Government snooping, backdoors and #necessaryhashtags

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Batalov

I don't see anything here about listening to my phone without a warrant.

That's cos' you're misinterpreting the law, by simple-mindedly "reading what it says" and what the various silly (= non-secret) court rulings have held that it says.

As for the proper (= secret) interpretation of the law, well, if that were ever revealed, irreparable harm would be done to the national security of the United States of America. [We can't provide any details, but basically "the terrorists would win"].

Or was that explanation too "transparent" for you?

Repeat after me: There is no "F" in "FISA"!

[Batalov]

The newspeak force is strong with you, Ernst. ;-)

I get it now! ...and this is indeed exactly the last of those...

Originally Posted by ibid.

...our commitments to you, our fellow citizens:

• ...
• We will honor Open Government and Transparency mandates by making timely and accurate information available to the public, subject to valid privacy, confidentiality, security or other restrictions under existing law and policies.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

As for the proper (= secret) interpretation of the law, well, if that were ever revealed, irreparable harm would be done to the national security of the United States of America. [We can't provide any details, but basically "the terrorists would win"].

This concept is sometimes stated, "If we told you we'd have to kill you."

Good points, all, Ernst.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by kladner

This concept is sometimes stated, "If we told you we'd have to kill you."

Good points, all, Ernst.

Thx - I meant my FISA quip to suggest to discussants that reading up on the background and history of that law is well worth their time.

----------------

In today's news, Russia's Vladimir Putin confirmed his conversion to Pasta..., erm, I mean Rastafarianism, following which it was back to official matters, on which Ras-Putin, from behind a choking veil of spliff-smoke, said thusly:

Putin rules out handing Snowden over to United States: MOSCOW/NAANTALI, Finland (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday a former U.S. spy agency contractor sought by the United States was in the transit area of a Moscow airport but ruled out handing him to Washington, dismissing U.S. criticisms as "ravings and rubbish".

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by kladner

This concept is sometimes stated, "If we told you we'd have to kill you."

"The constant gardener" is conveniently on, in the regularly scheduled programming...

END CREDITS DEDICATION: This film is dedicated to Yvette Pierpaoli and all other aid workers who lived and died giving a damn.

END CREDITS DISCLAIMER: Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world. But I can tell you this; as my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard. --John Le Carré

[ewmayer]

Envoy says U.S. loses trust in Hong Kong after Snowden: HONG KONG (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong warned on Thursday of a "big struggle" ahead to repair Washington's trust in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory after the flight of fugitive spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Awwwwwwww ... how dare those nasty HKers consider interests other than those of The Mighty Oz the U.S.? Who do these guys think they are - some kind of semi-autonomous Chinese territory?

[Fusion_power]

Recent announcements about the National Security Agency have been revealing. Snowden exposed the violations of privacy, especially relevant to the 4th amendment against unreasonable search and seizure. Today there are further announcements of NSA constructing a zettabyte storage facility with capabilities including monitoring all cell phone calls in real time. It is only a matter of time until the National Security State comes into existence where you don't dare do anything unusual because big brother NSA is watching you.

How are they getting away with this? Very simple, they are relying on two cautionary principles. The first is that they can monitor any communication between non-U.S. citizens with impunity, and the second is that they can store any information they want so long as they don't actively use it until they have a court order.

There is no such thing as "freedom" in the U.S. any more.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

The first is that they can monitor any communication between non-U.S. citizens with impunity, and the second is that they can store any information they want so long as they don't actively use it until they have a court order.

1st point: The real revelation is that they are [allegedly] doing this for purely domestic phone calls, as well.

2nd point: Once they have the info, they can do with it as they please. One has to take their word for it that they are not mining-sans-warrant, and by now you'd have to be a credulous dupe to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Latest release of Snowden-leaked NSA slides from WaPo:

NSA slides explain the PRISM data-collection program

I expect the bit about "analyst's reasonable belief" is by now a running "I am 51% sure, sir!" joke inside the NSA:

This slide describes what happens when an NSA analyst "tasks" the PRISM system for information about a new surveillance target. The request to add a new target is passed automatically to a supervisor who reviews the "selectors," or search terms. The supervisor must endorse the analyst's "reasonable belief," defined as 51 percent confidence, that the specified target is a foreign national who is overseas at the time of collection.

The FBI uses government equipment on private company property to retrieve matching information from a participating company, such as Microsoft or Yahoo and pass it without further review to the NSA.

For stored communications, but not for live surveillance, the FBI consults its own databases to make sure the selectors do not match known Americans.

This is where data enters NSA systems, described more fully on the next slide.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court does not review any individual collection request.

Sunday Humor:

Fox Trot: Encryption scheme

[kladner]

A friend sent me this link. I used to look at the site fairly often until I recovered somewhat (or burnt out) from news junkiedom. I do vouch for Naomi Wolf as an author I consider reliable and thoughtful.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/my-cree...-to-be/5339161

[ewmayer]

And now I see thanks to the latest revelations in the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, the Europeans - especially the "most-targeted" Germans - are seriously an justifiably pissed off:

Attacks from America: NSA Spied on European Union Offices: 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.

One quote that I think captures things nicely:

Elmar Brok, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in European Parliament added his opprobrium. "The spying has reached dimensions that I didn't think were possible for a democratic country."

Short answer: Mr. Brok is entirely correct in thinking such activities are not possible for a democratic country.

Die Welt (which I like because they don't hide stuff behind a pay/subscribe wall) has a German-language piece based on the Spiegel article here- this also points out the apparently glaring anglophilic bias of the NSA:

Aus den NSA-Papieren soll hervorgehen, dass lediglich ausgewählte Partnerstaaten der USA – namentlich Kanada, Australien, Großbritannien und Neuseeland – von den Spionageattacken ausgenommen sind. Deutschland dagegen werde ausdrücklich als "Angriffsziel" betrachtet. Weiterhin sind Institutionen der EU von der Spionage betroffen.

My translation:

Based on the NSA documents it is alleged that only selected partner states of the U.S. - namely Canada, Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand - are exempted from the spying. Germany, on the other hand, was expressly viewed as an "attack target". Additionally, institutions of the EU were targets of the espionage.

Message from White House & NSA to rest of world: "If you're not an english-language nation, you can't be trusted."

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Message from White House & NSA to rest of world: "If you're not an english-language nation, you can't be trusted."

Seems about right to me.

[raman]You might like to get your irony detector recalibrated if you need to read this bit.[/raman]