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Straining Credibility, Google, Facebook Deny Knowledge of Government Surveillance Program Now Acknowledged by Obama Admin

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Photo Credit: Galbraith/Reuters

By Dominic Rushe. America’s tech giants continued to deny any knowledge of a giant government surveillance programme called Prism, even as president Barack Obama confirmed the scheme’s existence Friday.

With their credibility about privacy issues in sharp focus, all the technology companies said to be involved in the program issued remarkably similar statements.

All said they did not allow the government “direct access” to their systems, all said they had never heard of the Prism program, and all called for greater transparency.

In a blogpost titled ‘What the…?’ Google co-founder Larry Page and chief legal officer David Drummond said the “level of secrecy” around US surveillance procedures was undermining “freedoms we all cherish.”

“First, we have not joined any program that would give the US government – or any other government – direct access to our servers. Indeed, the US government does not have direct access or a ‘back door’ to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called Prism until yesterday,” they wrote. Read more from this story HERE.

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Although Google and Facebook Deny it, UK Admits its Been Getting Info from US Gov’t Surveillance Program

By Nick Hopkins. The UK’s electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, has been secretly gathering intelligence from the world’s biggest internet companies through a covertly run operation set up by America’s top spy agency, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The documents show that GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, has had access to the system since at least June 2010, and generated 197 intelligence reports from it last year.

The US-run programme, called Prism, would appear to allow GCHQ to circumvent the formal legal process required to seek personal material such as emails, photos and videos from an internet company based outside the UK.

The use of Prism raises ethical and legal issues about such direct access to potentially millions of internet users, as well as questions about which British ministers knew of the programme.

In a statement to the Guardian, GCHQ, insisted it “takes its obligations under the law very seriously”. Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Steyn: We’re at a Point Where “Respectable Society Decays into Something Darker and Far More Sinister and Unattractive”

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photo credit: nmhschool

In a wide-ranging interview with Hugh Hewitt this week, Mark Steyn weighed in on everything from Holder and the IRS scandal to the disclosure of the federal government’s extensive surveillance of the American public:

Hugh Hewitt: Mark, I’d like to begin with a simple request. Please don’t call me at home, because if anybody’s being snooped, I’m sure you are.

Mark Steyn: Yeah, in the days before all this stuff broke, I had, I suddenly became terribly paranoid. I started thinking I heard clicks on the line. And my assistant sent me an email which mysteriously took 13 hours to arrive, and I though oh, yes, that’s gone via Eric Holder. And I think it actually makes sense for the default position to be that you just assume that somewhere, somehow, this is being recorded by some government operative somewhere or other.

…

Hugh Hewitt: You know, I was on Sean Hannity’s television show on Monday night with Joe Trippi, and not even Joe, there are no Democrats who will deny that Eric Holder misled Congress. Nobody believes he was telling the truth, Mark Steyn, and yet he’s still the attorney general.

Mark Steyn: Well, yeah, and this is the chief law officer of the United States. And he’s just gone on national television and said he was obligated to lie to the judge. I had to sign some rinky-dink, little affidavit for something or another the other day, and you know, you have to get it notarized and all the rest of it, and you’re not allowed, when the citizen has to file relatively routine bits of information, you’re not allowed to lie. In fact, the point of the law, you’re not allowed to lie to Eric Holder’s minions. You’re not allowed to lie to a federal agent. Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to an employee of the attorney general of the United States. Yet the Attorney General himself is allowed to lie to a judge. This isn’t small stuff, you know. It’s the point at which a respectable society decays into something darker and far more sinister and unattractive.

Huge Leftist Donor Turns on Obama Due to Administration’s Unlawful Surveillance

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Photo Credit: Evan Vucci

A wireless provider with ties to the secret dark money group the Democracy Alliance is pushing back against the Obama administration’s surveillance of customers. CREDO Mobile cofounder Michael Kieschnick said on Thursday he was “deeply disturbed” by the administration’s invasion of individual’s civil liberties.

“As the CEO of a mobile phone company, I’m deeply disturbed by the Obama administration’s growing record of executive power grabs at the expense of constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties,” Kieschnick said in a statement to CNN Money.

Kieschnick is a member of the invite-only progressive Democracy Alliance. The exclusive group since 2005 has funneled more than $500 million into liberal organizations such as the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action and the Center for American Progress, the influential liberal think tank.

Kieschnick has contributed millions to pro-Obama special interest groups through CREDO Mobile’s liberal activism network, CREDO Action, including the League of Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood.

Read more from this story HERE.

Congress Disputes Obama’s Claim That ‘Every Member’ Was Briefed (+video)

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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday disputed a claim President Obama made at a press conference only moments earlier, when the president said that every member of Congress had been briefed on the National Security Agency’s (NSA) domestic phone surveillance program.

Merkley said only select members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees had been briefed on the program, and that he was only aware of it because he obtained “special permission” to review the pertinent documents after hearing about it second-hand.

Read more from this story HERE.

Prolife Leaders Believe Obama Should be Impeached for Unlawful Surveillance

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Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

Troy Newman of Operation Rescue told LifeSiteNews.com he was not at all surprised by the revelation that the U.S. government is spying on its own citizens.

“It’s finally out,” Newman said. “These are the things that we have been suspecting and confirming and warning people about for at least the last 20 years. With the advent of technology, it’s become much easier for the government to spy upon us and monitor our conversations. Before, it was just our mail and telephone. Now, it’s obviously cell phones and all internet interactions.”

Newman linked the administration’s disregard for the most vulnerable human life with its apparent disregard for privacy rights, saying, “If killing children in the womb is a constitutional right, then we have no civil rights in this country. Everything else can be stripped away from us. So, this ought not surprise anyone.”

But just because Newman is not surprised by the government’s spying does not mean he doesn’t want to see the people responsible punished.

Asked what he thinks is the proper response to the news of the NSA’s intelligence gathering efforts centered on ordinary Americans, Newman said, “I think Obama should be impeached.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Jay Leno – Scared of Big Brother? With Obama, We Actually Have a ‘Brother’ Watching Us (+video)

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Photo Credit: Wonderlane

Jay Leon kept up his hits on the White House last night, poking fun at Obama and his surveillance state:

See, when I was growing up, we were always afraid of ‘Big Brother’ watching us. And now with Obama, we actually have a brother watching us. See what I’m saying. We got a brother watching us. That’s right.

And, uh, and Attorney General Eric Holder said despite all these controversies, he has no intention of stepping down. Hey Eric, I didn’t either! Sometimes it just happens! Okay? Sometimes it just happens! Welcome to show business.

Wake up America, the Fourth Amendment is Dead: NSA Taps into Email, Google, Facebook, and ALL Phone Companies

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Photo Credit: AP

NSA taps in to systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and others, secret files reveal

By Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill. The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.

The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called PRISM, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.

The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims “collection directly from the servers” of major US service providers.

Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program.

In a statement, Google said: “Google cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. 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.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge

By Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras. The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.

Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

PRISM was launched from the ashes of President George W. Bush’s secret program of warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007, after news media disclosures, lawsuits and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the president to look for new authority.

Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily with U.S. intelligence collection. PRISM recruited its first partner, Microsoft, and began six years of rapidly growing data collection beneath the surface of a roiling national debate on surveillance and privacy. Late last year, when critics in Congress sought changes in the FISA Amendments Act, the only lawmakers who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Guardian

Welcome to the Bush-Obama White House: They’re Spying on Us

By Ron Fournier. Welcome to the era of Bush-Obama, a 16-year span of U.S. history that will be remembered for an unprecedented erosion of civil liberties and a disregard for transparency. On the war against a tactic—terrorism—and its insidious fallout, the United States could have skipped the 2008 election.

It made little difference.

Despite his clear and popular promises to the contrary, President Obama has not shifted the balance between security and freedom to a more natural state—one not blinded by worst fears and tarred by power grabs. If anything, things have gotten worse.

*Killing civilians and U.S. citizens via drone.
*Seizing telephone records at the Associated Press in violation of Justice Department guidelines.
*Accusing a respected Fox News reporter of engaging in a conspiracy to commit treason for doing his job.
*Detaining terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, despite promises to end the ill-considered Bush policy.

Even the IRS scandal, while not a matter of foreign policy, strikes at the heart of growing concerns among Americans that their privacy is government’s playpen. Read more from this story HERE.

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NSA Whistleblowers: Spying Operation Has Been In Place For Years, Involves All Major U.S. Phone Companies

By Peter Svensson. Former employees of the National Security Agency say the publishing of a court order asking Verizon to hand over all its phone calling records for a three-month period opens a new window on an operation that has been in place for years and involves all major U.S. phone companies.

“NSA has been doing all this stuff all along, and it’s been all these companies, not just one” William Binney told news program Democracy Now on Thursday. “They’re just continuing the collection of this data on all U.S. citizens.”

Binney, who worked at the NSA for almost 40 years, left the agency after the attacks of 9/11 because he objected to the expansion of its surveillance of U.S. citizens.

British newspaper The Guardian late Wednesday released an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, requesting Verizon to give the NSA the details on every phone call on its landline and wireless networks on a daily basis between April 25 and July 19.

Binney estimates that the NSA collects records on 3 billion calls per day. Read more from this story HERE.


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Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove

By Siobhan Gorman, Evan Perez and Janet Hook. The National Security Agency’s monitoring of Americans includes customer records from the three major phone networks as well as emails and Web searches, and the agency also has cataloged credit-card transactions, said people familiar with the agency’s activities.

The disclosure this week of an order by a secret U.S. court for Verizon Communications Inc.’s VZ +3.46% phone records set off the latest public discussion of the program. But people familiar with the NSA’s operations said the initiative also encompasses phone-call data from AT&T Inc. T +1.56% and Sprint Nextel Corp., S +1.94% records from Internet-service providers and purchase information from credit-card providers.

The agency is using its secret access to the communications of millions of Americans to target possible terrorists, said people familiar with the effort.

The NSA’s efforts have become institutionalized—yet not so well known to the public—under laws passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Most members of Congress defended them Thursday as a way to root out terrorism, but civil-liberties groups decried the program. Read more from this story HERE.

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NSA Whistleblowers’ startling claims: Records on 3 billion calls collected per day – and it’s not just Verizon

Photo Credit: AP

By Jason Howerton. The government knows who you’re calling.

Every day. Every call.

Former employees of the National Security Agency say the publishing of a court order asking Verizon to hand over all its phone calling records for a three-month period opens a new window on an operation that has been in place for years and involves all major U.S. phone companies.

“NSA has been doing all this stuff all along, and it’s been all these companies, not just one,” William Binney told news program Democracy Now on Thursday. “They’re just continuing the collection of this data on all U.S. citizens.”

Binney, who worked at the NSA for almost 40 years, left the agency after the attacks of 9/11 because he objected to the expansion of its surveillance of U.S. citizens. Read more from this story HERE.

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Scope of phone records seizure causes alarm; data collection goes beyond Verizon

By Dave Boyer. The Obama administration on Thursday defended its secret seizure of the phone records of millions of U.S. citizens as part of counterterrorism efforts, while privacy advocates blasted the move as illegal and a debate erupted in Congress over the intended scope of a key surveillance law.

The revelation that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records from Verizon Communications of all calls within the U.S. and to sources overseas raised accusations that President Obama is running a police state, in spite of his 2008 campaign promise to expand civil liberties while prosecuting the war on terror differently from his Republican predecessor.

On Thursday, the scope of the records seizure apparently expanded as former government officials familiar with the details of the domestic spying said more phone companies likely are involved and lawmakers said the court order is a routine three-month update of an ongoing program.

But a White House official said such domestic surveillance is a “critical tool in protecting the nation from terror threats.”

“It allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States,” said White House deputy press secretary Joshua Earnest. Read more from this story HERE.

New York Times: Obama Has Lost All Credibility; Phone Surveillance Was Tipping Point for Gray Lady

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Photo Credit: AP

New York Times editorial board says administration has ‘lost all credibility’

By Fox News. The New York Times editorial board, which twice endorsed President Obama and has championed many planks of his agenda, on Thursday turned on the president over the government’s mass collection of phone data — saying the administration has “lost all credibility.”

The grey lady’s editorial section lately has shown frustration with the administration’s civil liberties record. It has criticized the escalation of the lethal drone program, and it lashed out after the Justice Department acknowledged seizing reporters’ phone records last month.

The report that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records from millions of Verizon subscribers appeared to be the last straw.

An editorial published late Thursday said the administration was using the “same platitude” it uses in every case of overreach — that “terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us.”

The editorial continued: “Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility.” Read more from this story HERE.

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New York Times Editorial: President Obama’s Dragnet

By The Editorial Board. Within hours of the disclosure that federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.

Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability.

The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue [Editor’s note: the New York Times altered this sentence by adding the words “on this issue” after the initial posting; see Mr. Howerton’s article below]. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

Based on an article in The Guardian published Wednesday night, we now know that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency used the Patriot Act to obtain a secret warrant to compel Verizon’s business services division to turn over data on every single call that went through its system. We know that this particular order was a routine extension of surveillance that has been going on for years, and it seems very likely that it extends beyond Verizon’s business division. Read more from this story HERE.

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Hannity Slams the New York Times for quietly altering it’s scathing Obama editorial

By Jason Howerton. The New York Times created a stir on Thursday when it published a scathing editorial, slamming the Obama administration for its drastic domestic surveillance efforts. The “administration has lost all credibility,” it read.

But it was only a few hours before the Times quietly altered that harsh statement, adding the words “on this issue.” Though a small change, it completely changes the meaning of the sentence…

Fox News host Sean Hannity caught the sneaky edit and slammed the publication for once again caving to protect President Obama. Read more from this story HERE.

Outrage Over NSA’s Theft of Millions of Verizon Customers’ Records; but What About the Agency’s Recording of All Cell Calls?

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Photo Credit: Matt Rourke/AP

As Restoring Liberty reported last month, a retired FBI counter-terrorism agent let it slip during a CNN interview regarding the Boston Marathon Bombing that the U.S. government is recording all cell phone conversations.

Previously, NSA whistle-blower William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the agency, claimed in an interview with the New York Times that the federal government was engaged in near-universal surveillance of digital communications, not just in the United States but internationally. He claims that he helped develop the technology to accomplish this.

With that as the backdrop, it was disclosed yesterday that the NSA secured an Order from a top secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Court out of Washington, D.C. to gather up the records – on an ongoing, daily basis – of all telephone calls such as the length of the call, phone numbers, time of the call, and geographic location of the call.

Why would the Feds need this when they’re already recording all cell communications? Mr. Binney would have to answer that question but perhaps the government is only able to intercept the data packets for voice communications and is unable to match those to specific phone numbers without the additional information supplied by the carriers.

In any event, this outrageous Fourth Amendment violation is yet another reason that many are suggesting the country has entered into an era of “soft tyranny.”

Here’s more on the NSA’s Verizon snooping from the British outlet that first broke the story:

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered

Will Electronic Tattoos Replace Internet Passwords And All Other Forms Of Identification?

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Photo Credit: MC10

By Michael. Would you wear an electronic tattoo if you couldn’t log on to the Internet without one? That may sound crazy to many of you, but the technology for such a system already exists. RFID tattoos have existed for quite some time, and they are already being used on animals. But now an entirely new generation of electronic tattoos are being developed that can monitor your vital signs, interact with your mobile phone and even communicate directly with your mind. These new electronic tattoos are thinner than a human hair, and they are going to fundamentally transform the way that we think about human identification.

Right now, the Internet is being absolutely plagued by hackers and identity theft has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise. It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine if someone is actually who they say that they are. And as even more of our commerce gets conducted through the Internet, identity security is going to be absolutely critical. Without a doubt, there will continue to be a push for more secure forms of identification than we have today. But there is also a very dark side to this kind of technology.

What if someday a tyrannical government decides to make a permanent electronic tattoo for identification purposes mandatory for all citizens? What if you are not able to buy, sell, get a job, have a bank account or log on to the Internet without “proper identification”? What if the price for receiving your tattoo is to swear absolute allegiance to that tyrannical government? The truth is that technology is always a double-edged sword. It always brings with it the promise of progress, but it also always has a dark side that could potentially be abused. Read more from this story HERE.

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Motorola Pushes Plans for Electronic Ink and Digital Pills to Authentic our Daily Activies

By Victoria Woollaston. Motorola has announced it is looking at alternatives to traditional passwords in a bid to make logging into online sites, or accessing mobile phones, more secure.

Among the ideas discussed at the D11 conference in California on Wednesday were electronic tattoos and authentication pills that people swallow.

The tattoos, developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm MC10, contain flexible electronic circuits that are attached to the wearer’s skin using a rubber stamp.

MC10 originally designed the tattoos, called Biostamps, to help medical teams measure the health of their patients either remotely, or without the need for large expensive machinery.

Motorola claims that the circuits, which also contain antennae and built-in sensors, could be adapted to work with mobile phones and tablets. Read more from this story HERE.

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Pentagon’s Mad Scientists Want a Tattoo That Tracks Troops’ Vitals

By Nick Stockton. In its ongoing quest to measure every aspect of U.S. troops’ physiology, Pentagon researchers are looking to develop a durable, unobtrusive device that can track the body’s physical response to stress. Military scientists believe that using the device — preferably a tattoo — to track heart-rate, temperature or bio-electric response during various training situations will help them crack the code of combat fatigue.

The Navy recently requested research proposals to develop the next generation of bio-statistic devices. The solicitation, which opened last month, hopes new technologies can transcend the current paradigm of patient monitoring of needles, gels and electrodes. And advanced materials make it possible to integrate everything from the sensors to the transmitter into thumb-sized membranes that can stick to skin — like temporary tattoos.

The Navy is hoping that whichever company wins the research contract will be able to use a relatively new technology known as epidermal electronic systems (EES) to make sensors that are both unobtrusive and durable enough for modern combat training. Using state-of-the-art, highly flexible materials, researchers can coil sensors, electronics, and transmitters into serpentine shapes that form a stretchable net. “This innovative design contains all of the necessary components in an ultrathin layer about the thickness of a human hair,” writes Zhenqiang Ma, an electrical engineer at the University of Wisconsin, in a review of the technology.

They are nearly as flexible as hair, too, and adhere to the skin using strong molecular forces. According to research by EES’ inventors at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, they can be pinched, poked, pulled, and stretched without damaging the device. In one experiment, researchers left a sensor tattoo attached to their subjects’ necks for over 24 hours before it wore off. Read more from this story HERE.