FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Wednesday that the bureau has a limited number of drones that it uses for surveillance on U.S. soil.
The practice, however limited, could raise further concern about government snooping amid the ongoing controversy over the administration’s phone- and Internet-tracking programs.
Mueller addressed the matter during a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill, under questioning from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Asked if the FBI has drones, Mueller said, “Yes, and for surveillance.”
He later said they are deployed on U.S. soil, but clarified they are used in a “very, very minimal way and very seldom.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-20 03:54:202013-06-20 03:54:20Director Admits FBI Using Drones For Surveillance in the US
By David Sherfinsk. Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday that Tuesday testimony from intelligence officials on the government’s data-surveillance programs did little to close what he called a “credibility gap.”
He pointed to testimony that Director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper gave during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March when asked if the National Security Agency gathers “any type of data at all” on Americans.”
“No, sir,” Mr. Clapper said. “Not wittingly.”
“I guess the problem is ever since Clapper lied in March to us and said they weren’t collecting any data on Americans, there’s a credibility gap now, and it’s hard for us to really trust the intelligence community because the head of the intelligence community directly lied to the Senate and said they were collecting no data from Americans,” Mr. Paul said on “Fox and Friends.” “So I’m not sure when I’m being lied to and when they’re being honest.”
Mr. Clapper later said in an interview on NBC that the question didn’t have a simple yes or no answer, and that he answered “in what I thought was the most truthful or least untruthful manner by saying no.” Read more from this story HERE.
California Rep. Duncan Hunter wants audit of U.S. secrecy in wake of NSA leak
By Shaun Waterman. A Republican congressman called Wednesday for an audit of all U.S. government secrecy standards, saying “classification inflation” is forcing federal agencies to issue more and more clearances, increasing the chances for leaks about vital programs.
“Overclassification,” or labeling things secret that don’t really need it, “stands to dangerously expand access to material that should ordinarily be limited,” wrote Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a Marine combat veteran who sits on the House Armed Services Committee.
Mr. Hunter said he was calling for the audit because of the recent leak about the National Security Agency’s top secret data-gathering on telephone and Internet communications.
The leak calls for “a thorough assessment of the current classification system,” Mr. Hunter said in a letter asking the Government Accountability Office, Congress‘ investigative branch, to perform the audit.
Five million people in the United States have security clearances, the majority of them contractors. More than 1.5 million have top secret clearances, like the one possessed by self-proclaimed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-20 03:50:272013-06-20 03:50:27Sen. Rand Paul on NSA Surveillance: ‘I’m Not Sure When I’m Being Lied To’ Now
President Obama has had difficulty finding his footing and has been late to the game in defending federal intelligence surveillance programs as a valuable weapon for thwarting terrorist plots, national security analysts say.
When Mr. Obama appeared on TV with PBS interviewer Charlie Rose Monday night, it was his first high-profile comment on the secret phone and Internet surveillance since the story broke on June 5, nearly two weeks earlier. And even then, the president’s remarks were seen even by supporters of the programs as muddled.
For example, the president told Mr. Rose that the surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency (NSA) were “transparent” because they are overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court. But the court itself is secret, with the public barred from learning any details of its operation, its location, or the orders issued by its judges.
“The Charlie Rose show was a good tactical choice in terms of setting, but the case made so far doesn’t seem to be persuading folks,” said Peter Singer, a national security specialist at the left-leaning Brookings Institution. “What he is battling is not just a facts-based argument but a lost-trust issue that is far harder to turn around.”
As Mr. Obama himself said on the show, “This debate has gotten cloudy very quickly.”
With the news that the NSA has been collecting information on the phone calls and Internet communication of all Americans, TheBlaze TV’s comedy show “The B.S. of A.” aired a parody skit of a conversation with “NSA agent” Operative Ned Dossen.
“Speaking of inviting you, I hadn’t even pressed ‘send’ on the email yet,” host Brian Sack told Dossen, played by TheBlaze’s Matt Fisher.
“No need, no need,” Dossen replied dismissively. “Of all the Orwellian bureaucracies, I like to think we give taxpayers the best bang for their buck.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-19 02:19:052013-06-19 02:19:05‘You People are Disgusting’: The ‘NSA Agent’ is Sick of Reading Your Emails (+video)
Americans worried about National Security Agency surveillance are flocking to alternative technology providers and apps that will actually encrypt their phone calls, according to a Fox News report.
“Sales of online apps to encrypt cell calls are soaring,” reports Fox News correspondent David Lee Miller. “For as little as a few dollars a month there are now at least half a dozen companies such as Silent Circle and Seecrypt selling apps, making it difficult if not impossible for the government or anyone else to monitor your private communication.”
Miller notes both the sending and receiving cell phones need the app for the call to remain secure.
Michael Janke, CEO of Silent Circle boasted to Fox News that the encryption service his company runs would take “all of the world’s supercomputers put together 44 years to break the encryption of 1 message.”
Harvey Boulter, chairman of Seecrypt, revealed his company is following another trend: alternative technology providers locating overseas to avoid the reach of the NSA.
The former NSA contractor who leaked information on the government’s top-secret Internet- and phone-tracking programs on Monday denied being a Chinese spy, calling the speculation a “predictable smear.”
Edward Snowden addressed those rumors, and a number of other questions, during an extensive online chat hosted by Guardian.com. From an undisclosed location presumably in Hong Kong, Snowden blasted the U.S. government’s surveillance programs and indicated he plans to hunker down in Hong Kong as long as possible.
Snowden was asked directly during the chat about speculation he did or would provide classified material to the Chinese government in exchange for asylum.
“This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public, as the US media has a knee-jerk ‘RED CHINA!’ reaction to anything involving HK or the PRC, and is intended to distract from the issue of US government misconduct,” Snowden answered.
“Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn’t I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.” Read more from this story HERE.
NSA chief Alexander to testify on classified leaks in rare public hearing
National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander will address the House intelligence committee on Tuesday in a rare public hearing that could shed new light on the scope of the federal government’s classified phone and Internet surveillance programs.
The session involving two of Washington’s most secretive bodies comes as an NSA leaker, former contractor Edward Snowden, threatens to reveal more government secrets from his hiding spot in Hong Kong.
Alexander has already gone to Capitol Hill several times since Snowden revealed details earlier this month about the government programs — to discuss the agency’s budget and meet privately with congressional members.
But the upcoming meeting, titled “How Disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans, and Why,” will be the first time Alexander speaks publicly about the agency-led surveillance programs.
The meeting will also come one day after Snowden, the former NSA contractor who gave the classified documents to journalists, conducted an online chat for The Guardian in which the self-proclaimed whistleblower wrote: “Truth is coming and it cannot be stopped.” Read more from this story HERE.
Father of Edward Snowden urges son not to commit ‘treason,’ to return home
The father of the former NSA contractor who leaked details of the government’s massive Internet- and phone-tracking programs made an impassioned plea to his son to stop leaking, telling Fox News that “I hope, I pray” he does not do anything considered treasonous.
Lon Snowden spoke at length with Fox News about his son Edward’s decision to leak sensitive security details about U.S. intelligence-gathering operations. While defending his son’s integrity and criticizing the government, he pleaded with his son — who is thought to be weathering the political storm from a location in Hong Kong — to return home and not to leak more information.
“I hope, I pray and I ask that you will not release any secrets that could constitute treason,” Snowden told Fox News, in a message meant for his son’s ears. He added: “I sense that you’re under much stress [from] what I’ve read recently, and [ask] that you not succumb to that stress … and make a bad decision.”
Further, Snowden said he would rather see his son return to the U.S. and face the U.S. justice system than stay abroad.
“I would like to see Ed come home and face this. I shared that with the government when I spoke with them. I love my son,” he told Fox News’ Eric Bolling. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-18 01:16:372013-06-18 01:16:37Establishment Assertions that Snowden is a Chinese Spy are “Predictable Smears” (+video)
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly launched a stinging rebuke to the federal government’s secret phone and Internet monitoring campaign — and suggested leaker Edward Snowden was right about privacy “abuse.”
“I don’t think it ever should have been made secret,” Kelly said today, breaking ranks with US law-enforcement officials.
His blast came days after the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric Holder outraged New York officials by endorsing a federal monitor for the NYPD.
Kelly appeared to firmly reject Holder’s claim that disclosure of the monitoring campaign seriously damaged efforts to fight terrorism.
“I think the American public can accept the fact if you tell them that every time you pick up the phone it’s going to be recorded and it goes to the government,” Kelly said. “I think the public can understand that. I see no reason why that program was placed in the secret category.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-18 01:11:352013-06-18 01:11:35NYC Police Commissioner: NSA Must Come Clean on Domestic Spying
By Shashank Bengali. Edward Snowden, the former U.S. government contractor who leaked secret details of official surveillance programs, pledged Monday to release more information about U.S. intelligence-gathering methods that he described as “nakedly, aggressively criminal.”
“All I can say right now is the U.S. government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me,” Snowden wrote in an online chat hosted by Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.”
Writing from an undisclosed location believed to be in Hong Kong, the former CIA and National Security Agency systems administrator vigorously defended his disclosures about the breadth of U.S. surveillance, including programs that sweep up data about Americans’ telephone calls, emails and Internet use.
…Snowden alleged that intelligence agencies keep the information on government computers “for a very long time” and are available for analysts to view as long as they produce a “rubber stamp” warrant.
“The reality is that due to the FISA Amendments Act and its section 702 authorities, Americans’ communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant,” Snowden said. “They excuse this as ‘incidental’ collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications.”
Edward Snowden: US government has destroyed any chance of a fair trial
By Ewen MacAskill. In a live Q&A with Guardian readers from a secret location in Hong Kong, Snowden hinted at more disclosures to come and that their publication could not be prevented by his arrest or – more chillingly – his death.
Answering a question about whether he had more secret material, the 29-year-old former National Security Agency contractor wrote: “All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped”…
With opinion in the US divided between those who see him as a traitor and those who view him as a hero, Snowden said he fled the country because he did not believe he had a chance of a fair trial.
“The US government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal, and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That’s not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it,” he said.
Snowden, whose leaked documents opened a debate about the balance between intrusive government surveillance versus security, does not regard himself as having committed a crime but instead as the person exposing alleged criminality on the part of the Obama administration. Read more from this story HERE.
Actor John Ratzenberger said Friday that when he was a child, there was no need for surveillance, “because we knew God was watching us.”
“When we were kids, we didn’t need security cameras on the telephone poles to watch us, because we knew God was watching us. We don’t need cameras. We had God,” Ratzenberger, who played Cliff Clavin on “Cheers,” said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C.
Ratzenberger also voiced the character Hamm the Piggy Bank on “Toy Story” as well as other supporting roles in Pixar films.
[Editor’s note: our apologies, but the embedded viewer in this article is not compatible with all browsers]
Here’s Actor John Ratzenberger’s introduction of Allen West last week:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-18 01:05:562013-06-18 01:05:56‘Cheers’ Star: We Didn’t Need Surveillance When We Were Kids – ‘We Had God’ (+video)
American spies based in the UK intercepted the top-secret communications of the then Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, during his visit to Britain for the G20 summit in London, leaked documents reveal.
The details of the intercept were set out in a briefing prepared by the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s biggest surveillance and eavesdropping organisation, and shared with high-ranking officials from Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The document, leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and seen by the Guardian, shows the agency believed it might have discovered “a change in the way Russian leadership signals have been normally transmitted”.
The disclosure underlines the importance of the US spy hub at RAF Menwith Hill in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where hundreds of NSA analysts are based, working alongside liaison officers from GCHQ…
It has often been described as the biggest surveillance and interception facility in the world, and has 33 distinct white “radomes” that house satellite dishes. A US base in all but name, it has British intelligence analysts seconded to work alongside NSA colleagues, though it is unclear how the two agencies obtain and share intelligence – and under whose legal authority they are working under.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-17 03:45:592013-06-17 03:45:59NSA Targeted Russian Premier at London G20 Summit
