Lot of talking, little being said….
"Obama’s surveillance reforms face big hurdles; Plans for phone records, privacy panel questioned" by Stephen Braun | Associated Press, January 21, 2014
WASHINGTON — Several of the key surveillance reforms proposed by President Obama face complications that could muddy their lawfulness, slow their momentum in Congress, and saddle the government with heavy costs and bureaucracy, legal analysts warn.
Like we don't already have that now. This is an excuse to do nothing and leave the status quo in place in the interim.
Despite Obama’s plans to shift the National Security Agency’s mass storage of Americans’ bulk phone records elsewhere, telephone companies do not want the responsibility. And the government could face privacy and structural hurdles in relying on any other entity to store the data.
Constitutional scholars also question the legal underpinning of Obama’s commitment to setting up an advisory panel of privacy experts to intervene in some proceedings of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, which oversees the NSA’s data mining operations.
Obama has asked Congress to set up such a panel, but senior federal judges already oppose the move, citing practical and legal drawbacks.
The secret courts now operate with only the government making its case to a federal judge for examining someone’s phone data. Civil libertarians have called for a voice in the room that might offer the judge an opposing view….
Why does that look so Soviet Union to me?
Obstacles to enacting Obama’s plans are expected to mount quickly as administration officials and legislators grapple over what sort of entity will oversee the calling records swept up by the NSA. Obama ordered the Justice Department and intelligence officials to devise a plan within the next two months.
Related:
I'm sure there is some Big Data firm out there willing to make a buck or two while being monitored.
Privacy advocates also questioned the administration’s silence on what it will do with hundreds of millions of phone records, at minimum, that are now kept on file in government inventories. Citing the NSA’s plans to build a vast data storage facility in Utah, said Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘‘There was nothing in the president’s speech about what’s already in the government’s hands.’’
Obama’s task force, the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, had recommended cutting the time that the NSA could retain private records from five to two years. But Obama’s proposals do not address the issue of duration, leaving those records in NSA control for the foreseeable future.
I'm glad I no longer pay attention to Obummer.
Who or what takes over the storage of private phone records is also at issue. Telephone company executives and their lawyers have bluntly told administration officials they do not want to become the NSA’s data minders. Cellular industry executives prefer the NSA keep control over the surveillance program and would accept changes only if they were legally required and spelled out in legislation.
Even with broader legal protections to shield phone companies from liability, the corporations are wary of being forced to standardize their data collection to conform to the NSA’s needs. Phone companies already retain various forms of customer records, but the duration of their storage and the kinds of records they keep vary from less than two years, for companies including Verizon, US Cellular, and Sprint, to seven to 10 years for T-Mobile.
Shifting control of phone metadata from the NSA to cellular providers would cost the government in excess of $60 million, according to government estimates. But phone executives say the need to build new technical infrastructure and add more staff to contend with records demands would cost far more.
Legal analysts say that hiring a private business or creating a new independent entity to store and oversee the NSA’s phone records is an even greater hurdle.
Snowden came from that world, right?
It is unclear whether the government could hire a private contractor or create a quasi-private data storage entity along the lines of the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage enterprise.
Yeah, create another layer of bureaucracy so some other well-connected friend and corporation can land the contract for a spying program that was based on lies about terrorists and has mushroomed into a worldwide dragnet.
Hiring an outside private firm might not quell public mistrust, considering the recent widespread hacking into Target and other companies, experts said.
Nothing this government does will quell mistrust. Even a complete apology and open admission of all the lies wouldn't do it now.
Choosing a private contractor could backfire if the process mirrors the chaos of the government’s health care website’s early days. And relying on a quasi-government agency might also fail to bolster public confidence.
How can they bolster something that doesn't exist?
Obama’s decision to ask Congress to authorize a panel of privacy advocates to weigh in at times during secret FISA court proceedings has triggered a roiling debate among constitutional lawyers, government counsels, and privacy advocates.
Where?
Legislators in the Senate and House have already drafted several rival bills creating similar independent advocates, but critics worry that none of the current proposals would pass constitutional scrutiny.
Government lawyers have been openly skeptical about the proposals and several former Bush administration attorneys who were involved in the FISA process have also raised a thicket of warnings.
Like THOSE TRAILBLAZING LAWBREAKERS have a shred of credibility!
That's the NARROW range of "debate" in my agenda-pu$hing paper?
They question how the office of the public advocate would be set up and raise constitutional concerns, about whom the advocates would represent, and how they would obtain secret clearances to look at some of the government’s most sensitive classified documents.
It's just a piece of paper.
--more--"
That's strange; there was no mention of Snowden.
Least we can get a look at these lies:
"George W. Bush records now open" Associated Press, January 21, 2014
DALLAS — A glimpse at some of the holdings can be seen in the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which has displays on topics including education reform, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and efforts to fight the spread of AIDS.
Artifacts on display include the bullhorn Bush used after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to address a crowd of rescue workers at ground zero in New York City.
You remember those heady days of unity before the truth was discovered, don't you?
--more--"
Related: Touring the Bush Library
"Congressional watchdog calls for end to NSA phone program" by Charlie Savage | New York Times, January 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal, and should be shut down.
Then it is a CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT!
The findings are laid out in a 238-report, scheduled for release by Thursday and obtained by the New York Times, that represent the first major public statement by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which Congress made an independent agency in 2007 and only recently became fully operational.
The report is likely to inject a significant new voice into the debate over surveillance, underscoring that the issue was not settled by a high-profile speech President Obama gave last week.
Like I said, he said nothing.
Obama consulted with the board, along with a separate review group that last month delivered its own report about surveillance policies. But while he said in his speech that he was tightening access to the data and declared his intention to find a way to end government collection of the bulk records, he said the program’s capabilities should be preserved.
Yes, his "advisory committee" -- meets with Globe approval -- suggested that the program to collect data on every phone call made in the United States should continue [and] is in favor of codifying and publicly announcing the steps the United States will take to protect the privacy of foreign citizens (with limits, ha!) leaving the pillars of tyranny in place. This is all shit-show fooley, folks.
But in its report, the board lays out what may be the most detailed critique of the government’s once-secret legal theory behind the program: that a law known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the FBI to obtain business records deemed “relevant” to an investigation, can be legitimately interpreted as authorizing the NSA to collect all calling records in the country.
The program “lacks a viable legal foundation under Section 215, implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, raises serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value,” the report said. “As a result, the board recommends that the government end the program.”
While a majority of the five-member board embraced that conclusion, two members dissented. But the panel was united in 10 other recommendations, including deleting raw phone records after three years instead of five and tightening access to search results.
Some of those recommendations dovetailed with the steps Obama announced last week, including limiting analysts’ access to the call records of people no further than two links removed from a suspect, instead of three, and creating a panel of outside lawyers to serve as public advocates in major cases involving secret surveillance programs.
The point is the program will continue in perpetuity.
That's strange; there was no mention of Snowden.
Least we can get a look at these lies:
"George W. Bush records now open" Associated Press, January 21, 2014
DALLAS — A glimpse at some of the holdings can be seen in the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which has displays on topics including education reform, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and efforts to fight the spread of AIDS.
Artifacts on display include the bullhorn Bush used after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to address a crowd of rescue workers at ground zero in New York City.
You remember those heady days of unity before the truth was discovered, don't you?
--more--"
Related: Touring the Bush Library
"Congressional watchdog calls for end to NSA phone program" by Charlie Savage | New York Times, January 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal, and should be shut down.
Then it is a CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT!
The findings are laid out in a 238-report, scheduled for release by Thursday and obtained by the New York Times, that represent the first major public statement by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which Congress made an independent agency in 2007 and only recently became fully operational.
The report is likely to inject a significant new voice into the debate over surveillance, underscoring that the issue was not settled by a high-profile speech President Obama gave last week.
Like I said, he said nothing.
Obama consulted with the board, along with a separate review group that last month delivered its own report about surveillance policies. But while he said in his speech that he was tightening access to the data and declared his intention to find a way to end government collection of the bulk records, he said the program’s capabilities should be preserved.
Yes, his "advisory committee" -- meets with Globe approval -- suggested that the program to collect data on every phone call made in the United States should continue [and] is in favor of codifying and publicly announcing the steps the United States will take to protect the privacy of foreign citizens (with limits, ha!) leaving the pillars of tyranny in place. This is all shit-show fooley, folks.
But in its report, the board lays out what may be the most detailed critique of the government’s once-secret legal theory behind the program: that a law known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the FBI to obtain business records deemed “relevant” to an investigation, can be legitimately interpreted as authorizing the NSA to collect all calling records in the country.
The program “lacks a viable legal foundation under Section 215, implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, raises serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value,” the report said. “As a result, the board recommends that the government end the program.”
While a majority of the five-member board embraced that conclusion, two members dissented. But the panel was united in 10 other recommendations, including deleting raw phone records after three years instead of five and tightening access to search results.
Some of those recommendations dovetailed with the steps Obama announced last week, including limiting analysts’ access to the call records of people no further than two links removed from a suspect, instead of three, and creating a panel of outside lawyers to serve as public advocates in major cases involving secret surveillance programs.
The point is the program will continue in perpetuity.
--more--"
Also see: Obama holds meeting on NSA
Obama chooses to tweak NSA, rather than embrace reform
He's hugging the NSA?
What dirt do they have on him?
Also see: Obama holds meeting on NSA
Obama chooses to tweak NSA, rather than embrace reform
He's hugging the NSA?
What dirt do they have on him?
