The Obama administration found itself defending -- and beginning to explain -- yet another surveillance effort after leaked do ents revealed information about two secret National Security Agency intelligence-gathering programs.
On top of a Guardian newspaper report that revealed how authorities were collecting phone records from millions, a Washington Post report detailed another program that scours major Internet companies including Google and Facebook for data. A former senior NSA official confirmed to Fox News that the program was started in 2007 by the FBI and NSA and allows them to tap into top U.S. Internet companies to pull audio, video and other data.
While civil liberties groups cried foul over the program, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a statement late Thursday decrying the leak of the materials. He called the disclosure of the program that allows the NSA to collect communications data from Internet companies "reprehensible" and said the phone-records monitoring leak could cause harm to the nation's intelligence gathering activities.
At the same time, he took the rare step of moving to declassify information about the programs as he sought to defend them against criticism.
“The article omits key information regarding how a classified intelligence collection program is used to prevent terrorist attacks and the numerous safeguards that protect privacy and civil liberties," he said of the Guardian story.
Clapper also said the government was "prohibited from indiscriminately sifting through the telephony metadata acquired under the program.” All information acquired, he said, “is subject to strict, court-imposed restrictions on review and handling. The court only allows the data to be queried when there is a reasonable su ion, based on specific facts, that the particular basis for the query is associated with a foreign terrorist organization. “
Several hours earlier, a senior administration official also pushed back, saying the Guardian article and Washington Post article about the Internet mining refers to collection under a law that "does not allow the targeting of any U.S. citizen or of any person located within the United States.”
It was not immediately clear how the official defined “targeting.”
“The program is subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Executive Branch, and Congress,” the official said. “It involves extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-U.S. persons outside the U.S. are targeted, and that minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about U.S. persons.”
A former NSA official told Fox News the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) have been tapping into leading U.S. Internet companies to pull audio, video and photographs.
According to the official, the program began in 2007 and is in the second phase. Metadata from the companies is used to identify su ious individuals and the secondary search goes into content. The official told Fox News that the Utah Data Center is likely a repository for this material.
The classified program is code-named PRISM, the Washington Post reported, and has not been disclosed publicly before. Members of Congress who are aware of the program were reportedly bound by oath to keep it confidential.
According to slides from an internal presentation intended for NSA senior analysts and obtained by the Washington Post, the program accounts for nearly one in seven intelligence reports.
The companies that participate knowingly in the program are Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple, the Washington Post reports.
A number of the Internet companies issued statements Thursday night saying they only complied when legally bound to do so.
"Even when the system works just as advertised, with no American singled out for targeting, the NSA routinely collects a great deal of American content," the Washington Post report said. "That is described as "incidental," and it is inherent in contact chaining, one of the basic tools of the trade."
To be immune from lawsuits, companies like Yahoo and AOL are reportedly obliged to accept a directive from the attorney general and national intelligence director to open their service to the FBI's Data Intercept Technology Unit, which acts as a liaison between the companies and the NSA.
According to the slides, there has been “continued exponential growth in tasking to Facebook and Skype."
"With a few clicks and an affirmation that the subject is believed to be engaged in terrorism, espionage or nuclear proliferation, an analyst obtains full access to Facebook’s 'extensive search and surveillance capabilities against the variety of online social networking services,'" the Washington Post reports.
Skype can reportedly be monitored for audio when one end of a call is a conventional telephone and also can be monitored for video, chat and file transfers when users connect just by a computer. Google services that can be monitored include Gmail, voice and video chat, Google Drive files, and search terms.
A spokesperson for Google says the company "cares deeply" about the security of users' data.
"We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully," the spokesperson said. "From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a 'back door' for the government to access private user data."
"Protecting the privacy of our users and their data is a top priority for Facebook," the company's chief security officer Joe Sullivan said in a statement. "We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law."
A Microsoft spokesperson said that the company only provides customer data after receiving a legally binding order or subpoena.
"In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers," the spokesperson said. "If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don't participate in it."
Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.
Click for more from the Washington Post.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2VXsfMPIf
You know the scandals are out of control when even MSNBC, CNN, and other Lib Only Supporters are reporting how bad the scandals are for our country... better late than never... I guess...
Even worse is when their supporters come here to retort and defend on the scandals that they are still catching up on, which everyone else already understands.
You LW Libs need to go back to MSN and CNN to defend there as you are getting beaten like bad, bad Donkeys there too.
All this surveillance started back in dubya's administration, it has unstoppable momentum
Repug Congressman knew all about these surveillance programs, and said nothing until they got the opportunity to bludgeon the WH.
Repugs on surveillance:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05...n-of-ap-video/
i feel safer already!
(facepalm)
Yet another Bush era bit of stupidity that the current administration has chosen to continue using, as if it makes us better off.
iow, the police/natsec state is unstoppable and out of control of the civilians.
used it on people calling foreign. Little different.
Although, at some point we have to figure out what and where the limits are, I suppose.
Since the invention of radio, we have listened to other nation's radio broadcasts and that has involved the inevitable stumbling on domestic traffic.
I don't see this as altogether that much different in charactor.
No, read into it a bit more.
THey collect ALL the data, then mine it for the foreign traffic. Subtle, but they still acquire and maintain vast quan ies of data on domestic traffic.
We have too many secrets.While civil liberties groups cried foul over the program, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a statement late Thursday decrying the leak of the materials. He called the disclosure of the program that allows the NSA to collect communications data from Internet companies "reprehensible" and said the phone-records monitoring leak could cause harm to the nation's intelligence gathering activities.
At the same time, he took the rare step of moving to declassify information about the programs as he sought to defend them against criticism.
I can see keeping some stuff secret, but where do we draw the line?
Does anybody trust a secret court?
I'm not sure I do, unless that has some stiff Congressional oversight.
Gene Hackman was right.
And with a large grain of Canadian salt.....................
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php...75Mg7k.twitter
DHS insider: It’s about to get very ugly
By Doug Hagmann (Bio and Archives) Friday, June 7, 2013
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Washington, D.C.—Something quite unexpected happened just hours ago, in the dark of night, during a two-day layover in Washington, DC. My son and I are scheduled to take part in a seminar outside of Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend, so we combined our travels to include a side-trip to DC for a business meeting we had previously arranged. It was during this layover that something seemingly ripped from the pages of a spy novel took place.
While I was in the middle of a perfectly good and well needed sleep in the very early hours of this morning, I received a message. I cannot disclose how I received this message, at least not now. The discerning reader will understand why, which, by the way, would make a very interesting story alone. The message was extremely clear and precise. I was to meet my high level DHS insider at a very specific location in Washington, DC, at a time when most ‘normal’ people, except third-shift workers are still asleep. And, I was to come alone and make certain that I was not being followed, and I was to leave any cell phone or electronic device behind.
Seriously? I thought, as I was still trying to make sense of it all. Is all this really necessary? Is this really happening? I considered waking my son to accompany me, but opted to follow the instructions to the letter. Besides, I thought, he’s not the most affable middle-of-the-night person. I left a hastily written but detailed note in my hotel room before my departure in the event something happened. I looked at the digital clock on my rental car (my personal car would never survive our long distance trip). It was 3:20 a.m.
The meeting
I felt like I was part of a spy movie set in our nation’s capital. A chill rose up my spine as I waited in the dark of a chilly, misty and foggy pre-dawn morning. I was to meet with my DHS insider source at a time when most of the nation is asleep, at a place I could swear was featured in the movie All the President’s Men. No one and I mean no one knows I’m here, I thought, as I could see one of the most recognizable national landmarks in the distance.
My source appeared out of nowhere, or so it seemed, and handed me a cup of coffee with the astute observation that I looked like I needed it. So tell me, I asked impatiently, why do we have to meet at this time, at this location, and under such specific cir stances? ‘Because this might be our last meeting,’ he stated.
Maybe it was the lack of sleep, the time, the place, or the chill of the misty rain that caused my sense of foreboding. “Explain,” I asked in an almost demanding tone. So he did, without mincing words.
The details
“If anyone thinks that what’s going on right now with all of this surveillance of American citizens is to fight some sort of foreign enemy, they’re delusional. If people think that this ‘scandal’ can’t get any worse, it will, hour by hour, day by day. This has the ability to bring down our national leadership, the administration and other senior elected officials working in collusion with this administration, both Republican and Democrats. People within the NSA, the Department of Justice, and others, they know who they are, need to come forth with the do entation of ‘policy and practice’ in their possession, disclose what they know, fight what’s going on, and just do their job. I have never seen anything like this, ever. The present administration is going after leakers, media sources, anyone and everyone who is even suspected of ‘betrayal.’ That’s what they call it, ‘betrayal.’ Can you believe the size of their cahones? This administration considers anyone telling the truth about Benghazi, the IRS, , you name the issue, ‘betrayal,’” he said.
“We know all this already,” I stated. He looked at me, giving me a look like I’ve never seen, and actually pushed his finger into my chest. “You don’t know jack,” he said, “this is bigger than you can imagine, bigger than anyone can imagine. This administration is collecting names of sources, whistle blowers and their families, names of media sources and everybody they talk to and have talked to, and they already have a huge list. If you’re not working for MSNBC or CNN, you’re probably on that list. If you are a website owner with a brisk readership and a conservative bent, you’re on that list. It’s a political dissident list, not an enemy threat list,” he stated.
“What’s that exactly mean, being on that list, that is,” I asked, trying to make sense of it all.
“It means that there will be censorship under the color of authority of anyone in the U.S. who is attempting to expose what’s going on in our name. It’s about controlling any damning information from reaching epidemic proportions. It’s damage control to the extreme. It’s about the upcoming censorship of the internet in the name of national security. The plans are already in place. These latest reports about ‘spying eyes’ have turned this administration and others connected to it into something very, very dangerous. They feel cornered and threatened, and I’m hearing about some plans they have to shut down the flow of information that is implicating them of wrongdoing. Time is short,” he stated.
“How are they going to do this? How is it even possible” I asked.
“First, they intend to use the Justice Department to silence journalists like in the Rosen case, but they won’t stop there. They will use a host of national security policies, laws, letters, whatever to take out the bigger threats,” he stated.
Next, they will use some sort of excuse, an external threat, and I believe it will be a combination of the economic collapse and a Mid-East war that will begin in Syria to throttle the information that is accessible on the Internet. And you know what? People will believe it!”
Based on what I’ve seen, most of which I should not have seen, the DHS is co-ordinating efforts with other federal agencies to begin to threaten American citizens with incarceration for non-compliance. You know the old talk of color coded lists? Well, this is what they will be using. People exposing the truth about Benghazi, killing the U.S. Dollar, even those questioning Obama?s legal status and eligibility to be President are the current targets. And they’ve had five long years to get to this point. The ugly truth is that these policies and practices did not start under Obama, but long before. This is about the killing of our Cons utional Republic. The murder of our country and the stripping of our rights. While many have been preoccupied with one issue, few have seen the bigger issue. This is the ‘end game,’ for all the marbles,” he stated.
More to come
“Please,” pleaded my source, “get this information out while you can. Tell people what I’m saying, that we don’t have much time, that after the latest exposure of spying, Obama, Jarrett, Axelrod, and others, including members of Congress, have put their plans into high gear. This is about the Marxist takeover of America. This is about our country being able to survive another July 4th holiday. This is about a world war about to break out that will kill millions of people, all because of the agenda of this administration.”
“They are very dangerous and will do anything and everything to stop the onslaught of negative information that’s being reported by the main stream media. But only about one quarter of the real information is being reported. The other three quarters will be the game changer. But first, tell people what I’ve said. Let them know that more will follow but get this information out right now while the internet is still relatively free. Do it today.”
My source provided additional information, but I am abiding by his wish to get this much out. I am writing now to let people know that we are in for seriously dangerous times ahead. Deadly times. War, and censorship under the color of authority and under the pretext of of national security. It’s about to get a lot uglier. Stay tuned.
Comments
Copyright © Douglas J. Hagmann and Canada Free Press
Douglas J. Hagmann and his son, Joe Hagmann host The Hagmann & Hagmann Report, a live Internet radio program broadcast each weeknight from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET.
Douglas Hagmann, founder & director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, and a multi-state licensed private investigative agency. Doug began using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness through his website.
Doug can be reached at: [email protected]
Older articles by Doug Hagmann
I'm sure that the idea we have of the corruption of the political/military/security/corporate/financial power establishment is 100% naive, nowhere near the truth.
That's why the establishment is coming down so hard on Manning, why the hacker who exposed the Steubenville rapists will get more prison time than the rapists, etc, etc. Power HATES its truth of its corruption being exposed.
I can see the need for some of these actions especially in light of the Boston attacks which occurred in the days before this order. What I don't get is the need for secrecy in all of this especially from the head that ran under the promise of transparency.
'Of the people' my ass.
The warrantless assertion is kinda missing the point in my view. There is supposedly some judicial oversight. The action was apporved by a court of law. Do we even know who these judges are though? How they were appointed or the like?
I know that I can look that up and I will but I don't have any clue and I do pay attention to these types of things. Troubling indeed.
I guess the fraud meant Americans were supposed to be "transparent", not him.
Nice excuse, but if we had actual statesmen in office, this wouldn't be happening, tbh.... unfortunately, the electorate is mostly comprised of partisan sheeple such as yourself who defend all the actions of their party or blame it on the other party, so shady career politicians is all we get....
Dig in and brace yourselves boys, looks like we're going to war.
Obama folks still blaming Bush. Typical.
Not a Barry guy, but I do blame Bush Jr too. This is an extension of his 'presidential powers' doctrine.
I can't really even call this a 'scandal' seeing the vast majority of the GOP are actually trying to sugar-coat it instead of speaking against it (ie Boehner with "maybe we need to explain people better why we need to do this"). In other words, they've been well aware of this for a long time (and let's not fool ourselves, this is just confirmation of what everyone already suspected).
But don't get it wrong, I called this de able when dubya was in power and I'm still calling it de able now that Barry is in control.
His "we need to find a balance" is no different than dubya's "with us or against us". It's bull and it's no 'balance'. It's full-on "screw the people, we're going to do this whether they like it or not, and we'll keep it in the hush hush because we already know they won't like it".
Barry is supposed to be a liberal. That means that he is supposed to be against this . His record as president does not reflect liberal ideas and philosophies.
These days, 'liberal' and 'conservative' are phony memes to make people pick a team, and make them think they're part of something. Elections have turned into like sporting event. Did he fumble that speech? Ohhhh, look how he winked at that in the second row...
But it's all the same... some of us called Barry's first term as dubya's 3rd term many times...
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