfortunately, Mr. Snowden and Ms. Manning might be the last whistleblowers of this generation – if not longer. Why, you might ask? The answer is simple: big data.
Big data is the aggregation of everything we do online. It includes everything we search for, view, chuckle at and share online. Big data also increasingly includes information collected by the Internet of Things (IoT), which tracks our movements, health and habits. Taking all this information together paints a tremendously accurate picture of what a person is like, where they go, who they associate with, and, most extraordinarily, what they are likely to do.
Herein lies the problem for the possibility of whistleblowing. As recently as 2014, employees and external contractors for the U.S. government who received “secret clearance” were subject to a reinvestigation every 10 years. Even those with “top-secret clearance” were investigated only every five years. Plenty can change within five years and even more in 10, including someone’s willingness to keep government secrets.
Read more @ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/why-edward-snowden-may-be-the-last-whistleblower/article24541171/
Magna Carta is regarded as one of the foundation documents of western democracy, and its 800th birthday is coming up next month. That's what prompted prize-winning artist Cornelia Parker to recruit some famous names, including Edward Snowden, to celebrate the creation of the document in a very unique way. Rather than re-create the original document, Parker decided to go off in a slightly different direction, by hand-stitching a version of the Wikipedia page on the topic. Sorry, what? Yes, the 13-meter long piece is a faithful recreation of the Wikipedia page on Magna Carta, as it looked at some point in 2014. The majority of the piece was handmade by UK prisoners on rehabilitation programs, but notable names from other fields were asked to contribute as well. In addition to Edward Snowden, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange added words, the latter opting for "freedom" for some reason. Magna Carta (An Embroidery) will be on show at the British Library in London until July 24th, after which point we hope that Parker gets on with a sequel piece recording the arguments buried on the Talk page.
Magna Carta is regarded as one of the foundation documents of western democracy, and its 800th birthday is coming up next month. That's what prompted prize-winning artist Cornelia Parker to recruit some famous names, including Edward Snowden, to celebrate the creation of the document in a very unique way. Rather than re-create the original document, Parker decided to go off in a slightly different direction, by hand-stitching a version of the Wikipedia page on the topic. Sorry, what?
Yes, the 13-meter long piece is a faithful recreation of the Wikipedia page on Magna Carta, as it looked at some point in 2014. The majority of the piece was handmade by UK prisoners on rehabilitation programs, but notable names from other fields were asked to contribute as well. In addition to Edward Snowden, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange added words, the latter opting for "freedom" for some reason. Magna Carta (An Embroidery) will be on show at the British Library in London until July 24th, after which point we hope that Parker gets on with a sequel piece recording the arguments buried on the Talk page.
Read more @ http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/18/edward-snowden-magna-carta-embroidery/
The US National Security Agency and its international allies, including Britain's GCHQ, plotted to infect Android smartphones by hijacking their connection to the Google Play store and secretly harvest information about phone users in France and North Africa. New documents released by former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal the government agency's plan, codenamed Irritant Horn, was discussed by intelligence alliance the so-called Five Eyes countries (the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia) between November 2011 and February 2012. Published by The Intercept, the documents reveal plans for a system which targets the smartphone app stores of both Samsung and Google. The NSA pinpointed the Google Play servers in France, used to send software updates to Android handsets in northern Africa. Once located, the agency planned to intercept traffic before it reached Google's servers and inject malware into the phones of targets accessing the Play Store, known as a man-in-the-middle attack. Having gained access to the target's phone, the NSA could then call on a number of its surveillance and hacking programmes to read their contacts list and call logs, or monitor their location in almost real-time, while the target had no idea they were being spied on. And despite both Samsung and Google encrypting the connections between their servers and users' phones, the NSA was able to break through this undetected. Through documents previously leaked by Snowden, it was known that the NSA had developed spyware for iPhone and Android handsets which could steal emails, text messages, web history, call logs, videos, photos and other files stored on the device; but until now it was unclear how this software was installed onto targets' phones.
The US National Security Agency and its international allies, including Britain's GCHQ, plotted to infect Android smartphones by hijacking their connection to the Google Play store and secretly harvest information about phone users in France and North Africa.
New documents released by former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal the government agency's plan, codenamed Irritant Horn, was discussed by intelligence alliance the so-called Five Eyes countries (the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia) between November 2011 and February 2012.
Published by The Intercept, the documents reveal plans for a system which targets the smartphone app stores of both Samsung and Google. The NSA pinpointed the Google Play servers in France, used to send software updates to Android handsets in northern Africa.
Once located, the agency planned to intercept traffic before it reached Google's servers and inject malware into the phones of targets accessing the Play Store, known as a man-in-the-middle attack.
Having gained access to the target's phone, the NSA could then call on a number of its surveillance and hacking programmes to read their contacts list and call logs, or monitor their location in almost real-time, while the target had no idea they were being spied on. And despite both Samsung and Google encrypting the connections between their servers and users' phones, the NSA was able to break through this undetected.
Through documents previously leaked by Snowden, it was known that the NSA had developed spyware for iPhone and Android handsets which could steal emails, text messages, web history, call logs, videos, photos and other files stored on the device; but until now it was unclear how this software was installed onto targets' phones.
Read more @ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/edward-snowden-nsa-plotted-hack-google-play-store-users-irritant-horn-spyware-1502482
If time heals all wounds, then Edward Snowden needs more time to get right in Washington. Snowden is exiled in Russia, having been charged with espionage and no sign that President Barack Obama will grant him clemency. On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul launched a long floor speech hoping to end the bulk data collection programs that Snowden exposed. Most of the bipartisan coalition of senators who aided Paul in relief did so while promoting a bill that would end one of the programs — the one collecting telephone metadata. And a few weeks ago, a federal court ruled the program violated the law. But still, Snowden still sits alone. No senators on Wednesday said their perception of the former National Security Agency contractor had softened or changed since he two years ago leaked to the media data exposing the scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Comments around the Senate ranged from outright contempt to calling him a criminal whose actions may have led to some good. But no one defended him. “[Edward] Snowden is not a hero,” said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “He was enormously disruptive to the national security of the United States of America. He is not a whistleblower. I have nothing but contempt for [him].” Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said nothing has changed in how he views Snowden; he “had negative thoughts in the beginning, and I have negative thoughts today.” Even the Senate’s sponsor and co-sponsor of a bill that would end the telephone metadata program held a hard line on Snowden. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said flatly that he didn’t condone breaking the law, and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., agreed, but urged the Senate to act on eliminating the program anyway. “I think the House reflected what the American public wants,” Leahy said, referring to earlier this month when the House approved the companion bill, 338-88. “And I think we ought to do the same.” Even those who note the complexity in determining Snowden’s legacy refer to the illegality of his actions and the potential effect on national security. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate’s second highest ranking Democrat, said it’s not a “simple calculation.” Durbin noted Snowden’s revelations led to a “serious assessment to some of our intelligence objectives,” but that the whole thing started with Snowden “violating his oath and endangering innocent people.” Snowden actually did some senators a favor. In 2011, many senators voted against reauthorization of the Patriot Act due to what at the time was vague privacy concerns over certain programs. Of course, senators had to be vague because their concerns were about classified programs.
If time heals all wounds, then Edward Snowden needs more time to get right in Washington.
Snowden is exiled in Russia, having been charged with espionage and no sign that President Barack Obama will grant him clemency.
On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul launched a long floor speech hoping to end the bulk data collection programs that Snowden exposed. Most of the bipartisan coalition of senators who aided Paul in relief did so while promoting a bill that would end one of the programs — the one collecting telephone metadata. And a few weeks ago, a federal court ruled the program violated the law.
But still, Snowden still sits alone. No senators on Wednesday said their perception of the former National Security Agency contractor had softened or changed since he two years ago leaked to the media data exposing the scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.
Comments around the Senate ranged from outright contempt to calling him a criminal whose actions may have led to some good. But no one defended him.
“[Edward] Snowden is not a hero,” said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “He was enormously disruptive to the national security of the United States of America. He is not a whistleblower. I have nothing but contempt for [him].”
Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said nothing has changed in how he views Snowden; he “had negative thoughts in the beginning, and I have negative thoughts today.”
Even the Senate’s sponsor and co-sponsor of a bill that would end the telephone metadata program held a hard line on Snowden. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said flatly that he didn’t condone breaking the law, and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., agreed, but urged the Senate to act on eliminating the program anyway.
“I think the House reflected what the American public wants,” Leahy said, referring to earlier this month when the House approved the companion bill, 338-88. “And I think we ought to do the same.”
Even those who note the complexity in determining Snowden’s legacy refer to the illegality of his actions and the potential effect on national security.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate’s second highest ranking Democrat, said it’s not a “simple calculation.” Durbin noted Snowden’s revelations led to a “serious assessment to some of our intelligence objectives,” but that the whole thing started with Snowden “violating his oath and endangering innocent people.”
Snowden actually did some senators a favor. In 2011, many senators voted against reauthorization of the Patriot Act due to what at the time was vague privacy concerns over certain programs. Of course, senators had to be vague because their concerns were about classified programs.
Read more @ http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/as-many-standwithrand-edward-snowden-sits-alone/?dcz=
The US government is shutting down its surveillance program that collects the telephone records of millions of citizens after the Senate recessed early Saturday morning without renewing its authorisation. Winding down the program, a move that President Barack Obama's administration has warned will increase the risk of a terrorist attack on the US, is necessary after the Senate failed before going a one-week break to reach agreement on a White House-backed bill to extend expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, an administration official said in an e-mail. Without a legislative deal, Section 215 of the Patriot Act and two other anti-terror programs are set to expire at 12:01am on June 1. The government has used Section 215, approved after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US, to collect records from companies in support of counter-terrorism investigations, including details about phone calls.
The US government is shutting down its surveillance program that collects the telephone records of millions of citizens after the Senate recessed early Saturday morning without renewing its authorisation.
Winding down the program, a move that President Barack Obama's administration has warned will increase the risk of a terrorist attack on the US, is necessary after the Senate failed before going a one-week break to reach agreement on a White House-backed bill to extend expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, an administration official said in an e-mail.
Without a legislative deal, Section 215 of the Patriot Act and two other anti-terror programs are set to expire at 12:01am on June 1. The government has used Section 215, approved after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US, to collect records from companies in support of counter-terrorism investigations, including details about phone calls.
Read more @ http://www.afr.com/technology/web/security/us-shuts-down-nsa-telephone-data-program-20150523-gh8ahi
Senate Republican leaders managed to scrape up enough votes just past midnight Saturday morning to put off decisive action on the NSA’s bulk collection of American phone records until next Sunday, May 31. But the hardliners — and make no mistake, they are taking an even harder and more absurd line than the NSA itself — have no endgame. Only two outcomes are possible at this point: First, three provisions of the Patriot Act — one of which has provided the legal cover for bulk collection — expire on June 1. (Indeed, the Obama administration has already begun the process of winding it down.) Or second, the Senate passes the USA Freedom Act, which extends those provisions but requires the NSA to request specific records from telecom companies, instead of getting them all. Fifty-seven senators, only three short of the necessary 60, voted Saturday to invoke cloture and limit debate on the reform bill, itself a milquetoast compromise that won overwhelming bipartisan support in the House. Nothing else has the votes, certainly not a blanket renewal of the Patriot Act, now that the world actually knows how it’s being misused, thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., led a very public yet essentially meaningless quasi-filibuster against the Patriot Act last Wednesday. But early Saturday morning, he and two Democrats — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico — followed that up with a series of devastatingly effective objections that blocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attempt to extend the authorities to June 8, then to June 5, then to June 3, then to June 2. But why are McConnell and his gang “playing chicken,” as White House press secretary put it on Friday? Why create, as Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., accurately called it, a “manufactured crisis“? Anybody paying attention knows it’s not a policy debate. The reasons McConnell and others cite for wanting to extend the program as is — despite the fact that it’s flatly illegal, essentially useless, and spectacularly invasive — are laughable. In fact, the compromise they’re willing to fight to the death to oppose was actually proposed by the NSA. The issue is they just don’t want Snowden officially vindicated, by an act of Congress. Ever since 9/11, the GOP has found huge political gain in exploiting national security fears. And ever since Obama’s election, they have pursued a singularly successful campaign of obstruction, by making Congress almost entirely dysfunctional.
Senate Republican leaders managed to scrape up enough votes just past midnight Saturday morning to put off decisive action on the NSA’s bulk collection of American phone records until next Sunday, May 31.
But the hardliners — and make no mistake, they are taking an even harder and more absurd line than the NSA itself — have no endgame.
Only two outcomes are possible at this point:
First, three provisions of the Patriot Act — one of which has provided the legal cover for bulk collection — expire on June 1. (Indeed, the Obama administration has already begun the process of winding it down.)
Or second, the Senate passes the USA Freedom Act, which extends those provisions but requires the NSA to request specific records from telecom companies, instead of getting them all.
Fifty-seven senators, only three short of the necessary 60, voted Saturday to invoke cloture and limit debate on the reform bill, itself a milquetoast compromise that won overwhelming bipartisan support in the House. Nothing else has the votes, certainly not a blanket renewal of the Patriot Act, now that the world actually knows how it’s being misused, thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., led a very public yet essentially meaningless quasi-filibuster against the Patriot Act last Wednesday. But early Saturday morning, he and two Democrats — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico — followed that up with a series of devastatingly effective objections that blocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attempt to extend the authorities to June 8, then to June 5, then to June 3, then to June 2.
But why are McConnell and his gang “playing chicken,” as White House press secretary put it on Friday? Why create, as Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., accurately called it, a “manufactured crisis“?
Anybody paying attention knows it’s not a policy debate. The reasons McConnell and others cite for wanting to extend the program as is — despite the fact that it’s flatly illegal, essentially useless, and spectacularly invasive — are laughable. In fact, the compromise they’re willing to fight to the death to oppose was actually proposed by the NSA.
The issue is they just don’t want Snowden officially vindicated, by an act of Congress.
Ever since 9/11, the GOP has found huge political gain in exploiting national security fears. And ever since Obama’s election, they have pursued a singularly successful campaign of obstruction, by making Congress almost entirely dysfunctional.
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/26/mitch-mcconnell-will-just-anything-vindicate-edward-snowden/
May 27 15 3:22 PM
May 27 15 9:23 PM
icepick wrote:Hi Pen;Why would one think that anything would change? You have Rand, and maybe a few more like him ................ then you have those running for their lives, because they backed something so evil.Then along came Obama, who changed it into something even worse yet. More people need to do some reading, just so they will know where the misdemeanor ended, and the felony began.Tim
May 28 15 10:02 AM
May 28 15 7:08 PM
PeacefulSwannie wrote:icepick wrote:Hi Pen;Why would one think that anything would change? You have Rand, and maybe a few more like him ................ then you have those running for their lives, because they backed something so evil.Then along came Obama, who changed it into something even worse yet. More people need to do some reading, just so they will know where the misdemeanor ended, and the felony began.TimEdward Snowden had first hand knowledge of what went on and that is why he did what he did; his conscience would not allow it to go on unabated and in secret...... and from the many stories I have read they have been lining their pockets with the spying. I read in one of the news articles that Feinstein's husband was benefiting from it..... and she was one of the most vocal behind the spying at the beginning.... it was clear she had no technical understanding.... and made some very silly comments, I haven't seen her name come up lately. It appears there are criminals running your country and its darn scary!
May 28 15 10:16 PM
With maybe one or two exceptions Pen, there are a lot of criminals in every government right now Pen, and they all seem to have the same agenda. That cannot be coincidence. Did you catch that preamble a web site I visit just posted after a GS interview the other day? I thought you might have wanted to see it. It's in the Soros thread.
May 28 15 10:43 PM
May 29 15 2:10 PM
icepick wrote: The post right before it Pen.Chalk another up for Rand Paul:http://www.westernjournalism.com/death-sentence-for-the-patriot-act-means-new-life-for-gop/Will he pull it off for us?
May 29 15 4:07 PM