The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Martin ColeBy Bruce Schneier

Imagine the government passed a law requiring all citizens to carry a tracking device. Such a law would immediately be found unconstitutional. Yet we all carry mobile phones.

If the National Security Agency required us to notify it whenever we made a new friend, the nation would rebel. Yet we notify Facebook Inc. (FB) If the Federal Bureau of Investigation demanded copies of all our conversations and correspondence, it would be laughed at. Yet we provide copies of our e-mail to Google Inc. (GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) or whoever our mail host is; we provide copies of our text messages to Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), AT&T Inc. (T) and Sprint Corp. (S); and we provide copies of other conversations to Twitter Inc., Facebook, LinkedIn (LNKD) Corp. or whatever other site is hosting them.

The primary business model of the Internet is built on mass surveillance, and our government’s intelligence-gathering agencies have become addicted to that data. Understanding how we got here is critical to understanding how we undo the damage.

Computers and networks inherently produce data, and our constant interactions with them allow corporations to collect an enormous amount of intensely personal data about us as we go about our daily lives. Sometimes we produce this data inadvertently simply by using our phones, credit cards, computers and other devices. Sometimes we give corporations this data directly on Google, Facebook, Apple Inc.’s iCloud and so on in exchange for whatever free or cheap service we receive from the Internet in return.

The NSA is also in the business of spying on everyone, and it has realized it’s far easier to collect all the data from these corporations rather than from us directly. In some cases, the NSA asks for this data nicely. In other cases, it makes use of subtle threats or overt pressure. If that doesn’t work, it uses tools like national security letters. Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Getty ImagesFBI pressures Internet providers to install surveillance software

By Declan McCullagh

The U.S. government is quietly pressuring telecommunications providers to install eavesdropping technology deep inside companies’ internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts.

FBI officials have been sparring with carriers, a process that has on occasion included threats of contempt of court, in a bid to deploy government-provided software capable of intercepting and analyzing entire communications streams. The FBI’s legal position during these discussions is that the software’s real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act.

Attempts by the FBI to install what it internally refers to as “port reader” software, which have not been previously disclosed, were described to CNET in interviews over the last few weeks. One former government official said the software used to be known internally as the “harvesting program.”

Carriers are “extra-cautious” and are resisting installation of the FBI’s port reader software, an industry participant in the discussions said, in part because of the privacy and security risks of unknown surveillance technology operating on an sensitive internal network.

It’s “an interception device by definition,” said the industry participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court proceedings are sealed. “If magistrates knew more, they would approve less.” It’s unclear whether any carriers have installed port readers, and at least one is actively opposing the installation. Read more from this story HERE.

Members of Congress Denied Access to Basic Information About NSA

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images By Glenn Greenwald

Members of Congress have been repeatedly thwarted when attempting to learn basic information about the National Security Agency (NSA) and the secret FISA court which authorizes its activities, documents provided by two House members demonstrate.

From the beginning of the NSA controversy, the agency’s defenders have insisted that Congress is aware of the disclosed programs and exercises robust supervision over them. “These programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate,” President Obama said the day after the first story on NSA bulk collection of phone records was published in this space. “And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up.”

But members of Congress, including those in Obama’s party, have flatly denied knowing about them. On MSNBC on Wednesday night, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct) was asked by host Chris Hayes: “How much are you learning about what the government that you are charged with overseeing and holding accountable is doing from the newspaper and how much of this do you know?” The Senator’s reply:

The revelations about the magnitude, the scope and scale of these surveillances, the metadata and the invasive actions surveillance of social media Web sites were indeed revelations to me.”

But it is not merely that members of Congress are unaware of the very existence of these programs, let alone their capabilities. Beyond that, members who seek out basic information – including about NSA programs they are required to vote on and FISA court (FISC) rulings on the legality of those programs – find that they are unable to obtain it. Read more from this story HERE.

_________________________________________________________

Amash: Snowden a whistle-blower, ‘told us what we need to know’

By Fox News

Rep. Justin Amash said Sunday that Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower — adding to the debate about whether the American should be considered a traitor for leaking National Security Agency secrets while working as a federal contractor.

Amash, R-Mich., acknowledged that Congress was aware that U.S. intelligence agents could gather information on Americans under the post-9/11 Patriot Act but not to the extent Snowden revealed this spring.

“Members of Congress were not really aware … about what these programs were being used for, the extent to which they were being used,” Amash told “Fox News Sunday. “He’s a whistle-blower. He told us what we need to know.” Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmaker: Impeach Officials Who Issue Homosexual Marriage Licenses, Refuse to Defend Marriage Laws

/11 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNewsPennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has followed the lead of Barack Obama and Jerry Brown by refusing to uphold the state’s law protecting marriage between one man and one woman. At least one legislator thinks it is time she paid for violating her oath of office.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, has said Kane’s actions merit impeachment, because they spread “lawlessness.”

“I think breaking the law is worthy of impeachment,” Metcalfe told local media. “Her duty is to defend the law.

Shortly after her announcement, Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes began issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, despite the fact that state law forbids such unions. As of Friday afternoon, Hanes had issued 62 marriage licenses to homosexual couples, and 13 of their recipients have completed wedding ceremonies.

“By her example, this Montgomery County official felt emboldened to violate the law also,” Metcalfe said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Spectator Loses Part of Leg in California Power Plant Implosion (+videos)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNNA man standing more than 1,000 feet away lost part of one leg when he was hit by debris from a power plant implosion early Saturday, police in Bakersfield, California, said.

Two other people injured by flying shrapnel were treated on the scene.

The scheduled implosion of the Kern Power Plant in Bakersfield occurred at 6 a.m. (9 a.m. ET).

The man with the most significant injuries was airlifted to Fresno to be treated, police Lt. Scott Tunnicliffe told CNN. One leg was partially amputated and the other was severely injured, Tunnicliffe said.

One of the injured spectators showed his injuries to a news crew from CNN affiliate KGET. The man’s right leg was bandaged just below the knee and around the ankle. He was treated by medical crews at the scene before going home.

KGET News Report:

Raw Video:

Read more from this story HERE.

Heritage Foundation: WH ‘Flouting the Law’ with Obamacare Subsidies for Congress

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: BreitbartPolitico reported that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will issue a ruling next week that will allow the federal government to subsidize the insurance plans Congressmen and their aides will be forced to buy on government healthcare exchanges due to Obamacare.

The news came just hours after the Heritage Foundation released an embargoed study to reporters that found there was no legal way for the administration to offer subsidies for Members of Congress and their aides without passing a legislative “fix.”

The Obama administration may have tried to preempt the release of that study; one of the study’s co-authors insisted to Breitbart News on Friday that no matter how creative the Obama administration gets, there does not seem to be a legal manner in which the federal government can grant the Obamacare subsidies.

Ed Haislmaier and Robert E. Moffitt, both of whom are Senior Research Fellows in the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, and Joseph A. Morris, an attorney in private practice who served as General Counsel of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 1981 to 1985, co-authored the study, titled, “Congress in the Obamacare Trap: No Easy Escape.”

Haislmaier emphasized to Breitbart News that “we don’t see a legal avenue, no matter how creative, for them.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Hacker’s Untimely Death Mourned at Las Vegas Black Hat Convention

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Isaac Brekken/APBarnaby Jack, the hackers’ hacker, was once again the toast of the Black Hat convention in Las Vegas.

He won an award. He drew packed crowds. His face adorned buttons and posters. His name was on everyone’s lips.

Except this time Jack was dead, the honours were posthumous and the gatherings were memorials. There were eulogies and questions: how did he die? What will happen to his work?

…The 35-year-old New Zealander was due to show how cyber criminals could remotely attack people with pacemakers and other implanted medical devices, but on July 25 was found dead at his home in San Francisco…

Friends said intellectual curiosity drove Jack to see if a villain could remotely hijack technology to steal, in the case of ATMs, or even kill, in the case of insulin pumps and pacemakers. He showed that a scene in which a terrorist kills a character in the TV series Homeland was not necessarily outlandish. “He had a flair for doing this that almost no one in our industry has,” said Chris Wysopol, a longtime friend and chief technical officer of Veracode. “Barnaby liked the excitement, the thrill of the hunt.”

Banks and medical equipment manufacturers shuddered when he probed their technology. “They always groaned. When someone outside your company does this it’s scary,” said Wysopol…

Read more from this story HERE.

Police Officer Shoots and Kills Armed 14-Year-Old Boy on NYC Street

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: G.N. MILLERA rookie police officer shot and killed a 14-year-old boy on a street early Sunday after he refused to drop his gun and pointed it in the direction of officers, authorities said.

Shaaliver Douse died of a single gunshot to his jaw after the confrontation in the Melrose section of the Bronx.

Two officers with the New York Police Department were on foot patrol when they heard gunfire at around 3 a.m. The officers responded to the scene and found the boy with a 9mm handgun firing shots at a fleeing man, authorities said.

Police released two surveillance videos Sunday evening that show a man they’ve identified as Douse, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, fire at a group of men standing outside a bodega and then chasing after one of them. Police said Douse fired four shots in all.

The officers identified themselves as police and ordered him to drop his weapon, authorities said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul: ‘Old Guard’ Losing Elections

/9 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APSen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he agrees with those that say there is pushback from the Republican establishment when the party faces heat from factions such as the libertarian wing.

Newt Gingrich said Thursday that he thinks the establishment is growing “more hysterical” as Paul and fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz rise in prominence. Paul said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that he thinks the establishment needs to welcome new ideas.

“I think there’s some truth to that and I think the other thing about it is that the old guard needs to realize they’re the ones that have been losing the last couple of elections,” Paul said. “If we want to win for presidency we have to compete in the states where we’re not competing. Precisely, up in the northeast and on the west coast where Republicans are basically on life support. We need to reach out with issues that may attract new people to the party.”

One of the most divisive issues in the GOP has been the threat from some, including Paul, Cruz and fellow Sen. Mike Lee, to shut down the government as a means to defund Obamacare. Paul said he does not support shutting down the government, but rather using the continuing resolution as leverage against the president’s signature health care law.

Read more from this story HERE.

Will Senate Dems Use ‘Nuclear Option’ to Confirm Judges?

/2 Comments/in , /by

A senior Senate Democrat is eyeing the “nuclear option” to eliminate filibusters of nominations — this time for circuit court judges.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy says Democrats should bring back the idea of changing the rules with a simple majority if Republicans block nominees to a federal appeals court.

“I think that the rules change will come back on the table if it’s filibustered because it is one thing if you had somebody who is not qualified. These people are extraordinarily well-qualified,” the Vermont Democrat said of three nominees pending to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in an interview that will air Sunday on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last month that his plan to change the Senate’s procedures with a simple majority vote (the “nuclear option”) would have applied only to executive branch nominees, not judges. Reid ultimately struck a deal with Arizona Sen. John McCain and other Republicans to avoid that outcome.

It’s not clear that Reid would have had the votes to push through a simple majority rule for judges, although the No. 3 Senate Democrat, Charles E. Schumer of New York, suggested the possibility of a rules change to fill the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in March.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Republicans Feel Summer Recess Heat on Immigration

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APHouse Republicans are facing heavy pressure from both sides of the immigration debate as they return to their home districts for August recess with no clear indication as to how they’ll vote on the issue.

The decision to pass comprehensive immigration reform has essentially been in the hands of the Republican-controlled House since the Democrat-led Senate passed such a bill in June.

House Republicans were under pressure before they even left their Capitol Hill offices to start the five-week recess, which is traditionally dedicated to face-to-face talks with hometown voters.

The American Federation of Government Employees sent a letter Tuesday to House lawmakers urging them not to work with senators on their “dangerous” bill.

Among the major concerns is that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is not equipped to process the potential onslaught of new applications.

Read more from this story HERE.