Related: Obama Secretly Spying on U.S. Businesses
Actually, it's a lot worse than that. It is EVERYONE and they are COLLECTING EVERYTHING!!
"The scope of the monitoring appeared to be much broader than just the phone records. The Washington Post reported late on Thursday that the government is currently tapping directly into the central servers of nine top US Internet companies, including Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and Skype. Government analysts are able to extract audio, video, photos, and e-mails to track a person’s movements and contacts."
Everything you want is RIGHT HERE, guys!
"US intelligence mines data from Internet companies in broad secret program" by Barton Gellmanand Laura Poitras | Washington Post, June 07, 2013
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading US Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track one target or trace a whole network of associates, 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.
No, government agencies have been doing this for decades if not centuries. Think Alien and Sedition Acts as well as COINTELPRO for starters.
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 US 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.
Like I have said many times: the programs never end, their names are simply changed and moved to other departments within government.
Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily with US intelligence collection.
So you can't even $ue them for rights violations or crimes.
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.
Looks like the "debate" is over.
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.
The court-approved program is focused on foreign communications traffic, which often flows through US servers even when sent from one overseas location to another.
Then why are ALL DOMESTIC COMMUNICATIONS being SWEPT UP and STORED?
Between 2004 and 2007, Bush administration lawyers persuaded federal FISA judges to issue surveillance orders in a fundamentally new form. Until then the government had to show probable cause that a ‘‘target’’ and ‘‘facility’’ were connected to terrorism or espionage.
In four new orders, which remain classified, the court defined massive data sets as ‘‘facilities’’ and agreed to occasionally certify the government had reasonable procedures in place to minimize collection of ‘‘US persons’’ data without warrant.
On Thursday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said articles about the Internet program ‘‘contain numerous inaccuracies.’’ He did not specify what those inaccuracies might be. Clapper said PRISM can’t be used to intentionally target any Americans or anyone in the United States.
Several companies contacted by The Post said they had no knowledge of the program and responded only to individual requests for information.
‘‘We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers,’’ said Joe Sullivan, chief security officer for Facebook.
‘‘We have never heard of PRISM,’’ an Apple spokesman said. ‘‘We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers.’’
Even if they knew about it they can't say anything because it's the law!!!!!! A no comment would have been better!
Government officials and the document itself made clear that the NSA regarded the identities of its private partners as PRISM’s most sensitive secret, fearing they would withdraw from the program if exposed.
I guess the corporate media is pissed about the monitoring of their communications and e-mails.
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"Debate rages over monitoring of phone records; Lawmakers divided over monitoring; Mass. members voice doubts on Obama" by Matt Viser and Noah Bierman | Globe Staff, June 06, 2013
WASHINGTON — The disclosure of a top-secret order allowing the Obama administration to obtain phone records of millions of Americans reignited a national debate on Thursday about whether the White House is violating civil liberties, with Massachusetts lawmakers among the most vocal critics.
But the administration and several top US lawmakers defended the program as a vital and necessary tool in continuing to combat potential terrorists.
Yeah, just scream terrorist (it used to be communist) and everybody will shut up.
Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that the phone records had helped avert a domestic terrorist attack in recent years. Details remained classified.
Uh-huh.
Several members of the all-Democratic Massachusetts congressional delegation, which has been largely opposed to the government program that allows for such phone record monitoring, were harshly critical of Obama’s action.
“This is absolutely horrendous,” said Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Somerville Democrat. “Do we or don’t we want an open society? And my answer is, without that we don’t have an America.”
That's what I've been typing for months if not years.
The scope of the monitoring appeared to be much broader than just the phone records. The Washington Post reported late on Thursday that the government is currently tapping directly into the central servers of nine top US Internet companies, including Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and Skype. Government analysts are able to extract audio, video, photos, and e-mails to track a person’s movements and contacts.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denounced the disclosure of highly secret documents Thursday. He said he was declassifying some aspects of the monitoring to help Americans understand it better.
Oh, we understand well enough, scumbag.
Clapper said the leak that revealed a program to collect phone records would affect how America’s enemies behave and make it harder to understand their intentions.
Well, any good "terrorist" that isn't a government agent or asset isn't using the phones or mail. Heck, they all have Facebook profiles under false identities and such.
Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the monitoring program a “critical tool,” saying Obama “welcomes the discussion of the trade-off” involved in seeking such private records to try to gain intelligence about possible terrorist threats.
Oh, I am SO SORRY, sir, but THERE IS NO TRADE-OFF when it comes to the BILL of RIGHTS!!
The controversy created an unusual dynamic in Washington, with a number of liberal Democrats, including those from Massachusetts, blasting the administration, while many conservative Republicans supported Obama.
It's an upside-down world, isn't it?
The domestic surveillance program began under the George W. Bush administration and has been reauthorized under Obama.
He's a law-breaking criminal, and I wanted him tried for war crimes.
Rogers, a Michigan Republican, defended the White House at a Capitol Hill press conference, saying the “important” program had been used to stop a terrorist attack on the United States. He said he would try to get the incident declassified so details could be provided.
Is that where you wanted to see the precious bipartisanship, Americans?
“It fills in a little seam that we have, and it’s used to make sure that there’s not an international nexus to any terrorism event that they may believe is ongoing in the United States,” Rogers said.
Go to Israel to find it.
The government order for obtaining phone records was first reported on Wednesday by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which obtained a copy of the document requiring Verizon to provide the National Security Agency with daily logs of telephone calls by its customers.
Not an AmeriKan one? They were shamed into this because if they didn't cover it they would really look bad.
The NSA, whose secretive nature has led wags to say its initials stand for “No Such Agency,” is a Maryland-based federal facility that specializes in collecting and analyzing information from electronic signals, including telephones.
The order for Verizon records was made under a section of the Patriot Act that allows the government to demand information from telephone carriers as long as they gain approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The information is not supposed to include the content of the calls, according to lawmakers, but does include information such as a telephone number and how long a call lasted.
Right, they didn't monitor the content, uh-huh. Puh-leeze.
Clapper said he wanted to correct the ‘‘misleading impression’’ created by the article that disclosed the existence of the phone records program. To that end, Clapper said he was immediately declassifying and releasing to the public certain details about the FISA provision that governs the program.
It's called DAMAGE CONTROL!
A special panel known as the FISA Court authorizes the phone records program and reviews it every 30 days, Clapper said, adding that the Justice Department oversees information acquired under the court order. He said only a small fraction of the records get examined because most are unrelated to inquiries into terrorism activities.
Oh, the Justice Department oversees it. That makes me feel a whole pile better.
The court also prohibits the government from indiscriminately rummaging through the phone data, which he said can only be queried when there are specific facts to back up a suspicion of an association with a foreign terrorist group.
If you believe that I suppose there is nothing this government says that you will not believe. For the rest of us, it's offensive.
It is not clear whether phone companies besides Verizon also were required to turn over records. But the government last year submitted 1,789 applications to the secret court that authorizes searches for electronic surveillance.
The government later withdrew one application; the rest were approved, according to data compiled by the attorney general’s office.
How did all this get back to just the phone records? Mind-manipulating media manipulation narrowly focusing one aspect of a scandal again.
The law allowing the government to obtain the phone records was reauthorized in December 2012, following overwhelming votes in both the House and Senate to renew the laws for another five years.
See, they can be bipartisan when it comes to oppressing you, Americans. But the things you want and need? Always squabbling.
Related: Spying a Post About the Supreme Court
Both Massachusetts senators at the time — Scott Brown, a Republican, and John Kerry, a Democrat — voted for reauthorization. But in the House, all Massachusetts lawmakers except for Stephen Lynch of South Boston voted against the measure.
Ah, Lynchie!
Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat now running for Senate, said the Obama administration needs greater scrutiny from him and his colleagues on these issues.
“There has to be much greater congressional oversight of government surveillance programs,” Markey said.
No, Ed, this NEEDS TO STOP NOW!
This DRAGNET based on DAMNABLE LIES MUST END!
Gabriel Gomez, the Republican Senate nominee, also criticized the phone records seizure, saying on Fox News it was “an absolute overreach. We’ve got due process here.”
Representative Niki Tsongas, a Lowell Democrat, called on the administration to provide answers, saying, “privacy in this digital age is certainly not a trivial matter.”
Representative Jim McGovern, a Worcester Democrat, said the phone record monitoring was threatening the principles the country was founded upon. “We’re going down a road that compromises some of the values and traditions that we have held as sacred for many, many years,” he said.
He's my guy, and he's right.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who took office in January, who said she had no prior knowledge of the program, said, “I’m very concerned about it, but I want to learn more.”
Weak, Senator Warren.
Senator William “Mo” Cowan, the Massachusetts Democrat who is temporarily filling the seat until voters select a replacement on June 25, also wants more information.
He will be gone soon, with all due respect, who cares?
But some Democrats supported the order and said they knew about it. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that all senators were given opportunities to review classified information on the program.
“Terrorists will come after us if they can,” she said. “The only thing we have to deter this is good intelligence . . . and to get to them before they get to us.”
Feinstein with the fascist mentality spewing absolute fear, fear, fear! Great.
So the WARS were SENSELESS and USELESS, 'eh? Getting them over there before they come here (a Bush doctrine).
House Speaker John Boehner did not criticize the surveillance program, but he called on Obama to explain it to the American public, and justify why he thinks it is important.
The revelation came at a time of increasing angst among civil libertarians about federal actions.
The Obama administration was criticized last month after the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records from the Associated Press as part of a leak investigation into a story about the CIA thwarting a terrorist plot originating in Yemen. The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states could allow law enforcement officials to routinely obtain DNA swabs from those who were arrested, but not yet convicted of a crime.
The TOTAL SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY with DNA STORED in DATABASES!
How long until ALL MUST GIVE DNA, if for no other reason than to solve crimes and protect children, 'eh?
Since Obama took office, critics have accused him of being too quick to embrace Bush administration policies that he once disavowed.
There is a whole, long list of them, and he's also expanded on so many -- including overseas wars (Syria and Libya are his alone, folks). He also accelerated drone strikes. No the "change" we were "hoping" for.
Obama co-sponsored legislation when he was a US senator in 2005 that would have limited the government’s ability to seize phone records, essentially prohibiting the type of mass collection of records with which his administration is now involved.
So WHAT HAPPENED, sir?
Related:
Obama told friends he reneged on progressive promises out of fear of assassination
As you are killing and asking others to die for the agenda, sir?
Cornel West: Obama 'Is a War Criminal'
He must be a racist, huh?
Obama recently expressed concern about striking the right balance on a range of national security issues, from whether journalists should have their phone records seized in leak investigations to whether the government can and should authorize drone attacks of American citizens on foreign soil.
But the web site cut the printed quote:
"In the years to come, we will have to keep working hard to strike the appropriate balance between or need for security and preserving those freedoms that make us who we are. That means reviewing the authorities of law enforcement so we can intercept new types of communication, but also build on the privacy protections to prevent abuse."
What bullshit! I guess I don't have to cover that speech since it was all horse shit.
Back to verbatim:
The Republican Party, meanwhile, showed signs of splintering on the issue.
“I’m a Verizon customer,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said in a congressional hearing. “It doesn’t bother me one bit that the National Security Agency has my phone number.”
Maybe it should, Lindsay. There is always the open secret and question of your homosexuality and how you are being blackmailed to support the Israeli agenda down the line.
But Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican and a Tea Party movement leader, said surveillance had gone too far.
“I’m all for going after terrorists. I’m all for going after criminals, but I think you go to a judge and you ask for a warrant specified to a person,” Paul said. “You shouldn’t look at millions of records.”
And you shouldn't drone liquor store robbers either, Rand, but you are for that, so...
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Other scandals engulfing the administration at the moment:
"President Obama pushes 3 judges for court; Challenges GOP on ‘obstruction’" by Nedra Pickler | Associated Press, June 05, 2013
WASHINGTON — Opening a summer showdown with Congress, a combative President Obama nominated three judges to a powerful appellate court Tuesday and challenged Republicans to stop the “political obstruction” holding up his nominees.
I smell a diversion and distraction! No bipartisanship there as the wheels of justice(?) in AmeriKa grind to a halt.
“What I’m doing today is my job,” Obama said in the face of Republican attempts to eliminate the very judicial vacancies he is trying to fill. “I need the Senate to do its job.”
Obama’s nominations were another ingredient in a White House effort to regain the political momentum after weeks of controversies, disputes over legislation, and a budget stalemate that shows no sign of ending.
It's an attempt to change the subject from the numerous scandals.
Obama used a Rose Garden ceremony to introduce his candidates to fill the three openings on the powerful US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, grooming grounds for Supreme Court justices. The nominees include two lawyers experienced in appellate cases, Patricia Millett and Cornelia “Nina” Pillard, and US District Judge Robert Wilkins, who is a lower court judge in the building where the D.C. circuit court meets.
“There’s no reason, aside from politics, for Republicans to block these individuals from getting an up-or-down vote,” Obama argued.
Have you noticed how sick of politics I am?
The court is a long-running battleground between the White House and Senate that predates this president. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah pointed out that in 2006, Democratic senators objected to President George W. Bush’s pick amid questions about whether the seat needed to be filled.
“Today’s nominations are nothing more than a political ploy,” said Lee, a member of the Judiciary Committee with the task of holding judicial confirmation hearings.
Obama has other nomination battles on his hands this summer — his selection of Tom Perez as labor secretary and Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency face GOP resistance.
See: MSM Monitor: GOP Eases Up on Obama's EPA Nominee
And Republicans have been hammering Obama over last year’s attack in Libya that killed four Americans, political targeting at the IRS, and tracking of journalists who reported leaks. And there’s been no movement in the partisan stalemate to replace $85 billion in government-wide spending cuts.
Libya is the least-talked about scandal with hearings behind closed doors. Sure is looking like a staged and scripted hostage situation gone awry.
As for the sequester partisanship, both wanted it. Democrats can pretend and decry it, but that is just the point. Cuts were made because of icky Repuglicans. On the Repug side, budget cuts stand. Politics is all a s***-show fooley and distraction, folks.
Republicans have opposed Obama’s proposals for gun control, a minimum wage increase, universal prekindergarten, and more federal money for highways and bridge repair. Obama has threatened to veto GOP legislation on spending, student loans, cybersecurity, and overtime compensation.
Yeah, yeah, but when it comes to anything Israel wants, war money, or cutting checks for tyranny and the total surveillance system there is always plenty of unanimity.
--more--"
And what does the AmeriKan media focus on?
"Added to criticism of IRS: luxury rooms at conferences" by Stephen Ohlemacher and Alan Fram | Associated Press, June 05, 2013
WASHINGTON — Already under siege, the Internal Revenue Service was cited by a government watchdog for a $4.1 million training conference featuring luxury rooms and free drinks, even as conservative figures told Congress Tuesday that they had been abused for years while seeking tax-exempt status.
Not excusing the conduct at all, and am in fact angry about it; however, considering the more serious violations of law and the other more important (imho) scandals we are getting this. Everyone already hates the IRS so no problem if it gets whipped some more.
A total of 132 IRS officials received room upgrades at the 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif., according to the report being released by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
One official stayed five nights in a room that regularly goes for $3,500 a night, George’s report said, and another stayed four nights in a room that regularly goes for $1,499 a night. The agency paid a flat daily fee of $135 per hotel room, it said, but the upgrades were part of a package deal that added to the overall cost of the conference. Without the upgrades, the IRS could have negotiated a lower room rate, as required by agency procedures.
The inspector general’s report was surfacing as the IRS came under fire again in connection with its targeting of conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
In all, the IRS held 225 employee conferences from 2010 through 2012, at a total cost of $49 million, the report said. The Anaheim conference was the most expensive, but others were costly, too.
Wait a minute, now we are talking REAL MONEY!
$49 million so the IRS could party, huh?
Related: The Good Stewards of Government
Alphabet Agency: It's Fun Working For the FAA
Yeah, government work is one long party!
In 2010, for instance, the agency held a conference in Philadelphia that cost $2.9 million, one in San Diego that cost $1.2 million, and one in Atlanta that also cost $1.2 million.
Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has called the conferences ‘‘an unfortunate vestige from a prior era.’’
Obama's first term!!
The article then mostly focuses on the scrutiny of conservative groups.
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And we know the IRS scandal was purposefully leaked by a prepared question and response, and the Globe continues the game:
"House panel grills IRS official on spending; Concedes Calif. conference was a waste of money" by Alan Fram and Stephen Ohlemacher | Associated Press, June 07, 2013
WASHINGTON — An Internal Revenue Service official whose division staged a lavish $4.1 million training conference and who starred as Mr. Spock in a ‘‘Star Trek’’ parody shown at the 2010 gathering conceded to Congress on Thursday that taxpayer dollars were wasted in the episode.
Wow, the subservient mouthpieces really are getting out there and off the true trail of scandal.
‘‘We’re now in a very different environment’’ with new IRS spending curbs, Faris Fink, a top deputy in the agency’s small business division at the time, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Why? This stuff has been reported before and it's been same-old, same-old.
Fink, who now heads that 24,000-employee division, said he believes many of the expenditures ‘‘should have been more closely scrutinized or not incurred at all and were not the best use of taxpayer dollars.’’
I don't think so.
The mea culpa was echoed by new acting IRS chief Danny Werfel as the embattled agency struggled to contain public and congressional ire over its spending of $49 million on 225 employee conferences over the past three years.
Werfel called the 2010 gathering in Anaheim, Calif., ‘‘an unfortunate vestige from a prior era’’ and said IRS spending on travel and training has fallen 80 percent since then.
Meaning a few months ago.
‘‘Our work in this area is one part of a much larger effort to chart a path forward in the IRS. This is obviously a very challenging time for the agency,’’ Werfel said.
Aww, poor illegal looters of American citizen's incomes!
Werfel, who testified after Fink had left the committee room, became acting commissioner last month after President Obama forced Steven Miller out of the job.
Miller was leaving in June anyway, but that makes the president look like he's in charge and getting to the bottom of blah, blah, blah.
Werfel appeared a day after putting two IRS officials on administrative leave for accepting free food at a party in a private suite at the Anaheim conference.
Behind the scenes, committee investigators have interviewed at least four IRS employees about the targeting of conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections. The Associated Press viewed transcripts of interviews with two employees who work in the Cincinnati office where agents screened the applications.
The transcripts show that the employees believed that officials in Washington were directing their work.
Yeah, we knew that weeks ago.
But they do not show any direct evidence that officials in Washington ordered the agents to target tea party groups, or why they may have done so.
Elizabeth Hofacre, an agent in the Cincinnati office, said she was in charge of processing applications from Tea Party groups, once they were selected by other agents, from April to October 2010, according to the transcript. She said an IRS lawyer in Washington, Carter Hull, micromanaged her work and ultimately delayed the processing of applications by Tea Party groups.
She said Hull’s interest in the cases was highly unusual. ‘‘It was demeaning,’’ she said. ‘‘One of the criteria is to work independently and do research and make decisions based on your experience and education, whereas on this case, I had no autonomy at all through the process.’’
And now they will have all your health records.
Neither Hofacre nor Hull responded to requests for comment....
Fink insisted that the IRS followed federal guidelines in planning the Anaheim gathering for 2,600 IRS workers. He said the conference was justified because at the time, around 30 percent of its managers were new and the agency was facing increased security threats.
Sitting at the same witness table was J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general whose scathing reports on the IRS’s targeting of conservatives and conference spending have rocked the agency. George said he uncovered no criminal violations involving the conference.
Those comments did not shield Fink from a three-hour tongue-lashing from the panel....
Yup, Congress makes a big huff-and-puff for photos and nothing changes. That's the problem. This va$t bureaucracy of tyranny is so big it's uncontrollable now. It's a beast with its own volition.
Top panel Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland said he viewed the ‘‘Star Trek’’ video at 3 a.m. Thursday and said, ‘‘I tried to get to the redeeming value. Can’t get there.’’
Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, called the video ‘‘an insult to the memory of ‘Star Trek.’ ”
Now I'm REALLY ANGRY!
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It's not surprising those in government have no vision.
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: Getting a Hold of Obama's Scandals
Also see: Absent facts, the GOP still talks scandal
It's not worth reading, imho. I suppose it's hard to see things with your head up your ass.
