Much like some of the nation’s biggest gangsters have been taken down by the fine print – tax rules and the like – over the generations, it now appears that the National Security Agency’s massive spy-on-citizens scheme could unravel because officials reportedly failed to follow the rules.
The challenge is being raised by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which started protesting the NSA surveillance plans a few weeks ago, and promises to renew the protest every week until something happens.
It points out that the NSA’s search and copy functions regarding Americans and their telephone or other records, “also constitutes a legislative rule that ‘substantively affects the public to a degree sufficient to implicate the policy interests animating notice-and-comment rulemaking.”
What that means is that the organization believes the Administrative Procedures Act requires the NSA to open up its surveillance strategy for a public comment period – before it legally could begin those search and copy functions.
“Accordingly, the NSA’s collection of domestic communications, absent the opportunity for public comment, is unlawful,” the letter to NSA chief Keith Alexander and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel explains.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-04 03:12:562013-07-04 03:12:56NSA Accused of Breaking More Rules to Spy on Citizens
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has apologized for telling Congress the National Security Agency doesn’t gather data on millions of Americans.
The apology comes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden gave top-secret information to newspapers that last month published stories about the federal government collecting the data from phone calls and such Internet communications as emails.
Clapper apologized in a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein that was posted Tuesday on the website of Clapper’s office.
Clapper said in the June 21 letter that his answer was “clearly erroneous”…
Clapper said in the letter to Feinstein that when answering he was confounded by the word dossier and challenged by trying to protect classified information. He also said that when answering Wyden, he was focused on whether the U.S. collected the content of phone and email conversations, and not so-called metadata, which essentially is phone numbers, email addresses, dates and times. He wrote that he “simply didn’t think of” the pertinent section of the Patriot Act under which that information can be collected.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-03 03:21:482013-07-03 03:21:48National Intelligence Director Clapper Apologizes for Lying, Now Suggests He Was Confused
The US spying scandal deepened today as Secretary of State John Kerry said it is ‘not unusual’ for governments to bug the offices of their allies sparking fierce retorts from France and Germany.
The extraordinary statement has angered leaders across the world after leaked documents revealed America spied on 38 foreign missions and embassies including the European Union’s Washington nerve centre.
As outrage grew across the EU over the damaging revelations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was first to lash out, declaring that ‘bugging friends is unacceptable’ before French premier Francois Hollande demanded its ‘immediate halt’.
Speaking to a press conference today, Kerry said: ‘I will say that every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs and national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security and all kinds of information contributes to that. All I know is that is not unusual for lots of nations.’
But the remarks did not wash with Francois Hallande who demanded an immediate explanation, adding: ‘We cannot accept this kind of behavior.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-02 03:15:512013-07-02 03:15:51European Nations Lash Out at Kerry Who Maintains that “Spying on Allies is Not Unusual”
By Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Fidelius Schmid and Holger Stark. America’s NSA intelligence service allegedly targeted the European Union with its spying activities. According to SPIEGEL information, the US placed bugs in the EU representation in Washington and infiltrated its computer network. Cyber attacks were also perpetrated against Brussels in New York and Washington.
Information obtained by SPIEGEL shows that America’s National Security Agency (NSA) not only conducted online surveillance of European citizens, but also appears to have specifically targeted buildings housing European Union institutions. The information appears in secret documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden that SPIEGEL has in part seen. A “top secret” 2010 document describes how the secret service attacked the EU’s diplomatic representation in Washington.
The document suggests that in addition to installing bugs in the building in downtown Washington, DC, the European Union representation’s computer network was also infiltrated. In this way, the Americans were able to access discussions in EU rooms as well as emails and internal documents on computers.
The attacks on EU institutions show yet another level in the broad scope of the NSA’s spying activities. For weeks now, new details about Prism and other surveillance programs have been emerging from what had been compiled by whistleblower Snowden. It has also been revealed that the British intelligence service GCHQ operates a similar program under the name Tempora with which global telephone and Internet connections are monitored. Read more from this story HERE.
By F. Michael Maloof. Europeans are beginning to express increasing alarm over the Obama administration and the extent of electronic snooping it has been conducting on people around the world, including Americans, and are proposing heavy penalties on U.S. internet networks if they’re caught, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
“Is Barack Obama a friend?” asks one commentary in the highly regarded German magazine Der Spiegel.
“Revelations about his government’s vast spying program call the assumption into doubt,” it said. “The European Union must protect the continent from America’s reach for omnipotence.”
This feeling was further underscored on the occasion of President Barack Obama’s recent appearance in Berlin. The people who turned out for his speech were just a fraction of those who saw the one the president gave in Berlin years ago.
Der Spiegel referred to Obama as the “head of the largest and most all-encompassing surveillance system ever invented.” Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-30 22:06:212013-06-30 22:06:21Europe Fuming: NSA Bugged, Spied on European Union Offices
The National Security Agency has spent years demanding that companies turn over their data. Now, the spy agency finds the shoe is on the other foot. A defendant in a Florida murder trial says telephone records collected by the NSA as part of its surveillance programs hold evidence that would help prove his innocence, and his lawyer has demanded that prosecutors produce those records. On Wednesday, the federal government filed a motion saying it would refuse, citing national security. But experts say the novel legal argument could encourage other lawyers to fight for access to the newly disclosed NSA surveillance database.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, I guess,” said George Washington University privacy law expert Dan Solove. “In a way, it’s kind of ironic.”
Defendant Terrance Brown is accused of participating in the 2010 murder of a Brinks security truck driver. Brown maintains his innocence, and claims cellphone location records would show he wasn’t at the scene of the crime. Brown’s cellphone provider — MetroPCS — couldn’t produce those records during discovery because it had deleted the data already.
On seeing the story in the Guardian indicating that Verizon had been ordered to turn over millions of calling records to the NSA last month, Brown’s lawyer had a novel idea: Make the NSA produce the records…
“Relying on a June 5, 2013, Guardian newspaper article … Defendant Brown now suggests that the Government likely actually does possess the metadata relating to telephone calls made in July 2010 from the two numbers attributed to Defendant Brown,” wrote U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenbaum in an order demanding that the federal government respond to the request on June 10.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-22 05:20:352013-06-22 05:20:35Lawyers Eye NSA Data as Treasure Trove for Evidence in Murder, Divorce Cases
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
[T]he European Parliament planned to debate the spy programs Tuesday and whether they have violated local privacy protections. EU officials in Brussels pledged to seek answers from U.S. diplomats at a trans-Atlantic ministerial meeting in Dublin later this week.
The global scrutiny comes after revelations from Snowden, who has chosen to reveal his identity. Snowden has fled to Hong Kong in hopes of escaping criminal charges as lawmakers including Senate intelligence chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California accuse him of committing an “act of treason” that should be prosecuted.
Officials in Germany and the European Union issued calm but firm complaints Monday over two National Security Agency programs that target suspicious foreign messages – potentially including phone numbers, email, images, video and other online communications transmitted through U.S. providers. The chief British diplomat felt it necessary to try to assure Parliament that the spy programs do not encroach on U.K. privacy laws…
A senior U.S. intelligence official on Monday said there were no plans to scrap the programs that, despite the backlash, continue to receive widespread if cautious support within Congress. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive security issue.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-11 23:41:072013-06-11 23:41:07NSA’s Vast Surveillance Program Receiving International Scrutiny; Obama Admin. Doubles Down
The IRS, currently in the midst of scandals involving the targeting of conservative groups and lavish taxpayer-funded conferences, is ordering surveillance equipment that includes hidden cameras in coffee trays, plants and clock radios.
The IRS wants to secure the surveillance equipment quickly – it posted a solicitation on June 6 and is looking to close the deal by Monday, June 10. The agency already has a company lined up for the order but is not commenting on the details.
“The Internal Revenue Service intends to award a Purchase Order to an undisclosed Corporation,” reads the solicitation.
“The following descriptions are vague due to the use and nature of the items,” it says.
“If you feel that you can provide the following equipment, please respond to this email no later than 4 days after the solicitation date,” the IRS said.
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.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2013-06-08 02:00:472013-06-08 02:00:47Prolife Leaders Believe Obama Should be Impeached for Unlawful Surveillance
